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. Towards Efficient Convolutional Neural Network for Embedded Hardware via Multi-Dimensional Pruning

    Jul 13, 2026Hao Kong, Di Liu, Xiangzhong Luo +5Efficient Neural Network InferenceConvolutional Neural Networks

    School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore · HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore · Department of Computer Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. +1

  2. Do Newer Lightweight CNNs Perform Better Under Resource Constraints? A Controlled Multigenerational Study of Architecture, Initialization, Training Budget, and Efficiency

    Jul 2, 2026Tasnim ShahriarEfficient Neural Network InferenceConvolutional Neural Networks

    Independent Researcher

  3. Real-Time Underwater Image Enhancement via Frequency-Guided Dual-Path Attention

    Jun 29, 2026Leshen Zhang, Ao Li, Ce ZhuImage EnhancementUnderwater Image Enhancement

    Glasgow College, UESTC, Chengdu, China · University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK · School of Information and Communication Engineering, UESTC, Chengdu, China

  4. An affordable hardware-aware neural architecture search for deploying convolutional neural networks on ultra-low-power computing platforms

    Jun 15, 2026Andrea Mattia Garavagno, Edoardo Ragusa, Antonio Frisoli +1Efficient Neural Network InferenceTiny ML

    Dept. of Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications Engineering and Naval Architecture (DITEN), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy · Department of Excellence in Robotics & AI and Institute of Mechanical Intelligence, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy

  5. XTinyU-Net: Training-Free U-Net Scaling via Initialization-Time Sensitivity

    May 10, 2026Alvin Kimbowa, Moein Heidari, David Liu +1Model CompressionU-Net

    School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada · Department of Radiology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada · Department of Medicine, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

  6. Robust Lightweight Crack Classification for Real-Time UAV Bridge Inspection

    Apr 30, 2026Wei Li, Haisheng Li, Weijie Li +3Convolutional Neural NetworksLightweight CNNs

    Bay Area Super Bridge Maintenance Technology Center, Guangdong Provincial Highway Construction Co., Ltd., Guangdong, China · Guangdong AIHISUN Technology Co., Ltd., Guangdong, China

  7. A Light Weight Multi-Features-View Convolution Neural Network For Plant Disease Identification

    Apr 28, 2026Muhammad Kaleem Ullah KhanEfficient Neural Network InferencePlant Disease Classification

    COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan

  8. Vision-Based Lane Following and Traffic Sign Recognition for Resource-Constrained Autonomous Vehicles

    Apr 23, 2026Md Tanjemul Islam, Md Rafiul KabirVisual NavigationAutonomous Driving Perception

    Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA

  9. A Resource-Efficient Hybrid CNN-LSTM network for image-based bean leaf disease classification

    Apr 15, 2026Hye Jin Rhee, Joseph Damilola AkinyemiPlant Disease ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom

  10. A Compact and Efficient 1.251 Million Parameter Machine Learning CNN Model PD36-C for Plant Disease Detection: A Case Study

    Apr 13, 2026Shkelqim SherifiPlant Disease ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    Computer Science Independent Researcher Tetove, R.N.Macedonia

  11. OkanNet: A Lightweight Deep Learning Architecture for Classification of Brain Tumor from MRI Images

    Apr 1, 2026Okan Uçar, Murat KurtBrain Tumor ClassificationMedical Image Classification

    Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences Department of Computer Engineering Ege University Izmir, Turkey · International Computer Institute Ege University Izmir, Turkey

  12. On-Device Super Resolution Imaging Using Low-Cost SPAD Array and Embedded Lightweight Deep Learning

    Mar 27, 2026Zhenya Zang, Xingda Li, David Day Uei LiImage Super-ResolutionComputational Imaging

    Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow, G1 1XQ, United Kingdom

  13. CPUBone: Efficient Vision Backbone Design for Devices with Low Parallelization Capabilities

    Mar 27, 2026Moritz Nottebaum, Matteo Dunnhofer, Christian MicheloniEfficient Neural Network InferenceLightweight CNNs

    University of Udine, Italy · York University, Canada

  14. VeloxNet: Efficient Spatial Gating for Lightweight Embedded Image Classification

    Mar 19, 2026Md Meftahul Ferdaus, Elias Ioup, Mahdi Abdelguerfi +4Image ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    Canizaro Livingston Gulf States Center for Environmental Informatics, the University of New Orleans, New Orleans, USA · Center for Geospatial Sciences, Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, Hancock County, Mississippi, USA · US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA

  15. UCAN: Unified Convolutional Attention Network for Expansive Receptive Fields in Lightweight Super-Resolution

    Mar 12, 2026Cao Thien Tan, Phan Thi Thu Trang, Do Nghiem Duc +3Image Super-ResolutionLightweight CNNs

    Ho Chi Minh City Open University · AI Tech Lab, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology · Code Mely AI Research Team +3

  16. XMACNet: An Explainable Lightweight Attention based CNN with Multi Modal Fusion for Chili Disease Classification

    Mar 6, 2026Tapon Kumer Ray, Rajkumar Y, Shalini R +3Plant Disease ClassificationLightweight CNNs

    Student, Vellore Institute of Technology, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India. · Assistant Professor, Vellore Institute of Technology, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India. · Student, Angel College of Engineering and Technology, Tiruppur, Tamilnadu, India +2

  17. A Parameter-efficient Convolutional Approach for Camouflaged Weed Detection in Multispectral Aerial Imagery

    Feb 28, 2026Leo Thomas Ramos, Angel D. SappaWeed DetectionCamouflaged Object Detection

    Computer Vision Center · Universitat Aut`onoma de Barcelona · ESPOL Polytechnic University

  18. ULW-SleepNet: An Ultra-Lightweight Network for Multimodal Sleep Stage Scoring

    Feb 27, 2026Zhaowen Wang, Dongdong Zhou, Qi Xu +3Depthwise Separable ConvolutionSleep Stage Classification

    School of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China · Faculty of Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland · Key Laboratory of Social Computing and Cognitive Intelligence, Ministry of Education, Dalian, China +3

  19. FLIM Networks with Bag of Feature Points

    Feb 24, 2026João Deltregia Martinelli, Marcelo Luis Rodrigues Filho, Felipe Crispim da Rocha Salvagnini +3Salient Object DetectionLightweight CNNs

    Institute of Computing UNICAMP Campinas, Brazil · School of Computer Science University of Sheffield Sheffield, United Kingdom

  20. PFGNet: A Fully Convolutional Frequency-Guided Peripheral Gating Network for Efficient Spatiotemporal Predictive Learning

    Feb 24, 2026Xinyong Cai, Changbin Sun, Yong Wang +2Spatiotemporal ForecastingVideo Prediction

    College of Computer Science, Sichuan University · Department of Data and Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong

  21. Efficient Image Super-Resolution with Multi-Scale Spatial Adaptive Attention Networks

    Feb 22, 2026Sushi Rao, Jingwei LiImage Super-ResolutionMulti-Scale Attention

    Zhejiang Gongshang University

  22. CLAP Convolutional Lightweight Autoencoder for Plant Disease Classification

    Feb 21, 2026Asish Bera, Subhajit Roy, Sudiptendu BanerjeeDepthwise Separable ConvolutionPlant Disease Classification

    Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Rajasthan, India

  23. Comparative Analysis of Lightweight CNNs for Resource-Constrained Devices: Predictive Performance, Efficiency Trade-offs, and Initialization Effects

    May 6, 2025Tasnim ShahriarConvolutional Neural NetworksLightweight CNNs

    Independent Researcher

  24. Evolutionary Deep Nets for Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring

    Mar 6, 2023Jinsong Wang, Kenneth A. LoparoNon-Intrusive Load MonitoringSparse Neural Networks