Computer vision based detection and localization of potholes in asphalt pavement images

Asphalt pavement distresses have significant importance in roads and highways. This paper addresses the detection and localization of one of the key pavement distresses, the potholes using computer vision. Different kinds of pothole and non-pothole images from asphalt pavement are considered for experimentation. Considering the appearance-shape based nature of the potholes, Histograms of oriented gradients (HOG) features are computed for the input images. Features are trained and classified using Naïve Bayes classifier resulting in labeling of the input as pothole or non-pothole image. To locate the pothole in the detected pothole images, normalized graph cut segmentation scheme is employed. Proposed scheme is tested on a dataset having broad range of pavement images. Experimentation results showed 90 % accuracy for the detection of pothole images and high recall for the localization of pothole in the detected images.