Unable to load and use multiple keras models

Question

I'm trying to load three different models in the same process. Only the first one works as expected, the rest of them return like random results. Basically the order is as follows:

• define and compile first model
• load trained weights before
• rename layers
• the same process for the second model
• the same process for the third model

So, something like:

model1 = Model(inputs=Input(shape=input_size_im) , outputs=layers_firstmodel)
model1.compile(optimizer='sgd', loss='mse')
model1.load_weights(weights_first, by_name=True)
# rename layers but didn't work

model2 = Model(inputs=Input(shape=input_size_im) , outputs=layers_secondmodel)
model2.compile(optimizer='sgd', loss='mse')
model2.load_weights(weights_second, by_name=True)
# rename layers but didn't work

model3 = Model(inputs=Input(shape=input_size_im) , outputs=layers_thirdmodel)
model3.compile(optimizer='sgd', loss='mse')
model3.load_weights(weights_third, by_name=True)
# rename layers but didn't work

for im in list_images:
    results_firstmodel = model1.predict(im) 
    results_secondmodel = model2.predict(im) 
    results_thirdmodel = model2.predict(im) 

I'd like to perform some inference over a bunch of images. To do that the idea consists in looping over the images and perform inference with these three algorithms, and return the results.

I have tried to rename all layers to make them unique with no success. Also I created a different graph for each network, and with a different session do the inference. This works but it's very inefficient (in addition I have to set their weights every time because of sess.run(tf.global_variables_initializer()) removes them). Each time it's created a session tensorflow prints "creating tensorflow device (/device:GPU:0)".

I am running Tensorflow 1.4.0-rc0, Keras 2.1.1 and Ubuntu 16.04 kernel 4.14.

Answer 1

The OP is correct here. There is a serious bug when you try to load multiple weight files in the same script. The above answer doesn't solve this. If you actually interrogate the weights when loading weights for multiple models in the same script you will notice that the weights are different than when you just load weights for one model on its own. This is where the randomness is the OP observes coming from.

EDIT: To solve this problem you have to encapsulate the model.load_weight command within a function and the randomness that you are experiencing should go away. The problem is that something weird screws up when you have multiple load_weight commands in the same script like you have above. If you load those model weights with a function you issues should go away.

Answer 2

From the Keras docs we have this explanation for the user of load_weights:

loads the weights of the model from a HDF5 file (created by save_weights). By default, the architecture is expected to be unchanged. To load weights into a different architecture (with some layers in common), use by_name=True to load only those layers with the same name.

Therefore, if your architecture is unchanged you should drop the by_name=True or make it False (its default value). This could be causing the inconsistencies that you are facing, as your weights are not being loaded probably due to having different names on your layers.

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Another important thing to consider is the nature of your HDF5 file, and the way you created it. If it indeed contains only the weights (created with save_weights as the docs point out) then there should be no problem in proceeding as explained before.

Now, if that HDF5 contains weights and architecture in the same file, then you should be loading it with keras.models.load_model instead (further reading if you like here). If this is the case then this would also explain those inconsistencies.

As a side suggestion, I prefer to save my models using Callbacks, like the ModelCheckpoint or the EarlyStopping if you want to automatically determine when to stop training. This not only gives you greater flexibility when training and saving your models (as you can stop them on the optimal training epoch or when you desire), but also makes loading those models easily, as you can simply use the load_model method to load both architecture and weights to your desired variable.

Finally, here is one useful SO post where saving (and loading) Keras models is explained.