Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The issue of low detection rates and high false negative rates in maritime search and rescue operations has been a critical problem in current target detection algorithms. This is mainly due to the complex maritime environment and the small size of most targets. These challenges affect the algorithms' robustness and generalization. METHODS: We proposed YOLOv7-CSAW, an improved maritime search and rescue target detection algorithm based on YOLOv7. We used the K-means++ algorithm for the optimal size determination of prior anchor boxes, ensuring an accurate match with actual objects. The C2f module was incorporated for a lightweight model capable of obtaining richer gradient flow information. The model's perception of small target features was increased with the non-parameter simple attention module (SimAM). We further upgraded the feature fusion network to an adaptive feature fusion network (ASFF) to address the lack of high-level semantic features in small targets. Lastly, we implemented the wise intersection over union (WIoU) loss function to tackle large positioning errors and missed detections. RESULTS: Our algorithm was extensively tested on a maritime search and rescue dataset with YOLOv7 as the baseline model. We observed a significant improvement in the detection performance compared to traditional deep learning algorithms, with a mean average precision (mAP) improvement of 10.73% over the baseline model. DISCUSSION: YOLOv7-CSAW significantly enhances the accuracy and robustness of small target detection in complex scenes. This algorithm effectively addresses the common issues experienced in maritime search and rescue operations, specifically improving the detection rates and reducing false negatives, proving to be a superior alternative to current target detection algorithms.