Innovative Research on Small Object Detection and Recognition in Remote Sensing Images Using YOLOv5

Abstract. With the increase of remote sensing image acquisition methods and the number of remote sensing image data, the traditional manual annotation and recognition methods can no longer meet the needs of the present production life. This study explores the use of deep learning techniques to improve the efficiency and accuracy of target detection in remote sensing satellite images, especially for small targets. Traditional target detection methods often face challenges in recognition accuracy and processing speed due to the specificity and complexity of satellite images, such as large size, variable lighting conditions and complex background. Therefore, this paper adopts the YOLOv5 model and introduces the CBAM (Convolutional Block Attention Module) attention mechanism, which significantly improves the detection of small and dense targets. Experimental validation, using the improved YOLOv5 model on the VisDrone2021 dataset, demonstrates that the model improves the mean average percision (mAP) by 1.9% while maintaining realtime performance. This paper provides new ideas for remote sensing image processing, especially for applications in the fields of urban planning and automatic driving, etc. Despite the progress made in this study, the detection of small targets in remote sensing images, the limited classification accuracy and the detection of dynamic targets still need further research.