Monocular vision-based 3D ship detection: From image pixels to spatial perception

Kang, Z, Ma, F, Li, H ORCID: 0000-0001-6429-9097, Chen, C, Yang, Z ORCID: 0000-0003-1385-493X and Wang, J ORCID: 0000-0003-4646-9106 (2026) Monocular vision-based 3D ship detection: From image pixels to spatial perception. Ocean Engineering, 350. ISSN 0029-8018

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Abstract

In this paper a novel monocular 3D object detection algorithm, namely MonoStrong, is constructed as a new solution to enhance the navigation safety for general and autonomous ships in particular with the assistance of visual detections. Initially, a channel attention-enhanced feature network is designed to adaptively strengthen feature channels corresponding to critical geometric structures, improving the representation of complex ship characteristics, particularly for feature-sparse ships at medium and long distances. Subsequently, a multi-scale feature fusion module with attention mechanisms is formulated to enhance the robustness of perception through cross-level feature interaction, further strengthening feature representation for ships with scale variations. An optimized 2D–3D bounding box association loss function is then constructed to effectively reduce errors caused by rapid heading variations at short distances and localization drift at extended ranges. A multi-scenario 3D visual dataset for ships, called Kitti3D-Ship, is constructed to validate the proposed technique. The results demonstrate that MonoStrong outperforms existing methods in ship attitude estimation, particularly in long-range, high-density, and multi-scale scenarios. The method offers a reliable solution for intelligent maritime perception and contributes to the safe operation of ships.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Maritime safety; Monocular vision; 3D object detection; Channel attention; Feature fusion; 4015 Maritime Engineering; 40 Engineering; 0405 Oceanography; 0905 Civil Engineering; 0911 Maritime Engineering; Civil Engineering; 4005 Civil engineering; 4012 Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering; 4015 Maritime engineering
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Divisions:	Engineering and Built Environment
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date of acceptance:	6 January 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	2 September 2026
Date Deposited:	01 Sep 2026 10:31
Last Modified:	02 Sep 2026 00:50
DOI or ID number:	10.1016/j.oceaneng.2026.124226
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29234

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