Since its inception in 2015, the YOLO (You Only Look Once) variant of object detectors has rapidly grown, with the latest release of YOLO-v8 in January 2023. YOLO variants are underpinned by the principle of real-time and high-classification performance, based on limited but efficient computational parameters. This principle has been found within the DNA of all YOLO variants with increasing intensity, as the variants evolve addressing the requirements of automated quality inspection within the industrial surface defect detection domain, such as the need for fast detection, high accuracy, and deployment onto constrained edge devices. This paper is the first to provide an in-depth review of the YOLO evolution from the original YOLO to the recent release (YOLO-v8) from the perspective of industrial manufacturing. The review explores the key architectural advancements proposed at each iteration, followed by examples of industrial deployment for surface defect detection endorsing its compatibility with industrial requirements.

In this paper, a fault detection algorithm for photovoltaic systems based on artificial neural networks (ANN) is proposed. Numerous literatures can be found on the topic of PV fault detection through the implementation of artificial intelligence. The novel part of this research is the successful development, deployment and validation of a fault detection PV system using radial basis function (RBF), requiring only two parameters as the input to the ANN (solar irradiance and output power). The results obtained through the testing of the developed ANN on a PV installation of 2.2 kW capacity, provided an accuracy of 97.9%. To endorse the accuracy of the newly developed algorithm, the ANN was tested on another PV system, installed at a remote location.The total capacity of the new system was significantly higher, 4.16 kW. A vital part of the test was to see how the proposed ANN would perform with 'scaled-up' input data, during normal operation as well as partial shading scenarios. The validation process provided an overall fault detection accuracy of above 97%. The decrease in accuracy was due to the varying nature of the two systems in terms of total capacity, number of samples and type of faults.

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Pallet racking is an essential element within warehouses, distribution centers, and manufacturing facilities. To guarantee its safe operation as well as stock protection and personnel safety, pallet racking requires continuous inspections and timely maintenance in the case of damage being discovered. Conventionally, a rack inspection is a manual quality inspection process completed by certified inspectors. The manual process results in operational down-time as well as inspection and certification costs and undiscovered damage due to human error. Inspired by the trend toward smart industrial operations, we present a computer vision-based autonomous rack inspection framework centered around YOLOv7 architecture. Additionally, we propose a domain variance modeling mechanism for addressing the issue of data scarcity through the generation of representative data samples. Our proposed framework achieved a mean average precision of 91.1%.

This paper presents a shallow architecture based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for detecting Micro-cracks in Photovoltaic (PV) cells within the manufacturing environment. Based on Electro Luminescence (EL) imaging principles, this research presents a mechanism for determining the number of filters within the convolutional blocks, gradient guided filter tuning (GGFT). Observing the similarity between the original EL images and the filter output images obtained via GGFT, the research further introduces a mechanism for generating PV cell images based on EL Modelling, termed Filter Fused Data Scaling (FFDS). The effectiveness of both techniques is presented by benchmarking our developed architecture against 'off the shelf' augmentations and State-of-the-Art (SOTA) networks. The performance criteria is widened to include accuracy, computational, architectural, and post-deployment metrics. The high performance of our architecture in an intensive and wide-scoped evaluation demonstrates the high efficacy of our proposed mechanisms for developing PV-specific architectures and addressing the issue of data scarcity, particularly the difficulty in the procurement of quality EL images from the manufacturing site.

Pallet racking is a fundamental component within the manufacturing, storage, and distribution centers of companies around the World. It requires continuous inspection and maintenance to guarantee the protection of stock and the safety of personnel. At present, racking inspection is manually carried out by certified inspectors, leading to operational down-time, inspection costs and missed damage due to human error. As companies transition toward smart manufacturing, we present an autonomous racking inspection mechanism using a MobileNetV2-SSD architecture. We propose a solution that is affixed to the adjustable cage of a forklift truck, enabling adequate coverage of racking in the immediate vicinity. Our proposed approach leads to a classifier that is optimized for deployment onto edge devices, providing real-time alerts of damage to forklift drivers, with a mean average precision of 92.7%.

This paper presents a framework for the automated detection of Exudates, an early sign of Diabetic Retinopathy. The paper introduces a classification-extraction-superimposition (CES) mechanism for enabling the generation of representative exudate samples based on limited open-source samples. The paper demonstrates how the manipulation of Yolov5M output vector can be utilized for exudate extraction and super-imposition, segueing into the development of a custom CNN architecture focused on exudate classification in retinal based fundus images. The performance of the proposed architecture is compared with various state-of-the-art image classification architectures on a wide range of metrics, including the simulation of post deployment inference statistics. A self-label mechanism is presented, endorsing the high performance of the developed architecture, achieving 100% on the test dataset.

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