Exploring Self-Supervised Learning for Multi-Modal Remote Sensing Pre-Training via Asymmetric Attention Fusion

Self-supervised learning (SSL) has significantly bridged the gap between supervised and unsupervised learning in computer vision tasks and shown impressive success in the field of remote sensing (RS). However, these methods have primarily focused on single-modal RS data, which may have limitations i...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Guozheng Xu, Xue Jiang, Xiangtai Li, Ze Zhang, Xingzhao Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-12-01
Series:Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/24/5682
_version_ 1797379494523174912
author Guozheng Xu
Xue Jiang
Xiangtai Li
Ze Zhang
Xingzhao Liu
author_facet Guozheng Xu
Xue Jiang
Xiangtai Li
Ze Zhang
Xingzhao Liu
author_sort Guozheng Xu
collection DOAJ
description Self-supervised learning (SSL) has significantly bridged the gap between supervised and unsupervised learning in computer vision tasks and shown impressive success in the field of remote sensing (RS). However, these methods have primarily focused on single-modal RS data, which may have limitations in capturing the diversity of information in complex scenes. In this paper, we propose the Asymmetric Attention Fusion (AAF) framework to explore the potential of multi-modal representation learning compared to two simpler fusion methods: early fusion and late fusion. Given that data from active sensors (e.g., digital surface models and light detection and ranging) is often noisier and less informative than optical images, the AAF is designed with an asymmetric attention mechanism within a two-stream encoder, applied at each encoder stage. Additionally, we introduce a Transfer Gate module to select more informative features from the fused representations, enhancing performance in downstream tasks. Our comparative analyses on the ISPRS Potsdam datasets, focusing on scene classification and segmentation tasks, demonstrate significant performance enhancements with AAF compared to baseline methods. The proposed approach achieves an improvement of over 7% in all metrics compared to randomly initialized methods for both tasks. Furthermore, when compared to early fusion and late fusion methods, AAF consistently outperforms in achieving superior improvements. These results underscore the effectiveness of AAF in leveraging the strengths of multi-modal RS data for SSL, opening doors for more sophisticated and nuanced RS analysis.
first_indexed 2024-03-08T20:24:06Z
format Article
id doaj.art-682477e5f7aa4969a96ed4ce5932f66a
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2072-4292
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-08T20:24:06Z
publishDate 2023-12-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Remote Sensing
spelling doaj.art-682477e5f7aa4969a96ed4ce5932f66a2023-12-22T14:38:59ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922023-12-011524568210.3390/rs15245682Exploring Self-Supervised Learning for Multi-Modal Remote Sensing Pre-Training via Asymmetric Attention FusionGuozheng Xu0Xue Jiang1Xiangtai Li2Ze Zhang3Xingzhao Liu4The School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, ChinaThe School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, ChinaThe S-Lab, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, SingaporeThe School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, ChinaThe School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, ChinaSelf-supervised learning (SSL) has significantly bridged the gap between supervised and unsupervised learning in computer vision tasks and shown impressive success in the field of remote sensing (RS). However, these methods have primarily focused on single-modal RS data, which may have limitations in capturing the diversity of information in complex scenes. In this paper, we propose the Asymmetric Attention Fusion (AAF) framework to explore the potential of multi-modal representation learning compared to two simpler fusion methods: early fusion and late fusion. Given that data from active sensors (e.g., digital surface models and light detection and ranging) is often noisier and less informative than optical images, the AAF is designed with an asymmetric attention mechanism within a two-stream encoder, applied at each encoder stage. Additionally, we introduce a Transfer Gate module to select more informative features from the fused representations, enhancing performance in downstream tasks. Our comparative analyses on the ISPRS Potsdam datasets, focusing on scene classification and segmentation tasks, demonstrate significant performance enhancements with AAF compared to baseline methods. The proposed approach achieves an improvement of over 7% in all metrics compared to randomly initialized methods for both tasks. Furthermore, when compared to early fusion and late fusion methods, AAF consistently outperforms in achieving superior improvements. These results underscore the effectiveness of AAF in leveraging the strengths of multi-modal RS data for SSL, opening doors for more sophisticated and nuanced RS analysis.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/24/5682scene segmentation and classificationremote sensing datamulti-modalasymmetric attention fusion
spellingShingle Guozheng Xu
Xue Jiang
Xiangtai Li
Ze Zhang
Xingzhao Liu
Exploring Self-Supervised Learning for Multi-Modal Remote Sensing Pre-Training via Asymmetric Attention Fusion
Remote Sensing
scene segmentation and classification
remote sensing data
multi-modal
asymmetric attention fusion
title Exploring Self-Supervised Learning for Multi-Modal Remote Sensing Pre-Training via Asymmetric Attention Fusion
title_full Exploring Self-Supervised Learning for Multi-Modal Remote Sensing Pre-Training via Asymmetric Attention Fusion
title_fullStr Exploring Self-Supervised Learning for Multi-Modal Remote Sensing Pre-Training via Asymmetric Attention Fusion
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Self-Supervised Learning for Multi-Modal Remote Sensing Pre-Training via Asymmetric Attention Fusion
title_short Exploring Self-Supervised Learning for Multi-Modal Remote Sensing Pre-Training via Asymmetric Attention Fusion
title_sort exploring self supervised learning for multi modal remote sensing pre training via asymmetric attention fusion
topic scene segmentation and classification
remote sensing data
multi-modal
asymmetric attention fusion
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/24/5682
work_keys_str_mv AT guozhengxu exploringselfsupervisedlearningformultimodalremotesensingpretrainingviaasymmetricattentionfusion
AT xuejiang exploringselfsupervisedlearningformultimodalremotesensingpretrainingviaasymmetricattentionfusion
AT xiangtaili exploringselfsupervisedlearningformultimodalremotesensingpretrainingviaasymmetricattentionfusion
AT zezhang exploringselfsupervisedlearningformultimodalremotesensingpretrainingviaasymmetricattentionfusion
AT xingzhaoliu exploringselfsupervisedlearningformultimodalremotesensingpretrainingviaasymmetricattentionfusion