ETAFHrNet: A Transformer-Based Multi-Scale Network for Asymmetric Pavement Crack Segmentation
Accurate segmentation of pavement cracks from high-resolution remote sensing imagery plays a crucial role in automated road condition assessment and infrastructure maintenance. However, crack structures often exhibit asymmetry, irregular morphology, and multi-scale variations, posing significant cha...
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| author | Chao Tan Jiaqi Liu Zhedong Zhao Rufei Liu Peng Tan Aishu Yao Shoudao Pan Jingyi Dong |
| author_facet | Chao Tan Jiaqi Liu Zhedong Zhao Rufei Liu Peng Tan Aishu Yao Shoudao Pan Jingyi Dong |
| author_sort | Chao Tan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Accurate segmentation of pavement cracks from high-resolution remote sensing imagery plays a crucial role in automated road condition assessment and infrastructure maintenance. However, crack structures often exhibit asymmetry, irregular morphology, and multi-scale variations, posing significant challenges to conventional CNN-based methods in real-world environments. Specifically, the proposed ETAFHrNet focuses on two predominant pavement-distress morphologies—linear cracks (transverse and longitudinal) and alligator cracks—and has been empirically validated on their intersections and branching patterns over both asphalt and concrete road surfaces. In this work, we present ETAFHrNet, a novel attention-guided segmentation network designed to address the limitations of traditional architectures in detecting fine-grained and asymmetric patterns. ETAFHrNet integrates Transformer-based global attention and multi-scale hybrid feature fusion, enhancing both contextual perception and detail sensitivity. The network introduces two key modules: the Efficient Hybrid Attention Transformer (EHAT), which captures long-range dependencies, and the Cross-Scale Hybrid Attention Module (CSHAM), which adaptively fuses features across spatial resolutions. To support model training and benchmarking, we also propose QD-Crack, a high-resolution, pixel-level annotated dataset collected from real-world road inspection scenarios. Experimental results show that ETAFHrNet significantly outperforms existing methods—including U-Net, DeepLabv3+, and HRNet—in both segmentation accuracy and generalization ability. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of interpretable, multi-scale attention architectures in complex object detection and image classification tasks, making our approach relevant for broader applications, such as autonomous driving, remote sensing, and smart infrastructure systems. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a6b204ceeb704995920bca26c854f070 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-a6b204ceeb704995920bca26c854f0702025-08-20T02:33:07ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-05-011511618310.3390/app15116183ETAFHrNet: A Transformer-Based Multi-Scale Network for Asymmetric Pavement Crack SegmentationChao Tan0Jiaqi Liu1Zhedong Zhao2Rufei Liu3Peng Tan4Aishu Yao5Shoudao Pan6Jingyi Dong7College of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaAccurate segmentation of pavement cracks from high-resolution remote sensing imagery plays a crucial role in automated road condition assessment and infrastructure maintenance. However, crack structures often exhibit asymmetry, irregular morphology, and multi-scale variations, posing significant challenges to conventional CNN-based methods in real-world environments. Specifically, the proposed ETAFHrNet focuses on two predominant pavement-distress morphologies—linear cracks (transverse and longitudinal) and alligator cracks—and has been empirically validated on their intersections and branching patterns over both asphalt and concrete road surfaces. In this work, we present ETAFHrNet, a novel attention-guided segmentation network designed to address the limitations of traditional architectures in detecting fine-grained and asymmetric patterns. ETAFHrNet integrates Transformer-based global attention and multi-scale hybrid feature fusion, enhancing both contextual perception and detail sensitivity. The network introduces two key modules: the Efficient Hybrid Attention Transformer (EHAT), which captures long-range dependencies, and the Cross-Scale Hybrid Attention Module (CSHAM), which adaptively fuses features across spatial resolutions. To support model training and benchmarking, we also propose QD-Crack, a high-resolution, pixel-level annotated dataset collected from real-world road inspection scenarios. Experimental results show that ETAFHrNet significantly outperforms existing methods—including U-Net, DeepLabv3+, and HRNet—in both segmentation accuracy and generalization ability. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of interpretable, multi-scale attention architectures in complex object detection and image classification tasks, making our approach relevant for broader applications, such as autonomous driving, remote sensing, and smart infrastructure systems.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/11/6183pavement crack segmentationtransformer neural networksmulti-scale feature fusionglobal attention mechanismhigh-resolution remote sensingdeep learning |
| spellingShingle | Chao Tan Jiaqi Liu Zhedong Zhao Rufei Liu Peng Tan Aishu Yao Shoudao Pan Jingyi Dong ETAFHrNet: A Transformer-Based Multi-Scale Network for Asymmetric Pavement Crack Segmentation Applied Sciences pavement crack segmentation transformer neural networks multi-scale feature fusion global attention mechanism high-resolution remote sensing deep learning |
| title | ETAFHrNet: A Transformer-Based Multi-Scale Network for Asymmetric Pavement Crack Segmentation |
| title_full | ETAFHrNet: A Transformer-Based Multi-Scale Network for Asymmetric Pavement Crack Segmentation |
| title_fullStr | ETAFHrNet: A Transformer-Based Multi-Scale Network for Asymmetric Pavement Crack Segmentation |
| title_full_unstemmed | ETAFHrNet: A Transformer-Based Multi-Scale Network for Asymmetric Pavement Crack Segmentation |
| title_short | ETAFHrNet: A Transformer-Based Multi-Scale Network for Asymmetric Pavement Crack Segmentation |
| title_sort | etafhrnet a transformer based multi scale network for asymmetric pavement crack segmentation |
| topic | pavement crack segmentation transformer neural networks multi-scale feature fusion global attention mechanism high-resolution remote sensing deep learning |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/11/6183 |
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