Automated Lunar Crater Detection using YOLOv8 on Chandrayaan-2 Imagery
PDF

Keywords

YOLO
Convolutional Neural Networks
Image Processing
Crater Detection
Remote Sensing

How to Cite

Karandikar, Aarti, Mrunal Lad, and Akhilesh Mishra. 2025. “Automated Lunar Crater Detection Using YOLOv8 on Chandrayaan-2 Imagery”. Journal of Innovative Image Processing 7 (2): 248-65. https://doi.org/10.36548/jiip.2025.2.001.

Abstract

Craters are one of the most noticeable structures on planetary surfaces, which are utilized for spacecraft navigation, hazard identification, and age calculation. A number of factors make crater detection a difficult job, including complicated crater characteristics, variable sizes and forms of the craters, planetary data types, and data resolution. An innovative method for identifying and examining craters on the lunar surface using the remote sensing images from Chandrayaan-2 and employing deep learning techniques is proposed in this research. By making use of the extensive dataset from Chandrayaan-2, the proposed approach, YOLOv8-CCNet, uses convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and YOLOv8 to automatically detect crater features with great accuracy and efficiency. The proposed approach of using modified YOLOv8-CCNET showed an accuracy of 90% and IoU of 0.75. By combining remote sensing data processing with deep learning, the study aims to improve the precision of crater detection and characterization. This analysis helps classify different geological areas on the Moon. The techniques developed in this research not only increase the understanding of the Moon but could also be applied to studying other planets, contributing significantly to the field of planetary science.

PDF

References

Galloway, Monty J., Gretchen K. Benedix, Phil A. Bland, Jonathan Paxman, Martin C. Towner, and Tele Tan. "Automated crater detection and counting using the Hough transform." In 2014 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), IEEE, 2014, 1579-1583.

Zhu, Jionghao, Jiarui Liang, and Xiaolin Tian. "Lunar impact crater detection based on YOLO v7 using muti-source data." In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Control, Electronics and Computer Technology (ICCECT), IEEE, 2023, 901-905.

Bandyopadhyay, "Lunar Crater Detection Using YOLOv8 Deep Learning," in EarthArXiv, 2024, 1-6, doi: 10.31223/X5J69V.

Zhang, Shuowei, Peng Zhang, Juntao Yang, Zhizhong Kang, Zhen Cao, and Ze Yang. "Automatic detection for small-scale lunar impact crater using deep learning." Advances in Space Research 73, no. 4 (2024): 2175-2187.

Aburaed, Nour, Mina Alsaad, Saeed Al Mansoori, and Hussain Al-Ahmad. "A study on the autonomous detection of impact craters." In IAPR Workshop on Artificial Neural Networks in Pattern Recognition, pp. 181-194. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022.

Kamarudin, Nur Diyana, Siti Noormiza Makhtar, and Hizrin Dayana M. Hidzir. "Craters detection on lunar." In Proceeding of the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Space Science and Communication (IconSpace), IEEE, 2011, 190-195.

Chromiak, Michał. "Exploring recent advancements of transformer based architectures in computer vision." Selected Topics in Applied Computer Science (2021): 59-75.

Cohen, Joseph Paul, and Wei Ding. "Crater detection via genetic search methods to reduce image features." Advances in Space Research 53, no. 12 (2014): 1768-1782.

Kirandeep, K. R., and Vijay Dhir. "Image Recognition Using Resnet50." Eur. Chem. Bull 12, no. S3 (2023): 7533-7538.

Mu, Lingli, Lina Xian, Lihong Li, Gang Liu, Mi Chen, and Wei Zhang. "YOLO-crater model for small crater detection." Remote Sensing 15, no. 20 (2023): 5040.

Ahmad, Tanvir, Yinglong Ma, Muhammad Yahya, Belal Ahmad, Shah Nazir, and Amin ul Haq. "Object detection through modified YOLO neural network." Scientific Programming 2020, no. 1 (2020): 8403262.

Patil, Jyoti, and Srinivas Narasimha Kini. "A Survey Research on Crater Detection." Int. J. Sci. Res. International Journal of Scientific Research 4 (2015): 81-85.

Tewari, Atal, K. Prateek, Amrita Singh, and Nitin Khanna. "Deep learning based systems for crater detection: A review." arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.07727 (2023).

Wang, Y., X. Tong, H. Xie, M. Jiang, Y. Huang, S. Liu, X. Xu, Q. Du, Q. Wang, and C. Wang. "Crater Detection Using Texture Feature and Random Projection Depth Function." ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 3 (2020): 603-608.

Gu, Jiuxiang, Zhenhua Wang, Jason Kuen, Lianyang Ma, Amir Shahroudy, Bing Shuai, Ting Liu et al. "Recent advances in convolutional neural networks." Pattern recognition 77 (2018): 354-377.

Khare, O. M., Shubham Gandhi, Aditya Rahalkar, and Sunil Mane. "YOLOv8-based visual detection of road hazards: potholes, sewer covers, and manholes." In 2023 IEEE Pune Section International Conference (PuneCon), IEEE, 2023, 1-6.

Lavanya, Gudala, and Sagar Dhanraj Pande. "Enhancing Real-time Object Detection with YOLO Algorithm." EAI Endorsed Transactions on Internet of Things 10 (2024).

Yang, Chen, Haishi Zhao, Lorenzo Bruzzone, Jon Atli Benediktsson, Yanchun Liang, Bin Liu, Xingguo Zeng, Renchu Guan, Chunlai Li, and Ziyuan Ouyang. "Lunar impact crater identification and age estimation with Chang’E data by deep and transfer learning." Nature Communications 11, no. 1 (2020): 6358.

Chaudhary, Vashi, Digvijaysinh Mane, Ritu Anilkumar, Avinash Chouhan, Dibyajyoti Chutia, and Pln Raju. An object detection approach to automatic crater detection from CTX imagery. No. EPSC2020-1029. Copernicus Meetings, 2020.

La Grassa, Riccardo, Gabriele Cremonese, Ignazio Gallo, Cristina Re, and Elena Martellato. "YOLOLens: A deep learning model based on super-resolution to enhance the crater detection of the planetary surfaces." Remote Sensing 15, no. 5 (2023): 1171.

Agarwal, Shivang, Jean Ogier Du Terrail, and Frédéric Jurie. "Recent advances in object detection in the age of deep convolutional neural networks." arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.03193 (2018).

Yang, Juntao, and Zhizhong Kang. "Bayesian network-based extraction of lunar impact craters from optical images and DEM data." Advances in Space Research 63, no. 11 (2019): 3721-3737.

Sawabe, Yoriko, Tsuneo Matsunaga, and Shuichi Rokugawa. "Automated detection and classification of lunar craters using multiple approaches." Advances in Space Research 37, no. 1 (2006): 21-27.

Di, Kaichang, Wei Li, Zongyu Yue, Yiwei Sun, and Yiliang Liu. "A machine learning approach to crater detection from topographic data." Advances in Space Research 54, no. 11 (2014): 2419-2429.

Jin, Shuanggen, and Tengyu Zhang. "Automatic detection of impact craters on Mars using a modified adaboosting method." Planetary and Space Science 99 (2014): 112-117.

Silburt, Ari, Mohamad Ali-Dib, Chenchong Zhu, Alan Jackson, Diana Valencia, Yevgeni Kissin, Daniel Tamayo, and Kristen Menou. "Lunar crater identification via deep learning." Icarus 317 (2019): 27-38.

Sharma, Subek, Sisir Dhakal, and Mansi Bhavsar. "Transfer Learning for Wildlife Classification: Evaluating YOLOv8 against DenseNet, ResNet, and VGGNet on a Custom Dataset." Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Capsule Networks 6, no. 4 (2024): 415-435.

Nan, Jing, Yexin Wang, Kaichang Di, Bin Xie, Chenxu Zhao, Biao Wang, Shujuan Sun, Xiangjin Deng, Hong Zhang, and Ruiqing Sheng. "YOLOv8-LCNET: An Improved YOLOv8 Automatic Crater Detection Algorithm and Application in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area." Sensors 25, no. 1 (2025): 243.

ISRO website https://www.isro.gov.in/chandrayaan2-payloads.html

Wu, Weirui, Zhifa Jiang, Jingwen Liu, Jiahui Ji, Xiaoyan Wei, Xiangyun Ye, and Zhen Zhang. "Enhancing placental pathology detection with GAMatrix-YOLOv8 model." Heliyon 11, no. 4 (2025).