PerMSCA-YOLO: A Perceptual Multi-Scale Convolutional Attention Enhanced YOLOv8 Model for Rail Defect Detection

With the widespread application of high-speed and heavy-load railways, the real-time detection of track surface defects has become increasingly crucial. To address the challenges in rail defect detection, this study proposes the PerMSCA-YOLO model, which aims to overcome the limitations of traditional object detection models in multi-scale, small target, and complex background scenarios. By incorporating the lightweight FasterNet backbone network, a multi-scale convolutional attention module, and perceptual loss, the proposed model significantly enhances the detection accuracy and robustness of track defects. Experimental results show that PerMSCA-YOLO achieves an [email protected] of 0.856, an F1-score of 0.79, and an inference frame rate of 142 FPS, demonstrating superior detection accuracy and real-time performance compared to other mainstream models like YOLOv8n. Furthermore, the model exhibits strong adaptability and efficiency when dealing with complex track defects, such as microcracks and corrosion patches, indicating its broad practical application potential. The innovative contribution of this research lies in its effective strategy for improving detection accuracy and real-time performance through multi-scale feature fusion and deep semantic alignment mechanisms, providing a solution that balances both precision and efficiency for defect detection in complex track environments, with substantial engineering application potential.