  Advancements in deep learning are revolutionizing the classification of
remote-sensing images. Transformer-based architectures, utilizing
self-attention mechanisms, have emerged as alternatives to conventional
convolution methods, enabling the capture of long-range dependencies along with
global relationships in the image. Motivated by these advancements, this paper
presents StrideNET, a novel dual-branch architecture designed for terrain
recognition and implicit properties estimation. The terrain recognition branch
utilizes the Swin Transformer, leveraging its hierarchical representation and
low computational cost to efficiently capture both local and global features.
The terrain properties branch focuses on the extraction of surface properties
such as roughness and slipperiness using a statistical texture analysis method.
By computing surface terrain properties, an enhanced environmental perception
can be obtained. The StrideNET model is trained on a dataset comprising four
target terrain classes: Grassy, Marshy, Sandy, and Rocky. StrideNET attains
competitive performance compared to contemporary methods. The implications of
this work extend to various applications, including environmental monitoring,
land use and land cover (LULC) classification, disaster response, precision
agriculture, and much more.
