Deep learning approaches for autonomous crack detection in concrete wall, brick deck and pavement

Abstract

Detecting cracks is vital for inspecting and maintaining concrete structures, enabling early intervention and preventing potential damage. The advent of computer vision and image processing in civil engineering has ushered in deep learning-based semi-automatic/automatic techniques, replacing traditional visual inspections. These methods, driven by autonomous diagnosis, have applications across various sectors, fostering rapid progress in civil engineering. In this study, we present an approach that combines vision transformers and convolutional neural networks (CNN) for autonomously diagnosing cracks in bridges, roads, and walls. Performance enhancement was achieved through transfer learning, data augmentation, and optimized hyperparameters, utilizing popular CNN and ViT architectures. The proposed method was tested on the SDNET2018 dataset, comprising over 56,000 images. Experimental results demonstrated the approach's effectiveness, achieving high accuracy in detecting road cracks at 96.41%, wall cracks at 92.76%, and bridge cracks at 92.81%. These findings highlight the promising potential of deep learning in this field.