Structural Crack Detection Using Deep Learning: An In-depth Review

Crack detection in structures plays a vital role in ensuring their safety, durability, and reliability. Traditional crack detection methods sometimes need significant manual inspections, which are laborious, expensive, and prone to error by humans. Deep learning algorithms, which can learn intricate features from largescale datasets, have emerged as a viable option for automated crack detection recently. This study presents an indepth review of crack detection methods used till now, like image processing, traditional machine learning, and deep learning methods. Specifically, it will provide a comparative analysis of crack detection methods using deep learning, aiming to provide insights into the advancements, challenges, and future directions in this field. To facilitate comparative analysis, this study surveys publicly available crack detection datasets and benchmarks commonly used in deep learning research. Evaluation metrics employed to check the performance of different models are discussed, with emphasis on accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Moreover, this study provides an in-depth analysis of recent studies and highlights key findings, including state-of-the-art techniques, novel architectures, and innovative approaches to address the shortcomings of the existing methods. Finally, this study provides a summary of the key insights gained from the comparative analysis, highlighting the potential of deep learning in revolutionizing methodologies for crack detection. The findings of this research will serve as a valuable resource for researchers in the field, aiding them in selecting appropriate methods for crack detection and inspiring further advancements in this domain.