Optimization of Gabor Convolutional Networks Using the Taguchi Method and Their Application in Wood Defect Detection

Automated optical inspection (AOI) of wood surfaces is critical for ensuring product quality in the furniture and manufacturing industries; however, existing defect detection systems often struggle to generalize across complex grain patterns and diverse defect types. This study proposes a wood defect recognition model employing a Gabor Convolutional Network (GCN) that integrates convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with Gabor filters. To systematically optimize the network’s architecture and improve both detection accuracy and computational efficiency, the Taguchi method is employed to tune key hyperparameters, including convolutional kernel size, filter number, and Gabor parameters (frequency, orientation, and phase offset). Additionally, image tiling and augmentation techniques are employed to effectively increase the training dataset, thereby enhancing the model’s stability and accuracy. Experiments conducted on the MVTec Anomaly Detection dataset (wood category) demonstrate that the Taguchi-optimized GCN achieves an accuracy of 98.92%, outperforming a baseline Taguchi-optimized CNN by 2.73%. Results confirm that Taguchi-optimized GCNs enhance defect detection performance and computational efficiency, making them valuable for smart manufacturing.