VAMamba: An Efficient Visual Adaptive Mamba for Image Restoration

Abstract

Recent Mamba-based image restoration methods have achieved promising results but remain limited by fixed scanning patterns and inefficient feature utilization. Conventional Mamba architectures rely on predetermined paths that cannot adapt to diverse degradations, constraining both restoration performance and computational efficiency. To overcome these limitations, we propose VAMamba, a Visual Adaptive Mamba framework with two key innovations. First, QCLAM(Queue-basedCacheLow-rankAdaptiveMemory)enhancesfeaturelearningthrougha FIFO cache that stores historical representations. Similarity between current LoRA-adapted and cached features guides intelligent fusion, enabling dynamic reuse while effectively controlling memorygrowth.Second, GPS-SS2D(GreedyPathScanSS2D)introducesadaptive scanning. A Vision Transformer generates score maps to estimate pixel importance, and a greedy strategy de termines optimal forward and backward scanning paths. These learned trajectories replace rigid patterns, enabling SS2D to perform targeted feature extraction. The integration of QCLAM and GPS-SS2D allows VAMamba to adaptively focus on degraded regions while maintaining high computational efficiency. Extensive experiments across diverse restoration tasks demonstrate that VAMamba consistently outperforms existing approaches in both restoration quality and efficiency, establishing new benchmarks for adaptive image restoration. Our code is available at https://github.com/WaterHQH/VAMamba.