Vision-Based Multiscale Construction Object Detection under Limited Supervision

Contemporary multiscale construction object detection algorithms rely predominantly on fully-supervised deep learning, requiring arduous and time-consuming labeling process. This paper presents a novel semisupervised multiscale construction objects detection (SS-MCOD) by harnessing nearly infinite unlabeled images along with limited labels, achieving more accurate and robust detection results. SS-MCOD uses a deformable convolutional network (DCN)-based teacher-student joint learning framework. DCN uses deformable advantages to extract and fuse multiscale construction object features. The teacher module generates pseudolabels for construction objects in unlabeled images, while the student module learns the location and classification of construction objects in both labeled images and unlabeled images with pseudolabels. Experimental validation using commonly used construction datasets demonstrates the accuracy and generalization performance of SS-MCOD. This research can provide insights for other detection tasks with limited labels in the construction domain.