RGBX-DiffusionDet: A Framework for Multi-Modal RGB-X Object Detection Using DiffusionDet

This work introduces RGBX-DiffusionDet, an object detection framework extending the DiffusionDet model to fuse the heterogeneous 2D data (X) with RGB imagery via an adaptive multimodal encoder. To enable cross-modal interaction, we design the dynamic channel reduction within a convolutional block attention module (DCR-CBAM), which facilitates cross-talk between subnetworks by dynamically highlighting salient channel features. Furthermore, the dynamic multi-level aggregation block (DMLAB) is proposed to refine spatial feature representations through adaptive multiscale fusion. Finally, novel regularization losses that enforce channel saliency and spatial selectivity are introduced, leading to compact and discriminative feature embeddings. Extensive experiments using RGB-Depth (KITTI), a novel annotated RGB-Polarimetric dataset, and RGB-Infrared (M$^3$FD) benchmark dataset were conducted. We demonstrate consistent superiority of the proposed approach over the baseline RGB-only DiffusionDet. The modular architecture maintains the original decoding complexity, ensuring efficiency. These results establish the proposed RGBX-DiffusionDet as a flexible multimodal object detection approach, providing new insights into integrating diverse 2D sensing modalities into diffusion-based detection pipelines.

Enhanced Automotive Object Detection via RGB-D Fusion in a DiffusionDet Framework

Vision-based autonomous driving requires reliable and efficient object detection. This work proposes a DiffusionDet-based framework that exploits data fusion from the monocular camera and depth sensor to provide the RGB and depth (RGB-D) data. Within this framework, ground truth bounding boxes are randomly reshaped as part of the training phase, allowing the model to learn the reverse diffusion process of noise addition. The system methodically enhances a randomly generated set of boxes at the inference stage, guiding them toward accurate final detections. By integrating the textural and color features from RGB images with the spatial depth information from the LiDAR sensors, the proposed framework employs a feature fusion that substantially enhances object detection of automotive targets. The $2.3$ AP gain in detecting automotive targets is achieved through comprehensive experiments using the KITTI dataset. Specifically, the improved performance of the proposed approach in detecting small objects is demonstrated.