Fine-Grained Object Detection with Remote-Sensing Data Using Optimized YOLO-based Models

Remote sensing data is used in various fields, such as environmental monitoring, urban planning, agriculture, and disaster management. Advances in satellite technology permit the creation of high-quality data, including high-resolution remote-sensing images. However, classical techniques struggle to process and extract information from large quantities and high-resolution remote-sensing data. In this context, with the advancement in computing power, deep learning has become a powerful tool for extracting features and processing remote-sensing data. Despite these advancements, remote-sensing object detection faces challenges related to the diversity of object types, variations in scale and resolution, and the presence of occlusion, which can hinder the accuracy and robustness of detection models. This paper explores YOLO-based architectures for horizontal and oriented bounding box detection in fine-grained object detection using the FAIR1M dataset. FAIR1M provides high-resolution satellite images with 5 object categories and 37 object sub-categories. The best model in horizontal object detection is the YOLOv9e, achieving a mAP50 of 44.6 %. The best model in oriented object detection is a pre-trained model using a custom weighted data loader, achieving a mAP50 of 40.5 %. We further analyze the strengths and limitations of these techniques for fine-grained remote-sensing object detection and highlight the contributions to improving the models' performances depending on the application. We then conclude and give directions for future work.