SonarNet: Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network for Side-Scan Sonar Image Segmentation

With the rapid advancement of deep learning techniques, side-scan sonar image segmentation has become a crucial task in underwater scene understanding. However, the complex and variable underwater environment poses significant challenges for salient object detection, with traditional deep learning a...

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Main Authors: Juan Lei, Huigang Wang, Liming Fan, Qingyue Gu, Shaowei Rong, Huaxia Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-07-01
Series:Remote Sensing
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/14/2450
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author Juan Lei
Huigang Wang
Liming Fan
Qingyue Gu
Shaowei Rong
Huaxia Zhang
author_facet Juan Lei
Huigang Wang
Liming Fan
Qingyue Gu
Shaowei Rong
Huaxia Zhang
author_sort Juan Lei
collection DOAJ
description With the rapid advancement of deep learning techniques, side-scan sonar image segmentation has become a crucial task in underwater scene understanding. However, the complex and variable underwater environment poses significant challenges for salient object detection, with traditional deep learning approaches often suffering from inadequate feature representation and the loss of global context during downsampling, thus compromising the segmentation accuracy of fine structures. To address these issues, we propose SonarNet, a Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network specifically designed for side-scan sonar image segmentation. SonarNet features a dual-encoder architecture that leverages residual blocks and a self-attention mechanism to simultaneously capture both global structural and local contextual information. In addition, an adaptive hybrid attention module is introduced to effectively integrate channel and spatial features, while a global enhancement block fuses multi-scale global and spatial representations from the dual encoders, mitigating information loss throughout the network. Comprehensive experiments on a dedicated underwater sonar dataset demonstrate that SonarNet outperforms ten state-of-the-art saliency detection methods, achieving a mean absolute error as low as 2.35%. These results highlight the superior performance of SonarNet in challenging sonar image segmentation tasks.
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spelling doaj-art-baada02554f148e092ca46efe0880c2d2025-08-20T02:47:17ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922025-07-011714245010.3390/rs17142450SonarNet: Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network for Side-Scan Sonar Image SegmentationJuan Lei0Huigang Wang1Liming Fan2Qingyue Gu3Shaowei Rong4Huaxia Zhang5School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, West Youyi Road, Xi’an 710072, ChinaSchool of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, West Youyi Road, Xi’an 710072, ChinaSchool of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, West Youyi Road, Xi’an 710072, ChinaSchool of Equipment Management and UAV of Air Force Engineering University, No. 1 Jiazi, Changle East Road, Xi’an 710045, ChinaSchool of Faculty of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Jingming South Road, Kunming 650500, ChinaSchool of Information Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Daizong Road, Tai’an 271000, ChinaWith the rapid advancement of deep learning techniques, side-scan sonar image segmentation has become a crucial task in underwater scene understanding. However, the complex and variable underwater environment poses significant challenges for salient object detection, with traditional deep learning approaches often suffering from inadequate feature representation and the loss of global context during downsampling, thus compromising the segmentation accuracy of fine structures. To address these issues, we propose SonarNet, a Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network specifically designed for side-scan sonar image segmentation. SonarNet features a dual-encoder architecture that leverages residual blocks and a self-attention mechanism to simultaneously capture both global structural and local contextual information. In addition, an adaptive hybrid attention module is introduced to effectively integrate channel and spatial features, while a global enhancement block fuses multi-scale global and spatial representations from the dual encoders, mitigating information loss throughout the network. Comprehensive experiments on a dedicated underwater sonar dataset demonstrate that SonarNet outperforms ten state-of-the-art saliency detection methods, achieving a mean absolute error as low as 2.35%. These results highlight the superior performance of SonarNet in challenging sonar image segmentation tasks.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/14/2450salient object detectionglobal feature extractionself-attention mechanismunderwater sonarmambahybrid attention mechanism
spellingShingle Juan Lei
Huigang Wang
Liming Fan
Qingyue Gu
Shaowei Rong
Huaxia Zhang
SonarNet: Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network for Side-Scan Sonar Image Segmentation
Remote Sensing
salient object detection
global feature extraction
self-attention mechanism
underwater sonar
mamba
hybrid attention mechanism
title SonarNet: Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network for Side-Scan Sonar Image Segmentation
title_full SonarNet: Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network for Side-Scan Sonar Image Segmentation
title_fullStr SonarNet: Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network for Side-Scan Sonar Image Segmentation
title_full_unstemmed SonarNet: Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network for Side-Scan Sonar Image Segmentation
title_short SonarNet: Global Feature-Based Hybrid Attention Network for Side-Scan Sonar Image Segmentation
title_sort sonarnet global feature based hybrid attention network for side scan sonar image segmentation
topic salient object detection
global feature extraction
self-attention mechanism
underwater sonar
mamba
hybrid attention mechanism
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/14/2450
work_keys_str_mv AT juanlei sonarnetglobalfeaturebasedhybridattentionnetworkforsidescansonarimagesegmentation
AT huigangwang sonarnetglobalfeaturebasedhybridattentionnetworkforsidescansonarimagesegmentation
AT limingfan sonarnetglobalfeaturebasedhybridattentionnetworkforsidescansonarimagesegmentation
AT qingyuegu sonarnetglobalfeaturebasedhybridattentionnetworkforsidescansonarimagesegmentation
AT shaoweirong sonarnetglobalfeaturebasedhybridattentionnetworkforsidescansonarimagesegmentation
AT huaxiazhang sonarnetglobalfeaturebasedhybridattentionnetworkforsidescansonarimagesegmentation