Performance Evaluation of Feature Matching Techniques for Detecting Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall Displacement

Image registration technology is widely applied in various matching methods. In this study, we aim to evaluate the feature matching performance and to find an optimal technique for detecting three types of behaviors—facing displacement, settlement, and combined displacement—in reinforced soil retaining walls (RSWs). For a single block with an artificial target and a multiblock structure with artificial and natural targets, five popular detectors and descriptors—KAZE, SURF, MinEigen, ORB, and BRISK—were used to evaluate the resolution performance. For comparison, the repeatability, matching score, and inlier matching features were analyzed based on the number of extracted and matched features. The axial registration error (ARE) was used to verify the accuracy of the methods by comparing the position between the estimated and real features. The results showed that the KAZE method was the best detector and descriptor for RSWs (block shape target), with the highest probability of successfully matching features. In the multiblock experiment, the block used as a natural target showed similar matching performance to that of the block with an artificial target attached. Therefore, the behaviors of RSW blocks can be analyzed using the KAZE method without installing an artificial target.