IAES International Journal of Artificial Intelligence (IJ-AI)
Vol 15, No 4: August 2026

YOLOv11 optimization for tiny object in crowded scenes

Husna Sarirah Husin (Taylor'
s University)

Howard Chong Yun Hao (Taylor’s University)
Pan Yuan Fei (Taylor’s University)
Mohsen Marjani (Taylor'
s University)

Suriana Ismail (Universiti Kuala Lumpur)



Article Info

Publish Date
01 Aug 2026

Abstract

Small object detection in crowded urban and aerial scenes remains a critical challenge due to limited pixel information and information loss in deep neural networks. This study introduces a novel optimization framework for YOLOv11, specifically engineered for tiny-scale targets by integrating convolutional block attention modules (CBAM), k-means anchor clustering, and an enhanced feature pyramid network (FPN). Evaluated on the TinyPerson and COCO-mini datasets, the YOLOv11-optimized model achieves significant performance breakthroughs, delivering a +7.3% gain in mean average precision (mAP) and a +10.5% increase in recall over the baseline. Notably, the model achieved a recall of 0.072 on the TinyPerson dataset, with double sensitivity of standard YOLOv11. With a high-speed inference rate of 27.3 FPS, this research demonstrates that strategic architectural refinements can drastically improve small object detection reliability without compromising real-time viability on edge devices.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

IJAI

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT Engineering

Description

IAES International Journal of Artificial Intelligence (IJ-AI) publishes articles in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The scope covers all artificial intelligence area and its application in the following topics: neural networks; fuzzy logic; simulated biological evolution algorithms (like ...