A Real-Time Improved YOLOv10 Model for Small and Multi-Scale Ground Target Detection in UAV LiDAR Range Images of Complex Scenes

Low-altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) detection using LiDAR range images faces persistent challenges. These include sparse features for long-range targets, large scale variations caused by viewpoint changes, and severe interference from complex backgrounds. To address these issues, we propose an improved detection framework based on YOLOv10. First, we design a Swin-Conv hybrid module that combines sparse attention with deformable convolution. This module enables the network to focus on informative regions and adapt to target geometry. These capabilities jointly strengthen feature extraction for sparse, long-range targets. Second, we introduce Attentional Feature Fusion (AFF) in the neck to replace naïve feature concatenation. AFF employs multi-scale channel attention to softly select and adaptively weight features from different levels, improving robustness to multi-scale targets. In addition, we systematically study how the viewpoint distribution in the training set affects performance. The results show that moderately increasing the proportion of low-elevation-view samples significantly improves detection accuracy. Experiments on a self-built simulated LiDAR range-image dataset demonstrate that our method achieves 88.96% mAP at 54.2 FPS, which is 4.78 percentage points higher than the baseline. Deployment on the Jetson Orin Nano edge device further validates the model’s potential for real-time applications. The proposed method remains robust under noise and complex backgrounds. The proposed approach achieves an effective balance between detection accuracy and computational efficiency, providing a reliable solution for real-time target detection in complex low-altitude environments.