Automated leakage detection method of pipeline networks under complicated backgrounds by combining infrared thermography and Faster R-CNN technique

Leakage detection is essential to process safety and loss prevention of pipeline networks. As one of the attractive methods for detecting leakages in single pipelines, infrared thermography (IRT) faces new challenges for leakage detection of pipeline networks. Compared with the single pipeline, the pipeline network has a complicated structure with higher topology features and diverse material composition. In addition, the environment of the pipeline network is complex and changeable. These factors increase the complexity of the infrared (IR) thermal images of pipeline networks, which makes the leakage features too weak to be detected via naked-eye observation in an efficient and precise manner. To address this issue, this study develops an automated detection method for pipeline network leakages under complicated background, which is achieved by combining IRT with the Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) technique. First, the pipeline network system in the complicated background is designed for IR thermal image acquisition and data analysis. Then, an automated leakage detection model is built based on Faster R-CNN, which uses a modified VGG16 network for feature extraction for its outstanding performance in the feature extraction of small objects under complicated backgrounds. Finally, the high efficiency and precision of the proposed method for automated detection of pipeline network leakages in complicated backgrounds are verified by extensive experiments. Meanwhile, the generalization ability of the proposed method is verified by conducting experiments under various experimental conditions (different moments all-day, different viewing angles of IR camera, pedestrian disturbing). In general, the proposed method provides a promising way to detect pipeline network leakages in complicated backgrounds.