HKAN: A Hybrid Kolmogorov–Arnold Network for Robust Fabric Defect Segmentation

Currently, fabric defect detection methods predominantly rely on CNN models. However, due to the inherent limitations of CNNs, such models struggle to capture long-distance dependencies in images and fail to accurately detect complex defect features. While Transformers excel at modeling long-range dependencies, their quadratic computational complexity poses significant challenges. To address these issues, we propose combining CNNs with Transformers and introduce Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (KANs) to enhance feature extraction capabilities. Specifically, we designed a novel network for fabric defect segmentation, named HKAN, consisting of three components: encoder, bottleneck, and decoder. First, we developed a simple yet effective KANConv Block using KAN convolutions. Next, we replaced the MLP in PoolFormer with KAN, creating a lightweight KANTransformer Block. Finally, we unified the KANConv Block and the KANTransformer Block into a Hybrid KAN Block, which serves as both the encoder and bottleneck of HKAN. Extensive experiments on three fabric datasets demonstrate that HKAN outperforms mainstream semantic segmentation models, achieving superior segmentation performance and delivering prominent results across diverse fabric images.