order to improve the detection performance of infrared target,a new algorithm of infrared target detection based on optimal deviation of firefly method is proposed.Firstly,the infrared target detection model was established,and the target image points were located by infrared camera system,and the intensity distribution of the detected object was regarded as the Gauss distribution function,the algorithm uses the centroid window to collect the image.The Airy spot energy distribution in infrared point target imaging was used as the fitness function of firefly method,and the difference iteration was used to detect the infrared target.The detection targets were optimized by controlling detection error of optimal deviation estimation.Finally,the simulation results show that the algorithm can effectively detect the infrared target area,which is more accurate than other algorithms,and the detection efficiency is higher.