LUIM-YOLO: A Lightweight and Efficient Detection Model for UAV Images

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based small object detection is a challenging computer vision task. It is constrained by two primary factors: UAV platforms have limited onboard computational resources, and high-altitude objects often have weak features that are easily overwhelmed by complex backgrounds. To address these challenges, we propose LUIM-YOLO. First, a Lightweight Multi-Scale Feature Enhancement (LMSFE) module integrates parallel multi-scale convolutions with attention to strengthen small and low-contrast object feature extraction. Second, an Adaptive Multi-Scale Bottleneck (AMSB) module enhances key semantic features of small objects and spatial correlation of medium-scale objects. Third, an Enhanced Cross-layer Compensation Feature Pyramid Network (ECC-FPN) constructs cross-level interaction pathways to improve small object position and scale perception. Experimental results on VisDrone2019 show that compared with YOLOv8n, LUIM-YOLO reduces parameters by 57% and improves mAP@50 by 12.9%. Additional full-validation-set PyTorch inference tests on NVIDIA Jetson Orin show that LUIM-YOLO achieves 88.19 ms/image in FP32, indicating a parameter-efficient accuracy-oriented design with edge deployment potential.