Young Researcher Paper Award 2023
🥇Winners

Notice of retraction
Vol. 32, No. 8(2), S&M2292

Print: ISSN 0914-4935
Online: ISSN 2435-0869
Sensors and Materials
is an international peer-reviewed open access journal to provide a forum for researchers working in multidisciplinary fields of sensing technology.
Sensors and Materials
is covered by Science Citation Index Expanded (Clarivate Analytics), Scopus (Elsevier), and other databases.

Instructions to authors
English    日本語

Instructions for manuscript preparation
English    日本語

Template
English

Publisher
 MYU K.K.
 Sensors and Materials
 1-23-3-303 Sendagi,
 Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0022, Japan
 Tel: 81-3-3827-8549
 Fax: 81-3-3827-8547

MYU Research, a scientific publisher, seeks a native English-speaking proofreader with a scientific background. B.Sc. or higher degree is desirable. In-office position; work hours negotiable. Call 03-3827-8549 for further information.


MYU Research

(proofreading and recording)


MYU K.K.
(translation service)


The Art of Writing Scientific Papers

(How to write scientific papers)
(Japanese Only)

Sensors and Materials, Volume 37, Number 8(4) (2025)
Copyright(C) MYU K.K.
pp. 3785-3802
S&M4152 Research paper of Special Issue
https://doi.org/10.18494/SAM5701
Published: August 28, 2025

Lightweight Vision-transformer-based Coffee Bean Quality Inspection with Class-aware Unsupervised Domain Adaptation [PDF]

Hsien-Chun Cho, Zih-Ching Chen, and Ching-Yi Chen

(Received April 21, 2025; Accepted August 15, 2025)

Keywords: automated optical inspection, unsupervised domain adaptation, vision transformer, model compression

With the rapid development of automated optical inspection (AOI) technology and imaging sensor systems, image-based coffee bean quality inspection has emerged as an effective alternative to manual sorting. High-resolution imaging sensors are capable of capturing critical surface features of coffee beans, including texture, color, and structural patterns, thereby providing rich input for downstream intelligent classification algorithms. However, most existing research has concentrated on green beans, while labeled datasets for roasted beans remain scarce. This imbalance severely restricts the generalization capability of trained models in real-world applications. To address this issue, a class-aware unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) framework based on the vision transformer (ViT) architecture is proposed. The framework simultaneously aligns the feature distributions between the source domain (green beans) and the target domain (roasted beans), while enhancing class-level consistency during training. This design effectively mitigates domain shifts induced by variations in coffee processing stages, thereby improving model robustness in cross-domain scenarios. In addition, to enhance deployment efficiency and operational practicality in intelligent sensing environments, a model compression strategy is further introduced. By leveraging the modular dependency structure inherent in transformer-based architectures, we developed an approach that integrates structured pruning with knowledge distillation (KD) to significantly reduce model complexity while preserving classification performance. Experimental results confirm that the proposed method delivers high classification accuracy and generalization capability, demonstrating its potential for deployment in image-based coffee bean quality inspection systems.

Corresponding author: Ching-Yi Chen


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Cite this article
Hsien-Chun Cho, Zih-Ching Chen, and Ching-Yi Chen, Lightweight Vision-transformer-based Coffee Bean Quality Inspection with Class-aware Unsupervised Domain Adaptation, Sens. Mater., Vol. 37, No. 8, 2025, p. 3785-3802.



Forthcoming Regular Issues


Forthcoming Special Issues

Special Issue on Novel Sensors, Materials, and Related Technologies on Artificial Intelligence of Things Applications
Guest editor, Teen-Hang Meen (National Formosa University), Wenbing Zhao (Cleveland State University), and Cheng-Fu Yang (National University of Kaohsiung)
Call for paper


Special Issue on Unique Physical Behavior at the Nano to Atomic Scales
Guest editor, Takahiro Namazu (Kyoto University of Advanced Science)
Call for paper


Special Issue on Support Systems for Human Environment Utilizing Sensor Technology and Image Processing Including AI
Guest editor, Takashi Oyabu (Nihonkai International Exchange Center)
Call for paper


Special Issue on Innovations in Multimodal Sensing for Intelligent Devices, Systems, and Applications
Guest editor, Jiahui Yu (Research scientist, Zhejiang University), Kairu Li (Professor, Shenyang University of Technology), Yinfeng Fang (Professor, Hangzhou Dianzi University), Chin Wei Hong (Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University), Zhiqiang Zhang (Professor, University of Leeds)
Call for paper


Special Issue on Signal Collection, Processing, and System Integration in Automation Applications
Guest editor, Hsiung-Cheng Lin (National Chin-Yi University of Technology)
Call for paper


Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence Predication and Application for Energy-saving Smart Manufacturing System
Guest editor, Cheng-Chi Wang (National Sun Yat-sen University)
Call for paper


Copyright(C) MYU K.K. All Rights Reserved.