Lightweight concrete crack detection based on spiking neural networks

Purpose Most existing methods for concrete crack detection are based on deep learning techniques such as convolutional neural networks. However, these models, due to their large memory footprint, high power consumption and insufficient feature extraction capabilities, face challenges in mobile applications. To address these issues, this paper proposes a lightweight spiking neural network detection model. Design/methodology/approach This model achieves fast and accurate crack detection. Firstly, the Gabor-Spiking (GS) module preprocesses input images, extracting texture features and edge features of crack images through Gabor filter convolution modules and spiking convolution modules, respectively. Next, the multiscale residual (MR) module is designed, composed of convolutional layers and residual modules of various scales, to process the fused features and perform crack detection. Findings Experimental results demonstrate that the model’s size can be reduced to 4.6 MB, achieving accuracy improvements to 87.3 and 96.4% on the SDNET and OCD datasets, respectively. Originality/value This paper proposes a lightweight spiking neural network detection model based on the GS module for edge texture feature fusion and the MR module for crack detection.