YOLO-AFL: A Novel Lightweight Algorithm for Real-Time Safety Helmet Detection in Factory Workshops

In factory workshops, wearing safety helmets is vital for worker safety. However, current deep learning-based detection methods are often hindered by large model parameters and high computational demands, limiting their deployment in resource-constrained settings. This article introduces YOLO-AFL, a novel lightweight model designed to solve these problems. The algorithm introduces several key optimizations to improve performance without increasing computational load. Firstly, the K-Means++ algorithm is applied during the anchor box preprocessing stage, along with a new distance metric (1 − AIoU), which enhances anchor box size estimation and boosts performance without additional overhead. Secondly, by introducing a lightweight PConv operation into the C3 module, the complexity of the model is significantly reduced. Finally, a dual attention network (LDA-GC) is designed to compensate for any accuracy loss caused by the model’s simplifications. Experimental results on a custom dataset show that the proposed algorithm achieves an mAP50 of 94.1%. Compared to the baseline model, it reduces the number of parameters by 19.1% and decreases computational complexity by 16.9%, demonstrating its superior performance and efficiency in safety helmet wearing detection.