Live-stock detection (DeepForest)#

Farming Modelling Standard Python

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Binder binder

rohub doi

Context#

Purpose#

Implement and fine-tune a prebuilt Deep Learning model to detect livestock in airborne imagery. The model is implemented using PyTorch Lightning, which simplifies the training process and allows for easy checkpointing, enabling collaborative work by saving and sharing model progress.

Modelling Approach#

The live-stock detection model from the latest version (v1.4.0) of the DeepForest Deep Learning model is used to predict bounding boxes corresponding to cattle from airborn RGB images.

As a PyTorch Lightning module, this model can be fine-tuned easily, and checkpoints can be saved as .safetensors, making it possible to upload the trained models to platforms like Hugging Face for open collaboration.

The prebuilt model was trained on a limited dataset. According to the package’s documentation, “the prebuilt models will always be improved by adding data from the target area”. As such, this notebook will explore the improvement in the model’s performance in live-stock detection from fine-tuning on local data.

Description#

This notebook will explore the capabilities of the DeepForest package. In particular, it will demonstrate how to:

  • Detect livestock in airborne imagery using the prebuilt livestock detection model.

  • Fine-tune the model using a novel publicly-available dataset.

  • Evaluate the model’s performance before and after fine-tuning.

  • Save and share model checkpoints throughout the process, allowing for reproducibility and collaboration on Hugging Face.

Note: Due to the memory constraints of the Binder environment, some steps of the machine learning pipeline are omitted from the notebook. In such cases, we include the relevant code so that it can still be executed in an environment with greater memory and processing power.

Highlights#

The prebuilt model was trained on 2347 training and 690 validation annotations, and its performance metrics on the test set (subset of 356 images excluded from training/validation sets) showed substantial gains:

  • Box Recall: Improved from 0.3862 to 0.9391

  • Box Precision: Improved from 0.4925 to 0.8628

  • Mean IoU: Improved from 0.2070 to 0.6095

These results demonstrate the potential of improving the model further by sharing checkpoints as open-source models on Hugging Face, enabling collaborative enhancements based on additional local data.

Contributions#

Notebook#

  • Cameron Appel (author), Queen Mary University of London, @camappel

  • Ethan P. White (reviewer), University of Florida, @ethanwhite

  • Louisa Van Zeeland (reviewer), The Alan Turing Institute, @louisavz

  • Alejandro Coca-Castro (editor), The Alan Turing Institute, @acocac

Modelling codebase#

  • Ben Weinstein (maintainer & developer), University of Florida, @bw4sz

  • Henry Senyondo (support maintainer), University of Florida, @henrykironde

  • Ethan White (PI and author), University of Florida, @ethanwhite

Modelling publications#

Import libraries#

Hide code cell source 
import os
import glob
import urllib

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

import xmltodict
import cv2
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from PIL import Image

from deepforest import main
from deepforest.visualize import plot_predictions
from huggingface_hub import hf_hub_download

import torch

from shapely.geometry import box
from skimage.exposure import equalize_hist

import pooch

import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings(action='ignore')

%matplotlib inline

Set project structure#

notebook_folder = './notebook'
if not os.path.exists(notebook_folder):
    os.makedirs(notebook_folder)

extract_dir = os.path.join(notebook_folder)
if not os.path.exists(extract_dir):
    os.makedirs(extract_dir, exist_ok=True)

Fetch images and annotations from Zenodo#

Fetch sample images and ground-truth labels from Zenodo.

Data were sourced from Harvard’s publicly accessible ODjAR Dataverse. Specifically, G.J. Franke; Sander Mucher, 2021, “Annotated cows in aerial images for use in deep learning models”, which includes “a large dataset containing aerial images from fields in Juchowo, Poland and Wageningen, the Netherlands, with annotated cows present in the images using Pascal VOC XML Annotation Format.” There are effectively 3 datasets: Carus_2018, Carus_2019, and Juchowo_2019. There are XML files with the annotations: cow, cow ID, and cow pose.

Given that this dataset is stored as a multi-part archive, it was necessary to download and unzip the files using pyunpack, then distribute the subset of images used to train/validate and test the model separately. This process requires at least 7 GB of available space.

zenodo = pooch.create(
    # Use the default cache folder for the operating system
    path=f".",
    base_url="doi:10.5281/zenodo.14219057/",
    # The registry specifies the files that can be fetched
    registry={
        "annotations.csv": "md5:793358e2c3c59a3a621ff66b31533996",
        "test.csv": "md5:9b1fcc44aec7a678e736366b307f27f8",
        "test_baseline.csv": "md5:95325651118ebf92ec440c440175848c",
        "test_finetuned.csv": "md5:5ef15e75fe4e2d990ac197278a5677e8",
        "20181001 (196).JPG": "md5:d84d3487b4fea5a769b754fcd7655527",
        "20181002 (228).JPG": "md5:6cedf6881250de9d6eeeabb65f245588",
    },
)
Note: Due to the memory constraints of the Binder environment, this step is omitted from the notebook. To execute locally, run the following code: 
unzipped_files = pooch.retrieve(
    url="doi:10.5281/zenodo.14219057/images.zip",
    known_hash="md5:90a37ff7c1a166f671dac952cfae2708",
    processor=pooch.Unzip(extract_dir=extract_dir),
    path=f"."
)

# Load the CSV (annotations)
test_path = [file for file in unzipped_files if file.endswith('test.csv')][0]
test_df = pd.read_csv(test_path)

Baseline model#

Download baseline model#

Load the model from DeepForest’s Hugging Face repository. The load_model() function loads the tree crown detection model by default; the following pre-trained models can also be specified:

  • weecology/deepforest-bird

  • weecology/everglades-nest-detection

  • weecology/cropmodel-deadtrees

  • weecology/deepforest-livestock

Note: Due to the memory constraints of the Binder environment, this step is omitted from the notebook. To execute locally, run the following code: 
from deepforest import main

model = main.deepforest()
model.load_model(model_name="weecology/deepforest-livestock", revision="main")

The DeepForest models have identical architectures, but different weights, as tree crown detection model’s layers were updated to adapt to the new task. The model weights are saved in .safetensors format.

Evaluate baseline performance#

The baseline performance of the pretrained livestock detection model is evaluated on the test set, using the evaluate() method.

Note: Due to the memory constraints of the Binder environment, this step is omitted from the notebook. To execute locally, run the following code: 
model.label_dict = {'cow': 0}  # label defaults to 'tree'; change to 'cow', 'bird', etc.
model.config['gpus'] = '-1'  # Use GPU (set to '0' for the first GPU or '-1' for all GPUs)
model.config['workers'] = 0

# Set the directory to save the results of the pretrained model
baseline_save_dir = os.path.join(notebook_folder, 'baseline_pred_result')
os.makedirs(baseline_save_dir, exist_ok=True)

# Evaluate the pretrained model on the test set (using test_file)
baseline_results = model.evaluate(test_path, os.path.dirname(test_path), iou_threshold=0.4, savedir=baseline_save_dir)

test_baseline_csv = os.path.join(baseline_save_dir, 'test_baseline.csv')
pd.DataFrame(baseline_results['results']).to_csv(test_baseline_csv, index=False)

The baseline prediction results are saved in the Zenodo folder as test_baseline.csv.

The model’s performance is assessed by calculating key metrics such as Box Recall, Box Precision, and Mean IoU (Intersection over Union), which indicate how accurately the model detects livestock in the test imagery. This serves as a benchmark to compare improvements after fine-tuning:

  • Box Recall: 0.3862

  • Box Precision: 0.4925

  • Mean IoU: 0.2070

Visualise#

Load sample images#

# Load the test.csv file
df = zenodo.fetch("test.csv")
df = pd.read_csv(df)

# Load the image
image_name_1 = "20181001 (196).JPG"
image_path_1 = zenodo.fetch(image_name_1)

image_name_2 = "20181002 (228).JPG"
image_path_2 = zenodo.fetch(image_name_2)

image_1 = Image.open(image_path_1)
image_2 = Image.open(image_path_2)

image_np_1 = np.array(image_1)
image_np_2 = np.array(image_2)

Downloading file 'test.csv' from 'doi:10.5281/zenodo.14219057/test.csv' to '/home/jovyan'.

Downloading file '20181001 (196).JPG' from 'doi:10.5281/zenodo.14219057/20181001 (196).JPG' to '/home/jovyan'.

Downloading file '20181002 (228).JPG' from 'doi:10.5281/zenodo.14219057/20181002 (228).JPG' to '/home/jovyan'.

Plot ground-truth and predictions#

Hide code cell source 
predictions_df_baseline = zenodo.fetch("test_baseline.csv")
predictions_df_baseline = pd.read_csv(predictions_df_baseline)

# Filter predicted boxes for the specific image
image_predictions_1 = predictions_df_baseline[predictions_df_baseline['image_path'] == image_name_1]
image_predictions_2 = predictions_df_baseline[predictions_df_baseline['image_path'] == image_name_2]

# Prepare bounding boxes DataFrame for plot_predictions
# Use xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax and label columns from predictions
boxes_df_1_baseline = image_predictions_1[['xmin', 'xmax', 'ymin', 'ymax', 'score']]
boxes_df_2_baseline = image_predictions_2[['xmin', 'xmax', 'ymin', 'ymax', 'score']]

# Plot bounding boxes on the image using deepforest.visualize
annotated_image_base_1 = plot_predictions(image_np_1, boxes_df_1_baseline, color=(0, 165, 255), thickness=15)
annotated_image_base_2 = plot_predictions(image_np_2, boxes_df_2_baseline, color=(0, 165, 255), thickness=15)

fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(12, 6))  # Create 1 row, 2 column layout

axs[0].imshow(annotated_image_base_1)
axs[0].set_title("Baseline Predictions, Image 1")
axs[0].axis('off')  

axs[1].imshow(annotated_image_base_2)
axs[1].set_title("Baseline Predictions, Image 2")
axs[1].axis('off') 

# Show the side-by-side plots
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Downloading file 'test_baseline.csv' from 'doi:10.5281/zenodo.14219057/test_baseline.csv' to '/home/jovyan'.
../../../_images/bdf828b1fb0b5fdb460d5c0a442cdbcf63c7945ddba03ff1dec64322ba23ecaa.png

False negatives can be observed, where the baseline model failed to detect some cows present in the ground truth annotations. This highlights areas where the model’s initial performance can be improved through fine-tuning using local data to reduce these missed detections.

Fine-tuned model#

Train model#

In the DeepForest documentation, it is stated that “we have found that even an hour’s worth of carefully chosen hand-annotation can yield enormous improvements in accuracy and precision. 5-10 epochs of fine-tuning with the prebuilt model are often adequate.” As such, the model is trained for 5 epochs.

Early stopping and callbacks are utilised, to ensure that the best model weights are saved.

Note: Since the Binder environment does not provide enough computational resources for training the model, the following code demonstrates how to set up and train the model in a more powerful local or cloud-based environment using PyTorch Lightning. 
import pytorch_lightning as pl

output_dir = os.path.join(notebook_folder, 'data')

train_file = os.path.join(output_dir, "train.csv")
valid_file = os.path.join(output_dir, "valid.csv")
test_file = os.path.join(output_dir, "test.csv")

model.label_dict = {'cow': 0}  # Rename label

# Configure the model for GPU usage and set the CSV file paths
model.config['gpus'] = '-1'  # Use GPU (set to '0' for the first GPU or '-1' for all GPUs)
model.config["train"]["csv_file"] = train_file  # Path to training CSV
model.config["train"]["root_dir"] = os.path.dirname(train_file)  # Root directory for training images
model.config["score_thresh"] = 0.4  # Set score threshold
model.config["train"]['epochs'] = 5  # Number of epochs
model.config["validation"]["csv_file"] = valid_file  # Path to validation CSV
model.config["validation"]["root_dir"] = os.path.dirname(valid_file)  # Root directory for validation images

early_stopping = EarlyStopping(monitor='box_recall', patience=2, mode='max')

callback = ModelCheckpoint(
    dirpath='checkpoints/',  # Directory to save checkpoints
    monitor='box_recall',  # Metric to monitor
    mode="max",  # Save when the metric is maximized
    save_top_k=3,  # Save the top 3 checkpoints
    filename="box_recall-{epoch:02d}-{box_recall:.2f}"  # File name format for checkpoints
)

logger = TensorBoardLogger(save_dir='logdir/')

model.create_trainer(logger=TensorBoardLogger(save_dir='logdir/'),
                                    callbacks=[callback, early_stopping])

model.trainer.fit(model)

Save and upload checkpoint#

After training the model, the following code saves the fine-tuned model checkpoint to a specified directory, ensuring that the model’s progress can be easily reloaded or shared for further use. The checkpoint is saved in .ckpt format using PyTorch Lightning’s save_checkpoint() method, and then uploaded to Hugging Face.

checkpoint_dir = './drive/MyDrive/notebook/checkpoints_ckpt'
os.makedirs(checkpoint_dir, exist_ok=True)

# Save the model checkpoint as .ckpt
checkpoint_path = "{}/finetuned_checkpoint.ckpt".format(checkpoint_dir)
model.trainer.save_checkpoint(checkpoint_path)

Load finetuned model#

Note: Due to the memory constraints of the Binder environment, this step is omitted from the notebook. To execute locally, run the following code: 
# Download the finetuned model checkpoint from Hugging Face
ckpt_path = hf_hub_download(
    repo_id="camappel/deepforest-livestock",
    filename="finetuned_checkpoint.ckpt"
)

model = main.deepforest.load_from_checkpoint(ckpt_path)

The finetuned model also can be downloaded manually from Hugging Face.

Evaluate finetuned performance#

The evaluate method assesses the fine-tuned model’s performance on the test dataset for comparison against the baseline, with predictions available as test_finetuned.csv on Zenodo.

Note: Due to the memory constraints of the Binder environment, this step is omitted from the notebook. To execute locally, run the following code: 
model.label_dict = {'cow': 0}  # Assign a unique integer ID to the 'cow' label
model.config['gpus'] = '-1'  # Use GPU (set to '0' for the first GPU or '-1' for all GPUs)
model.config['workers'] = 0

# Set the directory to save the results of the pretrained model
finetuned_save_dir = os.path.join(notebook_folder, 'finetuned_pred_result')
os.makedirs(finetuned_save_dir, exist_ok=True)

# Evaluate the pretrained model on the test set (using test_file)
finetuned_results = model.evaluate(test_path, os.path.dirname(test_path), iou_threshold=0.4, savedir=finetuned_save_dir)

test_finetuned_csv = os.path.join(finetuned_save_dir, 'test_finetuned.csv')
pd.DataFrame(finetuned_results['results']).to_csv(test_finetuned_csv, index=False)

Visualise#

Hide code cell source 
predictions_df_finetuned = zenodo.fetch("test_finetuned.csv")
predictions_df_finetuned = pd.read_csv(predictions_df_finetuned)

image_predictions_1 = predictions_df_finetuned[predictions_df_finetuned['image_path'] == image_name_1]
image_predictions_2 = predictions_df_finetuned[predictions_df_finetuned['image_path'] == image_name_2]

# Use xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax and label columns from predictions
boxes_df_1 = image_predictions_1[['xmin', 'xmax', 'ymin', 'ymax', 'label']]
boxes_df_2 = image_predictions_2[['xmin', 'xmax', 'ymin', 'ymax', 'label']]

annotated_image_fine_1 = plot_predictions(image_np_1, boxes_df_1, color=(0, 165, 255), thickness=15)
annotated_image_fine_2 = plot_predictions(image_np_2, boxes_df_2, color=(0, 165, 255), thickness=15)

fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(12, 6))  # Create 1 row, 2 column layout

axs[0].imshow(annotated_image_base_1)
axs[0].set_title("Baseline Predictions, Image 1")
axs[0].axis('off')  

axs[1].imshow(annotated_image_fine_1)
axs[1].set_title("Finetuned Predictions, Image 1")
axs[1].axis('off') 

# Show the side-by-side plots
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(12, 6))  # Create 1 row, 2 column layout

axs[0].imshow(annotated_image_base_2)
axs[0].set_title("Baseline Predictions, Image 2")
axs[0].axis('off')  

axs[1].imshow(annotated_image_fine_2)
axs[1].set_title("Finetuned Predictions, Image 2")
axs[1].axis('off') 

# Show the side-by-side plots
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Downloading file 'test_finetuned.csv' from 'doi:10.5281/zenodo.14219057/test_finetuned.csv' to '/home/jovyan'.
../../../_images/1851c0532074d62daf270fb4e3187364ca974e8d245f7eabf10cc71dd442417d.png ../../../_images/fac433c98a93fcb017cf8d075a6cfbbe501085982ba8a53e8d7e670dabc6303e.png 
predictions_df_baseline[predictions_df_baseline['image_path'] == image_name_2].drop(columns=['label'])
image_path xmin ymin xmax ymax score
177 20181002 (228).JPG 1444.2823 615.0275 1695.3130 881.9138 0.970427
178 20181002 (228).JPG 1286.4039 1104.1315 1454.1184 1271.8566 0.513814
179 20181002 (228).JPG 1451.1173 1145.0674 1593.5060 1262.3131 0.241456 
predictions_df_finetuned[predictions_df_finetuned['image_path'] == image_name_2].drop(columns=['label'])
image_path xmin ymin xmax ymax score
241 20181002 (228).JPG 1454.09300 629.81726 1710.7650 897.26060 0.964095
242 20181002 (228).JPG 1278.33410 1134.26930 1601.2174 1335.24880 0.921762
243 20181002 (228).JPG 1079.45100 951.77515 1267.1416 1270.30080 0.779635
244 20181002 (228).JPG 1256.86170 939.63940 1493.0862 1141.79200 0.728493
245 20181002 (228).JPG 698.70483 1059.99600 759.7376 1167.02640 0.308100
246 20181002 (228).JPG 3695.01640 328.42743 3773.0945 439.15424 0.167706

While the fine-tuned model also predicted false positives in Image 2, the evaluation csv shows that their IoU scores are below the threshold of 0.4. The fine-tuned model shows a significant improvement, successfully detecting all cows in the test imagery without any false negatives, demonstrating the effectiveness of fine-tuning on local data.

Summary#

This notebook demonstrates the process of fine-tuning the DeepForest livestock detection model, achieving notable performance improvements after training for 5 epochs. The model was fine-tuned on a labeled aerial dataset of cows from Dataverse (2347 training and 690 validation samples). Performance on the test set (356 samples), which consisted of images excluded from training and validation, showed substantial gains across key metrics:

  • Box Recall: Improved from 0.3862 to 0.9391

  • Box Precision: Improved from 0.4925 to 0.8628

  • Mean IoU: Improved from 0.2070 to 0.6095

These results highlight the effectiveness of fine-tuning and open-sourcing, significantly boosting the model’s ability to accurately detect livestock in aerial imagery.

Citing this Notebook#

Please see CITATION.cff for the full citation information. The citation file can be exported to APA or BibTex formats (learn more here).

Additional information#

Dataset: G.J. Franke; Sander Mucher, 2021, “Annotated cows in aerial images for use in deep learning models” V1

Codebase: DeepForest v1.4.0

License: The code in this notebook is licensed under the MIT License. The Environmental Data Science book is licensed under the Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 license. See further details here.

Contact: If you have any suggestion or report an issue with this notebook, feel free to create an issue or send a direct message to environmental.ds.book@gmail.com.

from datetime import date

print('Notebook repository version: v1.0.2')
print(f'Last tested: {date.today()}')

Notebook repository version: v1.0.2
Last tested: 2024-12-05