Deep learning-based framework for the observation of real-time melt pool and detection of anomaly in wire-arc additive manufacturing

ABSTRACTObject detection has become a popular tool of deep learning in the era of digital manufacturing. In this study, the most powerful and efficient object detection algorithm, i.e., You Only Look Once (YOLO) algorithm, was used to detect anomalies in deposited beads of wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) using melt pool images. This study used the latest version of YOLO algorithm to train and validate the custom image dataset of the melt pool obtained by conducting experiments using a robotic-controlled WAAM. The mean average precision (mAP) for the “Regular bead” class and the “Irregular bead” class reached 99% at an Intersection over Union (IoU) threshold of 0.5, for both training and validation. When the model was tested for new or unseen datasets by conducting four new experimental trials, the mAP value for the “Regular bead” class reached 98.47% and for the “Irregular bead” class reached 96.68% at an average processing time of 0.014 s/frame. The object detection algorithm YOLO has shown an excellent processing time of 15 ms per frame, which shows its potential for real-time application in the manufacturing industry.KEYWORDS: WAAMdeep learningobject detectionYOLOv8real-time application AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, BIT Sindri, Dhanbad for providing the research facility.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).