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Multi-Type Structural Damage Image Segmentation via Dual-Stage Optimization-Based Few-Shot Learning

  • Jiwei Zhong
  • , Yunlei Fan
  • , Xungang Zhao
  • , Qiang Zhou
  • , Yang Xu*
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • National Key Laboratory of Bridge Intelligent and Green Construction
  • Wuhan University of Technology
  • School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The timely and accurate recognition of multi-type structural surface damage (e.g., cracks, spalling, corrosion, etc.) is vital for ensuring the structural safety and service performance of civil infrastructure and for accomplishing the intelligent maintenance of smart cities. Deep learning and computer vision have made profound impacts on automatic structural damage recognition using nondestructive test techniques, especially non-contact vision-based algorithms. However, the recognition accuracy highly depends on the training data volume and damage completeness in the conventional supervised learning pipeline, which significantly limits the model performance under actual application scenarios; the model performance and stability for multi-type structural damage categories are still challenging. To address the above issues, this study proposes a dual-stage optimization-based few-shot learning segmentation method using only a few images with supervised information for multi-type structural damage recognition. A dual-stage optimization paradigm is established encompassing an internal network optimization based on meta-task and an external meta-learning machine optimization based on meta-batch. The underlying image features pertinent to various structural damage types are learned as prior knowledge to expedite adaptability across diverse damage categories via only a few samples. Furthermore, a mathematical framework of optimization-based few-shot learning is formulated to intuitively express the perception mechanism. Comparative experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness and necessity of the proposed method on a small-scale multi-type structural damage image set. The results show that the proposed method could achieve higher segmentation accuracies for various types of structural damage than directly training the original image segmentation network. In addition, the generalization ability for the unseen structural damage category is also validated. The proposed method provides an effective solution to achieve image-based structural damage recognition with high accuracy and robustness for bridges and buildings, which assists the unmanned intelligent inspection of civil infrastructure using drones and robotics in smart cities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1888-1906
Number of pages19
JournalSmart Cities
Volume7
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2024

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
    SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Keywords

  • few-shot learning
  • limited annotated images
  • meta learning
  • multi-type damage segmentation
  • structural health diagnosis

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