ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Ocean Observation
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1547747
Maritime Man-Overboard Search Based on MOB-Detector with Modulated Deformable Convolution and Bi-Directional Feature Fusion Network
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, China
- 2Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
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Maritime transport is vital for global trade and cultural exchange, yet it carries inherent risks, particularly accidents at sea. Drones are increasingly valuable in marine search missions. However, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) operating at high altitudes often leave only a small portion of a person overboard visible above the water, posing challenges for traditional detection algorithms. To tackle this issue, we present the Man-Overboard Detector (MOB-Detector), an anchor-free detector that enhances the accuracy of man-overboard detection. MOB-Detector utilizes a bi-directional feature fusion network to integrate location and semantic features effectively. Additionally, it employs modulated deformable convolution (MDConv), allowing the model to adapt to various geometric variations of individuals in distress. Experimental validation shows that the MOB-Detector outperformed its nearest competitor by 8.6% in AP50 and 5.2% in APsmall, demonstrating its effectiveness for maritime search tasks. Furthermore, we introduce the ManOverboard Benchmark to evaluate algorithms for detecting small objects in maritime environments.
Keywords: Man-overboard, Modulated Deformable Convolution, Bi-Directional Feature Fusion Network, Anchor-free detector, Maritime Search and Rescue, Small object detection
Received: 15 Jan 2025; Accepted: 30 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guokang, Yin, Zhang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jianchuan Yin, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, China
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