An Improved YOLOv8-Based Foreign Detection Algorithm for Transmission Lines

Abstract

This research aims to overcome three major challenges in foreign object detection on power transmission lines: data scarcity, background noise, and high computational costs. In the improved YOLOv8 algorithm, the newly introduced lightweight GSCDown (Ghost Shuffle Channel Downsampling) module effectively captures subtle image features by combining 1 × 1 convolution and GSConv technology, thereby enhancing detection accuracy. CSPBlock (Cross-Stage Partial Block) fusion enhances the model’s accuracy and stability by strengthening feature expression and spatial perception while maintaining the algorithm’s lightweight nature and effectively mitigating the issue of vanishing gradients, making it suitable for efficient foreign object detection in complex power line environments. Additionally, PAM (pooling attention mechanism) effectively distinguishes between background and target without adding extra parameters, maintaining high accuracy even in the presence of background noise. Furthermore, AIGC (AI-generated content) technology is leveraged to produce high-quality images for training data augmentation, and lossless feature distillation ensures higher detection accuracy and reduces false positives. In conclusion, the improved architecture reduces the parameter count by 18% while improving the mAP@0.5 metric by a margin of 5.5 points when compared to YOLOv8n. Compared to state-of-the-art real-time object detection frameworks, our research demonstrates significant advantages in both model accuracy and parameter size.