YOLOv7-RAR for Urban Vehicle Detection

Aiming at the problems of high missed detection rates of the YOLOv7 algorithm for vehicle detection on urban roads, weak perception of small targets in perspective, and insufficient feature extraction, the YOLOv7-RAR recognition algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is improved from the following thr...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yuan Zhang, Youpeng Sun, Zheng Wang, Ying Jiang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-02-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/1801
_version_ 1797618367623856128
author Yuan Zhang
Youpeng Sun
Zheng Wang
Ying Jiang
author_facet Yuan Zhang
Youpeng Sun
Zheng Wang
Ying Jiang
author_sort Yuan Zhang
collection DOAJ
description Aiming at the problems of high missed detection rates of the YOLOv7 algorithm for vehicle detection on urban roads, weak perception of small targets in perspective, and insufficient feature extraction, the YOLOv7-RAR recognition algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is improved from the following three directions based on YOLOv7. Firstly, in view of the insufficient nonlinear feature fusion of the original backbone network, the Res3Unit structure is used to reconstruct the backbone network of YOLOv7 to improve the ability of the network model architecture to obtain more nonlinear features. Secondly, in view of the problem that there are many interference backgrounds in urban roads and that the original network is weak in positioning targets such as vehicles, a plug-and-play hybrid attention mechanism module, ACmix, is added after the SPPCSPC layer of the backbone network to enhance the network’s attention to vehicles and reduce the interference of other targets. Finally, aiming at the problem that the receptive field of the original network Narrows, with the deepening of the network model, leads to a high miss rate of small targets, the Gaussian receptive field scheme used in the RFLA (Gaussian-receptive-field-based label assignment) module is used at the connection between the feature fusion area and the detection head to improve the receptive field of the network model for small objects in the image. Combining the three improvement measures, the first letter of the name of each improvement measure is selected, and the improved algorithm is named the YOLOv7-RAR algorithm. Experiments show that on urban roads with crowded vehicles and different weather patterns, the average detection accuracy of the YOLOv7-RAR algorithm reaches 95.1%, which is 2.4% higher than that of the original algorithm; the AP50:90 performance is 12.6% higher than that of the original algorithm. The running speed of the YOLOv7-RAR algorithm reaches 96 FPS, which meets the real-time requirements of vehicle detection; hence, the algorithm can be better applied to vehicle detection.
first_indexed 2024-03-11T08:12:00Z
format Article
id doaj.art-9a744386bdac4964996ace00884e8079
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1424-8220
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-11T08:12:00Z
publishDate 2023-02-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Sensors
spelling doaj.art-9a744386bdac4964996ace00884e80792023-11-16T23:06:20ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202023-02-01234180110.3390/s23041801YOLOv7-RAR for Urban Vehicle DetectionYuan Zhang0Youpeng Sun1Zheng Wang2Ying Jiang3School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, ChinaSchool of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, ChinaSchool of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, ChinaSchool of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, ChinaAiming at the problems of high missed detection rates of the YOLOv7 algorithm for vehicle detection on urban roads, weak perception of small targets in perspective, and insufficient feature extraction, the YOLOv7-RAR recognition algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is improved from the following three directions based on YOLOv7. Firstly, in view of the insufficient nonlinear feature fusion of the original backbone network, the Res3Unit structure is used to reconstruct the backbone network of YOLOv7 to improve the ability of the network model architecture to obtain more nonlinear features. Secondly, in view of the problem that there are many interference backgrounds in urban roads and that the original network is weak in positioning targets such as vehicles, a plug-and-play hybrid attention mechanism module, ACmix, is added after the SPPCSPC layer of the backbone network to enhance the network’s attention to vehicles and reduce the interference of other targets. Finally, aiming at the problem that the receptive field of the original network Narrows, with the deepening of the network model, leads to a high miss rate of small targets, the Gaussian receptive field scheme used in the RFLA (Gaussian-receptive-field-based label assignment) module is used at the connection between the feature fusion area and the detection head to improve the receptive field of the network model for small objects in the image. Combining the three improvement measures, the first letter of the name of each improvement measure is selected, and the improved algorithm is named the YOLOv7-RAR algorithm. Experiments show that on urban roads with crowded vehicles and different weather patterns, the average detection accuracy of the YOLOv7-RAR algorithm reaches 95.1%, which is 2.4% higher than that of the original algorithm; the AP50:90 performance is 12.6% higher than that of the original algorithm. The running speed of the YOLOv7-RAR algorithm reaches 96 FPS, which meets the real-time requirements of vehicle detection; hence, the algorithm can be better applied to vehicle detection.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/1801vehicle detectionACmixRFLAYOLOv7
spellingShingle Yuan Zhang
Youpeng Sun
Zheng Wang
Ying Jiang
YOLOv7-RAR for Urban Vehicle Detection
Sensors
vehicle detection
ACmix
RFLA
YOLOv7
title YOLOv7-RAR for Urban Vehicle Detection
title_full YOLOv7-RAR for Urban Vehicle Detection
title_fullStr YOLOv7-RAR for Urban Vehicle Detection
title_full_unstemmed YOLOv7-RAR for Urban Vehicle Detection
title_short YOLOv7-RAR for Urban Vehicle Detection
title_sort yolov7 rar for urban vehicle detection
topic vehicle detection
ACmix
RFLA
YOLOv7
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/1801
work_keys_str_mv AT yuanzhang yolov7rarforurbanvehicledetection
AT youpengsun yolov7rarforurbanvehicledetection
AT zhengwang yolov7rarforurbanvehicledetection
AT yingjiang yolov7rarforurbanvehicledetection