Research Article

Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Volume: 9 Number: 2 June 30, 2025
EN

Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Abstract

Since most of the world is covered with oceans and seas, seas and oceans have aroused people's curiosity throughout history. Humans have used oceans and seas in versatile ways. The seas are critical areas for trade, transportation, fishing, tourism, energy resources, border security, defense, and intelligence operations. Today, the increasing use of maritime routes creates problems in terms of maritime security, maritime traffic, and management. It has become necessary to look for alternatives to solve such problems in the maritime industry, and deep learning techniques have been used to solve these problems. This paper presents ship detection method from optical satellite images using convolutional neural networks. The motivation of this paper is to produce solutions to the issues of detecting possible dangers in areas with heavy maritime traffic, preventing illegal fishing, preventing pirate attacks, human smuggling, country defense, security and tracking of maritime trade routes with ship detection systems. The convolutional neural network models used in the paper are based on YOLOv8 and YOLOv9 and include different packages of these models. The dataset used in the paper was created using the FGSCR-42 dataset. The dataset used in the paper includes 12 classes. The performance of the model results was compared, and the results are presented in this paper. The mAP50 value of our YOLOv8l model, which we use as a new approach to ship detection studies in the literature, is 98.9%. Compared to similar studies in the literature, our model obtains a higher mAP value.

Keywords

References

  1. Marine Traffic. (n.d.). Live map. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://help.marinetraffic.com/hc/en-us/articles/204062548-Live-Map
  2. IMEAK. (2023). Maritime sector report Istanbul 2023. Istanbul & Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean, Black Sea Regions Chamber of Shipping.
  3. Kayaalp, K., & Süzen, A. A. (2018). Derin öğrenme ve Türkiye’deki uygulamaları. IKSAD International Publishing House.
  4. Fukushima, K. N. (1980). A self-organizing neural network model for a mechanism of pattern recognition unaffected by shift in position. Biological Cybernetics, 36(4), 193–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00344251
  5. Hubel, D. H., & Wiesel, T. N. (1968). Receptive fields and functional architecture of monkey striate cortex. The Journal of Physiology, 195(1), 215–243. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1968.sp008455
  6. Le Cun, Y., Bottou, L., Bengio, Y., & Haffner, P. (1998). Gradient-based learning applied to document recognition. Proceedings of the IEEE, 86(11), 2278–2324. https://doi.org/10.1109/5.726791
  7. LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521, 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539
  8. Aydın, V. A. (2024). Comparison of CNN-based methods for yoga pose classification. Turkish Journal of Engineering, 8(1), 65–75. https://doi.org/10.31127/tuje.1275826

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Computer Software

Journal Section

Research Article

Early Pub Date

January 19, 2025

Publication Date

June 30, 2025

Submission Date

August 7, 2024

Acceptance Date

September 16, 2024

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Volume: 9 Number: 2

APA
Toprak, N., & Yalman, Y. (2025). Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks. Turkish Journal of Engineering, 9(2), 342-353. https://doi.org/10.31127/tuje.1529660
AMA
1.Toprak N, Yalman Y. Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks. TUJE. 2025;9(2):342-353. doi:10.31127/tuje.1529660
Chicago
Toprak, Neslihan, and Yıldıray Yalman. 2025. “Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks”. Turkish Journal of Engineering 9 (2): 342-53. https://doi.org/10.31127/tuje.1529660.
EndNote
Toprak N, Yalman Y (June 1, 2025) Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks. Turkish Journal of Engineering 9 2 342–353.
IEEE
[1]N. Toprak and Y. Yalman, “Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks”, TUJE, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 342–353, June 2025, doi: 10.31127/tuje.1529660.
ISNAD
Toprak, Neslihan - Yalman, Yıldıray. “Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks”. Turkish Journal of Engineering 9/2 (June 1, 2025): 342-353. https://doi.org/10.31127/tuje.1529660.
JAMA
1.Toprak N, Yalman Y. Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks. TUJE. 2025;9:342–353.
MLA
Toprak, Neslihan, and Yıldıray Yalman. “Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks”. Turkish Journal of Engineering, vol. 9, no. 2, June 2025, pp. 342-53, doi:10.31127/tuje.1529660.
Vancouver
1.Neslihan Toprak, Yıldıray Yalman. Ship Detection from Optical Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks. TUJE. 2025 Jun. 1;9(2):342-53. doi:10.31127/tuje.1529660

Cited By

Flag Counter