GC-Faster RCNN: The Object Detection Algorithm for Agricultural Pests Based on Improved Hybrid Attention Mechanism

Pest infestations remain a critical threat to global agriculture, significantly compromising crop yield and quality. While accurate pest detection forms the foundation of precision pest management, current approaches face two primary challenges: (1) the scarcity of comprehensive multi-scale, multi-c...

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Main Authors: Bolun Guan, Yaqian Wu, Jingbo Zhu, Juanjuan Kong, Wei Dong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Plants
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/14/7/1106
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author Bolun Guan
Yaqian Wu
Jingbo Zhu
Juanjuan Kong
Wei Dong
author_facet Bolun Guan
Yaqian Wu
Jingbo Zhu
Juanjuan Kong
Wei Dong
author_sort Bolun Guan
collection DOAJ
description Pest infestations remain a critical threat to global agriculture, significantly compromising crop yield and quality. While accurate pest detection forms the foundation of precision pest management, current approaches face two primary challenges: (1) the scarcity of comprehensive multi-scale, multi-category pest datasets and (2) performance limitations in detection models caused by substantial target scale variations and high inter-class morphological similarity. To address these issues, we present three key contributions: First, we introduce Insect25—a novel agricultural pest detection dataset containing 25 distinct pest categories, comprising 18,349 high-resolution images. This dataset specifically addresses scale diversity through multi-resolution acquisition protocols, significantly enriching feature distribution for robust model training. Second, we propose GC-Faster RCNN, an enhanced detection framework integrating a hybrid attention mechanism that synergistically combines channel-wise correlations and spatial dependencies. This dual attention design enables more discriminative feature extraction, which is particularly effective for distinguishing morphologically similar pest species. Third, we implement an optimized training strategy featuring a cosine annealing scheduler with linear warm-up, accelerating model convergence while maintaining training stability. Experiments have shown that compared with the original Faster RCNN model, GC-Faster RCNN has improved the average accuracy mAP0.5 on the Insect25 dataset by 4.5 percentage points, and mAP0.75 by 20.4 percentage points, mAP0.5:0.95 increased by 20.8 percentage points, and the recall rate increased by 16.6 percentage points. In addition, experiments have also shown that the GC-Faster RCNN detection method can reduce interference from multiple scales and high similarity between categories, improving detection performance.
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spelling doaj-art-ec18dd1b60ee425889d9d690482dbe8e2025-08-20T02:09:11ZengMDPI AGPlants2223-77472025-04-01147110610.3390/plants14071106GC-Faster RCNN: The Object Detection Algorithm for Agricultural Pests Based on Improved Hybrid Attention MechanismBolun Guan0Yaqian Wu1Jingbo Zhu2Juanjuan Kong3Wei Dong4Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, ChinaSchool of Computer Science and Technology, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan 243032, ChinaInstitute of Agricultural Economics and Information, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, ChinaInstitute of Agricultural Economics and Information, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, ChinaInstitute of Agricultural Economics and Information, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, ChinaPest infestations remain a critical threat to global agriculture, significantly compromising crop yield and quality. While accurate pest detection forms the foundation of precision pest management, current approaches face two primary challenges: (1) the scarcity of comprehensive multi-scale, multi-category pest datasets and (2) performance limitations in detection models caused by substantial target scale variations and high inter-class morphological similarity. To address these issues, we present three key contributions: First, we introduce Insect25—a novel agricultural pest detection dataset containing 25 distinct pest categories, comprising 18,349 high-resolution images. This dataset specifically addresses scale diversity through multi-resolution acquisition protocols, significantly enriching feature distribution for robust model training. Second, we propose GC-Faster RCNN, an enhanced detection framework integrating a hybrid attention mechanism that synergistically combines channel-wise correlations and spatial dependencies. This dual attention design enables more discriminative feature extraction, which is particularly effective for distinguishing morphologically similar pest species. Third, we implement an optimized training strategy featuring a cosine annealing scheduler with linear warm-up, accelerating model convergence while maintaining training stability. Experiments have shown that compared with the original Faster RCNN model, GC-Faster RCNN has improved the average accuracy mAP0.5 on the Insect25 dataset by 4.5 percentage points, and mAP0.75 by 20.4 percentage points, mAP0.5:0.95 increased by 20.8 percentage points, and the recall rate increased by 16.6 percentage points. In addition, experiments have also shown that the GC-Faster RCNN detection method can reduce interference from multiple scales and high similarity between categories, improving detection performance.https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/14/7/1106object detectionhybrid attention mechanismoptimization functionagricultural pests
spellingShingle Bolun Guan
Yaqian Wu
Jingbo Zhu
Juanjuan Kong
Wei Dong
GC-Faster RCNN: The Object Detection Algorithm for Agricultural Pests Based on Improved Hybrid Attention Mechanism
Plants
object detection
hybrid attention mechanism
optimization function
agricultural pests
title GC-Faster RCNN: The Object Detection Algorithm for Agricultural Pests Based on Improved Hybrid Attention Mechanism
title_full GC-Faster RCNN: The Object Detection Algorithm for Agricultural Pests Based on Improved Hybrid Attention Mechanism
title_fullStr GC-Faster RCNN: The Object Detection Algorithm for Agricultural Pests Based on Improved Hybrid Attention Mechanism
title_full_unstemmed GC-Faster RCNN: The Object Detection Algorithm for Agricultural Pests Based on Improved Hybrid Attention Mechanism
title_short GC-Faster RCNN: The Object Detection Algorithm for Agricultural Pests Based on Improved Hybrid Attention Mechanism
title_sort gc faster rcnn the object detection algorithm for agricultural pests based on improved hybrid attention mechanism
topic object detection
hybrid attention mechanism
optimization function
agricultural pests
url https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/14/7/1106
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AT yaqianwu gcfasterrcnntheobjectdetectionalgorithmforagriculturalpestsbasedonimprovedhybridattentionmechanism
AT jingbozhu gcfasterrcnntheobjectdetectionalgorithmforagriculturalpestsbasedonimprovedhybridattentionmechanism
AT juanjuankong gcfasterrcnntheobjectdetectionalgorithmforagriculturalpestsbasedonimprovedhybridattentionmechanism
AT weidong gcfasterrcnntheobjectdetectionalgorithmforagriculturalpestsbasedonimprovedhybridattentionmechanism