YOLOv5 Model Ensembling
📚 This guide explains how to use Ultralytics YOLOv5 🚀 model ensembling during testing and inference for improved mAP and Recall.
From ensemble learning:
Ensemble modeling is a process where multiple diverse models are created to predict an outcome, either by using many different modeling algorithms or using different training data sets. The ensemble model then aggregates the prediction of each base model and results in once final prediction for the unseen data. The motivation for using ensemble models is to reduce the generalization error of the prediction. As long as the base models are diverse and independent, the prediction error of the model decreases when the ensemble approach is used. The approach seeks the wisdom of crowds in making a prediction. Even though the ensemble model has multiple base models within the model, it acts and performs as a single model.
Before You Start
Clone repo and install requirements.txt in a Python>=3.8.0 environment, including PyTorch>=1.8. Models and datasets download automatically from the latest YOLOv5 release.
git clone https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5 # clone
cd yolov5
pip install -r requirements.txt # install
Test Normally
Before ensembling, establish the baseline performance of a single model. This command tests YOLOv5x on COCO val2017 at image size 640 pixels. yolov5x.pt is the largest and most accurate model available. Other options are yolov5s.pt, yolov5m.pt and yolov5l.pt, or your own checkpoint from training a custom dataset ./weights/best.pt. For details on all available models, see the pretrained checkpoints table.
Output:
val: data=./data/coco.yaml, weights=['yolov5x.pt'], batch_size=32, imgsz=640, conf_thres=0.001, iou_thres=0.65, task=val, device=, single_cls=False, augment=False, verbose=False, save_txt=False, save_conf=False, save_json=True, project=runs/val, name=exp, exist_ok=False, half=True
YOLOv5 🚀 v5.0-267-g6a3ee7c torch 1.9.0+cu102 CUDA:0 (Tesla P100-PCIE-16GB, 16280.875MB)
Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 476 layers, 87730285 parameters, 0 gradients
val: Scanning '../datasets/coco/val2017' images and labels...4952 found, 48 missing, 0 empty, 0 corrupted: 100% 5000/5000 [00:01<00:00, 2846.03it/s]
val: New cache created: ../datasets/coco/val2017.cache
Class Images Labels P R mAP@.5 mAP@.5:.95: 100% 157/157 [02:30<00:00, 1.05it/s]
all 5000 36335 0.746 0.626 0.68 0.49
Speed: 0.1ms pre-process, 22.4ms inference, 1.4ms NMS per image at shape (32, 3, 640, 640) # <--- baseline speed
Evaluating pycocotools mAP... saving runs/val/exp/yolov5x_predictions.json...
...
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.504 # <--- baseline mAP
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50 | area= all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.688
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.75 | area= all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.546
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= small | maxDets=100 ] = 0.351
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=medium | maxDets=100 ] = 0.551
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= large | maxDets=100 ] = 0.644
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= all | maxDets= 1 ] = 0.382
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= all | maxDets= 10 ] = 0.628
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.681 # <--- baseline mAR
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= small | maxDets=100 ] = 0.524
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=medium | maxDets=100 ] = 0.735
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= large | maxDets=100 ] = 0.826
Ensemble Test
Multiple pretrained models can be ensembled together at test and inference time by simply appending extra models to the --weights argument in any existing val.py or detect.py command. This example tests an ensemble of 2 models together:
- YOLOv5x
- YOLOv5l6
Output:
val: data=./data/coco.yaml, weights=['yolov5x.pt', 'yolov5l6.pt'], batch_size=32, imgsz=640, conf_thres=0.001, iou_thres=0.6, task=val, device=, single_cls=False, augment=False, verbose=False, save_txt=False, save_conf=False, save_json=True, project=runs/val, name=exp, exist_ok=False, half=True
YOLOv5 🚀 v5.0-267-g6a3ee7c torch 1.9.0+cu102 CUDA:0 (Tesla P100-PCIE-16GB, 16280.875MB)
Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 476 layers, 87730285 parameters, 0 gradients # Model 1
Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 501 layers, 77218620 parameters, 0 gradients # Model 2
Ensemble created with ['yolov5x.pt', 'yolov5l6.pt'] # Ensemble notice
val: Scanning '../datasets/coco/val2017.cache' images and labels... 4952 found, 48 missing, 0 empty, 0 corrupted: 100% 5000/5000 [00:00<00:00, 49695545.02it/s]
Class Images Labels P R mAP@.5 mAP@.5:.95: 100% 157/157 [03:58<00:00, 1.52s/it]
all 5000 36335 0.747 0.637 0.692 0.502
Speed: 0.1ms pre-process, 39.5ms inference, 2.0ms NMS per image at shape (32, 3, 640, 640) # <--- ensemble speed
Evaluating pycocotools mAP... saving runs/val/exp3/yolov5x_predictions.json...
...
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.515 # <--- ensemble mAP
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50 | area= all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.699
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.75 | area= all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.557
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= small | maxDets=100 ] = 0.356
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=medium | maxDets=100 ] = 0.563
Average Precision (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= large | maxDets=100 ] = 0.668
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= all | maxDets= 1 ] = 0.387
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= all | maxDets= 10 ] = 0.638
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.689 # <--- ensemble mAR
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= small | maxDets=100 ] = 0.526
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=medium | maxDets=100 ] = 0.743
Average Recall (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= large | maxDets=100 ] = 0.844
Ensemble Inference
Append extra models to the --weights argument to run ensemble inference:
Output:
YOLOv5 🚀 v5.0-267-g6a3ee7c torch 1.9.0+cu102 CUDA:0 (Tesla P100-PCIE-16GB, 16280.875MB)
Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 476 layers, 87730285 parameters, 0 gradients
Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 501 layers, 77218620 parameters, 0 gradients
Ensemble created with ['yolov5x.pt', 'yolov5l6.pt']
image 1/2 /content/yolov5/data/images/bus.jpg: 640x512 4 persons, 1 bus, 1 tie, Done. (0.063s)
image 2/2 /content/yolov5/data/images/zidane.jpg: 384x640 3 persons, 2 ties, Done. (0.056s)
Results saved to runs/detect/exp2
Done. (0.223s)
Benefits of Model Ensembling
Model ensembling with YOLOv5 offers several advantages:
- Improved Accuracy: As demonstrated in the examples above, ensembling multiple models increases mAP from 0.504 to 0.515 and mAR from 0.681 to 0.689.
- Better Generalization: Combining diverse models helps reduce overfitting and improves performance on varied data.
- Enhanced Robustness: Ensembles are typically more robust to noise and outliers in the data.
- Complementary Strengths: Different models may excel at detecting different types of objects or in different environmental conditions.
The primary trade-off is increased inference time, as shown in the speed metrics (22.4ms for single model vs. 39.5ms for ensemble).
When to Use Model Ensembling
Consider using model ensembling in these scenarios:
- When accuracy is more important than inference speed
- For critical applications where false negatives must be minimized
- When processing challenging images with varied lighting, occlusion, or scale
- During competitions or benchmarking where maximum performance is required
For real-time applications with strict latency requirements, single model inference may be more appropriate.
Supported Environments
Ultralytics provides a range of ready-to-use environments, each pre-installed with essential dependencies such as CUDA, CUDNN, Python, and PyTorch, to kickstart your projects.
- Free GPU Notebooks:
- Google Cloud: GCP Quickstart Guide
- Amazon: AWS Quickstart Guide
- Azure: AzureML Quickstart Guide
- Docker: Docker Quickstart Guide
Project Status
This badge indicates that all YOLOv5 GitHub Actions Continuous Integration (CI) tests are successfully passing. These CI tests rigorously check the functionality and performance of YOLOv5 across various key aspects: training, validation, inference, export, and benchmarks. They ensure consistent and reliable operation on macOS, Windows, and Ubuntu, with tests conducted every 24 hours and upon each new commit.
