Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) detection in real-time is an emerging
field of study that focuses on computer vision and deep learning
algorithms. However, the increasing use of UAVs in numerous applications
has generated worries about possible risks and misuse. The purpose of
this research is to detect UAVs, under adverse weather conditions (such
as rain) and image distortions (such as motion blur and noise). The goal
is to examine how these adverse conditions affect UAV detection
performance and to provide techniques to increase model robustness. To
achieve this, a custom training dataset was constructed by combining
multiple existing datasets, supplementing them with complex backgrounds.
In addition, a custom testing dataset was generated containing UAV
images affected by adverse conditions. On the proposed dataset, the
performance of well-known object detection algorithms including YOLOv5,
YOLOv8, Faster-RCNN, RetinaNet, and YOLO-NAS was investigated. In
comparison to clean images, the results demonstrated a considerable
performance decrease under adverse conditions. However, training the
models on the augmented dataset containing samples of distorted and
weather-affected images significantly enhanced the models’ performance
under challenging settings. These findings highlight the importance of
taking adverse weather conditions into account during model training and
underscore the significance of data enrichment for improving model
generalization. The work also accentuates the need for further research
into advanced techniques and architectures to ensure reliable UAV
detection under extreme weather conditions and image distortions. (Note:
This is a pre-print of a paper submitted to IEEE for potential journal
publication and final version may vary upon acceptance and publication)