Subgrade Distress Detection in GPR Radargrams Using an Improved YOLOv11 Model

This study compares three detectors—Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD), Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN), and Only Look Once v11 (YOLOv11)—for detecting subgrade distress in GPR radargrams. SSD converges fastest but shows weaker detection performance, while Faster R-CNN achieves higher localization accuracy at the cost of slower convergence. YOLOv11 offers the best overall performance. To push YOLOv11 further, we introduce three enhancements: a Multi-Scale Edge Enhancement Module (MEEM), a Multi-Feature Multi-Scale Attention (MFMSA) mechanism, and a hybrid configuration that combines both. On a representative dataset, YOLOv11_MEEM yields a 0.2 percentage-point increase in precision with a 0.2 percentage-point decrease in recall and a 0.3 percentage-point gain in mean Average Precision@0.5:0.95, indicating improved generalization and efficiency. YOLOv11_MFMSA achieves precision comparable to MEEM but suffers a substantial recall drop and slower inference. The hybrid YOLOv11_MEEM+MFMSA underperforms on key metrics due to gradient conflicts. MEEM reduces electromagnetic interference through dynamic edge enhancement, preserving real-time performance and robust generalization. Overall, MEEM-enhanced YOLOv11 is suitable for real-time subgrade distress detection in GPR radargrams. The research findings can offer technical support for the intelligent detection of subgrade engineering while also promoting the resilient development and sustainable operation and maintenance of urban infrastructure.