Infrared small target detection algorithm with complex background based on YOLO-NWD

Because of small number of occupied pixels, lacking shape and texture information, the reliability of infrared remote target detection has always been a difficult research topic. To improve the accuracy and precision of detection of infrared small targets under complex background conditions, a deep learning-based infrared small target detection algorithm YOLO-NWD is proposed. According to the characteristics of small and medium targets in infrared images, multi-channel feature fusion image was used as the input of YOLO detection framework combined with image preprocessing method. Combined with SE module and ASPP module, feature weights are explored to improve feature utilization efficiency. Finally, the normalized Wasserstein distance (NWD) loss is used to replace the original IoU calculation loss to reduce the sensitivity of small target position deviation. The experimental results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper improves the accuracy by 2.5% and the recall rate by 4%.