The Evolution of Image Segmentation from Classical Techniques to Deep Learning: A Survey

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Image segmentation is a fundamental step in computer vision and a cornerstone of robotic perception, serving as the foundation for interpreting data acquired from vision sensors, enabling robots to analyze complex visual environments, identify and localize objects, and support intelligent decision-making and autonomous control. It plays a critical role in applications such as autonomous navigation, robotic manipulation, medical robotics, agricultural robotics, autonomous vehicles, and human–robot interaction. Image segmentation has evolved from classical methods, which relied on handcrafted rules and mathematical models, to deep learning approaches that learn complex visual patterns directly from data. This evolution reflects advances in algorithms, computational power, and the theoretical foundations of mathematics and data science. Modern deep learning methods rely heavily on large, well-annotated datasets to train sophisticated neural networks. Yet, classical techniques remain valuable in certain scenarios, offering faster, reliable results without extensive computational requirements. Understanding the strengths and limitations of both approaches is key to selecting the right method. This paper surveys image segmentation techniques, comparing them in terms of accuracy, computational cost, and processing speed to guide informed method selection.