Tensorflow: model_builder_tf2_test.py: AttributeError: module 'keras._tf_keras.keras.layers' has no attribute 'experimental'

Question

I was trying to play around with Tensorflow 2.15 for a small project with object detection following: https://github.com/nicknochnack/TFODCourse. While I was trying to install the modules for object detection and protoc I found some errors.

While testing the verification script with model_builder_tf2_test.py I encounter:

2024-03-19 20:38:37.057863: I tensorflow/core/util/port.cc:113] oneDNN custom operations are on. You may see slightly different numerical results due to floating-point round-off errors from different computation orders. To turn them off, set the environment variable `TF_ENABLE_ONEDNN_OPTS=0`.
2024-03-19 20:38:37.802548: I tensorflow/core/util/port.cc:113] oneDNN custom operations are on. You may see slightly different numerical results due to floating-point round-off errors from different computation orders. To turn them off, set the environment variable `TF_ENABLE_ONEDNN_OPTS=0`.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\TensorFlow Object Detection\TFODCourse\Tensorflow\models\research\object_detection\builders\model_builder_tf2_test.py", line 24, in <module>
    from object_detection.builders import model_builder
  File "D:\TensorFlow Object Detection\TFODCourse\tfod\Lib\site-packages\object_detection-0.1-py3.11.egg\object_detection\builders\model_builder.py", line 26, in <module>
    from object_detection.builders import hyperparams_builder
  File "D:\TensorFlow Object Detection\TFODCourse\tfod\Lib\site-packages\object_detection-0.1-py3.11.egg\object_detection\builders\hyperparams_builder.py", line 27, in <module>
    from object_detection.core import freezable_sync_batch_norm
  File "D:\TensorFlow Object Detection\TFODCourse\tfod\Lib\site-packages\object_detection-0.1-py3.11.egg\object_detection\core\freezable_sync_batch_norm.py", line 20, in <module>
    class FreezableSyncBatchNorm(tf.keras.layers.experimental.SyncBatchNormalization
                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AttributeError: module 'keras._tf_keras.keras.layers' has no attribute 'experimental'

This is the code for installing tensorflow object detection and protoc:

import os

CUSTOM_MODEL_NAME = 'my_ssd_mobnet' 
PRETRAINED_MODEL_NAME = 'ssd_mobilenet_v2_fpnlite_320x320_coco17_tpu-8'
PRETRAINED_MODEL_URL = 'http://download.tensorflow.org/models/object_detection/tf2/20200711/ssd_mobilenet_v2_fpnlite_320x320_coco17_tpu-8.tar.gz'
TF_RECORD_SCRIPT_NAME = 'generate_tfrecord.py'
LABEL_MAP_NAME = 'label_map.pbtxt'

paths = {
    'WORKSPACE_PATH': os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace'),
    'SCRIPTS_PATH': os.path.join('Tensorflow','scripts'),
    'APIMODEL_PATH': os.path.join('Tensorflow','models'),
    'ANNOTATION_PATH': os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace','annotations'),
    'IMAGE_PATH': os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace','images'),
    'MODEL_PATH': os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace','models'),
    'PRETRAINED_MODEL_PATH': os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace','pre-trained-models'),
    'CHECKPOINT_PATH': os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace','models',CUSTOM_MODEL_NAME), 
    'OUTPUT_PATH': os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace','models',CUSTOM_MODEL_NAME, 'export'), 
    'TFJS_PATH':os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace','models',CUSTOM_MODEL_NAME, 'tfjsexport'), 
    'TFLITE_PATH':os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace','models',CUSTOM_MODEL_NAME, 'tfliteexport'), 
    'PROTOC_PATH':os.path.join('Tensorflow','protoc')
 }

files = {
    'PIPELINE_CONFIG':os.path.join('Tensorflow', 'workspace','models', CUSTOM_MODEL_NAME, 'pipeline.config'),
    'TF_RECORD_SCRIPT': os.path.join(paths['SCRIPTS_PATH'], TF_RECORD_SCRIPT_NAME), 
    'LABELMAP': os.path.join(paths['ANNOTATION_PATH'], LABEL_MAP_NAME)
}

for path in paths.values():
    if not os.path.exists(path):
        if os.name == 'posix':
            !mkdir -p {path}
        if os.name == 'nt':
            !mkdir {path}

if os.name=='nt':
    !pip install wget
    import wget

if not os.path.exists(os.path.join(paths['APIMODEL_PATH'], 'research', 'object_detection')):
    !git clone https://github.com/tensorflow/models {paths['APIMODEL_PATH']}

# Install Tensorflow Object Detection 
if os.name=='posix':  
    !apt-get install protobuf-compiler
    !cd Tensorflow/models/research && protoc object_detection/protos/*.proto --python_out=. && cp object_detection/packages/tf2/setup.py . && python -m pip install . 
    
if os.name=='nt':
    url="https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/download/v26.0/protoc-26.0-win64.zip"
    wget.download(url)
    !move protoc-26.0-win64.zip {paths['PROTOC_PATH']}
    !cd {paths['PROTOC_PATH']} && tar -xf protoc-26.0-win64.zip
    os.environ['PATH'] += os.pathsep + os.path.abspath(os.path.join(paths['PROTOC_PATH'], 'bin'))   
    !cd Tensorflow/models/research && protoc object_detection/protos/*.proto --python_out=. && copy object_detection\\packages\\tf2\\setup.py setup.py && python setup.py build && python setup.py install
    !cd Tensorflow/models/research/slim && pip install -e . 

VERIFICATION_SCRIPT = os.path.join(paths['APIMODEL_PATH'], 'research', 'object_detection', 'builders', 'model_builder_tf2_test.py')
# Verify Installation

!python {VERIFICATION_SCRIPT}

How can I fix that? I mention that I have the latest tensorflow and pip libraries and cloned the tensorflow from: https://github.com/tensorflow/models with a python version of 3.11.

I've been trying to update all the libraries implied and I found this online: https://www.tensorflow.org/api_docs/python/tf/keras/layers/experimental/SyncBatchNormalization. Even if it's deprecated they didn't updated yet in the official directory?: https://github.com/tensorflow/models/tree/master/research/object_detection