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Micro-cracks detection of multicrystalline solar cell surface based on self-learning features and low-rank matrix recovery

Xiaoliang Qian (College of Electric and Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, China)
Heqing Zhang (College of Electric and Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, China)
Cunxiang Yang (College of Electric and Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, China)
Yuanyuan Wu (College of Electric and Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, China)
Zhendong He (College of Electric and Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, China)
Qing-E Wu (College of Electric and Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, China)
Huanlong Zhang (College of Electric and Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, China)

Sensor Review

ISSN: 0260-2288

Article publication date: 8 February 2018

Issue publication date: 24 May 2018

316

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to improve the generalization capability of feature extraction scheme by introducing a micro-cracks detection method based on self-learning features. Micro-cracks detection of multicrystalline solar cell surface based on machine vision is fast, economical, intelligent and easier for on-line detection. However, the generalization capability of feature extraction scheme adopted by existed methods is limited, which has become an obstacle for further improving the detection accuracy.

Design/methodology/approach

A novel micro-cracks detection method based on self-learning features and low-rank matrix recovery is proposed in this paper. First, the input image is preprocessed to suppress the noises and remove the busbars and fingers. Second, a self-learning feature extraction scheme in which the feature extraction templates are changed along with the input image is introduced. Third, the low-rank matrix recovery is applied to the decomposition of self-learning feature matrix for obtaining the preliminary detection result. Fourth, the preliminary detection result is optimized by incorporating the superpixel segmentation. Finally, the optimized result is further fine-tuned by morphological postprocessing.

Findings

Comprehensive evaluations are implemented on a data set which includes 120 testing images and corresponding human-annotated ground truth. Specifically, subjective evaluations show that the shape of detected micro-cracks is similar to the ground truth, and objective evaluations demonstrate that the proposed method has a high detection accuracy.

Originality/value

First, a self-learning feature extraction method which has good generalization capability is proposed. Second, the low-rank matrix recovery is combined with superpixel segmentation for locating the defective regions.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation of China under Grants (No: 61501407, 61503173, 61603350), National 973 Program (No: 613237), Major Science and Technology Projects of Henan Province (No: 161100211600), Henan Province Outstanding Youth on Science and Technology Innovation (No: 164100510017), Key research project of Henan Province Universities (No: 15A413006), Key Science and Technology Program of Henan Province (No: 172102210062), Doctor fund project of Zhengzhou University of Light Industry (No: 2014BSJJ016, 2016BSJJ002, 2016BSJJ006).

Citation

Qian, X., Zhang, H., Yang, C., Wu, Y., He, Z., Wu, Q.-E. and Zhang, H. (2018), "Micro-cracks detection of multicrystalline solar cell surface based on self-learning features and low-rank matrix recovery", Sensor Review, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 360-368. https://doi.org/10.1108/SR-08-2017-0166

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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