DCE-YOLOv8: Lightweight and Accurate Object Detection for Drone Vision

Object detection using drones is a sophisticated technology that employs a camera mounted on a drone in conjunction with a computer vision algorithm to pinpoint the precise location of an object and ascertain its type. Drones are capable of rapidly scanning extensive areas, thereby facilitating effi...

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Main Authors: Jinsu An, Dong Hee Lee, Muhamad Dwisnanto Putro, Byeong Woo Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10720001/
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author Jinsu An
Dong Hee Lee
Muhamad Dwisnanto Putro
Byeong Woo Kim
author_facet Jinsu An
Dong Hee Lee
Muhamad Dwisnanto Putro
Byeong Woo Kim
author_sort Jinsu An
collection DOAJ
description Object detection using drones is a sophisticated technology that employs a camera mounted on a drone in conjunction with a computer vision algorithm to pinpoint the precise location of an object and ascertain its type. Drones are capable of rapidly scanning extensive areas, thereby facilitating efficient data collection and analysis. This capability can yield critical information and bolster swift response efforts. The utilization of object detection technology in drones offers numerous advantages. Nevertheless, despite the benefit of drones’ ability to swiftly scan wide areas, several challenges persist, including image resolution, the detection of small-sized objects, overlapping objects, and concentrated distributions. In this paper, we introduce DCE-YOLOv8, an advanced model based on YOLOv8. DCE-YOLOv8 is engineered to address the low detection rate of small objects in drone imagery. To effectively detect small objects, it is imperative to either enhance the resolution of drone images or efficiently extract the features of small objects. Additionally, the efficient integration of these extracted features is crucial. The ERB(Efficient Residual Bottleneck) and DCE(Divided Context Extraction) modules are incorporated into the Backbone, with the ERB module reducing the number of parameters to render the model more lightweight. The DCE module focuses on extracting features pertinent to small objects. Subsequently, the rate of missed detections is mitigated by comprehensively merging the shallow and deep features extracted from the neck part. The proposed method is trained using the VisDrone, demonstrating superior detection performance compared to other state-of-the-art methods. When comparing the proposed method with the YOLOv8 small version using the VisDrone dataset, the mean Average Precision value improved by approximately 43%, increasing from 22.8mAP to 32.7mAP, while the number of parameters decreased by about 57%, from 11,166,560 to 4,822,382. The Average Inference Time per Image has been optimized to 11.4 ms, which is relatively slower than YOLOv8’s 5.9 ms, yet it still maintains a robust frame rate of 87.71 FPS, emphasizing its potential for real-time detection applications. Furthermore, the proposed method underwent additional experiments using the TT100K and AFO datasets. Compared to YOLOv8 small, it demonstrates superior performance while maintaining a comparable average inference time. This paper holds significant value in balancing object detection rates and real-time operational speed, serving as a guiding reference for in-depth research in related fields.
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spelling doaj-art-63347d0e2aa84ef2826173bdf2f829802025-08-20T02:01:57ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362024-01-011217089817091210.1109/ACCESS.2024.348141010720001DCE-YOLOv8: Lightweight and Accurate Object Detection for Drone VisionJinsu An0https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0653-0096Dong Hee Lee1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9040-4353Muhamad Dwisnanto Putro2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1785-1018Byeong Woo Kim3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5945-5497Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South KoreaDepartment of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South KoreaDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, IndonesiaDepartment of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South KoreaObject detection using drones is a sophisticated technology that employs a camera mounted on a drone in conjunction with a computer vision algorithm to pinpoint the precise location of an object and ascertain its type. Drones are capable of rapidly scanning extensive areas, thereby facilitating efficient data collection and analysis. This capability can yield critical information and bolster swift response efforts. The utilization of object detection technology in drones offers numerous advantages. Nevertheless, despite the benefit of drones’ ability to swiftly scan wide areas, several challenges persist, including image resolution, the detection of small-sized objects, overlapping objects, and concentrated distributions. In this paper, we introduce DCE-YOLOv8, an advanced model based on YOLOv8. DCE-YOLOv8 is engineered to address the low detection rate of small objects in drone imagery. To effectively detect small objects, it is imperative to either enhance the resolution of drone images or efficiently extract the features of small objects. Additionally, the efficient integration of these extracted features is crucial. The ERB(Efficient Residual Bottleneck) and DCE(Divided Context Extraction) modules are incorporated into the Backbone, with the ERB module reducing the number of parameters to render the model more lightweight. The DCE module focuses on extracting features pertinent to small objects. Subsequently, the rate of missed detections is mitigated by comprehensively merging the shallow and deep features extracted from the neck part. The proposed method is trained using the VisDrone, demonstrating superior detection performance compared to other state-of-the-art methods. When comparing the proposed method with the YOLOv8 small version using the VisDrone dataset, the mean Average Precision value improved by approximately 43%, increasing from 22.8mAP to 32.7mAP, while the number of parameters decreased by about 57%, from 11,166,560 to 4,822,382. The Average Inference Time per Image has been optimized to 11.4 ms, which is relatively slower than YOLOv8’s 5.9 ms, yet it still maintains a robust frame rate of 87.71 FPS, emphasizing its potential for real-time detection applications. Furthermore, the proposed method underwent additional experiments using the TT100K and AFO datasets. Compared to YOLOv8 small, it demonstrates superior performance while maintaining a comparable average inference time. This paper holds significant value in balancing object detection rates and real-time operational speed, serving as a guiding reference for in-depth research in related fields.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10720001/Object detectiondivided context extractionlightweightdrone visionYOLOv8
spellingShingle Jinsu An
Dong Hee Lee
Muhamad Dwisnanto Putro
Byeong Woo Kim
DCE-YOLOv8: Lightweight and Accurate Object Detection for Drone Vision
IEEE Access
Object detection
divided context extraction
lightweight
drone vision
YOLOv8
title DCE-YOLOv8: Lightweight and Accurate Object Detection for Drone Vision
title_full DCE-YOLOv8: Lightweight and Accurate Object Detection for Drone Vision
title_fullStr DCE-YOLOv8: Lightweight and Accurate Object Detection for Drone Vision
title_full_unstemmed DCE-YOLOv8: Lightweight and Accurate Object Detection for Drone Vision
title_short DCE-YOLOv8: Lightweight and Accurate Object Detection for Drone Vision
title_sort dce yolov8 lightweight and accurate object detection for drone vision
topic Object detection
divided context extraction
lightweight
drone vision
YOLOv8
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10720001/
work_keys_str_mv AT jinsuan dceyolov8lightweightandaccurateobjectdetectionfordronevision
AT dongheelee dceyolov8lightweightandaccurateobjectdetectionfordronevision
AT muhamaddwisnantoputro dceyolov8lightweightandaccurateobjectdetectionfordronevision
AT byeongwookim dceyolov8lightweightandaccurateobjectdetectionfordronevision