Model Training with Ultralytics YOLO

Introduction

Training a deep learning model involves feeding it data and adjusting its parameters so that it can make accurate predictions. Train mode in Ultralytics YOLOv8 is engineered for effective and efficient training of object detection models, fully utilizing modern hardware capabilities. This guide aims to cover all the details you need to get started with training your own models using YOLOv8's robust set of features.

Watch: How to Train a YOLOv8 model on Your Custom Dataset in Google Colab.

Why Choose Ultralytics YOLO for Training?

Here are some compelling reasons to opt for YOLOv8's Train mode:

• Efficiency: Make the most out of your hardware, whether you're on a single-GPU setup or scaling across multiple GPUs.
• Versatility: Train on custom datasets in addition to readily available ones like COCO, VOC, and ImageNet.
• User-Friendly: Simple yet powerful CLI and Python interfaces for a straightforward training experience.
• Hyperparameter Flexibility: A broad range of customizable hyperparameters to fine-tune model performance.

Key Features of Train Mode

The following are some notable features of YOLOv8's Train mode:

• Automatic Dataset Download: Standard datasets like COCO, VOC, and ImageNet are downloaded automatically on first use.
• Multi-GPU Support: Scale your training efforts seamlessly across multiple GPUs to expedite the process.
• Hyperparameter Configuration: The option to modify hyperparameters through YAML configuration files or CLI arguments.
• Visualization and Monitoring: Real-time tracking of training metrics and visualization of the learning process for better insights.

Usage Examples

Train YOLOv8n on the COCO8 dataset for 100 epochs at image size 640. The training device can be specified using the device argument. If no argument is passed GPU device=0 will be used if available, otherwise device='cpu' will be used. See Arguments section below for a full list of training arguments.

from ultralytics import YOLO

# Load a model
model = YOLO('yolov8n.yaml')  # build a new model from YAML
model = YOLO('yolov8n.pt')  # load a pretrained model (recommended for training)
model = YOLO('yolov8n.yaml').load('yolov8n.pt')  # build from YAML and transfer weights

# Train the model
results = model.train(data='coco8.yaml', epochs=100, imgsz=640)

# Build a new model from YAML and start training from scratch
yolo detect train data=coco8.yaml model=yolov8n.yaml epochs=100 imgsz=640

# Start training from a pretrained *.pt model
yolo detect train data=coco8.yaml model=yolov8n.pt epochs=100 imgsz=640

# Build a new model from YAML, transfer pretrained weights to it and start training
yolo detect train data=coco8.yaml model=yolov8n.yaml pretrained=yolov8n.pt epochs=100 imgsz=640

Multi-GPU Training

Multi-GPU training allows for more efficient utilization of available hardware resources by distributing the training load across multiple GPUs. This feature is available through both the Python API and the command-line interface. To enable multi-GPU training, specify the GPU device IDs you wish to use.

from ultralytics import YOLO

# Load a model
model = YOLO('yolov8n.pt')  # load a pretrained model (recommended for training)

# Train the model with 2 GPUs
results = model.train(data='coco8.yaml', epochs=100, imgsz=640, device=[0, 1])

# Start training from a pretrained *.pt model using GPUs 0 and 1
yolo detect train data=coco8.yaml model=yolov8n.pt epochs=100 imgsz=640 device=0,1

Apple M1 and M2 MPS Training

With the support for Apple M1 and M2 chips integrated in the Ultralytics YOLO models, it's now possible to train your models on devices utilizing the powerful Metal Performance Shaders (MPS) framework. The MPS offers a high-performance way of executing computation and image processing tasks on Apple's custom silicon.

To enable training on Apple M1 and M2 chips, you should specify 'mps' as your device when initiating the training process. Below is an example of how you could do this in Python and via the command line:

from ultralytics import YOLO

# Load a model
model = YOLO('yolov8n.pt')  # load a pretrained model (recommended for training)

# Train the model with 2 GPUs
results = model.train(data='coco8.yaml', epochs=100, imgsz=640, device='mps')

# Start training from a pretrained *.pt model using GPUs 0 and 1
yolo detect train data=coco8.yaml model=yolov8n.pt epochs=100 imgsz=640 device=mps

While leveraging the computational power of the M1/M2 chips, this enables more efficient processing of the training tasks. For more detailed guidance and advanced configuration options, please refer to the PyTorch MPS documentation.

Resuming Interrupted Trainings

Resuming training from a previously saved state is a crucial feature when working with deep learning models. This can come in handy in various scenarios, like when the training process has been unexpectedly interrupted, or when you wish to continue training a model with new data or for more epochs.

When training is resumed, Ultralytics YOLO loads the weights from the last saved model and also restores the optimizer state, learning rate scheduler, and the epoch number. This allows you to continue the training process seamlessly from where it was left off.

You can easily resume training in Ultralytics YOLO by setting the resume argument to True when calling the train method, and specifying the path to the .pt file containing the partially trained model weights.

Below is an example of how to resume an interrupted training using Python and via the command line:

from ultralytics import YOLO

# Load a model
model = YOLO('path/to/last.pt')  # load a partially trained model

# Resume training
results = model.train(resume=True)

# Resume an interrupted training
yolo train resume model=path/to/last.pt

By setting resume=True, the train function will continue training from where it left off, using the state stored in the 'path/to/last.pt' file. If the resume argument is omitted or set to False, the train function will start a new training session.

Remember that checkpoints are saved at the end of every epoch by default, or at fixed interval using the save_period argument, so you must complete at least 1 epoch to resume a training run.

Train Settings

The training settings for YOLO models encompass various hyperparameters and configurations used during the training process. These settings influence the model's performance, speed, and accuracy. Key training settings include batch size, learning rate, momentum, and weight decay. Additionally, the choice of optimizer, loss function, and training dataset composition can impact the training process. Careful tuning and experimentation with these settings are crucial for optimizing performance.

Augmentation Settings and Hyperparameters

Augmentation techniques are essential for improving the robustness and performance of YOLO models by introducing variability into the training data, helping the model generalize better to unseen data. The following table outlines the purpose and effect of each augmentation argument:

These settings can be adjusted to meet the specific requirements of the dataset and task at hand. Experimenting with different values can help find the optimal augmentation strategy that leads to the best model performance.

Logging

In training a YOLOv8 model, you might find it valuable to keep track of the model's performance over time. This is where logging comes into play. Ultralytics' YOLO provides support for three types of loggers - Comet, ClearML, and TensorBoard.

To use a logger, select it from the dropdown menu in the code snippet above and run it. The chosen logger will be installed and initialized.

Comet

Comet is a platform that allows data scientists and developers to track, compare, explain and optimize experiments and models. It provides functionalities such as real-time metrics, code diffs, and hyperparameters tracking.

To use Comet:

# pip install comet_ml
import comet_ml

comet_ml.init()

Remember to sign in to your Comet account on their website and get your API key. You will need to add this to your environment variables or your script to log your experiments.

ClearML

ClearML is an open-source platform that automates tracking of experiments and helps with efficient sharing of resources. It is designed to help teams manage, execute, and reproduce their ML work more efficiently.

To use ClearML:

# pip install clearml
import clearml

clearml.browser_login()

After running this script, you will need to sign in to your ClearML account on the browser and authenticate your session.

TensorBoard

TensorBoard is a visualization toolkit for TensorFlow. It allows you to visualize your TensorFlow graph, plot quantitative metrics about the execution of your graph, and show additional data like images that pass through it.

To use TensorBoard in Google Colab:

load_ext tensorboard
tensorboard --logdir ultralytics/runs  # replace with 'runs' directory

To use TensorBoard locally run the below command and view results at http://localhost:6006/.

tensorboard --logdir ultralytics/runs  # replace with 'runs' directory

This will load TensorBoard and direct it to the directory where your training logs are saved.

After setting up your logger, you can then proceed with your model training. All training metrics will be automatically logged in your chosen platform, and you can access these logs to monitor your model's performance over time, compare different models, and identify areas for improvement.

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