1
Civil Engineering Dept., Imam Hussein university
2
Department of surveying Eng., Faculty of Civil Engineering, Imam Hussein University
10.22059/eoge.2025.392236.1171
Abstract
Today, fast and accurate human detection has found many applications. Using drone imaging technology, significant progress has been made in improving the efficiency of target detection, especially human targets. Detecting humans at night is one of the basic applications of drones with thermal imaging capabilities. Deep learning algorithms offer a modern approach, surpassing classical methods in speed and accuracy.YOLOv8, Faster R-CNN, and RetinaNet algorithms are among the new AI algorithms for detecting human in the thermal spectrum. This study evaluates these algorithms for human detection in drone thermal images, using 2295 images from Roboflow and Kaggle, plus 500 custom-labeled images. We introduce a Balanced Performance Index (BPI) to balance accuracy and speed, achieving BPI values of 0.946 for YOLOv8, 0.709 for Faster R-CNN, and 0.654 for RetinaNet at 90% training split. YOLOv8 outperforms with mAP@0.5 of 0.892 and 30 FPS, making it ideal for real-time drone tasks like search and rescue.
khazai, S. , Asghari Beirami, B. and Rahbari, H. (2025). Evaluation of Deep Learning Methods for Human Detection in Drone Thermal Images. Earth Observation and Geomatics Engineering, (), -. doi: 10.22059/eoge.2025.392236.1171
MLA
khazai, S. , , Asghari Beirami, B. , and Rahbari, H. . "Evaluation of Deep Learning Methods for Human Detection in Drone Thermal Images", Earth Observation and Geomatics Engineering, , , 2025, -. doi: 10.22059/eoge.2025.392236.1171
HARVARD
khazai, S., Asghari Beirami, B., Rahbari, H. (2025). 'Evaluation of Deep Learning Methods for Human Detection in Drone Thermal Images', Earth Observation and Geomatics Engineering, (), pp. -. doi: 10.22059/eoge.2025.392236.1171
CHICAGO
S. khazai , B. Asghari Beirami and H. Rahbari, "Evaluation of Deep Learning Methods for Human Detection in Drone Thermal Images," Earth Observation and Geomatics Engineering, (2025): -, doi: 10.22059/eoge.2025.392236.1171
VANCOUVER
khazai, S., Asghari Beirami, B., Rahbari, H. Evaluation of Deep Learning Methods for Human Detection in Drone Thermal Images. Earth Observation and Geomatics Engineering, 2025; (): -. doi: 10.22059/eoge.2025.392236.1171
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