Lightweight Algorithm for Apple Detection Based on an Improved YOLOv5 Model

The detection algorithm of the apple-picking robot contains a complex network structure and huge parameter volume, which seriously limits the inference speed. To enable automatic apple picking in complex unstructured environments based on embedded platforms, we propose a lightweight YOLOv5-CS model for apple detection based on YOLOv5n. Firstly, we introduced the lightweight C3-light module to replace C3 to enhance the extraction of spatial features and boots the running speed. Then, we incorporated SimAM, a parameter-free attention module, into the neck layer to improve the model’s accuracy. The results showed that the size and inference speed of YOLOv5-CS were 6.25 MB and 0.014 s, which were [Formula: see text] and 1.2 times that of the YOLOv5n model, respectively. The number of floating-point operations (FLOPs) were reduced by 15.56%, and the average precision (AP) reached 99.1%. Finally, we conducted extensive experiments, and the results showed that the YOLOv5-CS outperformed mainstream networks in terms of AP, speed, and model size. Thus, our real-time YOLOv5-CS model detects apples in complex orchard environments efficiently and provides technical support for visual recognition systems for intelligent apple-picking devices.