A rail fastener defect detection algorithm based on improved YOLOv5

Being a crucial component of railway tracks, monitoring the health condition of fasteners stands as a critical aspect within the realm of railroad track management, ensuring the normal passage of trains. However, traditional track fastener detection methods mainly use artificial checks, giving rise to challenges encompassing reduced efficiency, safety hazards, and poor detection accuracy. Consequently, we introduce an innovative model for the detection of track fastener defects, termed YOLOv5-CGBD. In this study, we first imbue the backbone network with the CBAM attention mechanism, which elevates the network’s emphasis on pertinent feature extraction within defective regions. Subsequently, we replace the standard convolutional blocks in the neck network with the GSConv convolutional module, achieving a delicate balance between the model’s accuracy and computational speed. Augmenting our model’s capacities for efficient feature map fusion and reorganization across diverse scales, we integrate the weighted bidirectional feature pyramid network (BiFPN). Ultimately, we manipulate a lightweight decoupled head structure, which improves both detection precision and model robustness. Concurrently, to enhance the model’s performance, a data augmentation strategy is employed. The experimental findings testify to the YOLOv5-CGBD model’s ability to conduct real-time detection, with mAP0.5 scores of 0.971 and 0.747 for mAP0.5:0.95, surpassing those of the original YOLOv5 model by 2.2% and 4.1%, respectively. Furthermore, we undertake a comparative assessment, contrasting the proposed methodology with alternative approaches. The experimental outcomes manifest that the YOLOv5-CGBD model exhibits the most exceptional comprehensive detection performance while concurrently maintaining a high processing speed.