A Pothole Can Be Seen with Two Eyes: An Ensemble Approach to Pothole Detection

A Pothole Can Be Seen with Two Eyes: An Ensemble Approach to Pothole Detection | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A Pothole Can Be Seen with Two Eyes: An Ensemble Approach to Pothole Detection Atharv Patawar, Mohammed Mehdi, Bhaumik Kore, Pradnya Saval This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4262204/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 09 Apr, 2025 Read the published version in Machine Vision and Applications → Version 1 posted 13 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The issue of potholes and bad road quality is faced by nearly every developing country. These conditions often lead to accidents and traffic and cause the general public inconvenience. Significant research work has been performed in the field of effective pothole and road quality detection but due to several underlying issues like relying on only computer vision or sensor-based modeling, or requiring specialized equipment like LiDAR, implementing these solutions in the real world has never been feasible, especially for developing countries where a reliable system is required which works under any condition and more importantly, can be implemented with minimal resources and changes to the existing infrastructure. The proposed system is an end-to-end robust architecture that utilizes mobile devices mounted on government vehicles for data collection and features an innovative ensemble of a YOLOS and a YOLOv8 model resulting in a 97.34% [email protected] score for pothole detection, in conjunction with state-of-the-art sensor based pothole detection and road quality detection models resulting in impressive accuracies of 98.5% and 95.4% respectively. This two-forked approach to pothole and road quality detection combined with innovative connected applications like an analytics dashboard for the government and a navigation application for the consumer make this entire system highly relevant while being scalable, reliable, and easily deployable using the existing infrastructure in developing countries. Pothole detection Road quality Ensemble learning YOLOS YOLOv8 Object Detection Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 09 Apr, 2025 Read the published version in Machine Vision and Applications → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 25 Aug, 2024 Reviews received at journal 09 Jul, 2024 Reviews received at journal 08 Jul, 2024 Reviews received at journal 01 Jul, 2024 Reviews received at journal 26 Jun, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 11 Jun, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Jun, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Jun, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Jun, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 09 Jun, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 16 Apr, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 14 Apr, 2024 First submitted to journal 13 Apr, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4262204","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":292912671,"identity":"0bfa3411-9a38-476e-a0a3-016ddcf6a005","order_by":0,"name":"Atharv Patawar","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Dwarkadas J Sanghvi College of Engineering","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Atharv","middleName":"","lastName":"Patawar","suffix":""},{"id":292912672,"identity":"b9f266c0-75f6-4610-abe9-a22d18b66ea2","order_by":1,"name":"Mohammed Mehdi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dwarkadas J Sanghvi College of Engineering","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mohammed","middleName":"","lastName":"Mehdi","suffix":""},{"id":292912673,"identity":"8af32a51-07e5-4ef7-a612-6db1883575a1","order_by":2,"name":"Bhaumik Kore","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dwarkadas J Sanghvi College of Engineering","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Bhaumik","middleName":"","lastName":"Kore","suffix":""},{"id":292912674,"identity":"26b85610-af66-4bad-8209-b5d9d5a6206c","order_by":3,"name":"Pradnya Saval","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dwarkadas J Sanghvi College of Engineering","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Pradnya","middleName":"","lastName":"Saval","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-04-13 14:59:32","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4262204/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4262204/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00138-025-01679-8","type":"published","date":"2025-04-09T16:05:38+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":80558655,"identity":"c70191b4-be94-450a-9b8e-1e205ff80ef4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-14 16:15:36","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2245654,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"APotholecanbeseenwithtwoeyes4.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4262204/v1_covered_aa2c71a8-998e-4b77-a90d-8e7ce08a862d.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"A Pothole Can Be Seen with Two Eyes: An Ensemble Approach to Pothole Detection","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"machine-vision-and-applications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"mvap","sideBox":"Learn more about [Machine Vision and Applications](https://www.springer.com/journal/138)","snPcode":"138","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/138/3","title":"Machine Vision and Applications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Pothole detection, Road quality, Ensemble learning, YOLOS, YOLOv8, Object Detection","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4262204/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4262204/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe issue of potholes and bad road quality is faced by nearly every developing country. 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