Egg size is one of the important properties of egg that is judged by customers. Accordingly, in egg sorting and grading, the size of eggs must be considered. In this research, a new method of egg volume prediction was proposed without need to measure weight of egg. An accurate and efficient image processing algorithm was designed and implemented for computing major and minor diameters of eggs. Two methods of egg size modeling were developed. In the first method, a mathematical model was proposed based on Pappus theorem. In second method, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique was used to estimate egg volume. The determined egg volume by these methods was compared statistically with actual values. For mathematical modeling, the R(2), Mean absolute error and maximum absolute error values were obtained as 0.99, 0.59 cm(3) and 1.69 cm(3), respectively. To determine the best ANN, R(2) test and RMSEtest were used as selection criteria. The best ANN topology was 2-28-1 which had the R(2) test and RMSEtest of 0.992 and 0.66, respectively. After system calibration, the proposed models were evaluated. The results which indicated the mathematical modeling yielded more satisfying results. So this technique was selected for egg size determination.
Keywords: Artificial Neural network modeling; Egg; Machine vision system; Math modeling; Volume prediction.