Article: Metaheuristic asphalt crack sealing path planning based on discrete grey wolf optimiser Journal: International Journal of Hydromechatronics (IJHM) 2026 Vol.9 No.1 pp.57 - 90 Abstract: This study introduces a cost-effective framework to optimise asphalt crack sealing by converting binary crack images into an open-loop travelling salesman problem, avoiding the need for an accurate crack skeleton. To address sub-optimality, we propose an improved discrete grey wolf optimiser (I-DGWO) that integrates reverse sequence shift mutation and a 'ruin and recreate' strategy to enhance exploration and exploitation. In addition, we incorporate the Lin-Kernighan-Helsgaun-3 (LKH-3) as an initialisation technique to search around the solution. Our statistical evaluation shows a substantial reduction in overlapping distance of up to 27% and 63% on single and multiple cracks respectively when compared to four other baselines. Furthermore, the ablation studies show that the addition of the 'ruin and recreate' reduces the overlapping distance by 12% and the incorporation of the reverse sequence shift mutation further reduces the overlapping distance by 21%. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Metaheuristic asphalt crack sealing path planning based on discrete grey wolf optimiser

Authors: Jeremy C.H. Ong; Minsung Yoon; Hee Chan Shin; Sung-Eui Yoon; Mohd-Zulhilmi Ismadi; Xin Wang

Addresses: School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya 47500, Malaysia; Department of Computer Science, KAIST, Daejeon 34151, South Korea ' Department of Computer Science, KAIST, Daejeon 34151, South Korea ' Department of Computer Science, KAIST, Daejeon 34151, South Korea ' Department of Computer Science, KAIST, Daejeon 34151, South Korea ' School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya 47500, Malaysia ' School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya 47500, Malaysia

Abstract: This study introduces a cost-effective framework to optimise asphalt crack sealing by converting binary crack images into an open-loop travelling salesman problem, avoiding the need for an accurate crack skeleton. To address sub-optimality, we propose an improved discrete grey wolf optimiser (I-DGWO) that integrates reverse sequence shift mutation and a 'ruin and recreate' strategy to enhance exploration and exploitation. In addition, we incorporate the Lin-Kernighan-Helsgaun-3 (LKH-3) as an initialisation technique to search around the solution. Our statistical evaluation shows a substantial reduction in overlapping distance of up to 27% and 63% on single and multiple cracks respectively when compared to four other baselines. Furthermore, the ablation studies show that the addition of the 'ruin and recreate' reduces the overlapping distance by 12% and the incorporation of the reverse sequence shift mutation further reduces the overlapping distance by 21%.

Keywords: automated crack sealing; open-loop travelling salesman problem; metaheuristic optimisation; crack sealing heuristic; travelling salesman problem; TSP.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHM.2026.152978

International Journal of Hydromechatronics, 2026 Vol.9 No.1, pp.57 - 90

Received: 29 Oct 2024
Accepted: 07 Apr 2025
Published online: 17 Apr 2026 *

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Title: Metaheuristic asphalt crack sealing path planning based on discrete grey wolf optimiser

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