Bioinspired Vibrational Sensing for Fruit Ripeness: Mimicking the Bee’s Antenna

The determination of fruit ripeness plays a pivotal role in ensuring optimal taste, texture, and nutritional content of fresh produce. Conventional assessment techniques are frequently invasive, labor-intensive, and susceptible to subjective interpretation. This study introduces a bio-inspired vibration sensing system modeled after the antennal structure of bees, known for their acute sensitivity to low-frequency mechanical stimuli. The developed sensor integrates piezoelectric nanomaterials within microfluidic channels to replicate the mechanoreceptive capability of bee antennae, thereby enhancing detection precision. Through rigorous experimental validation, the system demonstrated the ability to accurately distinguish between unripe, ripe, and overripe fruit states, achieving classification accuracy exceeding 95%. This innovative approach provides a non-invasive, rapid, and scalable method for fruit quality monitoring, with significant implications for automation in agriculture and the food industry.