Hierarchical spatial attention-based cross-scale detection network for Digital Works Supervision System (DWSS)

Abstract

Vision-based on-site detection is a crucial component of the Digital Works Supervision System (DWSS). However, accurate detecting cross-scale objects in complicated construction sites remains a challenge. In this research, a hierarchical spatial attention-based cross-scale detection network is designed to address these challenges and provide accurate on-site information for the DWSS. Firstly, a convolutional neural network is constructed to extract multi-scale feature maps with different levels of information. Furthermore, a hierarchical spatial attention mechanism is proposed to facilitate information propagation and complement between multi-scale feature maps. Secondly, the cascade detection mechanism is designed to improve the detection performance of cross-scale objects. Large-scale feature maps with more detailed information are used for the detection of small-scale objects such as workers. Small-scale feature maps with semantic features are used for the detection of large-scale objects such as construction machines. Finally, the on-site information is automatically extracted from detection results and converted into suitable data formats to generate on-site reports for the DWSS. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve SOTA detection performance on both MOCS and SODA dataset, especially for the small-scale objects and complicated construction scenarios.