A computer vision approach for the grading of cotton base load ages in measuring the performance of washing machine

The performance testing standards for washing machines specify clear requirements regarding the age of the base load used. To enable non-contact detection of the service life of the test fabric and thereby improve the consistency of washing machine performance test results, this study employed computer vision techniques to investigate the feasibility of using image features of the base load for age grading. Base load samples underwent 1–100 accelerated washing cycles were categorized into five degradation stages (C1–C5 were used to represent base loads with ages of 1–20 cycles, 21–40 cycles, 41–60 cycles, 61–80 cycles, and 81–100 cycles, respectively). Wrinkle information and plain weave structure information were extracted from base load images, from which color, texture and area features were obtained. In addition, k-nearest neighbors (kNN), multilayer perceptron (MLP), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and logistic regression (LR) classifiers were trained to grade the age of base load. As a result, LR classifier demonstrated robust overall performance, achieving accuracy of 0.75, 0.75, 0.62, 0.75, and 1.00 for C1, C2, C3, C4, and C5, respectively. Models utilizing exclusively plain weave structure-derived features consistently outperformed those using only wrinkle-derived features across all classifiers. These results validate computer vision as an effective tool for objective base load aging assessment, offering significant potential to streamline washing machine testing protocols and enhance sustainability. Future work can be focused on expanding sample sizes and exploring mobile-based implementation.