Innovative Horizons in Aerial Imagery: LSKNet Meets DiffusionDet for
  Advanced Object Detection
Ahmed Sharshar Aleksandr Matsun
In the realm of aerial image analysis, object detection plays a pivotal role,
with significant implications for areas such as remote sensing, urban planning,
and disaster management. This study addresses the inherent challenges in this
domain, notably the detection of small objects, managing densely packed
elements, and accounting for diverse orientations. We present an in-depth
evaluation of an object detection model that integrates the Large Selective
Kernel Network (LSKNet)as its backbone with the DiffusionDet head, utilizing
the iSAID dataset for empirical analysis. Our approach encompasses the
introduction of novel methodologies and extensive ablation studies. These
studies critically assess various aspects such as loss functions, box
regression techniques, and classification strategies to refine the model's
precision in object detection. The paper details the experimental application
of the LSKNet backbone in synergy with the DiffusionDet heads, a combination
tailored to meet the specific challenges in aerial image object detection. The
findings of this research indicate a substantial enhancement in the model's
performance, especially in the accuracy-time tradeoff. The proposed model
achieves a mean average precision (MAP) of approximately 45.7%, which is a
significant improvement, outperforming the RCNN model by 4.7% on the same
dataset. This advancement underscores the effectiveness of the proposed
modifications and sets a new benchmark in aerial image analysis, paving the way
for more accurate and efficient object detection methodologies. The code is
publicly available at https://github.com/SashaMatsun/LSKDiffDet