Using EAs for Error Prediction in Near Infrared Spectroscopy

This paper presents an evolutionary approach to estimate the sugar concentration inside compound bodies based on spectroscopy measurements. New European regulation will shortly forbid the use of established chemical methods based on mercury to estimate the sugar concentration in sugar beet. Spectroscopy with a powerful regression technique called PLS (Partial Least Squares) may be used instead. We show that an evolutionary approach for selecting relevant wavelengths before applying PLS can lower the error and decrease the computation time. It is submitted that the results support the argument for replacing the PLS scheme with a GP technique.