HP-YOLOv8: High-Precision Small Object Detection Algorithm for Remote Sensing Images

Abstract

YOLOv8, as an efficient object detection method, can swiftly and precisely identify objects within images. However, traditional algorithms encounter difficulties when detecting small objects in remote sensing images, such as missing information, background noise, and interactions among multiple objects in complex scenes, which may affect performance. To tackle these challenges, we propose an enhanced algorithm optimized for detecting small objects in remote sensing images, named HP-YOLOv8. Firstly, we design the C2f-D-Mixer (C2f-DM) module as a replacement for the original C2f module. This module integrates both local and global information, significantly improving the ability to detect features of small objects. Secondly, we introduce a feature fusion technique based on attention mechanisms, named Bi-Level Routing Attention in Gated Feature Pyramid Network (BGFPN). This technique utilizes an efficient feature aggregation network and reparameterization technology to optimize information interaction between different scale feature maps, and through the Bi-Level Routing Attention (BRA) mechanism, it effectively captures critical feature information of small objects. Finally, we propose the Shape Mean Perpendicular Distance Intersection over Union (SMPDIoU) loss function. The method comprehensively considers the shape and size of detection boxes, enhances the model’s focus on the attributes of detection boxes, and provides a more accurate bounding box regression loss calculation method. To demonstrate our approach’s efficacy, we conducted comprehensive experiments across the RSOD, NWPU VHR-10, and VisDrone2019 datasets. The experimental results show that the HP-YOLOv8 achieves 95.11%, 93.05%, and 53.49% in the mAP@0.5 metric, and 72.03%, 65.37%, and 38.91% in the more stringent mAP@0.5:0.95 metric, respectively.