A general-purpose pointer meter reading detection method based on adaptive feature fusion and data augmentation.

• A novel general cascaded convolutional neural network (CNN) reading method for pointer reading is presented. • Proposes PMA method, which can increase the data samples significantly without introducing redundant background information. • Proposes ADFPN for feature fusion, learns branch importance, performs fusion at various levels. Enhances fusion efficiency. • Construct a dataset for pointer meter readings that contains images of common pointer meters in substations. Pointer meters continue to serve as the primary monitoring instruments within substations. To solve the issue of poor model accuracy and low reading accuracy when reading multiple types of pointer meters, this paper proposes a universal cascaded convolutional neural network for accurate reading of various types of pointer instruments. The proposed detection method consists of two stages: instrument digital positioning and instrument pointer fitting. In the digital(figure of a number) positioning stage, an instrument data augmentation method for "large background and small target" is proposed to improve the model's sensitivity to digital position and reduce the interference of redundant background information to the model. In addition, an adaptive feature fusion pyramid structure is proposed for more effective feature fusion and enhanced fuzzy small target recognition. Compared with the baseline model, the method introduced in this study realizes a 0.47 % improvement in target detection accuracy. In our proposed dataset, the average recognition accuracy for the digital position location phase is 98.65 %,the average reading errors in square instruments, circular instruments, and instruments with uneven scales are 0.76 %, 0.73 %, and 0.67 % respectively. The proposed universal detection method in this paper achieves ultra-high precision and can be applied to reading pointer instruments of different types and scales. Compared with existing pointer meter reading methods, the proposed detection method showcases superior simplicity and effectiveness. Furthermore, it showcases a reduced measurement error, thereby bolstering its practical utility in industrial contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]