Detection algorithm for dense small objects in high altitude image

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The high altitude images captured by drones often contain small-sized objects, which pose several challenges including significant scale variations and dense clustering. To tackle these challenges in small object detection, this paper presents EM-YOLO (Efficient Switching Network and Multi-Scale Feature Fusion Reinforced YOLO for Small Object Detection), an enhanced algorithm based on the YOLOv5s architecture. Firstly, to enhance the network's adaptability to varying object feature scales, the EM-YOLO redesigns the feature extraction backbone network by using different dilation rates in convolutions within the backbone. This flexible structure allows for improved extraction of object features, enhancing the network's feature extraction capability. Secondly, additional detection layer for small objects and combines it with the dynamic detection head. This combination addresses the issue of small object information loss due to multiple down-sampling operations on the feature maps. Finally, Focal-EIoU Loss is employed to enhance regression accuracy in EM-YOLO. Extensive experiments were conducted on the VisDrone2019-DET dataset. The results of these experiments demonstrate that the improved algorithm achieved a significant increase in performance. Specifically, the algorithm achieves 43.5% and 25.1% on the mAP0.5 and mAP0.5:0.95 metrics, which are 13.9% and 8.9% higher than YOLOv5s algorithm, respectively. Furthermore, comparative experiments with other mainstream algorithms indicate that EM-YOLO outperforms them in the task of small object detection.