Proceedings of the 2026 6th International Conference on Public Management and Intelligent Society (PMIS 2026)

2026 6th International Conference on Public Management and Intelligent Society (PMIS 2026)

📍Xiamen, China🗓️ 24-26 April 2026

Lightweight Road Crack Detection Algorithm Integrating Knowledge Distillation and Fractal Dimension

Authors
Zihao Zhao1, Jun Cheng1, Yuanyuan Li1, *
1School of Railway Intelligent Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Huanghe Road, Dalian, 116028, Liaoning, China
*Corresponding author. Email: 171979166@qq.com
Corresponding Author
Yuanyuan Li
Available Online 6 July 2026.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6239-721-7_23How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Fractal dimension; Knowledge distillation; Residual network; Road crack detection
Abstract

Accurate road crack detection plays a vital role in traffic safety and infrastructure maintenance. However, mainstream deep learning-based detection models suffer from high computational costs and are difficult to deploy on resource-constrained edge devices. This paper proposes FDKDNet, a lightweight road crack detection network that integrates knowledge distillation and fractal dimension analysis. The ResNet101-based teacher model is enhanced with asymmetric convolutions to effectively capture slender crack features. The ResNet18-based student model utilizes Gaussian process-guided Bayesian optimization to adaptively optimize the distillation temperature and realize efficient knowledge transfer. Furthermore, a novel fractal feature module is designed to quantify the morphological complexity of cracks within anchor boxes. Experimental results on the Crack500 dataset show that FDKDNet achieves 90.3% detection accuracy with only one-fourth the parameters of the teacher model, and outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods. The proposed method provides an efficient and practical solution for road crack detection on resource-limited platforms.

Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2026 6th International Conference on Public Management and Intelligent Society (PMIS 2026)
Series
Advances in Engineering Research
Publication Date
6 July 2026
ISBN
978-94-6239-721-7
ISSN
2352-5401
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6239-721-7_23How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

TY  - CONF
AU  - Zihao Zhao
AU  - Jun Cheng
AU  - Yuanyuan Li
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/06
TI  - Lightweight Road Crack Detection Algorithm Integrating Knowledge Distillation and Fractal Dimension
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 6th International Conference on Public Management and Intelligent Society (PMIS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 239
EP  - 246
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-721-7_23
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-721-7_23
ID  - Zhao2026
ER  -