Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

TECI-YOLO: An Efficient, Lightweight Model for Detecting Small Floating Objects on Water Surfaces

Despite its title referencing floating object detection on water, this paper studies a machine learning model (TECI-YOLO) for detecting small objects on water surfaces using computer vision — not microplastic pollution. It examines improvements in detection accuracy and computational efficiency for real-time marine monitoring and is not directly relevant to microplastics research.

2026 Journal of Computer Science and Frontier Technologies
Article Tier 2

WaveFilter: Advanced Imaging for Marine Microplastic Monitoring

This paper describes WaveFilter, a deep-learning system based on the YOLOv5 model trained to automatically detect microplastics in images of aquatic environments, achieving about 80% precision in identifying plastic particles even against complex backgrounds. The model is compact enough for real-time deployment, offering a faster and more scalable alternative to tedious manual counting methods. Automated detection tools like this could make large-scale marine microplastic monitoring more practical and consistent.

2025 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Implementing Edge Based Object Detection For Microplastic Debris

This study developed an edge-based object detection algorithm for identifying microplastic debris in images. Automated detection methods are important for scaling up microplastic monitoring, particularly in field settings where manual visual inspection of thousands of particles is impractical.

2023 arXiv (Cornell University) 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Implementation of YOLOv5 for Detection and Classification of Microplastics and Microorganisms in Marine Environment

Researchers trained a YOLOv5 deep learning model on marine environment images and demonstrated it can accurately detect and classify both microplastics and microorganisms in real time, offering a memory-efficient tool for automated environmental monitoring.

2023 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Underwater Waste Recognition and Localization Based on Improved YOLOv5

Researchers developed an improved YOLOv5-based algorithm incorporating weighted image fusion to enhance detection and localization of underwater plastic waste in optical images, addressing challenges of noise, low contrast, and blurred textures in aquatic environments.

2023 Computers, materials & continua/Computers, materials & continua (Print) 8 citations
Article Tier 2

An Image Analysis of Coastal Debris Detection -Detection of microplastics using deep learning-

Researchers developed a deep learning-based coastal debris detection system using YOLOv7 and the SAHI vision library to identify microplastics in image data collected from shorelines. The system demonstrated effective detection performance and offers a scalable approach for automated monitoring of microplastic litter in coastal environments.

2024 Proceedings of International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics
Article Tier 2

PBM‐YOLO: A Performance Balanced Floating Garbage Detection Model for Water Surface Environments

Researchers developed PBM-YOLO, a performance-balanced deep learning model for detecting floating garbage including plastic debris on water surfaces, optimising the architecture to balance detection accuracy and computational efficiency for practical deployment in ecological protection and waterway resource recycling applications.

2025 IET Image Processing
Article Tier 2

An automated solid waste detection using the optimized YOLO model for riverine management

Researchers developed an optimized YOLO-based deep learning model for automated detection of solid waste in rivers, achieving high accuracy in identifying floating debris to support autonomous robotic riverine cleanup systems.

2022 Frontiers in Public Health 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Deep Learning Approaches for Detection and Classification of Microplastics in Water for Clean Water Management

Researchers applied dual deep learning models (YOLOv8, YOLOv11, and several CNN architectures) to detect and classify microplastics in water, finding that these AI approaches could accurately identify plastic types across both aquatic and non-aquatic datasets.

2025
Article Tier 2

Advancing floating macroplastic detection from space using hyperspectral imagery

Researchers evaluated the use of hyperspectral satellite and airborne imagery to detect floating plastic debris in rivers and oceans, addressing major challenges related to plastic spectral properties in field conditions. Remote sensing tools for plastic detection are important for large-scale monitoring of the macro-scale plastic that eventually becomes microplastics.

2021 5 citations
Article Tier 2

YOLOv8-C2f-Faster-EMA: An Improved Underwater Trash Detection Model Based on YOLOv8

Researchers improved an AI-based object detection system (YOLOv8) to better identify small pieces of underwater trash, achieving a 5% improvement in detection accuracy. Automated trash detection in waterways matters because removing plastic waste before it breaks into microplastics can reduce the amount of tiny plastic particles that eventually contaminate drinking water and seafood.

2024 Sensors 63 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic Waste on Water Surfaces Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Researchers evaluated state-of-the-art convolutional neural network architectures for automatically detecting plastic waste on water surfaces, training models on a dataset representing four categories of plastic litter including plastic bags. The study benchmarked multiple CNN object detection models following extensive dataset preprocessing to determine the most effective approach for automated plastic pollution identification.

2024
Article Tier 2

Hybrid Deep Learning Approach for Marine Debris Detection in Satellite Imagery Using UNet with ResNext50 Backbone

Despite its title referencing marine debris detection, this paper develops a deep learning computer vision model for identifying marine debris in satellite imagery using a UNet architecture with a ResNext50 backbone — not a study of microplastic pollution itself. It is a remote sensing and machine learning engineering paper, and while the technology could support large-scale ocean plastic monitoring, the paper does not directly examine microplastics or their health effects.

2025 Journal of Applied Science and Technology Trends 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Object Detection of Macroplastic Waste Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Urban Canal

Researchers developed and tested an unmanned aerial vehicle-based system for detecting macroplastic waste along riverbanks and beaches using object detection algorithms. The system achieved reliable detection performance and offers a scalable tool for large-area plastic litter surveys.

2024 Ecological Engineering & Environmental Technology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Detection of floating objects in liquids

Researchers reviewed non-invasive optical and imaging technologies for detecting and characterizing floating particles including microplastics in liquids, motivated by growing concern over microplastic contamination in drinking water and food products. They found that advances in computational imaging and spectroscopic methods offer promising pathways for scalable, real-time monitoring of large water volumes.

2022 2022 IEEE 46th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC)
Article Tier 2

Detection of Secondary Microplastics in an Aquatic Mesocosm by Means of Object-Based Image Analysis

Researchers evaluated object-based image analysis for detecting secondary microplastics of polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, and low-density polyethylene suspended in an aquatic mesocosm under both still and turbulent conditions. The imaging approach successfully identified microplastics in both conditions, supporting its development as a monitoring tool for plastic particles in water.

2023 Microplastics 5 citations
Article Tier 2

On advances, challenges and potentials of remote sensing image analysis in marine debris and suspected plastics monitoring

This review evaluates the current state of satellite and aerial remote sensing for detecting marine plastic debris, noting that while progress has been made using optical and hyperspectral imaging, significant challenges remain including low detection resolution for small particles, confusion with other floating materials, and the need for better machine learning algorithms. The paper is relevant to the microplastics field as large-scale monitoring tools are needed to track plastic pollution distribution and inform cleanup and policy efforts, though direct detection of microplastics (<5 mm) from orbit remains largely out of reach with current technology.

2023 Frontiers in Remote Sensing 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Advancing Floating Macroplastic Detection from Space Using Experimental Hyperspectral Imagery

Researchers tested experimental hyperspectral airborne imagery to detect floating macroplastics in rivers and the ocean, demonstrating that combining spectral and spatial features improves detection accuracy over single-band approaches.

2021 Remote Sensing 77 citations
Article Tier 2

An Artificial Intelligence based Optical Sensor for Microplastic Detection in Seawater

Researchers developed an AI-based optical sensor system combining an optical detection subsystem and an image acquisition subsystem to detect and identify microplastic particles in seawater, distinguishing them from naturally occurring marine particles. The device applies AI algorithms to analyze consecutive image frames and classify particles as microplastic or non-microplastic, with the full system housed in two portable cases.

2023 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Detection of River Plastic Using UAV Sensor Data and Deep Learning

This study modeled the global transport and accumulation of microplastics in the ocean using a hydrodynamic particle tracking model. Results suggest that subtropical gyres act as convergence zones, while polar regions receive significant inputs via surface currents.

2022 Remote Sensing 72 citations