An automated platform for measuring infant formula powder rehydration quality using a collaborative robot integrated with computer vision

Abstract

Current methods used for testing the rehydration quality of infant formula (IF) are mainly subjective. For a better understanding of rehydration, objective measurements are required. A computer vision (CV) system was synchronized with a collaborative robot (cobot) to automatically estimate foam height, sediment height, and the number of white particles after IF powder rehydration. Two different robotic agitations were used to prepare the mixtures in a commercially available baby bottle. To evaluate the platform, twenty-four stage-1 IF powders were rehydrated. Cobot-captured images were processed by CV algorithms and independently rated by eight participants. The participants' and platform's estimates of foam height, sediment height, and white particles score, respectively, showed agreements of 2.1 mm, 3.4 mm, and 1.7 scores, and correlation coefficients of 0.82, 0.77, and 0.68. The results show that the platform has the potential to enable objective rehydration tests and to monitor changes in visible foam and sediment over time.