Optimizable Image Segmentation Method with Superpixels and Feature Migration for Aerospace Structures

Abstract

The lack of high-quality, highly specialized labeled images, and the expensive annotation cost are always critical issues in the image segmentation field. However, most of the present methods, such as deep learning, generally require plenty of train cost and high-quality datasets. Therefore, an optimizable image segmentation method (OISM) based on the simple linear iterative cluster (SLIC), feature migration model, and random forest (RF) classifier, is proposed for solving the small sample image segmentation problem. In the approach, the SLIC is used for extracting the image boundary by clustering, the Unet feature migration model is used to obtain multidimensional superpixels features, and the RF classifier is used for predicting and updating the image segmentation results. It is demonstrated that the proposed OISM has acceptable accuracy, and it retains better target boundary than improved Unet model. Furthermore, the OISM shows the potential for dealing with the fatigue image identification of turbine blades, which can also be a promising method for the effective image segmentation to reveal the microscopic damages and crack propagations of high-performance structures for aeroengine components.