Infrared image recognition in substation is always a difficult problem. In order to solve the problem of recognition of knife gate, insulator and other components in infrared image, the target location technology of deep learning is proposed to realize the detection and recognition of typical components in infrared image, and the multi-target detection algorithm YOLO is selected to locate and identify the defects. Firstly, the image preprocessing technology is used to process the collected image, so as to filter the interference of background and other factors on the equipment identification. Then, the infrared image is detected by the YOLO target detection model based on multi feature fusion, so as to locate the position of inspection equipment in the infrared image. Then, the type of equipment is identified by the trained equipment classification model. Finally, the algorithm is tested with a large number of pictures in the substation scene.