VGG16 does not converge

[201power]

I am trying to train VGG16 from scratch, however, it did not converge on the data that alexnet / googlenet will converge fast. Any suggestions?

net detail (modifed from https://gist.github.com/jimmie33/27c1c0a7736ba66c2395)

name: "VGG_ILSVRC_16_layers"
layer {
name:"data"
type:"Data"
top:"data"
top:"label"
include {
phase: TRAIN
}
transform_param{
mirror:true
crop_size:224
}
data_param {
batch_size: 50
}
}
layer {
name:"data"
type:"Data"
top:"data"
top:"label"
include {
phase: TEST
}
transform_param{
crop_size:224
}
data_param {
batch_size: 50
}
}
layer {
bottom: "data"
top: "conv1_1"
name: "conv1_1"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 64
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.0
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv1_1"
top: "conv1_1"
name: "relu1_1"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv1_1"
top: "conv1_2"
name: "conv1_2"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 64
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv1_2"
top: "conv1_2"
name: "relu1_2"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv1_2"
top: "pool1"
name: "pool1"
type: "Pooling"
pooling_param {
pool: MAX
kernel_size: 2
stride: 2
}
}
layer {
bottom: "pool1"
top: "conv2_1"
name: "conv2_1"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 128
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv2_1"
top: "conv2_1"
name: "relu2_1"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv2_1"
top: "conv2_2"
name: "conv2_2"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 128
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv2_2"
top: "conv2_2"
name: "relu2_2"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv2_2"
top: "pool2"
name: "pool2"
type: "Pooling"
pooling_param {
pool: MAX
kernel_size: 2
stride: 2
}
}
layer {
bottom: "pool2"
top: "conv3_1"
name: "conv3_1"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 256
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv3_1"
top: "conv3_1"
name: "relu3_1"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv3_1"
top: "conv3_2"
name: "conv3_2"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 256
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv3_2"
top: "conv3_2"
name: "relu3_2"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv3_2"
top: "conv3_3"
name: "conv3_3"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 256
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv3_3"
top: "conv3_3"
name: "relu3_3"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv3_3"
top: "pool3"
name: "pool3"
type: "Pooling"
pooling_param {
pool: MAX
kernel_size: 2
stride: 2
}
}
layer {
bottom: "pool3"
top: "conv4_1"
name: "conv4_1"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 512
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv4_1"
top: "conv4_1"
name: "relu4_1"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv4_1"
top: "conv4_2"
name: "conv4_2"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 512
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv4_2"
top: "conv4_2"
name: "relu4_2"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv4_2"
top: "conv4_3"
name: "conv4_3"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 512
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv4_3"
top: "conv4_3"
name: "relu4_3"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv4_3"
top: "pool4"
name: "pool4"
type: "Pooling"
pooling_param {
pool: MAX
kernel_size: 2
stride: 2
}
}
layer {
bottom: "pool4"
top: "conv5_1"
name: "conv5_1"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 512
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv5_1"
top: "conv5_1"
name: "relu5_1"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv5_1"
top: "conv5_2"
name: "conv5_2"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 512
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv5_2"
top: "conv5_2"
name: "relu5_2"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv5_2"
top: "conv5_3"
name: "conv5_3"
type: "Convolution"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
convolution_param {
num_output: 512
pad: 1
kernel_size: 3
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "conv5_3"
top: "conv5_3"
name: "relu5_3"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "conv5_3"
top: "pool5"
name: "pool5"
type: "Pooling"
pooling_param {
pool: MAX
kernel_size: 2
stride: 2
}
}
layer {
bottom: "pool5"
top: "fc6"
name: "fc6"
type: "InnerProduct"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
inner_product_param {
num_output: 4096
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.005
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "fc6"
top: "fc6"
name: "relu6"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "fc6"
top: "fc6"
name: "drop6"
type: "Dropout"
dropout_param {
dropout_ratio: 0.5
}
}
layer {
bottom: "fc6"
top: "fc7"
name: "fc7"
param {
lr_mult: 1.0
decay_mult: 1.0
}
param {
lr_mult: 2.0
decay_mult: 0.0
}
type: "InnerProduct"
inner_product_param {
num_output: 4096
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.005
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0.1
}
}
}
layer {
bottom: "fc7"
top: "fc7"
name: "relu7"
type: "ReLU"
}
layer {
bottom: "fc7"
top: "fc7"
name: "drop7"
type: "Dropout"
dropout_param {
dropout_ratio: 0.5
}
}
layer {
bottom: "fc7"
top: "fc8"
name: "fc8"
type: "InnerProduct"
param {
lr_mult: 1
decay_mult: 1
}
param {
lr_mult: 2
decay_mult: 0
}
inner_product_param {
num_output: 1000
weight_filler {
type: "gaussian"
std: 0.01
}
bias_filler {
type: "constant"
value: 0
}
}
}
layer {
name:"accuracy"
type:"Accuracy"
bottom:"fc8"
bottom:"label"
top:"accuracy"
include {
phase: TEST
}
}
layer {
name: "loss"
type: "SoftmaxWithLoss"
bottom: "fc8"
bottom: "label"
top: "loss"
}

[lukeyeager]

See related issue #159. Can you post your network as a gist instead of posting it into an issue?

[201power]

Thanks. I used the weights initialization as suggested though.
@lukeyeager it seems nvidia fork's caffe does not support msra initialization yet, do you have a plan to support soon?

PS I cannot access gist since my company blocked the website...

[201power]

Solved by using xavier initialization.