Lightweight CNNs

CNN: Convolutional Neural Network

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Overview

Lightweight CNN research seeks to retain useful accuracy while reducing parameters, computation, memory use, and inference time, especially on mobile and embedded hardware. Common approaches include depthwise-separable and grouped convolutions, compact encoder-decoder designs, pruning, quantization, knowledge distillation, and hardware-aware architecture search. These models are used for image classification, segmentation, restoration, and time-series tasks, with evaluation on both standard benchmarks and target devices. A central challenge is balancing accuracy and robustness with real deployment costs: fewer parameters or FLOPs do not always mean lower latency, and performance can drop when models meet varied data or hardware.

Latest papers

CardsList

54 papers5 papers in the last four weeks, down 44% on the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. A Lightweight Attention-Based CNN with Saliency-Map Interpretability for Skin Cancer Detection

    Oct 27, 2026Sanjana Islam Kasfia, Md. Ismiel Hossen Abir, AKM Bahalul Haque +1Skin Lesion ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, International Standard University, Dhaka, Bangladesh · Dept. of Public Health and Life Sciences, Canadian University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh · Faculty of Science & Engineering, Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

  2. GANet: A Lightweight Group Attention Network for Plant Disease Identification on Embedded Systems

    Oct 21, 2026Anubhab Tripathi, Bibek Das, Asfak Ali +1Plant Disease ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

  3. Detection of Potato Plant Leaf Diseases using Convolutional Neural Networks

    Oct 14, 2026Haimanot Bitew Alemayehu, Simachew Melaku Ayalew, Chilotie Desalew Mengesha +3Plant Disease ClassificationConvolutional Neural Networks

    College of Engineering & Technology, Injibara University, Ethiopia

  4. Sea-Net: A Small and Inherently Interpretable Neural Network for Time Series Classification

    Oct 13, 2026Ubaid Ur Rehman, Tanmoy MondalInterpretable Time-Series ClassificationTime Series Classification

    FOX Team, Centre de Recherche en Informatique, Signal et Automatique de Lille (CRIStAL) University of Lille, CNRS, Centrale Lille, UMR 9189 F-59000 Lille, France

  5. UltraLight Luma: A Novel Edge-Deployable Perception Network for Crop-Row Segmentation in Agricultural Robotics

    Oct 8, 2026Dhanushka Balasingham, Shamod Ginigaddarage, Hanojhan Rajahrajasingh +2Image SegmentationAgricultural Robotics

    Faculty of Computing, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Malabe, Sri Lanka · Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS), University of Lincoln, UK

  6. Beyond Group Splits: Specimen-Level Cross-Validation and Visual Attribution for Remaining-Shelf-Life Regression in Climacteric Fruit

    Oct 7, 2026Rovhona Mudau, Jean Frederic Isingizwe Nturambirwe, Clement Nthambazale NyirendaRUL EstimationAgricultural Image Analysis

    Department of Computer Science University of the Western Cape Cape Town, South Africa · eResearch Office University of the Western Cape Cape Town, South Africa · Department of Computer Science / eResearch Office University of the Western Cape Cape Town, South Africa

  7. Towards Deployable Underwater Vessel Classification

    Sep 24, 2026Abishek Soti, Thura Pyae Sone, Naqib Ibnul +4Passive Acoustic MonitoringLightweight CNNs

    ICNS, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia

  8. LightMIS: Ultra-Lightweight Medical Image Segmentation Without a Stage-Wise Decoder

    Sep 23, 2026Andrei Arhire, Mihaela-Elena Breabăn, Radu TimofteMedical Image SegmentationLightweight CNNs

    Faculty of Computer Science Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi · Computer Vision Lab, CAIDAS & IFI University of Wurzburg, Germany

  9. LukeNet: A lightweight CNN integrated with an XAI model for Smart acute lymphoblastic leukemia detection and management

    Sep 22, 2026Md Taimur AhadLightweight CNNsEdge ML

    Department of Management Information Systems, North South University, Bangladesh · Department of Management Information Systems North South University, Bangladesh

  10. Lightweight Pedestrian Head-Orientation Recognition Network for Safe Pedestrian-Vehicle Interaction

    Sep 21, 2026Yuanzhe Li, Yidi Huang, Xiaotong Chang +1Autonomous Driving PerceptionLightweight CNNs

    Chair of Automotive Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, 13355, Germany.

  11. A Lightweight CNN Integrated Compact Convolutional Transformer for Multi-Scale Feature Learning and reducing computational complexity for breast cancer mammography image detection and classification

    Sep 16, 2026Md Taimur Ahad, Ainuddin AhmedHybrid CNN-Transformer ArchitecturesMedical Image Classification

    Department of Management North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

  12. The Unbearable Weight: Scaling Models and Methods for UAV Audio Classification

    Sep 15, 2026Andrew P. Berg, Qian Zhang, Mia Y. WangLightweight CNNsAudio Classification

    Department of Computer Science, College of Charleston, Charleston SC, USA. · Department of Engineering, College of Charleston, Charleston SC, USA.

  13. AgroVisNet: A lightweight Convolutional Network and the BD-PlantDX Expert-Validated Benchmark for Radish, Potato and Pointed Gourd Disease Classification

    Sep 9, 2026Md. Abdullah Mandal, Saad Ahmed, Md. Khalid SyfullahPlant Disease ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Rajshahi, 6204, Bangladesh · Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh Army University of Science & Technology, Saidpur, Bangladesh

  14. BarkNet-Lite: A Lightweight Texture and Colour Network with the BarkBD Benchmark for Bark-Based Tree Species Recognition in Bangladesh

    Sep 7, 2026Aroshi Ali, Saad Ahmed, Md. Khalid SyfullahEfficient Neural Network InferenceTree Species Classification

    Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna, 9203, Bangladesh · Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh Army University of Science & Technology, Saidpur, Bangladesh

  15. SETEAB: Multiscale approach with Squeeze-and-Excitation Temporal Enhanced Aware Block for Speech Emotion Recognition

    Sep 5, 2026Duy Vo, Kiet Anh Hoang, Hao DoSpeech Emotion RecognitionLightweight CNNs

    Faculty of Information Technology, University of Science, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam · Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam · UNEY, Switzerland

  16. Mixture of Channel Experts: Static Sparse Supports with Input-Adaptive Mixing for Pointwise Projections

    Aug 24, 2026Elian Iluk, Gil Ben-ArtziSparse Mixture-of-ExpertsMixture-of-Experts Models

    School of Computer Science, Ariel University, Israel

  17. Robust Lightweight Deep Learning Models for Oral Cancer Screening

    Aug 21, 2026Siddhant Bharadwaj, Aakash Shedsale, Tejashree Subramanya +6Medical Image ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    Indian Institute of Science · KLES’ Institute of Dental Sciences · Indian Institue of Science +1

  18. NanoSleep: A Parameter-Efficient Hybrid Temporal Convolutional Network for Single-Channel Sleep Stage Classification

    Aug 19, 2026S M Asif Hossain, Shruti KshirsagarSleep Stage ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    School of Computing, Wichita State University, Kansas, USA

  19. OptiModNet: A UNet-Transformer Hybrid with Grouped-Query and Channel Attention for Optic Disc and Cup Segmentation

    Aug 19, 2026Soumili Ghosh, Debapriya Roy, Aryan Das +1Optic Disc SegmentationOphthalmic Image Analysis

    IEM Saltlake,India · Techno Main Salt Lake, India · VIT Bhopal University, India +1

  20. LightTeaNet: A Weakly Supervised Lightweight CNN for Multi-Label Tea Leaf Disease Detection and Localization

    Aug 14, 2026Naif Haider Chowdhury, Md Rahim, Syed Farhan Hasan +2Plant Disease ClassificationMulti-Label Classification

    Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Leading University, Kamal Bazar, Sylhet, 3112, Sylhet, Bangladesh.

  21. Domain-Aware Lightweight Spectral-Grouped Convolutions for Hyperspectral Fish Freshness Classification

    Aug 12, 2026Kazi Nabiul Alam, Pooneh Bagheri Zadeh, Akbar Sheikh-AkbariRepresentation LearningHyperspectral Image Classification

    School of Built Environment, Engineering, and Computing, Leeds Beckett University. Leeds LS6 3QS, United Kingdom.

  22. BoltNet: An Ultra-Lightweight Convolutional Network for On-Device Plant Species Identification

    Aug 12, 2026Daniel Rossi, Guido Borghi, Roberto VezzaniFine-Grained Image ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

  23. LITEWAY: LIghtweight HAR via Temporal Efficient highWAY

    Aug 10, 2026Dominique Nshimyimana, Vitor Fortes Rey, Mengxi Liu +2Efficient Neural Network InferenceHuman Activity Recognition

    RPTU, DFKI Kaiserslautern, Germany

  24. Toward Deployable Bangla Sign Language Recognition with Expert-Validated Data and a Lightweight Attention-Based Model

    Aug 6, 2026Saad Ahmed, Md Khalid SyfullahConvolutional Neural NetworksSign Language Recognition

    Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh Army University of Science and Technology, Saidpur Cantonment, Saidpur, Bangladesh

  25. LiteKD-Net: Lightweight Knowledge-Distilled Network for Mobile Image Denoising

    Aug 6, 2026Zhou ZhiyiLightweight CNNsOn-Device Inference

    Global College Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai, China

  26. When Less Is More: A Controlled Benchmark of Lightweight CNNs for Satellite Land-Cover Segmentation on DeepGlobe

    Jul 25, 2026Atiq Ur Rehman, Joseph Michael DonovanRemote Sensing Image SegmentationLand Cover Classification

    Department of Economics & Decision Sciences, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, USA · University of South Dakota, Vermillion, USA

  27. Small, Bias-Free, Blind and Convolutional Denoiser: A compact ConvNeXt U-Net for blind Gaussian color-image denoising

    Jul 24, 2026Nikolas MarkouU-NetConvolutional Neural Networks

  28. Efficient and Interpretable Body-Based Emotion Recognition with Lightweight Temporal Convolutional Networks

    Jul 23, 2026Christian Arzate Cruz, Stefanos Gkikas, Houshyar AsadiEfficient Neural Network InferenceExplainable Artificial Intelligence

    Honda Research Institute Japan Wako City, Japan · Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovations (IISRI) Deakin University Geelong, Australia

  29. Explainable Lightweight Compact Deep Models for Speech Emotion Recognition

    Jul 18, 2026Nelly ElsayedSpeech Emotion RecognitionConvolutional Neural Networks

    School of Information Technology University of Cincinnati Ohio, United States

  30. Barnamala: Parameter-Efficient Handwritten Devanagari Recognition at Benchmark Saturation

    Jul 15, 2026Ashish Thapa, Samrat KarkiCorruption RobustnessConvolutional Neural Networks

    Ampixa Labs · Pulchowk Campus