Forest Industry Technology and Equipment
Chi TENG, Xibin DONG, Zikai SONG, Jiawang ZHANG, Ben GUO, Yuchen ZHANG, Hui LIU, Tong GAO
Traditional methods for harvesting pinecone species face challenges such as low efficiency, high risks, and uncontrollable costs. To address real-time recognition and localization in automated pinecone harvesting, we proposed an improved YOLOv5s-7.0 (you only look once) object detection model and construct a binocular depth camera-based detection and localization network. To improve the accuracy and efficiency of object detection, the YOLOv5s model was improved by embedding partial convolutions (PConv) into the neck module's multi-branch stacked structure to enhance sparse feature processing capability, improve robustness, and reduce feature redundancy in complex scenarios of pinecones. Additionally, the simple attention mechanism (SimAM) was integrated at deep backbone layers and backbone-neck connections to optimize the model’s feature extraction ability and information transmission efficiency in complex backgrounds without significant parameter increases. To meet the requirements of efficient detection and localization, a target detection and real-time localization code was developed using binocular vision principles and the improved YOLOv5s model, and a pinecone detection and localization system was constructed through depth matching. Based on the constructed dataset of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica cones from the Greater Khingan Mountains and Pinus koraiensis cones from the Lesser Khingan Mountains, the improved YOLOv5s model achieved a precision of 96.8%, a recall of 94.0%, and an average precision (AP) of 96.3% in target detection tasks. The proposed pinecone detection and localization system demonstrated mean absolute errors of 0.644 cm, 0.620 cm, and 0.740 cm along the x-, y-, and z-axes, respectively. Under front, side, and backlighting conditions, the localization success rate reached 93.3%, while in low-light environments, it maintained a success rate of 83.3%. Other performance indicators, including field of view, meet the operational requirements for pinecone harvesting. The proposed pinecone detection and localization system provides a reliable solution for real-time target detection and localization problems in mechanized pinecone harvesting.