YOLO-LFVM: A Lightweight UAV-Based Model for Real-Time Fishing Vessel Tracking and Dimension Measurement

Abstract

This study proposes a lightweight real-time fishing vessel tracking and size measurement model based on a UAV. In view of the problems faced by the current fishing port management department, such as low efficiency of fishing vessel size measurement methods and difficulty in updating the size information of large quantities of fishing vessels in time, this paper proposes a lightweight real-time fishing vessel tracking and size measurement model based on a UAV. (YOLO-LFVM). The model incorporates lightweight modules, such as MobileNetV3, AKConv, and C2f, and utilizes Python scripts in conjunction with OpenCV to measure vessel size in pixels. The findings indicate that, compared to the original model, the YOLO-LFVM model’s accuracy rate, recall rate, and mAP@0.5 decrease by only 0.7%, 0.2%, and 0.3%, respectively, while mAP@0.95 increases by 1.7%. Additionally, the model’s parameters decrease by 65%, and GFLOPs decrease by 69%. When comparing the model’s output with actual vessel data, the average relative error for total length is 2.67%, and for width, it is 3.28%. The research shows that the YOLO-LFVM model is effective in ship identification, ship tracking statistics, and measurement. Through the integration with UAV remote sensing technology, it is conducive to the timely updating of large-scale fishing vessel size information. Finally, the model can assist the daily management and law enforcement of the fishing port management department and can be applied to other equipment with limited computing power to perform target detection and object size measurement tasks.