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Main Authors: Bai, Xuecheng, Wang, Yuxiang, Xu, Chuanzhi, Hu, Boyu, Han, Kang, Pan, Ruijie, Niu, Xiaowei, Guan, Xiaotian, Fu, Liqiang, Ye, Pengfei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05905
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author Bai, Xuecheng
Wang, Yuxiang
Xu, Chuanzhi
Hu, Boyu
Han, Kang
Pan, Ruijie
Niu, Xiaowei
Guan, Xiaotian
Fu, Liqiang
Ye, Pengfei
author_facet Bai, Xuecheng
Wang, Yuxiang
Xu, Chuanzhi
Hu, Boyu
Han, Kang
Pan, Ruijie
Niu, Xiaowei
Guan, Xiaotian
Fu, Liqiang
Ye, Pengfei
contents Small object detection in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery is challenging, mainly due to scale variation, structural detail degradation, and limited computational resources. In high-altitude scenarios, fine-grained features are further weakened during hierarchical downsampling and cross-scale fusion, resulting in unstable localization and reduced robustness. To address this issue, we propose CollabOD, a lightweight collaborative detection framework that explicitly preserves structural details and aligns heterogeneous feature streams before multi-scale fusion. The framework integrates Structural Detail Preservation, Cross-Path Feature Alignment, and Localization-Aware Lightweight Design strategies. From the perspectives of image processing, channel structure, and lightweight design, it optimizes the architecture of conventional UAV perception models. The proposed design enhances representation stability while maintaining efficient inference. A unified detail-aware detection head further improves regression robustness without introducing additional deployment overhead. The code is available at: https://github.com/Bai-Xuecheng/CollabOD.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_05905
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle CollabOD: Collaborative Multi-Backbone with Cross-scale Vision for UAV Small Object Detection
Bai, Xuecheng
Wang, Yuxiang
Xu, Chuanzhi
Hu, Boyu
Han, Kang
Pan, Ruijie
Niu, Xiaowei
Guan, Xiaotian
Fu, Liqiang
Ye, Pengfei
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Small object detection in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery is challenging, mainly due to scale variation, structural detail degradation, and limited computational resources. In high-altitude scenarios, fine-grained features are further weakened during hierarchical downsampling and cross-scale fusion, resulting in unstable localization and reduced robustness. To address this issue, we propose CollabOD, a lightweight collaborative detection framework that explicitly preserves structural details and aligns heterogeneous feature streams before multi-scale fusion. The framework integrates Structural Detail Preservation, Cross-Path Feature Alignment, and Localization-Aware Lightweight Design strategies. From the perspectives of image processing, channel structure, and lightweight design, it optimizes the architecture of conventional UAV perception models. The proposed design enhances representation stability while maintaining efficient inference. A unified detail-aware detection head further improves regression robustness without introducing additional deployment overhead. The code is available at: https://github.com/Bai-Xuecheng/CollabOD.
title CollabOD: Collaborative Multi-Backbone with Cross-scale Vision for UAV Small Object Detection
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05905