DSCW-YOLO: Vehicle Detection from Low-Altitude UAV Perspective via Coordinate Awareness and Collaborative Module Optimization

This paper proposes an optimized algorithm based on YOLOv11s to address the problem of insufficient detection accuracy of vehicle targets from a drone perspective due to certain scenes involving complex backgrounds, dense vehicle targets, and/or large variations in vehicle target scales due to obliq...

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Main Authors: Qingqi Zhang, Hao Wang, Xinbo Wang, Jiapeng Shang, Xiaoli Wang, Jie Li, Yan Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/11/3413
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author Qingqi Zhang
Hao Wang
Xinbo Wang
Jiapeng Shang
Xiaoli Wang
Jie Li
Yan Wang
author_facet Qingqi Zhang
Hao Wang
Xinbo Wang
Jiapeng Shang
Xiaoli Wang
Jie Li
Yan Wang
author_sort Qingqi Zhang
collection DOAJ
description This paper proposes an optimized algorithm based on YOLOv11s to address the problem of insufficient detection accuracy of vehicle targets from a drone perspective due to certain scenes involving complex backgrounds, dense vehicle targets, and/or large variations in vehicle target scales due to oblique imaging. The proposed algorithm enhances the model’s local feature extraction capability through a module collaboration optimization strategy, integrates coordinate convolution to strengthen spatial perception, and introduces a small object detection head to address target size variations caused by altitude changes. Additionally, we construct a dedicated dataset for urban vehicle detection that is characterized by high-resolution images, a large sample size, and low training resource requirements. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves gains of 1.9% in precision, 6.0% in recall, 4.2% in mAP@0.5, and 3.3% in mAP@0.5:0.95 compared to the baseline network. The improved model also achieves the highest F1-score, indicating an optimal balance between precision and recall.
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institution OA Journals
issn 1424-8220
language English
publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Sensors
spelling doaj-art-bfda5d98463942e39dfe22b2f1dee7042025-08-20T02:23:45ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-05-012511341310.3390/s25113413DSCW-YOLO: Vehicle Detection from Low-Altitude UAV Perspective via Coordinate Awareness and Collaborative Module OptimizationQingqi Zhang0Hao Wang1Xinbo Wang2Jiapeng Shang3Xiaoli Wang4Jie Li5Yan Wang6Electronic Information Engineering College, Changchun University, Changchun 130022, ChinaElectronic Information Engineering College, Changchun University, Changchun 130022, ChinaElectronic Information Engineering College, Changchun University, Changchun 130022, ChinaElectronic Information Engineering College, Changchun University, Changchun 130022, ChinaElectronic Information Engineering College, Changchun University, Changchun 130022, ChinaElectronic Information Engineering College, Changchun University, Changchun 130022, ChinaElectronic Information Engineering College, Changchun University, Changchun 130022, ChinaThis paper proposes an optimized algorithm based on YOLOv11s to address the problem of insufficient detection accuracy of vehicle targets from a drone perspective due to certain scenes involving complex backgrounds, dense vehicle targets, and/or large variations in vehicle target scales due to oblique imaging. The proposed algorithm enhances the model’s local feature extraction capability through a module collaboration optimization strategy, integrates coordinate convolution to strengthen spatial perception, and introduces a small object detection head to address target size variations caused by altitude changes. Additionally, we construct a dedicated dataset for urban vehicle detection that is characterized by high-resolution images, a large sample size, and low training resource requirements. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves gains of 1.9% in precision, 6.0% in recall, 4.2% in mAP@0.5, and 3.3% in mAP@0.5:0.95 compared to the baseline network. The improved model also achieves the highest F1-score, indicating an optimal balance between precision and recall.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/11/3413deep learningUAVobject detectionYOLO
spellingShingle Qingqi Zhang
Hao Wang
Xinbo Wang
Jiapeng Shang
Xiaoli Wang
Jie Li
Yan Wang
DSCW-YOLO: Vehicle Detection from Low-Altitude UAV Perspective via Coordinate Awareness and Collaborative Module Optimization
Sensors
deep learning
UAV
object detection
YOLO
title DSCW-YOLO: Vehicle Detection from Low-Altitude UAV Perspective via Coordinate Awareness and Collaborative Module Optimization
title_full DSCW-YOLO: Vehicle Detection from Low-Altitude UAV Perspective via Coordinate Awareness and Collaborative Module Optimization
title_fullStr DSCW-YOLO: Vehicle Detection from Low-Altitude UAV Perspective via Coordinate Awareness and Collaborative Module Optimization
title_full_unstemmed DSCW-YOLO: Vehicle Detection from Low-Altitude UAV Perspective via Coordinate Awareness and Collaborative Module Optimization
title_short DSCW-YOLO: Vehicle Detection from Low-Altitude UAV Perspective via Coordinate Awareness and Collaborative Module Optimization
title_sort dscw yolo vehicle detection from low altitude uav perspective via coordinate awareness and collaborative module optimization
topic deep learning
UAV
object detection
YOLO
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/11/3413
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