Leeks, Camera, Action

Vegetable specifications set by retailers mean that not all vegetables will make it onto their shelves. The vegetable this project will focus on is the humble leek, which despite its Welsh heritage, is now mostly grown for retail in the eastern counties of England. Allpress Farms Ltd, who are based in Cambridgeshire, grow almost 25% of UK leeks and supply Sainsbury's exclusively as well as significant volumes for Lidl, Morrisions, Ocado, Waitrose and Amazon.

The measurement problem that this project will address, wouldn't be a problem, if all leeks in a field grew at the exact same rate. Unfortunately as with all things in nature, some will grow quickly while others take longer to mature. This means at harvest, leeks within a single field can range from under 10mm to over 50mm in diameter. One way retailers and growers have tried to improve the proportion of crop making it onto the shelves is by widening specifications for 'pre-pack' leeks and introducing 'loose' and 'baby' products, which allow for larger and smaller leeks respectively. So, we have now got to a point where very few leeks are an unsuitable size to make it onto the supermarket shelves, however, how can we tell which leeks should go into which product batch during the harvest and packing processes? Currently, this is done entirely by eye, which relies on skilled staff and experienced supervision. Despite the skill and experience, mistakes are still made and a significant amount of product does not make it into the optimal batch.

This project aims to take the first step in automating the sorting procedure by creating a small device which will be able to measure leeks accurately and provide data in real time to supervisors and management. By having a device with these capabilities, the business will be able to make well informed decisions. The generated data will allow the business to make decisions on sale prices, growing methods and future investment in a completely automated sorting procedure.

While Allpress Farms Ltd knows much about growing, harvesting and packaging leeks, there is a lack of expertise in the development of small Internet of Things devices. For this reason, the business has partnered with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Bringing knowledge of measurement, testing and verification, NPL will assist by developing a computer-vision based system that will allow the accurate real-time measurement and classification of leeks.