SL-YOLO: A Stronger and Lighter Drone Target Detection Model
Not on the map. Why?
Abstract (arXiv)
Detecting small objects in complex scenes, such as those captured by drones, is a daunting challenge due to the difficulty in capturing the complex features of small targets. While the YOLO family has achieved great success in large target detection, its performance is less than satisfactory when faced with small targets. Because of this, this paper proposes a revolutionary model SL-YOLO (Stronger and Lighter YOLO) that aims to break the bottleneck of small target detection. We propose the Hierarchical Extended Path Aggregation Network (HEPAN), a pioneering cross-scale feature fusion method that can ensure unparalleled detection accuracy even in the most challenging environments. At the same time, without sacrificing detection capabilities, we design the C2fDCB lightweight module and add the SCDown downsampling module to greatly reduce the model's parameters and computational complexity. Our experimental results on the VisDrone2019 dataset reveal a significant improvement in performance, with [email protected] jumping from 43.0% to 46.9% and [email protected]:0.95 increasing from 26.0% to 28.9%. At the same time, the model parameters are reduced from 11.1M to 9.6M, and the FPS can reach 132, making it an ideal solution for real-time small object detection in resource-constrained environments.
Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 35 of its 39 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 18 Nov 2024.
Builds on
35 of 39 references.
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Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 1.
2 papers.
- 2025A Novel Compression Framework for YOLOv8: Achieving Real-Time Aerial Object Detection on Edge Devices via Structured Pruning and Channel-Wise Distillationcited by 0
- 2026A Review of Vision-Based Vehicle Detection for UAV-Based Traffic Monitoring: Experimental Insights and Future Directionscited by 0
- 2026A Review of Vision-Based Vehicle Detection for UAV-Based Traffic Monitoring: Experimental Insights and Future Directions4 Aug 2026
- 2025A Novel Compression Framework for YOLOv8: Achieving Real-Time Aerial Object Detection on Edge Devices via Structured Pruning and Channel-Wise Distillation16 Sep 2025