Education robot object detection with a brain-inspired approach integrating Faster R-CNN, YOLOv3, and semi-supervised learning

Qing Hong; Hao Dong; Wei Deng; Yihan Ping

doi:10.3389/fnbot.2023.1338104

Education robot object detection with a brain-inspired approach integrating Faster R-CNN, YOLOv3, and semi-supervised learning

Front Neurorobot. 2024 Jan 4:17:1338104. doi: 10.3389/fnbot.2023.1338104. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Qing Hong¹, Hao Dong², Wei Deng³, Yihan Ping⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing Vocational University of Industry Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
² Department of Economic Management, Shandong Vocational College of Science and Technology, Weifang, Shandong, China.
³ Institute of Information Technology, Hunan Biological and Electromechanical Polytechnic, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁴ College of Computer Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States.

Abstract

The development of education robots has brought tremendous potential and opportunities to the field of education. These intelligent machines can interact with students in classrooms and learning environments, providing personalized educational support. To enable education robots to fulfill their roles, they require accurate object detection capabilities to perceive and understand the surrounding environment of students, identify targets, and interact with them. Object detection in complex environments remains challenging, as classrooms or learning scenarios involve various objects, backgrounds, and lighting conditions. Improving the accuracy and efficiency of object detection is crucial for the development of education robots. This paper introduces the progress of an education robot's object detection based on a brain-inspired heuristic method, which integrates Faster R-CNN, YOLOv3, and semi-supervised learning. By combining the strengths of these three techniques, we can improve the accuracy and efficiency of object detection in education robot systems. In this work, we integrate two popular object detection algorithms: Faster R-CNN and YOLOv3. We conduct a series of experiments on the task of education robot object detection. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed optimization algorithm significantly outperforms individual algorithms in terms of accuracy and real-time performance. Moreover, through semi-supervised learning, we achieve better performance with fewer labeled samples. This will provide education robots with more accurate perception capabilities, enabling better interaction with students and delivering personalized educational experiences. It will drive the development of the field of education robots, offering innovative and personalized solutions for education.

Keywords: YOLOv3; educational robots; faster R-CNN; object detection; optimization; semi-supervised learning.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by the 2023 Higher Vocational Education Aesthetic Education Teaching Research (Grant Number: 2023MB013).