Multi-class classification method for strip steel surface defects based on support vector machine with adjustable hyper-sphere

Focusing on strip steel surface defects classification, a novel support vector machine with adjustable hyper-sphere (AHSVM) is formulated. Meanwhile, a new multi-class classification method is proposed. Originated from support vector data description, AHSVM adopts hyper-sphere to solve classification problem. AHSVM can obey two principles: the margin maximization and inner-class dispersion minimization. Moreover, the hyper-sphere of AHSVM is adjustable, which makes the final classification hyper-sphere optimal for training dataset. On the other hand, AHSVM is combined with binary tree to solve multi-class classification for steel surface defects. A scheme of samples pruning in mapped feature space is provided, which can reduce the number of training samples under the premise of classification accuracy, resulting in the improvements of classification speed. Finally, some testing experiments are done for eight types of strip steel surface defects. Experimental results show that multi-class AHSVM classifier exhibits satisfactory results in classification accuracy and efficiency.