Article · Eurasian Physical Technical Journal · June 30, 2025

THERMAL INFRARED OBJECT DETECTION WITH YOLO MODELS

Turmaganbet U.K, Dauren Zhexebay, Dana Turlykozhayeva, Alisher Skabylov, Sayat Akhtanov, Symbat Temesheva

Abstract

Object detection is a fundamental task in computer vision and remote sensing, aimed at recognizing and categorizing different types of objects within images. Unmanned aerial vehicle - based thermal infrared remote sensing provides crucial multi-scenario images and videos, serving as key data sources in public applications. However, object detection in these images remains challenging due to complex scene information, lower resolution compared to visible-spectrum videos, and a shortage of publicly available labeled datasets and trained models. This article introduces a Unmanned aerial vehicle - based thermal infrared object detection framework for analyzing images and videos in public applications and evaluates the performance of YOLOv8n/v8s, YOLOv11n/v11s, and YOLOv12n/v12s models in extracting features from ground-based thermal infrared images and videos captured by Forward-Looking Infrared cameras, as well as from unmanned aerial vehicle - recorded thermal infrared videos taken from various angles. The YOLOv8n/v8s, YOLOv11n/v11s, and the latest YOLOv12n/v12s models were deployed on a Raspberry Pi 5 using the OpenVINO framework. The successful deployment of these models, including the most recent version, demonstrates their feasibility for unmanned aerial vehicle-based thermal infrared object detection. The results show that YOLOv8 and YOLOv11 achieved high accuracy and recall rates of 93% and 92%, respectively, while the YOLOv12 model demonstrated good precision but comparatively lower performance in accuracy and recall, suggesting the possibility for further improvement.

Advanced Neural Network ApplicationsInfrared Target Detection MethodologiesFire Detection and Safety SystemsYOLOv8YOLOv11YOLOv12

THERMAL INFRARED OBJECT DETECTION WITH YOLO MODELS

Abstract

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