Development of a Low-Cost Electronic Nose for Detection of Pathogenic Fungi and Applying It to Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani

Sensors (Basel). 2021 Aug 31;21(17):5868. doi: 10.3390/s21175868.

Abstract

Electronic noses can be applied as a rapid, cost-effective option for several applications. This paper presents the results of measurements of samples of two pathogenic fungi, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani, performed using two constructions of a low-cost electronic nose. The first electronic nose used six non-specific Figaro Inc. metal oxide gas sensors. The second one used ten sensors from only two models (TGS 2602 and TGS 2603) operating at different heater voltages. Sets of features describing the shapes of the measurement curves of the sensors' responses when exposed to the odours were extracted. Machine learning classification models using the logistic regression method were created. We demonstrated the possibility of applying the low-cost electronic nose data to differentiate between the two studied species of fungi with acceptable accuracy. Improved classification performance could be obtained, mainly for measurements using TGS 2603 sensors operating at different voltage conditions.

Keywords: VOC; electronic nose; fungi and biosecurity; odour classification; volatile organic compounds.

MeSH terms

  • Electronic Nose*
  • Fungi
  • Fusarium*
  • Rhizoctonia

Supplementary concepts

  • Fusarium oxysporum
  • Rhizoctonia solani