High-Accuracy and Low-Latency Tracker for UAVs Monitoring Tibetan Antelopes

As the habitat areas of Tibetan antelopes usually exhibit poaching and unpredictable risks, combining target recognition and tracking with intelligent Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology is necessary to obtain the real-time location of injured Tibetan antelopes to better protect and rescue them...

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Main Authors: Wei Luo, Xiaofang Li, Guoqing Zhang, Quanqin Shao, Yongxiang Zhao, Denghua Li, Yunfeng Zhao, Xuqing Li, Zihui Zhao, Yuyan Liu, Xiaoliang Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-01-01
Series:Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/2/417
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author Wei Luo
Xiaofang Li
Guoqing Zhang
Quanqin Shao
Yongxiang Zhao
Denghua Li
Yunfeng Zhao
Xuqing Li
Zihui Zhao
Yuyan Liu
Xiaoliang Li
author_facet Wei Luo
Xiaofang Li
Guoqing Zhang
Quanqin Shao
Yongxiang Zhao
Denghua Li
Yunfeng Zhao
Xuqing Li
Zihui Zhao
Yuyan Liu
Xiaoliang Li
author_sort Wei Luo
collection DOAJ
description As the habitat areas of Tibetan antelopes usually exhibit poaching and unpredictable risks, combining target recognition and tracking with intelligent Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology is necessary to obtain the real-time location of injured Tibetan antelopes to better protect and rescue them. (1) Background: The most common way to track an object is to detect each frame of it, and it is not necessary to run the object tracker and classifier at the same rate, because the speed for them to change class is slower than objects move. Especially in the edge reasoning scene, UAV real-time monitoring requires to seek a balance between the frame rate, latency, and accuracy. (2) Methods: A backtracking tracker is proposed to recognize Tibetan antelopes which generates motion vectors through stored optical flow, achieving faster target detection. The lightweight You Only Look Once X (YOLOX) is selected as the baseline model to reduce the dependence on hardware configuration and calculation cost while ensuring detection accuracy. Region-of-Interest (ROI)-to-centroid tracking technology is employed to reduce the processing cost of motion interpolation, and the overall processing frame rate is smoothed by pre-calculating the motions of different objects recognized. The On-Line Object Tracking (OLOT) system with adaptive search area selection is adopted to dynamically adjust the frame rate to reduce energy waste. (3) Results: using YOLOX to trace back in the native Darkenet can reduce latency by 3.75 times, and the latency is only 2.82 ms after about 10 frame hops, with the accuracy being higher than YOLOv3. Compared with traditional algorithms, the proposed algorithm can reduce the tracking latency of UAVs by 50%. By running and comparing in the onboard computer, although the proposed tracker is inferior to KCF in FPS, it is significantly higher than other trackers and is obviously superior to KCF in accuracy. (4) Conclusion: A UAV equipped with the proposed tracker effectively reduces reasoning latency in monitoring Tibetan antelopes, achieving high recognition accuracy. Therefore, it is expected to help better protection of Tibetan antelopes.
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spelling doaj.art-3c00dada0f334d8789d2577e5f4b8cfb2023-12-01T00:20:27ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922023-01-0115241710.3390/rs15020417High-Accuracy and Low-Latency Tracker for UAVs Monitoring Tibetan AntelopesWei Luo0Xiaofang Li1Guoqing Zhang2Quanqin Shao3Yongxiang Zhao4Denghua Li5Yunfeng Zhao6Xuqing Li7Zihui Zhao8Yuyan Liu9Xiaoliang Li10North China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, ChinaSchool of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Langfang Normal University, Langfang 065000, ChinaNorth China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, ChinaKey Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaNorth China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, ChinaAgricultural Information Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Monitoring and Early Warning Technology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100081, ChinaNorth China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, ChinaNorth China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, ChinaNorth China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, ChinaNorth China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, ChinaNorth China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, ChinaAs the habitat areas of Tibetan antelopes usually exhibit poaching and unpredictable risks, combining target recognition and tracking with intelligent Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology is necessary to obtain the real-time location of injured Tibetan antelopes to better protect and rescue them. (1) Background: The most common way to track an object is to detect each frame of it, and it is not necessary to run the object tracker and classifier at the same rate, because the speed for them to change class is slower than objects move. Especially in the edge reasoning scene, UAV real-time monitoring requires to seek a balance between the frame rate, latency, and accuracy. (2) Methods: A backtracking tracker is proposed to recognize Tibetan antelopes which generates motion vectors through stored optical flow, achieving faster target detection. The lightweight You Only Look Once X (YOLOX) is selected as the baseline model to reduce the dependence on hardware configuration and calculation cost while ensuring detection accuracy. Region-of-Interest (ROI)-to-centroid tracking technology is employed to reduce the processing cost of motion interpolation, and the overall processing frame rate is smoothed by pre-calculating the motions of different objects recognized. The On-Line Object Tracking (OLOT) system with adaptive search area selection is adopted to dynamically adjust the frame rate to reduce energy waste. (3) Results: using YOLOX to trace back in the native Darkenet can reduce latency by 3.75 times, and the latency is only 2.82 ms after about 10 frame hops, with the accuracy being higher than YOLOv3. Compared with traditional algorithms, the proposed algorithm can reduce the tracking latency of UAVs by 50%. By running and comparing in the onboard computer, although the proposed tracker is inferior to KCF in FPS, it is significantly higher than other trackers and is obviously superior to KCF in accuracy. (4) Conclusion: A UAV equipped with the proposed tracker effectively reduces reasoning latency in monitoring Tibetan antelopes, achieving high recognition accuracy. Therefore, it is expected to help better protection of Tibetan antelopes.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/2/417Tibetan antelope protectionintelligent UAVSOTYOLOXoptical flowlatency
spellingShingle Wei Luo
Xiaofang Li
Guoqing Zhang
Quanqin Shao
Yongxiang Zhao
Denghua Li
Yunfeng Zhao
Xuqing Li
Zihui Zhao
Yuyan Liu
Xiaoliang Li
High-Accuracy and Low-Latency Tracker for UAVs Monitoring Tibetan Antelopes
Remote Sensing
Tibetan antelope protection
intelligent UAV
SOT
YOLOX
optical flow
latency
title High-Accuracy and Low-Latency Tracker for UAVs Monitoring Tibetan Antelopes
title_full High-Accuracy and Low-Latency Tracker for UAVs Monitoring Tibetan Antelopes
title_fullStr High-Accuracy and Low-Latency Tracker for UAVs Monitoring Tibetan Antelopes
title_full_unstemmed High-Accuracy and Low-Latency Tracker for UAVs Monitoring Tibetan Antelopes
title_short High-Accuracy and Low-Latency Tracker for UAVs Monitoring Tibetan Antelopes
title_sort high accuracy and low latency tracker for uavs monitoring tibetan antelopes
topic Tibetan antelope protection
intelligent UAV
SOT
YOLOX
optical flow
latency
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/2/417
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