Fusion of electronic nose and tongue response using fuzzy based approach for black tea classification

Automation for tea quality estimation is a challenging task and with the advent of electronic nose and electronic tongue systems this problem becomes quite addressable by instrumental means. Electronic nose judges tea sample based on aroma of the sample and based on taste tea quality can be classified using electronic tongue. For estimation of flavour of tea rather the overall quality of tea can be estimated if these two sensory responses can be fused. In this work, we have attempted to fuse these two sensory features using fuzzy fusion technique. A general fuzzy rule base is developed from the transient datasets obtained from electronic nose and tongue separately. The fuzzy system model can give accurate prediction with much simpler model than neural network. But both the system has certain advantages. In order to develop better classifier fuzzy neural network (FNN) model is also developed. Moreover the model works with transient responses and no data compression technique is employed. It is found that the combined sensor signature regarding tea quality estimation is quiet improved compared to individual sensor systems for all three classifiers and among these FNN is the best suited model for tea classification. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.