Robust UAV Target Tracking Algorithm Based on Saliency Detection

Due to their high efficiency and real-time performance, discriminant correlation filtering (DCF) trackers have been widely applied in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) tracking. However, the robustness of existing trackers is still poor when facing complex scenes, such as background clutter, occlusion,...

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Main Authors: Hanqing Wu, Weihua Wang, Gao Chen, Xin Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Drones
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/9/4/285
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author Hanqing Wu
Weihua Wang
Gao Chen
Xin Li
author_facet Hanqing Wu
Weihua Wang
Gao Chen
Xin Li
author_sort Hanqing Wu
collection DOAJ
description Due to their high efficiency and real-time performance, discriminant correlation filtering (DCF) trackers have been widely applied in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) tracking. However, the robustness of existing trackers is still poor when facing complex scenes, such as background clutter, occlusion, camera motion, and scale variations. In response to this problem, this paper proposes a robust UAV target tracking algorithm based on saliency detection (SDBCF). Using saliency detection methods, the DCF tracker is optimized in three aspects to enhance the robustness of the tracker in complex scenes: feature fusion, filter-model construct, and scale-estimation methods improve. Firstly, this article analyzes the features from both spatial and temporal dimensions, evaluates the representational and discriminative abilities of different features, and achieves adaptive feature fusion. Secondly, this paper constructs a dynamic spatial regularization term using a mask that fits the target, and integrates it with a second-order differential regularization term into the DCF framework to construct a novel filter model, which is solved using the ADMM method. Next, this article uses saliency detection to supervise the aspect ratio of the target, and trains a scale filter in the continuous domain to improve the tracker’s adaptability to scale variations. Finally, comparative experiments were conducted with various DCF trackers on three UAV datasets: UAV123, UAV20L, and DTB70. The DP and AUC scores of SDBCF on the three datasets were (71.5%, 58.9%), (63.0%, 57.8%), and (72.1%, 48.4%), respectively. The experimental results indicate that SDBCF achieves a superior performance.
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spelling doaj-art-bfcbccb2c3034029b48e5d5020f4d40e2025-08-20T02:28:14ZengMDPI AGDrones2504-446X2025-04-019428510.3390/drones9040285Robust UAV Target Tracking Algorithm Based on Saliency DetectionHanqing Wu0Weihua Wang1Gao Chen2Xin Li3National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on ATR, College of Electronic Science and Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on ATR, College of Electronic Science and Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on ATR, College of Electronic Science and Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on ATR, College of Electronic Science and Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, ChinaDue to their high efficiency and real-time performance, discriminant correlation filtering (DCF) trackers have been widely applied in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) tracking. However, the robustness of existing trackers is still poor when facing complex scenes, such as background clutter, occlusion, camera motion, and scale variations. In response to this problem, this paper proposes a robust UAV target tracking algorithm based on saliency detection (SDBCF). Using saliency detection methods, the DCF tracker is optimized in three aspects to enhance the robustness of the tracker in complex scenes: feature fusion, filter-model construct, and scale-estimation methods improve. Firstly, this article analyzes the features from both spatial and temporal dimensions, evaluates the representational and discriminative abilities of different features, and achieves adaptive feature fusion. Secondly, this paper constructs a dynamic spatial regularization term using a mask that fits the target, and integrates it with a second-order differential regularization term into the DCF framework to construct a novel filter model, which is solved using the ADMM method. Next, this article uses saliency detection to supervise the aspect ratio of the target, and trains a scale filter in the continuous domain to improve the tracker’s adaptability to scale variations. Finally, comparative experiments were conducted with various DCF trackers on three UAV datasets: UAV123, UAV20L, and DTB70. The DP and AUC scores of SDBCF on the three datasets were (71.5%, 58.9%), (63.0%, 57.8%), and (72.1%, 48.4%), respectively. The experimental results indicate that SDBCF achieves a superior performance.https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/9/4/285UAV target trackingcorrelation filteringfeature fusiondynamic spatial regularization termscale estimation
spellingShingle Hanqing Wu
Weihua Wang
Gao Chen
Xin Li
Robust UAV Target Tracking Algorithm Based on Saliency Detection
Drones
UAV target tracking
correlation filtering
feature fusion
dynamic spatial regularization term
scale estimation
title Robust UAV Target Tracking Algorithm Based on Saliency Detection
title_full Robust UAV Target Tracking Algorithm Based on Saliency Detection
title_fullStr Robust UAV Target Tracking Algorithm Based on Saliency Detection
title_full_unstemmed Robust UAV Target Tracking Algorithm Based on Saliency Detection
title_short Robust UAV Target Tracking Algorithm Based on Saliency Detection
title_sort robust uav target tracking algorithm based on saliency detection
topic UAV target tracking
correlation filtering
feature fusion
dynamic spatial regularization term
scale estimation
url https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/9/4/285
work_keys_str_mv AT hanqingwu robustuavtargettrackingalgorithmbasedonsaliencydetection
AT weihuawang robustuavtargettrackingalgorithmbasedonsaliencydetection
AT gaochen robustuavtargettrackingalgorithmbasedonsaliencydetection
AT xinli robustuavtargettrackingalgorithmbasedonsaliencydetection