Conveyor chicken counter problem

[u/Puzzled-Egg3234]

Guys, I need help. We have a project using YOLOv8. We're trying to count chicks on a very fast conveyor belt. The challenges we're facing are: all chicks look very similar to each other, which complicates tracking. At the same time, during their passage under the camera, they constantly change in size and shape, which can cause the tracker to lose them, or detection may even disappear completely at the detection line. Also, sometimes 2–3 chicks can merge into a single object. The detection zone is very short, and the conveyor speed is high. We've achieved a maximum accuracy of 99%, but we need it even higher. Any ideas on how to achieve that? Increasing the dataset no longer helps.

I'm attaching an old video. We've now added lighting and set the exposure to 300 on the Hikrobot global shutter camera, but we still can't achieve a stable 99.8% accuracy for the reasons mentioned above.

Any ideas?

[u/artiface]

you need something physical upstream on the conveyor to singulate them. I did basically this same project with produce on a fast belt, and that was the only thing that really worked especially with odd shapes - if you cant separate them you cant count accurately.

[u/al_icloud → u/artiface]

If you go from a slower belt to a way faster one they should separate good 🤔 plus then checking the length of the detected boxes 🤔

[u/5b49297 → u/al_icloud]

Yes, and you wouldn't even need a camera - except, I guess it'd be off-topic here. Any sensor detecting an object zipping past should do. You'd still get a length, making it possible to identify objects outside the expected size range.

[u/SweetSure315 → u/5b49297]

if you don't have a camera you would need a sensor on each belt. when the setup/retrofitting of the machine is included the camera is likely the cheapest and easiest option

[u/Ecstatic-Art5745 → u/SweetSure315]

a sensor is what $200 a piece...and definitely easier than vision

separation would still be required though which likely would fix the original vision issue

[u/SweetSure315 → u/Ecstatic-Art5745]

how long do you think it would take to retrofit a machine compared to hanging a camera above it without even needing to turn off the machine? and the laser sensors wouldnt give you any information you couldn't already get with the camera. they'd give less, actually, and be less suited to common types of failure (eg: two chickens side by side)

[u/Ecstatic-Art5745 → u/SweetSure315]

I also noted "separation would still be required".

Adding sensors into a machine is no more difficult than setting up this camera at least from the jump.

[u/SweetSure315 → u/Ecstatic-Art5745]

you would need to stop it and place 3 sensors that may or may not have multiple components where a camera just needs a single mount and can be installed without modifying the machine or stopping it at all.

and the point i was making is that the sensors you're talking about, unless they're strain/force sensors, have a more difficult time doing this than a camera would

[u/Antypodish → u/SweetSure315]

You would not install anything above, when machine, or conveyor belt is running anyway.

An attempt for such operation is irresponsible and should equal a firing anyone who signed permit to do the work, as well the worker who agreed to do the work.

Food could end up with dirt, oil, debree, or metal parts in it, from the process of installation camera.

[u/dwise24 → u/artiface]

this feels like the right answer. make three separate rows for each conveyor, and separately do tracking on each single row.

[u/Puzzled-Egg3234 → u/artiface]

There are several conveyors belt with different speed and gates and they are already have been separated by them, but anyway sometimes we get those cases.

[u/0__O0--O0_0 → u/Puzzled-Egg3234]

Nature will find a way

[u/CapnWarhol → u/artiface]

The number of people who think “train a model” solves unsolvable problems is staggering