Identification of Asbestos Slates in Buildings Based on Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) and Drone-Based Aerial Imagery

Asbestos is a class 1 carcinogen, and it has become clear that it harms the human body. Its use has been banned in many countries, and now the investigation and removal of installed asbestos has become a very important social issue. Accordingly, many social costs are expected to occur, and an efficient asbestos investigation method is required. So far, the examination of asbestos slates was performed through visual inspection. With recent advances in deep learning technology, it is possible to distinguish objects by discovering patterns in numerous training data. In this study, we propose the use of drone images and a faster region-based convolutional neural network (Faster R-CNN) to identify asbestos slates in target sites. Furthermore, the locations of detected asbestos slates were estimated using orthoimages and compiled cadastral maps. A total of 91 asbestos slates were detected in the target sites, and 91 locations were estimated from a total of 45 addresses. To verify the estimated locations, an on-site survey was conducted, and the location estimation method obtained an accuracy of 98.9%. The study findings indicate that the proposed method could be a useful research method for identifying asbestos slate roofs.