Automatic Pavement Crack Detection Based on Octave Convolution Neural Network with Hierarchical Feature Learning

Automatic pavement crack detection plays an important role in ensuring road safety.In images of cracks,information about the cracks can be conveyed through high-frequency and low-fre-quency signals that focus on fine details and global structures,respectively.The output features obtained from different convolutional layers can be combined to represent information about both high-frequency and low-frequency signals.In this paper,we propose an encoder-decoder framework called octave hierarchical network(Octave-H),which is based on the U-Network(U-Net)architec-ture and utilizes an octave convolutional neural network and a hierarchical feature learning module for performing crack detection.The proposed octave convolution is capable of extracting multi-fre-quency feature maps,capturing both fine details and global cracks.We propose a hierarchical feature learning module that merges multi-frequency-scale feature maps with different levels(high and low)of octave convolutional layers.To verify the superiority of the proposed Octave-H,we employed the CrackForest dataset(CFD)and AigleRN databases to evaluate this method.The experimental results demonstrate that Octave-H outperforms other algorithms with satisfactory performance.

Pavement Cracks Coupled With Shadows:A New Shadow-Crack Dataset and A Shadow-Removal-Oriented Crack Detection Approach

Automatic pavement crack detection is a critical task for maintaining the pavement stability and driving safety.The task is challenging because the shadows on the pavement may have similar intensity with the crack,which interfere with the crack detection performance.Till to the present,there still lacks efficient algorithm models and training datasets to deal with the interference brought by the shadows.To fill in the gap,we made several contributions as follows.First,we proposed a new pavement shadow and crack dataset,which contains a variety of shadow and pavement pixel size combinations.It also covers all common cracks(linear cracks and network cracks),placing higher demands on crack detection methods.Second,we designed a two-step shadow-removal-oriented crack detection approach:SROCD,which improves the performance of the algorithm by first removing the shadow and then detecting it.In addition to shadows,the method can cope with other noise disturbances.Third,we explored the mechanism of how shadows affect crack detection.Based on this mechanism,we propose a data augmentation method based on the difference in brightness values,which can adapt to brightness changes caused by seasonal and weather changes.Finally,we introduced a residual feature augmentation algorithm to detect small cracks that can predict sudden disasters,and the algorithm improves the performance of the model overall.We compare our method with the state-of-the-art methods on existing pavement crack datasets and the shadow-crack dataset,and the experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our method.

Automated Pavement Crack Detection Using Deep Feature Selection and Whale Optimization Algorithm

Pavement crack detection plays a crucial role in ensuring road safety and reducing maintenance expenses.Recent advancements in deep learning(DL)techniques have shown promising results in detecting pavement cracks;however,the selection of relevant features for classification remains challenging.In this study,we propose a new approach for pavement crack detection that integrates deep learning for feature extraction,the whale optimization algorithm(WOA)for feature selection,and random forest(RF)for classification.The performance of the models was evaluated using accuracy,recall,precision,F1 score,and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve(AUC).Our findings reveal that Model 2,which incorporates RF into the ResNet-18 architecture,outperforms baseline Model 1 across all evaluation metrics.Nevertheless,our proposed model,which combines ResNet-18 with both WOA and RF,achieves significantly higher accuracy,recall,precision,and F1 score compared to the other two models.These results underscore the effectiveness of integrating RF and WOA into ResNet-18 for pavement crack detection applications.We applied the proposed approach to a dataset of pavement images,achieving an accuracy of 97.16%and an AUC of 0.984.Our results demonstrate that the proposed approach surpasses existing methods for pavement crack detection,offering a promising solution for the automatic identification of pavement cracks.By leveraging this approach,potential safety hazards can be identified more effectively,enabling timely repairs and maintenance measures.Lastly,the findings of this study also emphasize the potential of integrating RF and WOA with deep learning for pavement crack detection,providing road authorities with the necessary tools to make informed decisions regarding road infrastructure maintenance.

RAIENet:End-to-End Multitasking Road All Information Extractor

Road lanes and markings are the bases for autonomous driving environment perception.In this paper,we propose an end-to-end multi-task network,Road All Information Extractor named RAIENet,which aims to extract the full information of the road surface including road lanes,road markings and their correspondences.Based on the prior knowledge of pavement information,we explore and use the deep progressive relationship between lane segmentation and pavement mark-ing detection.Then,different attention mechanisms are adapted for different tasks.A lane detection accuracy of 0.807 F1-score and a ground marking accuracy of 0.971 mean average precision at intersection over union(IOU)threshold 0.5 were achieved on the newly labeled see more on road plus(CeyMo+)dataset.Of course,we also validated it on two well-known datasets Berkeley Deep-Drive 100K(BDD100K)and CULane.In addition,a post-processing method for generating bird’s eye view lane(BEVLane)using lidar point cloud information is proposed,which is used for the construction of high-definition maps and subsequent decision-making planning.The code and data are available at https://github.com/mayberpf/RAIEnet.

A review on pavement distress and structural defects detection and quantification technologies using imaging approaches

Pavement distress detection(PDD)plays a vital role in planning timely pavement maintenance that improves pavement service life.In order to promote the development of PDD technologies and find out the insufficiencies in PDD field,this paper reviews the technical development history and characteristics of various PDD technologies,which contributes to the current state of research on PDD.First,processes of PDD are briefly introduced.The PDD technologies based on radar ranging,2D image,laser ranging and 3 D structured light are illustrated.The newest 3D PDD technology based on interference fringe,which has better accuracy,is in progress.The principles and implementation processes of these methods are discussed.Finally,the shortcomings of these technologies in the field of PDD are concluded.Recommendations for future development are provided.The research results show that various PDD technologies have been continuously improved,developed,over the past decade,and have achieved a series of results.However,the measurements from existing PDD technologies can not be metrological traced to acquire the true dimensions of pavement distresses.The lack of metrological traceability technology in the PDD field needs to be further solved.In order to achieve more accurate and efficient PDD,the metrological traceability technology of PDD systems has become the future development direction in this field.

A critical review of carbon materials engineered electrically conductive cement concrete and its potential applications

Carbon materials engineered electrically conductive cement concrete(ECCC)is typically prepared by directly adding carbon-based conductive filler into the cement matrix and then mixing cement with aggregates.With such a strategy,ECCC possesses a high conductivity and strain/stress sensitivity and thus can be used for snow and ice melting,ohmic heating,cathodic protection system,electromagnetic shielding,structural health monitoring,and traffic detection.This paper aims to provide a systematic review on the development and applications of ECCC,especially the progress made in the past decade(from 2012 to 2022).The composition and manufacture of ECCC are first introduced.Then,the electrical performance of ECCC and its potential applications are reviewed.Finally,the remaining challenges for future work are discussed.

Influence of computation algorithm on the accuracy of rut depth measurement

Rutting is one of the dominant pavement distresses, hence, the accuracy of rut depth measurements can have a substantial impact on the maintenance and rehabilitation （M 8： R） strategies and funding allocation. Different computation algorithms such as straight- edge method and wire line method, which are based on the same raw data, may lead to rut depth estimation which are not always consistent. Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess the impact of algorithm types on the accuracy of rut depth computation. In this paper, a 1B-point-based laser sensor detection technology, commonly accepted in China for rut depth measurements, was used to obtain a database of 85,000 field transverse profiles having three representative rutting shapes with small, medium and high severity rut levels. Based on the reconstruction of real transverse profiles, the consequences from two different algorithms were compared. Results showed that there is a combined effect of rut depth and profile shape on the rut depth computation accuracy. As expected, the dif- ference between the results obtained with the two computation methods increases with deeper rutting sections： when the distress is above 15 mm （severe level）, the average dif- ference between the two computation methods is above 1.5 mm, normally, the wire line method provides larger results. The computation suggests that the rutting shapes have a minimal influence on the results. An in-depth analysis showed that the upheaval outside of the wheel path is a dominant shape factor which results in higher computation differences.