System and method for presentation of ears of corn for image acquisition and evaluation

A method for automated high throughput presentation of a plurality of ears of corn for image acquisition and evaluation, comprising:

• providing the ears of corn;
• stripping a husk and a plurality of silks from each of the ears of corn using a mobile ear husking unit comprising a lane formed by two parallel rollers and sloped in a generally downward direction;
• coordinating timing and movement of the ears of corn through a mobile image acquisition system using an ear staging system, wherein the ear staging system comprises singulating each of the ears for timing separated advancement of the husked ears using a sensing device to detect the presence and/or absence of the ear of corn, and an outlet in ear delivering communication with the mobile image acquisition system;
• delivering a singulated husked ear to the image acquisition system;
• acquiring an image of the singulated husked ear of corn using an image sensor of the image acquisition system, wherein the image is used to determine at least one of kernels per ear, kernel area, ear size, scattergrain or tip kernel abortion;
• and
• destroying or disposing of one or more uncollected ears of corn or collecting and associating one or more ears of corn with the image.