# From Orthomosaics to Raw UAV Imagery: Enhancing Palm Detection and Crown-Center Localization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.12400 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.12400/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 31 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Sep 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [DETRs Beat YOLOs on Real-time Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08069/) (2023)
- [Object Detection in 20 Years: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05055/) (2019)
- [RT-DETRv2: Improved Baseline with Bag-of-Freebies for Real-Time Detection Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17140/) (2024)
- [YOLO-Pose: Enhancing YOLO for Multi Person Pose Estimation Using Object Keypoint Similarity Loss](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06806/) (2022)
- [Deep Learning on Monocular Object Pose Detection and Tracking: A Comprehensive Overview](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.14291/) (2021)
- [Superpixel-based and Spatially-regularized Diffusion Learning for Unsupervised Hyperspectral Image Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.15447/) (2023)
- [SADA: Stability-guided Adaptive Diffusion Acceleration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.17135/) (2025)
- [FlashSVD: Memory-Efficient Inference with Streaming for Low-Rank Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01506/) (2025)
- [Detection and Geographic Localization of Natural Objects in the Wild: A Case Study on Palms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13023/) (2025)
- [PalmProbNet: A Probabilistic Approach to Understanding Palm Distributions in Ecuadorian Tropical Forest via Transfer Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03161/) (2024)
- [Center-guided Classifier for Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16963/) (2025)
- [Unsupervised Diffusion and Volume Maximization-Based Clustering of Hyperspectral Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09992/) (2022)

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

- [Learning Where to Embed: Noise-Aware Positional Embedding for Query Retrieval in Small-Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.15065/) (2026)
- [ELDOR: A Dataset and Benchmark for Illegal Gold Mining in the Amazon Rainforest](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.15397/) (2026)
- [AwakeForest: An Interactive Geospatial Platform for Large-Scale Forest Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.23542/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Accurate mapping of individual trees is essential for ecological monitoring and forest management. Orthomosaic imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is widely used, but stitching artifacts and heavy preprocessing limit its suitability for field deployment. This study explores the use of raw UAV imagery for palm detection and crown-center localization in tropical forests. Two research questions are addressed: (1) how detection performance varies across orthomosaic and raw imagery, including within-domain and cross-domain transfer, and (2) to what extent crown-center annotations improve localization accuracy beyond bounding-box centroids. Using state-of-the-art detectors and keypoint models, we show that raw imagery yields superior performance in deployment-relevant scenarios, while orthomosaics retain value for robust cross-domain generalization. Incorporating crown-center annotations in training further improves localization and provides precise tree positions for downstream ecological analyses. These findings offer practical guidance for UAV-based biodiversity and conservation monitoring.