Enhancing Object Detection for Autonomous Vehicles in Low-Resolution Environments Using a Super-Resolution Transformer-Based Preprocessing Framework

Low-resolution (LR) imagery poses significant challenges to object detection systems, particularly in autonomous and resource-constrained environments where bandwidth and sensor quality are limited. To address this issue, this paper presents an integrated framework that enhances object detection performance by incorporating a Super-Resolution (SR) preprocessing stage prior to detection. Specifically, a Dense Residual Connected Transformer (DRCT) is employed to reconstruct high-resolution (HR) images from LR inputs, effectively restoring fine-grained structural and textural information essential for accurate detection. The reconstructed HR images are subsequently processed by a YOLOv11 detector without requiring architectural modifications. Experimental evaluations demonstrate consistent improvements across multiple scaling factors, with an average increase of 13.4% in Mean Average Precision (mAP)@50 at ×2 upscaling and 9.7% at ×4 compared with direct LR detection. These results validate the effectiveness of the proposed SR-based preprocessing approach in mitigating the adverse effects of image degradation. The proposed method provides an improved yet computationally challenging solution for object detection.