Fast detection of dam zone boundary based on Otsu thresholding optimized by enhanced harris hawks optimization

Area of Science:

• Civil Engineering
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Computer Vision

Background:

• Earth-rock dams are critical infrastructure, with safety dependent on accurate zone boundary detection.
• Current methods rely on manual judgment, leading to time-consuming and labor-intensive processes.
• Automated and efficient boundary detection is crucial for timely engineering project execution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a rapid and accurate method for detecting dam zone boundaries.
• To overcome the limitations of human-dependent and slow existing detection techniques.
• To enhance the safety and efficiency of earth-rock dam construction and maintenance.

Main Methods:

• A novel boundary detection approach utilizing the Otsu algorithm.
• Optimization of the Otsu algorithm via an enhanced Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) algorithm.
• Integration of Particle Swarm Optimization, a tangent function, and a chaotic sine map to improve HHO's exploration, convergence, and robustness.

Main Results:

• The proposed method significantly accelerates computation time for dam zone boundary detection.
• Demonstrated a substantial reduction in calculation time, achieving results in as little as 20 seconds.
• Achieved approximately an 81.2% reduction in calculation time compared to original methods.
• Validated through application to a real-life engineering project, confirming practical utility.

Conclusions:

• The enhanced Otsu algorithm provides a fast and reliable solution for earth-rock dam boundary detection.
• This automated approach addresses the time and labor constraints of traditional methods.
• The optimized algorithm offers improved efficiency and robustness, crucial for large-scale infrastructure projects.