Feature Augmentation Based on Pixel-Wise Attention for Rail Defect Detection

Image-based rail defect detection could be conceptually defined as an object detection task in computer vision. However, unlike academic object detection tasks, this practical industrial application suffers from two unique challenges, including object ambiguity and insufficient annotations. To overc...

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Main Authors: Hongjue Li, Hailang Li, Zhixiong Hou, Haoran Song, Junbo Liu, Peng Dai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-08-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/16/8006
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author Hongjue Li
Hailang Li
Zhixiong Hou
Haoran Song
Junbo Liu
Peng Dai
author_facet Hongjue Li
Hailang Li
Zhixiong Hou
Haoran Song
Junbo Liu
Peng Dai
author_sort Hongjue Li
collection DOAJ
description Image-based rail defect detection could be conceptually defined as an object detection task in computer vision. However, unlike academic object detection tasks, this practical industrial application suffers from two unique challenges, including object ambiguity and insufficient annotations. To overcome these challenges, we introduce the pixel-wise attention mechanism to fully exploit features of annotated defects, and develop a feature augmentation framework to tackle the defect detection problem. The pixel-wise attention is conducted through a learnable pixel-level similarity between input and support features to obtain augmented features. These augmented features contain co-existing information from input images and multi-class support defects. The final output features are augmented and refined by support features, thus endowing the model to distinguish between ambiguous defect patterns based on insufficient annotated samples. Experiments on the rail defect dataset demonstrate that feature augmentation can help balance the sensitivity and robustness of the model. On our collected dataset with eight defected classes, our algorithm achieves 11.32% higher mAP@.5 compared with original YOLOv5 and 4.27% higher mAP@.5 compared with Faster R-CNN.
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spelling doaj.art-992dde5cf379446f86e7de4042143d562023-11-30T23:07:16ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-08-011216800610.3390/app12168006Feature Augmentation Based on Pixel-Wise Attention for Rail Defect DetectionHongjue Li0Hailang Li1Zhixiong Hou2Haoran Song3Junbo Liu4Peng Dai5School of Astronautics, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, ChinaInfrastructure Inspection Research Institute, China Academy of Railway Science Corporation Limited, Beijing 100081, ChinaInfrastructure Inspection Research Institute, China Academy of Railway Science Corporation Limited, Beijing 100081, ChinaInfrastructure Inspection Research Institute, China Academy of Railway Science Corporation Limited, Beijing 100081, ChinaInfrastructure Inspection Research Institute, China Academy of Railway Science Corporation Limited, Beijing 100081, ChinaInfrastructure Inspection Research Institute, China Academy of Railway Science Corporation Limited, Beijing 100081, ChinaImage-based rail defect detection could be conceptually defined as an object detection task in computer vision. However, unlike academic object detection tasks, this practical industrial application suffers from two unique challenges, including object ambiguity and insufficient annotations. To overcome these challenges, we introduce the pixel-wise attention mechanism to fully exploit features of annotated defects, and develop a feature augmentation framework to tackle the defect detection problem. The pixel-wise attention is conducted through a learnable pixel-level similarity between input and support features to obtain augmented features. These augmented features contain co-existing information from input images and multi-class support defects. The final output features are augmented and refined by support features, thus endowing the model to distinguish between ambiguous defect patterns based on insufficient annotated samples. Experiments on the rail defect dataset demonstrate that feature augmentation can help balance the sensitivity and robustness of the model. On our collected dataset with eight defected classes, our algorithm achieves 11.32% higher mAP@.5 compared with original YOLOv5 and 4.27% higher mAP@.5 compared with Faster R-CNN.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/16/8006object detectionpixel-wise attentionfeature augmentationrail defect
spellingShingle Hongjue Li
Hailang Li
Zhixiong Hou
Haoran Song
Junbo Liu
Peng Dai
Feature Augmentation Based on Pixel-Wise Attention for Rail Defect Detection
Applied Sciences
object detection
pixel-wise attention
feature augmentation
rail defect
title Feature Augmentation Based on Pixel-Wise Attention for Rail Defect Detection
title_full Feature Augmentation Based on Pixel-Wise Attention for Rail Defect Detection
title_fullStr Feature Augmentation Based on Pixel-Wise Attention for Rail Defect Detection
title_full_unstemmed Feature Augmentation Based on Pixel-Wise Attention for Rail Defect Detection
title_short Feature Augmentation Based on Pixel-Wise Attention for Rail Defect Detection
title_sort feature augmentation based on pixel wise attention for rail defect detection
topic object detection
pixel-wise attention
feature augmentation
rail defect
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/16/8006
work_keys_str_mv AT hongjueli featureaugmentationbasedonpixelwiseattentionforraildefectdetection
AT hailangli featureaugmentationbasedonpixelwiseattentionforraildefectdetection
AT zhixionghou featureaugmentationbasedonpixelwiseattentionforraildefectdetection
AT haoransong featureaugmentationbasedonpixelwiseattentionforraildefectdetection
AT junboliu featureaugmentationbasedonpixelwiseattentionforraildefectdetection
AT pengdai featureaugmentationbasedonpixelwiseattentionforraildefectdetection