An efficient anchor‐free method for pig detection

Abstract Given the rapid growth of commercial pig farms, the need to automatically monitor pig behaviour becomes more important in order to assist farmers. Recent advances in convolutional neural networks may pave the way for new solutions. However, the primary task of individual pig detection under...

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Main Authors: Morann Mattina, Abdesslam Benzinou, Kamal Nasreddine, Francis Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2023-02-01
Series:IET Image Processing
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1049/ipr2.12659
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author Morann Mattina
Abdesslam Benzinou
Kamal Nasreddine
Francis Richard
author_facet Morann Mattina
Abdesslam Benzinou
Kamal Nasreddine
Francis Richard
author_sort Morann Mattina
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Given the rapid growth of commercial pig farms, the need to automatically monitor pig behaviour becomes more important in order to assist farmers. Recent advances in convolutional neural networks may pave the way for new solutions. However, the primary task of individual pig detection under real‐world conditions is still a challenging task. Previous studies used anchor‐based frameworks that are unsuitable for such crowded scenarios with extreme overlapping. Furthermore, most applications focus on specific levels of brightness, farm facilities, or pig species without considering generalization. To tackle these problems, an anchor‐free pig detection method based on pig centre localization is first proposed. Then, a novel negative training data augmentation technique is introduced using examples from outside the training distribution. Furthermore, using the test time augmentation technique is proposed to improve the model performance. Experiments are conducted on two online pig detection datasets; the network surpasses state‐of‐the‐art results for both datasets. It is also found that the proposed method outperforms the latest anchor‐free techniques commonly used in crowded scenarios. The method can detect pigs individually, even if their bounding boxes overlap strongly or occlude each other. Moreover, the real‐time system achieves an improvement of 10% in Fmeasure$F_{ ext{measure}}$ when testing in unconstrained real‐world conditions.
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spelling doaj.art-1d2787670f5b4fd29a9213f4b26f1e542023-02-01T11:19:25ZengWileyIET Image Processing1751-96591751-96672023-02-0117261362610.1049/ipr2.12659An efficient anchor‐free method for pig detectionMorann Mattina0Abdesslam Benzinou1Kamal Nasreddine2Francis Richard3ENIB UMR CNRS 6285 LabSTICC Brest FranceENIB UMR CNRS 6285 LabSTICC Brest FranceENIB UMR CNRS 6285 LabSTICC Brest FranceCOOPERL INNOVATION S.A.S Lamballe FranceAbstract Given the rapid growth of commercial pig farms, the need to automatically monitor pig behaviour becomes more important in order to assist farmers. Recent advances in convolutional neural networks may pave the way for new solutions. However, the primary task of individual pig detection under real‐world conditions is still a challenging task. Previous studies used anchor‐based frameworks that are unsuitable for such crowded scenarios with extreme overlapping. Furthermore, most applications focus on specific levels of brightness, farm facilities, or pig species without considering generalization. To tackle these problems, an anchor‐free pig detection method based on pig centre localization is first proposed. Then, a novel negative training data augmentation technique is introduced using examples from outside the training distribution. Furthermore, using the test time augmentation technique is proposed to improve the model performance. Experiments are conducted on two online pig detection datasets; the network surpasses state‐of‐the‐art results for both datasets. It is also found that the proposed method outperforms the latest anchor‐free techniques commonly used in crowded scenarios. The method can detect pigs individually, even if their bounding boxes overlap strongly or occlude each other. Moreover, the real‐time system achieves an improvement of 10% in Fmeasure$F_{ ext{measure}}$ when testing in unconstrained real‐world conditions.https://doi.org/10.1049/ipr2.12659
spellingShingle Morann Mattina
Abdesslam Benzinou
Kamal Nasreddine
Francis Richard
An efficient anchor‐free method for pig detection
IET Image Processing
title An efficient anchor‐free method for pig detection
title_full An efficient anchor‐free method for pig detection
title_fullStr An efficient anchor‐free method for pig detection
title_full_unstemmed An efficient anchor‐free method for pig detection
title_short An efficient anchor‐free method for pig detection
title_sort efficient anchor free method for pig detection
url https://doi.org/10.1049/ipr2.12659
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