Ultracompact SLSP sensor for rapid detection of grain moisture

Area of Science:

• Electromagnetics
• Sensor Technology
• Agricultural Science

Background:

• Accurate grain moisture content is crucial for storage and quality assessment.
• Traditional methods can be time-consuming or destructive.
• Developing rapid, non-destructive sensing techniques is essential for the agricultural industry.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a novel methodology for precise grain moisture content detection.
• To utilize spoof localized surface plasmons (SLSPs) resonators for this purpose.
• To establish a reliable correlation between sensor response and wheat moisture levels.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication and testing of a spoof localized surface plasmons (SLSPs) resonator.
• Measurement of transmission spectra for nine wheat samples with varying moisture content (0.9-1.1 GHz).
• Development of a linear regression model to correlate spectral data with moisture content.

Main Results:

• The SLSPs resonator successfully generated distinct transmission spectra for different moisture levels.
• A linear regression equation was established with a high coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.985.
• Low prediction errors were observed: RMSE of 0.321%, MAE of 0.24%, and MRE of 7.6%.

Conclusions:

• The proposed SLSPs resonator-based methodology offers a highly efficient and precise approach for grain moisture detection.
• The established linear regression model demonstrates strong predictive capability for wheat moisture content.
• This technique shows significant potential for real-time, non-destructive monitoring of grain quality.