Deploy Computer Vision Models

How to Deploy YOLOv8 Object Detection Models to the Raspberry Pi

In this guide, we are going to show how to deploy a

YOLOv8

model to

Raspberry Pi

using Roboflow Inference. Inference is a high-performance inference server with which you can run a range of vision models, from YOLOv8 to CLIP to CogVLM.

To deploy a

YOLOv8

model to

Raspberry Pi

, we will:

1. Set up our computing environment
2. Download the Roboflow Inference Server
3. Try out our model on an example image

Let's get started!

In this guide, we are going to show how to deploy a

YOLOv8

model to

Raspberry Pi

using the Roboflow Inference Server. This SDK works with

YOLOv8

models trained on both Roboflow and in custom training processes outside of Roboflow.

To deploy a

YOLOv8

model to

Raspberry Pi

, we will:

1. Train a model on (or upload a model to) Roboflow
2. Download the Roboflow Inference Server
3. Install the Python SDK to run inference on images
4. Try out the model on an example image

Let's get started!

Train a Model on or Upload a Model to Roboflow

If you want to upload your own model weights, first create a Roboflow account and create a new project. When you have created a new project, upload your project data, then generate a new dataset version. With that version ready, you can upload your model weights to Roboflow.

Download the Roboflow Python SDK:

pip install roboflow


Then, use the following script to upload your model weights:

from roboflow import Roboflow

home = "/path/to/project/folder"

rf = Roboflow(api_key=os.environ["ROBOFLOW_API_KEY"])
project = rf.workspace().project("PROJECT_ID")

project.version(PROJECT_VERSION).deploy(model_type="yolov5", model_path=f"/{home}/yolov5/runs/train/")


You will need your project name, version, API key, and model weights. The following documentation shows how to retrieve your API key and project information:

- Retrieve your Roboflow project name and version
- Retrieve your API key

Change the path in the script above to the path where your model weights are stored.

When you have configured the script above, run the code to upload your weights to Roboflow.

Now you are ready to start deploying your model.

Set up a Raspberry Pi Virtual Machine

Download the Roboflow Inference Server

The Roboflow Inference Server allows you to deploy computer vision models to a range of devices, including

Raspberry Pi

.

The Inference Server relies on Docker to run. If you don't already have Docker installed on the device(s) on which you want to run inference, install it by following the official Docker installation instructions.

Once you have Docker installed, run the following command to download the Roboflow Inference Server on your

Raspberry Pi

.

sudo docker run -it --rm -p 9001:9001 roboflow/roboflow-inference-server-arm-cpu:0.4.4


Now you have the Roboflow Inference Server running, you can use your model on

Raspberry Pi

.

Install the Roboflow Python SDK

The Roboflow Inference Server provides a HTTP API with a range of methods you can use to query your model and various popular models (i.e. SAM, CLIP). You can read more about all of the API methods available on the Roboflow Inference server in the Inference Server documentation.

The Roboflow Python SDK provides abstract convenience methods for interacting with the HTTP API. In this guide, we will use the Python SDK to run inference on a model. You can also query the HTTP API itself.

To install the Python SDK, run the following command:

pip install roboflow

Run Inference on an Image

With the Python SDK installed, you can run inference on your model in a few lines of Python code.

The following code will run inference on the model hosted on Roboflow and return a JSON object with predictions:

from roboflow import Roboflow
rf = Roboflow(api_key="API_KEY")
project = rf.workspace().project("PROJECT_NAME")
model = project.version(MODEL_VERSION, local="http://localhost:9001").model

# infer on a local image
print(model.predict("your_image.jpg", confidence=40, overlap=30).json())

# visualize your prediction
# model.predict("your_image.jpg", confidence=40, overlap=30).save("prediction.jpg")

# infer on an image hosted elsewhere
# print(model.predict("URL_OF_YOUR_IMAGE", hosted=True, confidence=40, overlap=30).json())

Substitute the model name, version, and API key with the values associated with your Roboflow account and project, then run the script.

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Learn how to deploy models to other devices

Below, you can find our guides on how to deploy

YOLOv8

models to other devices.

Documentation

The following resources are useful reference material for working with your model using Roboflow and the Roboflow Inference Server.

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