SS-YOLO: A Lightweight Deep Learning Model Focused on Side-Scan Sonar Target Detection
As seabed exploration activities increase, side-scan sonar (SSS) is being used more widely. However, distortion and noise during the acoustic pulse’s travel through water can blur target details and cause feature loss in images, making target recognition more challenging. In this paper, we improve t...
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MDPI AG
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
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| author | Na Yang Guoyu Li Shengli Wang Zhengrong Wei Hu Ren Xiaobo Zhang Yanliang Pei |
| author_facet | Na Yang Guoyu Li Shengli Wang Zhengrong Wei Hu Ren Xiaobo Zhang Yanliang Pei |
| author_sort | Na Yang |
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| description | As seabed exploration activities increase, side-scan sonar (SSS) is being used more widely. However, distortion and noise during the acoustic pulse’s travel through water can blur target details and cause feature loss in images, making target recognition more challenging. In this paper, we improve the YOLO model in two aspects: lightweight design and accuracy enhancement. The lightweight design is essential for reducing computational complexity and resource consumption, allowing the model to be more efficient on edge devices with limited processing power and storage. Thus, meeting our need to deploy SSS target detection algorithms on unmanned surface vessel (USV) for real-time target detection. Firstly, we replace the original complex convolutional method in the C2f module with a combination of partial convolution (PConv) and pointwise convolution (PWConv), reducing redundant computations and memory access while maintaining high accuracy. In addition, we add an adaptive scale spatial fusion (ASSF) module using 3D convolution to combine feature maps of different sizes, maximizing the extraction of invariant features across various scales. Finally, we use an improved multi-head self-attention (MHSA) mechanism in the detection head, replacing the original complex convolution structure, to enhance the model’s ability to focus on important features with low computational load. To validate the detection performance of the model, we conducted experiments on the combined side-scan sonar dataset (SSSD). The results show that our proposed SS-YOLO model achieves average accuracies of 92.4% (mAP 0.5) and 64.7% (mAP 0.5:0.95), outperforming the original YOLOv8 model by 4.4% and 3%, respectively. In terms of model complexity, the improved SS-YOLO model has 2.55 M of parameters and 6.4 G of FLOPs, significantly lower than those of the original YOLOv8 model and similar detection models. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2077-1312 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
| spelling | doaj-art-3ad2824d74974a749c82b85b192b42bf2025-01-24T13:36:44ZengMDPI AGJournal of Marine Science and Engineering2077-13122025-01-011316610.3390/jmse13010066SS-YOLO: A Lightweight Deep Learning Model Focused on Side-Scan Sonar Target DetectionNa Yang0Guoyu Li1Shengli Wang2Zhengrong Wei3Hu Ren4Xiaobo Zhang5Yanliang Pei6College of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaQingdao Xiushan Mobile Mapping Co., Ltd., Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaFirst Institute of Oceanography of Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, ChinaAs seabed exploration activities increase, side-scan sonar (SSS) is being used more widely. However, distortion and noise during the acoustic pulse’s travel through water can blur target details and cause feature loss in images, making target recognition more challenging. In this paper, we improve the YOLO model in two aspects: lightweight design and accuracy enhancement. The lightweight design is essential for reducing computational complexity and resource consumption, allowing the model to be more efficient on edge devices with limited processing power and storage. Thus, meeting our need to deploy SSS target detection algorithms on unmanned surface vessel (USV) for real-time target detection. Firstly, we replace the original complex convolutional method in the C2f module with a combination of partial convolution (PConv) and pointwise convolution (PWConv), reducing redundant computations and memory access while maintaining high accuracy. In addition, we add an adaptive scale spatial fusion (ASSF) module using 3D convolution to combine feature maps of different sizes, maximizing the extraction of invariant features across various scales. Finally, we use an improved multi-head self-attention (MHSA) mechanism in the detection head, replacing the original complex convolution structure, to enhance the model’s ability to focus on important features with low computational load. To validate the detection performance of the model, we conducted experiments on the combined side-scan sonar dataset (SSSD). The results show that our proposed SS-YOLO model achieves average accuracies of 92.4% (mAP 0.5) and 64.7% (mAP 0.5:0.95), outperforming the original YOLOv8 model by 4.4% and 3%, respectively. In terms of model complexity, the improved SS-YOLO model has 2.55 M of parameters and 6.4 G of FLOPs, significantly lower than those of the original YOLOv8 model and similar detection models.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/1/66side-scan sonar (SSS)YOLOv8lightweight designpartial convolutionmulti-head self-attentionfeature fusion |
| spellingShingle | Na Yang Guoyu Li Shengli Wang Zhengrong Wei Hu Ren Xiaobo Zhang Yanliang Pei SS-YOLO: A Lightweight Deep Learning Model Focused on Side-Scan Sonar Target Detection Journal of Marine Science and Engineering side-scan sonar (SSS) YOLOv8 lightweight design partial convolution multi-head self-attention feature fusion |
| title | SS-YOLO: A Lightweight Deep Learning Model Focused on Side-Scan Sonar Target Detection |
| title_full | SS-YOLO: A Lightweight Deep Learning Model Focused on Side-Scan Sonar Target Detection |
| title_fullStr | SS-YOLO: A Lightweight Deep Learning Model Focused on Side-Scan Sonar Target Detection |
| title_full_unstemmed | SS-YOLO: A Lightweight Deep Learning Model Focused on Side-Scan Sonar Target Detection |
| title_short | SS-YOLO: A Lightweight Deep Learning Model Focused on Side-Scan Sonar Target Detection |
| title_sort | ss yolo a lightweight deep learning model focused on side scan sonar target detection |
| topic | side-scan sonar (SSS) YOLOv8 lightweight design partial convolution multi-head self-attention feature fusion |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/1/66 |
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