Machine visual feedback through CNN detectors : Mobile object detection for industrial application

Sammanfattning: This paper concerns itself with object detection as a possible solution to Valmet’s quest for a visual-feedback system that can help operators and other personnel to more easily interact with their machines and equipment. New advancements in deep learning, specifically CNN models, have been exploring neural networks with detection-capabilities. Object detection has historically been mostly inaccessible to the industry due the complex solutions involving various tricky image processing algorithms. In that regard, deep learning offers a more easily accessible way to create scalable object detection solutions. This study has therefore chosen to review recent literature detailing detection models with a selective focus on factors making them realizable on ARM hardware and in turn mobile devices like phones. An attempt was made to single out the most lightweight and hardware efficient model and implement it as a prototype in order to help Valmet in their decision process around future object detection products. The survey led to the choice of a SSD-MobileNetsV2 detection architecture due to promising characteristics making it suitable for performance-constrained smartphones. This CNN model was implemented on Valmet’s phone of choice, Samsung Galaxy S8, and it successfully achieved object detection functionality. Evaluation shows a mean average precision of 60 % in detecting objects and a 4.7 FPS performance on the chosen phone model. TensorFlow was used for developing, training and evaluating the model. The report concludes with recommending Valmet to pursue solutions built on-top of these kinds of models and further wishes to express an optimistic outlook on this type of technology for the future. Realizing performance of this magnitude on a mid-tier phone using deep learning (which historically is very computationally intensive) sets us up for great strides with this type of technology in the future; and along with better smartphones, great benefits are expected to both industry and consumers.