Tuanama-Aguilar José, Ríos-López Carlos, Pasquel-Reátegui José Luis, Rodríguez-Grández Carlos, Santa-Maria John C, Cotrina-Linares Janina, García-Estrella Cristian, Fermin-Perez Felix-Armando
Facultad de Ingeniería de Sistemas e Informática, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Tarapoto 22000, Peru.
Grupo de Investigación en Ingeniería y Tecnología Agroindustrial, Facultad de Ingeniería Agroindustrial, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Tarapoto 22000, Peru.
Sensors (Basel). 2025 Feb 28;25(5):1520. doi: 10.3390/s25051520.
Cacao producers often obtain low-quality beans due to the poor manual drying process. This study proposes the construction of an automated prototype robot for the removal during natural drying of cacao beans at Cooperativa Agraria Allima Cacao Ltd., Peru, and evaluates its effectiveness on bean quality. The robot comprises three modules (control, displacement, and removal) and motion sensors. Four 400 kg batches were analyzed, obtaining moisture contents of 6.71, 8.59, 7.74, and 6.80% with the robot, compared to 7.86, 7.94, 6.60, and 7.54% with the manual method. The standard deviations in the grains treated with the robot were lower, evidencing a more uniform drying. In addition, the total phenol content was higher in the robot-dried beans, indicating better preservation of bioactive compounds. Although the robot did not reduce the drying time, we conclude that its sustainable and economically accessible design contributed to obtaining higher-quality beans compared to the conventional method, with more homogeneous drying and better preservation of phenols, key aspects for producing high-quality cacao.
由于人工干燥过程不佳，可可豆生产商常常获得低质量的豆子。本研究提议在秘鲁的阿利马可可农业合作社建造一个自动化原型机器人，用于在可可豆自然干燥过程中进行去除操作，并评估其对豆子质量的有效性。该机器人包括三个模块（控制、位移和去除）以及运动传感器。分析了四个400千克的批次，使用机器人时获得的水分含量分别为6.71%、8.59%、7.74%和6.80%，而人工方法获得的水分含量分别为7.86%、7.94%、6.60%和7.54%。用机器人处理的豆子的标准偏差更低，表明干燥更加均匀。此外，机器人干燥的豆子中总酚含量更高，表明生物活性化合物得到了更好的保存。虽然机器人没有缩短干燥时间，但我们得出结论，与传统方法相比，其可持续且经济上可及的设计有助于获得更高质量的豆子，干燥更加均匀，酚类物质保存得更好，这是生产高质量可可的关键方面。
