Source: Brimrose Corporation of America submitted to NRP
DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL HANDHELD SUGAR MEASURING SENSOR TO MONITOR PRODUCTION OF SUGAR BEET CROPS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0203025
Grant No.
2005-33610-15518
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
2005-00095
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jun 1, 2005
Project End Date
Jul 31, 2006
Grant Year
2005
Program Code
[8.13]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
Brimrose Corporation of America
(N/A)
Sparks,MD 21152
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The sugar beet is the most economically important among the beet family. Sugar yield is the highest importance to sugar beet growers. Currently, growers do not have a means to estimate sucrose content during the season in their sugar beet fields. Sucrose determinations happen at the factory upon receipt of the beets after harvest and the grower has no means to alter their management practises during the season to maximize sucrose yield or to estimate their payment from delivered beets. Develop a handheld miniature spectrometer capable of measuring sucrose content in cut pieces and whole sugar beets. The proposed spectrometer is based on acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) technology. An AOTF is an all solid-state tunable filter with no moving parts and is therefore immune to orientation changes or even severe mechanical shock and vibrations, making it ideal for operation in harsh industrial environments. Moreover, the AOTF is a high throughput and high-speed programmable device capable of randomly accessing thousands of precise wavelengths in less than a second, making it an excellent tool for in-situ NIR spectroscopy. In the USA, sugar beet is grown on 1.3 million acres annually by over 10,000 growers in 15 states, with a farm gate value of over 900 million dollars. Ultimately, the grower group represents the largest target market for improved sucrose detection instrumentation.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
4042010100025%
4045310201075%
Knowledge Area
404 - Instrumentation and Control Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
2010 - Sugar beet; 5310 - Machinery and equipment;

Field Of Science
2010 - Physics; 1000 - Biochemistry and biophysics;
Goals / Objectives
The overall objective in this Phase I proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a compact and portable hand-held acousto-optic tunable filter-based spectrometer for measuring the sucrose content in cut pieces and whole sugar beets. We will demonstrate the feasibility during Phase I by designing the spectrometer and proving that NIR spectra can be correlated to concentration of sucrose in sugar beets. Phase II work will develop a prototype portable spectrometer and demonstrate its use in field experiments.
Project Methods
The proposed spectrometer is based on acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) technology. An AOTF is an all solid-state tunable filter with no moving parts and is therefore immune to orientation changes or even severe mechanical shock and vibrations, making it ideal for operation in harsh industrial environments. Moreover, the AOTF is a high throughput and high-speed programmable device capable of randomly accessing thousands of precise wavelengths in less than a second, making it an excellent tool for in-situ NIR spectroscopy. The work plan will be as follows: 1. Design a miniature AOTF-NIR spectrometer; 2. Design and build a reflectance probe for the measurement of the sucrose concentration in sugar beets and incorporate this design into the spectrometer; 3. Obtain NIR spectra from samples of sugar beets; 4. Use the partial least-squares (PSL) regression technique to correlate the spectra with the concentration of the sucrose.

Progress 06/01/05 to 07/31/06

Outputs
Brimrose developed a handheld miniature spectrometer capable of measuring sucrose content in cut pieces and whole sugar beets. The spectrometer is based on acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) technology. An AOTF device consists of a thin plate of a piezoelectric transducer mounted on a piece of AO crystal. By applying electric radio frequency (RF) signals to the electrodes on the transducer faces, acoustic waves are generated by way of the piezoelectric effect and then transmitted into the AO crystal. Through AO diffraction, optical beams passing through the AO crystal can thus be manipulated (deflected, modulated, or diffracted) by electric signals applied to the transducer. Acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) spectrometers have several advantages over traditional spectrometers. Traditional spectrometers require careful handling and frequent calibration. They also suffer lower scan speed and lower reliability. An AOTF is an all solid-state tunable filter with no moving parts and is therefore immune to orientation changes or even severe mechanical shock and vibrations, making it ideal for operation in harsh industrial environments. Moreover, the AOTF is a high throughput and high-speed programmable device capable of randomly accessing thousands of precise wavelengths in less than a second, making it an excellent tool for in-situ near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. AOTF technology is a novel engineering approach to measure sucrose content in cut pieces, whole sugar beets, and/or sugar beet brei. This engineering approach will aid biological/genomic approaches to develop a strategy to enhance the efficiency of sugar beet crop production. This work will provide a better understanding of the dynamic of sucrose accumulation in roots during the growing season and may help to determine better selection targets in order to maximize total sucrose (e.g. recoverable white sugar per beet) at the end of the season. This information may also be used to maximize the efficiency of selection early in the season among divergent breeding lines. These measurements are theoretically non-destructive, raising a potential to perform repeated measurements over the season of the same sugar beet plants. Project was to combine an engineering approach with a biological approach to maximize total sucrose in the sugar beet (e.g. recoverable white sugar per beet) at the end of the season. We developed a simple, compact, and cost-efficient piece of equipment based on an AOTF spectrometer to measure the sucrose content in cut pieces and whole sugar beets. Such measurements will provide a better understanding of the dynamic of sucrose accumulation in roots during the beginning of the growing season, and information may be used to maximize the efficiency of selection early in the season among divergent breeding lines. Using AOTF-based spectrometry to monitor the sucrose content of the sugar beet is non-destructive giving the possibility to perform repeated measurements over the season of the same sugar beet plants. It is suitable for examining large populations of individuals as they exist in advanced breeding programs.

Impacts
The goal of this work was to develop simple, compact, and cost-efficient equipment that sugar beet growers can afford and easily operate. Using AOTF technology is a novel engineering approach to measure sucrose content in cut pieces, whole sugar beets, and/or sugar beet brei. This engineering approach will aid biological/genomic approaches to develop a strategy to enhance the efficiency of sugar beet crop production. This work will provide a better understanding of the dynamic of sucrose accumulation in roots during the growing season and may help to determine better selection targets in order to maximize total sucrose (e.g. recoverable white sugar per beet) at the end of the season. This information may also be used to maximize the efficiency of selection early in the season among divergent breeding lines. These measurements are theoretically non-destructive, raising a potential to perform repeated measurements over the season of the same sugar beet plants.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period