YOLOv1 to v8: Unveiling Each Variant–A Comprehensive Review of YOLO

This paper implements a systematic methodological approach to review the evolution of YOLO variants. Each variant is dissected by examining its internal architectural composition, providing a thorough understanding of its structural components. Subsequently, the review highlights key architectural innovations introduced in each variant, shedding light on the incremental refinements. The review includes benchmarked performance metrics, offering a quantitative measure of each variant’s capabilities. The paper further presents the performance of YOLO variants across a diverse range of domains, manifesting their real-world impact. This structured approach ensures a comprehensive examination of YOLOs journey, methodically communicating its internal advancements and benchmarked performance before delving into domain applications. It is envisioned, the incorporation of concepts such as federated learning can introduce a collaborative training paradigm, where YOLO models benefit from training across multiple edge devices, enhancing privacy, adaptability, and generalisation.