# Improved YOLOv12 with LLM-Generated Synthetic Data for Enhanced Apple Detection and Benchmarking Against YOLOv11 and YOLOv10

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.00057 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.00057/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 35 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 Feb 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [You Only Look Once: Unified, Real-Time Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02640/) (2015)
- [YOLOv3: An Incremental Improvement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.02767/) (2018)
- [YOLOv4: Optimal Speed and Accuracy of Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.10934/) (2020)
- [YOLO9000: Better, Faster, Stronger](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.08242/) (2016)
- [YOLOv7: Trainable bag-of-freebies sets new state-of-the-art for real-time object detectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.02696/) (2022)
- [YOLOv10: Real-Time End-to-End Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14458/) (2024)
- [YOLOv9: Learning What You Want to Learn Using Programmable Gradient Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.13616/) (2024)
- [YOLOv12: Attention-Centric Real-Time Object Detectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12524/) (2025)
- [YOLOv6: A Single-Stage Object Detection Framework for Industrial Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.02976/) (2022)
- [A Survey on Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10647/) (2023)
- [YOLO advances to its genesis: a decadal and comprehensive review of the You Only Look Once (YOLO) series](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.19407/) (2024)
- [Comparing YOLOv8 and Mask R-CNN for instance segmentation in complex orchard environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.07935/) (2023)
- [Immature Green Apple Detection and Sizing in Commercial Orchards using YOLOv8 and Shape Fitting Techniques](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.08629/) (2023)
- [Comprehensive Analysis of Transparency and Accessibility of ChatGPT, DeepSeek, And other SoTA Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.18505/) (2025)
- [Generative AI in Agriculture: Creating Image Datasets Using DALL.E's Advanced Large Language Model Capabilities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.08789/) (2023)
- [Zero-Shot Automatic Annotation and Instance Segmentation using LLM-Generated Datasets: Eliminating Field Imaging and Manual Annotation for Deep Learning Model Development](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.11285/) (2024)
- [Machine Vision System for Early-stage Apple Flowers and Flower Clusters Detection for Precision Thinning and Pollination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.09351/) (2023)
- [S3AD: Semi-supervised Small Apple Detection in Orchard Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.05029/) (2023)
- [Integrating YOLO11 and Convolution Block Attention Module for Multi-Season Segmentation of Tree Trunks and Branches in Commercial Apple Orchards](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.05728/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [RF-DETR Object Detection vs YOLOv12 : A Study of Transformer-based and CNN-based Architectures for Single-Class and Multi-Class Greenfruit Detection in Complex Orchard Environments Under Label Ambiguity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.13099/) (2025)
- [A Review of 3D Object Detection with Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.18738/) (2025)
- [Synthetic Defect Image Generation for Power Line Insulator Inspection Using Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.08069/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This study evaluated the performance of the YOLOv12 object detection model, and compared against the performances YOLOv11 and YOLOv10 for apple detection in commercial orchards based on the model training completed entirely on synthetic images generated by Large Language Models (LLMs). The YOLOv12n configuration achieved the highest precision at 0.916, the highest recall at 0.969, and the highest mean Average Precision (mAP@50) at 0.978. In comparison, the YOLOv11 series was led by YOLO11x, which achieved the highest precision at 0.857, recall at 0.85, and mAP@50 at 0.91. For the YOLOv10 series, YOLOv10b and YOLOv10l both achieved the highest precision at 0.85, with YOLOv10n achieving the highest recall at 0.8 and mAP@50 at 0.89. These findings demonstrated that YOLOv12, when trained on realistic LLM-generated datasets surpassed its predecessors in key performance metrics. The technique also offered a cost-effective solution by reducing the need for extensive manual data collection in the agricultural field. In addition, this study compared the computational efficiency of all versions of YOLOv12, v11 and v10, where YOLOv11n reported the lowest inference time at 4.7 ms, compared to YOLOv12n's 5.6 ms and YOLOv10n's 5.9 ms. Although YOLOv12 is new and more accurate than YOLOv11, and YOLOv10, YOLO11n still stays the fastest YOLO model among YOLOv10, YOLOv11 and YOLOv12 series of models. (Index: YOLOv12, YOLOv11, YOLOv10, YOLOv13, YOLOv14, YOLOv15, YOLOE, YOLO Object detection)