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Academic Journal of Engineering and Technology Science, 2026, 9(4); doi: 10.25236/AJETS.2026.090410.

Research on Surface Defect Detection Technology of Corrugated Beam Steel Guardrails Based on a Vehicle-Mounted Vision System

Author(s)

Qiu Lin

Corresponding Author:
Qiu Lin
Affiliation(s)

China Merchants Chongqing Testing Center for Highway Engineering Co., Ltd., Chongqing, 400067, China

Abstract

Corrugated beam steel guardrails are critical facilities for highway traffic safety. Surface defects such as panel deformation, missing bolts, and post inclination directly threaten highway operation safety. Traditional manual inspection methods suffer from low efficiency and insufficient accuracy, making them difficult to satisfy the requirements of large-scale highway monitoring. Therefore, this study investigates a surface defect detection technology for guardrails based on a vehicle-mounted vision system. A vehicle-mounted vision system consisting of multiple line-scan cameras, an area-scan camera, a rotary encoder, and a GPS positioning device was designed. Multi-view imaging configurations were adopted to acquire images of different guardrail components. Based on this system, a detection method incorporating image preprocessing and identification of various critical defects was proposed. By utilizing contour recognition and color comparison techniques, accurate identification and localization of defects were achieved, providing reliable technical support for highway guardrail safety monitoring.

Keywords

steel guardrail; vehicle-mounted vision; surface defect; detection technology

Cite This Paper

Qiu Lin. Research on Surface Defect Detection Technology of Corrugated Beam Steel Guardrails Based on a Vehicle-Mounted Vision System. Academic Journal of Engineering and Technology Science (2026), Vol. 9, Issue 4: 82-89. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJETS.2026.090410.

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