Real-Time Detection of Drill Pipe Joints Using Improved YOLOv5x Model Applied to Drilling Operation Images

It is widely known that pipe assembly and disassembly still lacks automation. To enhance drilling efficiency, we propose an autonomous detection and positioning model based on improved YOLOv5x for drill pipe joints. Firstly, we use Activate or Not (ACON) activation function and Convolution Block Attention Module (CBAM) to enhance feature extraction and representation ability. Then, the loss function is changed from Complete IoU (CIOU) loss to Scale-Invariant IoU (SIOU) loss, which increases the accuracy of the bounding box regression. Finally, the predict heads are tailored to be more effective in detecting tiny targets. Following network training, the final drill pipe joint detection model, based on the improved YOLOv5x, achieved an average accuracy of 99.10%, a 3.5% improvement over the base YOLOv5x algorithm. The proposed method effectively promotes the intelligence of oil drilling equipment by quickly and accurately detecting drill pipe joints, consequently enhancing drilling operation efficiency.