ABSTRACT
Firmness is a key predictor of culinary quality and shelf life. Firmness progresses differently during ripening and maturation depending on tomato variety and is also influenced by chilling. Firmness can also be measured by picking, sampling, and preparing a cylindrical sample of tomato with known geometry. When a fruit, such as a tomato, collides with another elastic object, the force and duration related to the impact are directly related to the firmness of the fruit. Unlike most other mechanical approaches to determining fruit firmness, tactile sensing is well suited to seamless, opportunistic sensing of tomatoes throughout maturation, harvesting, and postharvest handling and transport. A variety of nondestructive methods for evaluating tomato firmness have emerged in the quest for alternatives to traditional techniques. Technologies designed to measure tomato fruit firmness vary widely in their accessibility to farmers and others involved in tomato production.
