Research on Image Recognition of Insulators
Based on YOLO Algorithm
Shenghui Wang, Leilei Niu, and Nan Li
Abstract—Insulators are important components of power
transmission and transformation equipment in power systems.
Insulator identification is a basis work for evaluation of insulation
status of insulators in computer vision. With the recent
development of big data and cloud computing technologies,
terminal-to- terminal picture recognition was accomplished based
on deep learning algorithms, making it possible to apply insulator
image recognition in power systems. This paper firstly introduced
the research background of deep learning: the recent YOLO (You
Only Look Once) convolutional neural network algorithm,
established insulator image databases for train and test, and
preprocessed the images of training insulator images with the
TensorFlow platform. With the YOLO algorithm applied, the
training of the image database for 5 days was completed, and a
good recognition result was achieved. Then the results were
compared between the Fast R-CNN algorithm and the YOLO
algorithm in identify speed and accuracy. Based on relevant paper,
the accuracy of insulator image recognition is defined, and the
factors that affect the accuracy of insulator image recognition are
discussed: It is concluded that the accuracy of identification
increases with the increase in the number of training insulators,
which is the next step in the identification of insulators.
Index Terms—convolution neural network, deep learning,
image recognition, Insulators
I. INTRODUCTION
I NSULATORS are important components of transmission
and transformation equipment in power system. It is very
important for the safe and stable operation of power system to
know its operation state in time [1]. Presently, the artificial
patrol method is used in power grid, which not only consumes
time and labor, but also hardly grasp the status of electric
equipment such as lines and insulators in a timely and
comprehensive manner. With the development of big data and
cloud computing technologies, terminal-to-terminal picture
recognition is accomplished based on deep learning algorithms,
making it possible to apply insulator recognition in power
systems.
There are 2 main routes taken to recognize insulators: 1)
Project Supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
(2015ZD19)
Shenghui Wang, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, China (e-mail:
hdwsh@ ncepu.edu.cn).
Leilei Niu, NCEPU(e-mail: raynewwood@ 163.com).
Nan LI, State Grid Baoding Electric Power Supply Company
POWERCON2018 Paper NO. 201805150000003
978-1-5386-6461-2/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
traditional methods: mainly based on the shape and texture of
the insulators combining the BP neural network to identify the
insulators. The characteristics includes the HOG features, SVM,
the SUFS characteristic [2-3], the Hu moment invariants and the
wavelet coefficients [4], etc., This kind of method has low
accuracy, poor robustness, and high requirement for the
shooting angle of the target video and pictures. 2) The deep
learning algorithm. The terminal-to-terminal picture
recognition avoid the need for the artificial features. This
method has high recognition accuracy and good generalization
ability. YOLO (You Only Look Once) is a recognition
algorithm based on depth learning based on Joseph Redmon in
2015. It constructed based on regression and can realize real
time and global recognition of an image [5-6].
There are relatively few paper researching the identification
of insulators by deep learning. Paper [7] reviews the inspection
mode based on UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and the
power line inspection based on deep learning. It demonstrates
the probability of deep learning algorithm for inspection of
electrical equipment. Paper [8] shows the case in which
algorithm of combining GMM and YOLO been used to realize
the recognition of pedestrians in the substation, without
mentioning the identification of insulators; Paper [9] proposed
a method of identifying insulators based on depth learning and
non-maximum term suppression and linear fitting, but its
disadvantage is that it cannot realize the overall and real-time
identification of insulators; In paper [10], YOLO is used to
process and transform aerial images, and good positioning
results are obtained.
In this paper, the insulators training database is trained with
YOLO to realize the identification of the insulators and the
location of the discharge position based on ultraviolet imaging.
The main work done in this paper are as follows: 1) The image
database of porcelain insulators is constructed, and the training
samples are labeled. 2) The preprocessing, importing, training
and recognition of image employing the YOLO algorithm are
realized based on the TensorFlow platform and OpenCV; 3)
The comparison of identification accuracy between YOLO and
other algorithms is done and analyzed; 4) the factors affecting
the accuracy of insulator recognition are discussed.
II. DEEP LEARNING ALGORITHM
Deep Learning (DL), first proposed by Hilton in University
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of Toronto in 2006, is the latest branch of machine learning. frames are encoded as three-dimensional tensors of structural
Instead of the original artificial design feature, it is a 7*7* (4 * 5 +1) to be trained and tested with subsequent deep
terminal-to-terminal network which has better robustness and networks. Its specific implementation path is shown in Figure 4
generalization ability.
The deep learning network can realize the nonlinear mapping,
and the terminal-to-terminal network architecture mapping the
pixel characteristic to the label value, the brief description is
shown in Figure 1. Box+IOU

With Form 7×7 Picture Recognition Result

Fig.1 Terminal-to-terminal Network Architecture
By weight sharing and down sampling, the optimal
extraction of the characteristics of each layer is realized. The
gradient disappearance phenomenon is reduced to the
maximum degree through the drop-out mechanism. The
robustness strengthened employing the large database.
A. convolution neural network
The Convolution Neural Network (CNN) demonstrate its
enormous potential in 2012. As shown in Figure 3, uses Pmn to
represent the m row and n column element of the original data
matrix, Wij indicate the I row J column of the convolution
kernel, the activation function and the ReLU function is
designed to reduce its over fitting phenomenon. Its specific
parameters, as shown in (1) and (2).
­ x, x >0
=®
Re LU˄x˅ ˄1˅
¯0, x  0
Input
Class Map
Fig. 4 YOLO global image recognition
The YOLO system first grayscale the image through the
rgb2gray function, then standardized the image scale into
448*448, set the training batch to 8, and convert the gray image
to the 8*448*448*1-dimension tensor through the imread
function of the opencv2 function family. Then the data is
connected to the convolution layer and the pool layer, and the
data set is obtained.
The 4-dimensional tensor size is 8*7*7*125, then the
selection of the diagnostic frame and the judgement of IOU
values and categories are carried out respectively. The specific
network model is shown in Figure 5.
Gray Picture
(8, 448, 448, 1)
Convolution Layer 1-6

2 2
M ij =sigmiod(¦¦Wij u Pi+m,j+n +bij ) δ2ε Convolution Layer 1-6

i 0 j 0
Convolution Layer 7-9

Data Collection
(8, 7, 7, 125)

Transform

Original Feature
data Core Recognition Box IOU Classify Result
map 澳 (8, 7, 7, 5, 4) (8, 7, 7, 5, 1) (8, 7, 7, 5, 1)
Fig. 4 Convolution algorithm

B. YOLO algorithm SIGMOID ReLU

Compared with other deep learning algorithms such as
R-CNN, the YOLO algorithm transforms the detection model
into a regression problem and uses the features of the entire
image rather than a part of the capture of the image to predict
each boundary box. This means that YOLO can discriminate all
categories of images in a global manner. It terminal-to-terminal
architecture achieves high precision. The program divides the
imported image into 7 *7 (adjustable) grids, two bounding
boxes were predicted within each grid box, then calculates the
confidence of these boxes and the class. These prediction
澳
Fig.5 specific network model of YOLO
In the process of YOLO’s recognition, the trained network
model and network structure were saved as checkpoint network
parameters. The network parameters were read in the test, by
minimizing the Euclidean distance between the real coordinates
and the prediction coordinate values in each layer, to achieve
the iterative optimization of each layer parameter and the
parameter prediction that finally conforms to the threshold
setting.
Finally, the predicted coordinates of (left, top), (right, bottom)
are carried out through the rectangle function in the CV2

POWERCON2018 Paper NO. 201805150000003 Page2/4 3872

module introduced in TensorFlow to implement the picture the image was normalized to 448*448, as is shown in figure 6.b.
frame operation of the corresponding test picture prediction The 6.b was read through the imread function as the 448*448
area and save the picture to complete the test.澳 matrix, and the related label parameters were packed together
been sent to the YOLO network for training.
III. IMPLEMENTATION OF IMAGE RECOGNITION ALGORITHM
The platform and its parameters used in this paper are as
follows: the software platform python3.6, the algorithm
framework TensorFlow-GPU, the insulator target label
program labelImg, the training CPU 7700, and the GPU Nvidia
GeForce 1060 for training.
The work of this paper includes: 1. Using YOLO to train the
standard database VOC2007, comparing the results with other
algorithms. 2, training and identifying the insulator database 澳澳 澳
built by the author. The training time was 1 weeks, the sample (a) original picture ( b) Picture after process
database was 1000, and the number of test images was 200. The Fig.6 Preprocess of training Image
influencing factors of the recognition results were also C. Image preprocessing
analyzed. 1000 insulator pictures were taken in laboratory and on spot,
A. Comparison and analysis based on VOC2007 database 800 of which were used for labeling and training, and the
To get the advantages and disadvantages of the YOLO remaining 200 for testing. The picture library is shown in
algorithm over other algorithms on each performance index, Figure 7.
this paper used the database VOC 2007 to identify and test the The label of the training picture made by labelImg, and the
picture and compares the results with the well-known Fast insulator area in the picture is labeled with a rectangle frame,
R-CNN. We take each index mentioned in the paper [12] to and the insulator's [left, right, top, bottom, index] information
compare the results of the two algorithms. outputs together in the picture, and the number of the most
TABLE I annotated insulators in each image is 30. The position data of
THE PRECISION COMPARISON OF YOLO AND FAST R-CNN each picture will be output to the file that is in line with the
Type/Algorithm YOLO漏%漐 Fast R-CNN漏%漐 name of the corresponding image, in the form of. Xml. The
category information in the. Xml file read by related extraction
Object Recognizes
67.50 69.40 software, the insulator coordinate information was extracted
Precision IOU>0.5
and stored in the corresponding.Txt document to get the label
Class Recognizes
Precision 180 9.80 value of the corresponding picture according to the format so
0.1<IOU<0.5 that they convenient and available to train.
Class Recognizes
Similarity 6.55 5.00
IOU> 0.1
Class Fault
3.80 4.10
IOU> 0.1

Background
4.15 11.7
IOU<0.1

From the above table, we can see that YOLO can

discriminate categories correctly. The discriminate rate of class
corrects and similar add up to 90.05% while the Fast R-CNN Fig. 7 Insulator Picture database
scores only 84.2%. As far as background detection is concerned, D. The training and recognition of insulators
the probability that Fast R-CNN failed to detect any class is
The digitized picture and the corresponding label are packed
11.7%, the error rate is about 3 times that of YOLO. YOLO is
into the YOLO model for training. The total loss is the sum of
more competitive than Fast R-CNN from the perspective of
coordinate error, category error, object error and noobject error,
higher accuracy and lower misjudgment rate.
and the calculation formula of each error is shown in (3).
B. Image preprocessing
The original image is RGB, as shown in figure 6.a, using
rgb2gray function, the 3-dimensional red, green and blue
channels were grayscale by the ratio of 0.299:0.587:0.114, then

POWERCON2018 Paper NO. 201805150000003 Page3/4 3873

 s
2
B
saturation. The number of pictures affects the time of the
Ocoord ¦ ¦ , ij [( xi  xˆ i )2  ( yi  yˆ i ) ]
obj 2

i=0 j 0 gradient’s disappearance and the accuracy of recognition.

δ3ε
2
s B

+Ocoord ¦¦, obj

ij
[( wi  ˆi )  (
w
2
hi  hˆi ) ]
2

s
2
B
i=0 j 0
s
2
B
IV. CONCLUSION
 ¦¦, obj

ij
(c i -cˆ i )  Onoobj
2
¦¦, noobj

ij
(c i -cˆ i )
2

800 training and 200 test insulator images were included in

i=0 j 0 i=0 j 0

s2 B the database. The YOLO algorithm depending on TensorFlow

 ¦ , iobj ¦ ( pi (c )  p
i=0 cclass
The total loss is achieved by using the MomentumOptimizer
provided by the TensorFlow platform. During the test, the
maximum value of the class was taken as the picture’s
prediction class, and the prediction frame and its coordinates of
the predicted value are larger than the set value as the
recognition frame.
The training process lasts for one entire week on the insulator
picture training database, the YOLO model realized the
identification of the test set insulators, and the calculation speed
was comparatively faster. And according to the data
verification of the VOC2007 above, the YOLO is more
accurate than other algorithms. The result of its identification is
shown as shown in Figure 8.
Fig. 8 Recognition results of insulators
TABLE Ċ
THE PRECISION COMPARISON OF YOLO AND FAST R-CNN THE PRECISION
COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT TRAINING NUMBERS
Type/Precision/Number
500漏%漐 650漏%漐
Object Recognizes
Precision IOU>0.5
Class Recognizes
Precision 0.1<IOU<0.5
Class Recognizes
Similarity
IOU> 0.1
Class Fault
IOU> 0.1
Background
IOU<0.1
When the number of insulators in the training database
increased, the testing accuracy became higher. In the process of
testing, we found that when the training concentrated a certain
number of insulators, alone with the training time arise, the
accuracy of the insulators increased. But when the training time
reaches a certain value, the train_loss encounters gradient
ˆ i (c )) 2 platform was applied to insulator image preprocessing and the
identification of insulators image was realized. The accuracy of
identification of insulators was about 83.5%, and the
recognition accuracy of YOLO and other algorithms was
compared, and the advantages of YOLO algorithm in
recognition speed and accuracy were obtained. With the
increase of the number of training insulators images, the
recognition accuracy was also increased. which indicates the
direction for the next step of the insulators identification.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities of CHINA (2015ZD15).
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8.10 6.20 4.15 Shenghui Wang, Male, born in Hubei China 1977. Received his Ph.D. degree
in High Voltage and insulation technology in 2011, associate professor of
North China Electric Power University, He mainly engaged in the research of
on-line monitoring and fault diagnosis of electrical equipment.
Leilei Niu, Male, born in Hebei China 1989. Ph. D. candidate of North China
Electric University, he mainly engaged in electrical equipment on-line
monitoring and fault diagnosis research.

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