The Internet has revolutionized the way users share and acquire knowledge. As important and popular Web-based applications, online discussion forums provide interactive platforms for users to exchange information and report problems. With the rapid growth of social networks and an ever increasing number of Internet users, online forums have accumulated a huge amount of valuable user-generated data and have accordingly become a major information source for business intelligence. This study focuses specifically on product defects, which are one of the central concerns of manufacturing companies and service providers, and proposes a machine learning method to automatically detect product defects in the context of online forums. To complement the detection of product defects , we also present a product feature extraction method to summarize defect threads and a thread ranking method to search for troubleshooting solutions. To this end, we collected different data sets to test these methods experimentally and the results of the tests show that our methods are very promising: in fact, in most cases, they outperformed the current state-of-the-art methods. / Ph. D.

Computer vision, a prominent subfield of artificial intelligence, has gained widespread util-ization in diverse domains such as surveillance, security, and robotics. This research en-deavors to develop an semi-automated defect detection system serving as a quality controlassurance mechanism for Nolato MediTor, a manufacturing company within the medicaldevice industries engaged in the production of anesthesia breathing bags. The primary fo-cus of this study revolves around the detection of a specific defect, namely, holes. Withinthe context of Nolato MediTor, prioritizing recall (sensitivity) assumes utmost signific-ance as it entails favoring the rejection of functional breathing bags over the inadvertentacceptance of defective ones. The proposed system encompasses a robust metallic standfacilitating precise positioning for three distinct camera angles, accompanied by a XiaomiRedmi Note 11 Pro phone and a software component, designed to process incoming imagefolders representing a complete view of a breathing bag from multiple angles. Subsequently,these images undergo analysis using the learned weights derived from the implementedMask R-CNN model, enabling a cohesive assessment of the breathing bag. The system’sperformance was rigorously evaluated, and the best-performing weights demonstrated aremarkable recall rate of 0.995 for the first test set, exceeding the desired recall thresholdof 95%. Similarly, for the second test set, the recall rate achieved an impressive value of0.949, narrowly missing the 95% threshold by a marginal 0.001. Furthermore, the com-putational efficiency, quantified as the processing time per breathing bag, on average, thelongest duration recorded amounted to approximately 10.151 seconds, with the poten-tial for further enhancement by employing a higher standard GPU. This study serves as aproof of concept, demonstrating the feasibility of achieving semi-automated quality controlutilizing CNN. The implemented system represents a promising prototype with potentialscalability for improved operational conditions and expanded defect coverage, thus pavingthe way towards a fully automated quality control within large-scale industries.

Software testing is essential for quality assurance, with automated techniques such as random testing and adaptive random testing being cost-effective solutions compared to others. Adaptive random testing seeks to enhance random testing, and there is a conception that adaptive random testing always should replace random testing. Our research question investigates this conception by addressing a gap in the literature, where a comparison between the two techniques in terms of certain key metrics is missing, namely defect detection efficiency and test case generation time. Defect detection efficiency is the amount of defects detected divided by the number defects in the system multiplied by one hundred. Test case generation time is the time it takes to generate all of the test case inputs. These metrics where chosen as they can be seen as a measurement of the techniques effectiveness and efficiency respectively. In order to address this research question we employ a quantitative experiment where we compare the performance of random testing and adaptive random testing with a sole focus on these two metrics. The comparison is performed by implementing and testing both algorithms on eight error-seeded numerical programs and measuring the results. The results displayed that adaptive random testing had a defect detection efficiency total average of 21.59% and a test case generation time total average of 35.37 (ms), while random testing had a defect detection efficiency total average of 22.28% and a test case generation time total average of 0.26 (ms). These results might contribute to disproving the conception that adaptive random testing always should replace random testing, as random testing evidently performed better on both the measured metrics.

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Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) remains a predominately open-loop additive manufacturing process with minimal in-situ quality and process control. Some machines feature optical monitoring systems but lack automated analytical capabilities for real-time defect detection. Recent advances in machine learning (ML) and convolutional neural networks (CNN) present compelling solutions to analyze images in real-time and to develop in-situ monitoring. Approximately 30,000 selective laser melting (SLM) build images from 31 previous builds are gathered and labeled as either “okay” or “defect”. Then, 14 open-sourced CNN were trained using transfer learning to classify the SLM build images. These models were evaluated by F1 score and down selected to the top 3 models. The top 3 models were then retrained and evaluated using Dietterich’s 5x2 cross-validation and compared with pairwise student t-tests. The pairwise t-test results show no statistically significant difference in performance between VGG- 19, Xception, and InceptionResNet. All models are strong candidates for future development and refinement. Additional work addresses the entire model development process and establishes a foundation for future work. Collaborations with computer science students has produced an image pre-processing program to enhance as-taken SLM images. Other outcomes include initial work to overlay CAD layer images and preliminary hardware integration plan for the SLM machine. The results from this work have demonstrated the potential of an optical layer-wise image defect detection system when paired with a CNN.

Defected wheel are one the major reasons endangered state of railroad vehicles safety statue, due to vehicle derailment and worsen the quality of freight and passenger transportation. Therefore, timely defect detection for monitoring and detecting the state of defects is highly critical. This thesis presents a passive non-contact acoustic structural health monitoring approach using ultrasonic acoustic emissions (UAE) to detect certain defects on different structures, as well as, classifying the type of the defect on them. The acoustic emission signals used in this study are in the ultrasonic range (18-120 kHz), which is significantly higher than the majority of the research in this area thus far. For the proposed method, an impulse excitation, such as a hammer strike, is applied to the structure. In addition, ultrasound techniques have higher sensitivity to both surface and subsurface defects, which make the defect detection more accurate. Three structures considered for this study are: 1) a longitudinal beam, 2) a lifting weight, 3) an actual rail-wheel. A longitudinal beam was used at the first step for a better understanding of physics of the ultrasound propagation from the defect, as well, develop a method for extracting the signature response of the defect. Besides, the inherent directionality of the ultrasound microphone increases the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and could be useful in the noisy areas. Next, by considering the ultimate goal of the project, lifting weight was chosen, due to its similarity to the ultimate goal of this project that is a rail-wheel. A detection method and metric were developed by using the lifting weight and two type of synthetic defects were classified on this structure. Also, by using same extracted features, the same types of defects were detected and classified on an actual rail-wheel. / Master of Science

Software testing is important, but judging whether a set of software tests is effective is difficult. This problem also appears in the classroom as educators more frequently include software testing activities in programming assignments. The most common measures used to assess student-written software tests are coverage criteria—tracking how much of the student’s code (in terms of statements, or branches) is exercised by the corresponding tests. However, coverage criteria have limitations and sometimes overestimate the true quality of the tests. This dissertation investigates alternative measures of test quality based on how many defects the tests can detect either from code written by other students—all-pairs execution—or from artificially injected changes—mutation analysis. We also investigate a new potential measure called checked code coverage that calculates coverage from the dynamic backward slices of test oracles, i.e. all statements that contribute to the checked result of any test. Adoption of these alternative approaches in automated classroom grading systems require overcoming a number of technical challenges. This research addresses these challenges and experimentally compares different methods in terms of how well they predict defect-detection capabilities of student-written tests when run against over 36,500 known, authentic, human-written errors. For data collection, we use CS2 assignments and evaluate students’ tests with 10 different measures—all-pairs execution, mutation testing with four different sets of mutation operators, checked code coverage, and four coverage criteria. Experimental results encompassing 1,971,073 test runs show that all-pairs execution is the most accurate predictor of the underlying defect-detection capability of a test suite. The second best predictor is mutation analysis with the statement deletion operator. Further, no strong correlation was found between defect-detection capability and coverage measures. / Ph. D.

Early detection of rail defects is necessary for preventing derailments and costly damage to the train and railway infrastructure. A rail surface flaw can quickly propagate from a small fracture to a broken rail after only a few train cars have passed over it. Rail defect detection is typically performed by using an instrumented car or a separate railway monitoring vehicle. Rail surface irregularities can be measured using accelerometers mounted to the bogie side frames or wheel axles. Typical signal processing algorithms for detecting defects within a vertical acceleration signal use a simple thresholding routine that considers only the amplitude of the signal. As a result, rail surface defects that produce low amplitude acceleration signatures may not be detected, and special track components that produce high amplitude acceleration signatures may be flagged as defects. The focus of this research is to develop an intelligent signal processing algorithm capable of detecting and classifying various rail surface irregularities, including defects and special track components. Three algorithms are proposed and validated using data collected from an instrumented freight car. For the first two algorithms, one uses a windowed Fourier Transform while the other uses the Wavelet Transform for feature extraction. Both of these algorithms use an artificial neural network for feature classification. The third algorithm uses the Wavelet Transform to perform a regularity analysis on the signal. The algorithms are validated with the collected data and shown to out-perform the threshold-based algorithm for the same data set. Proper training of the defect detection algorithm requires a large data set consisting of operating conditions and physical parameters. To generate this training data, a dynamic wheel-rail interaction model was developed that relates defect geometry to the side frame vertical acceleration signature. The model was generated by using combined systems dynamic modeling, and the system was solved with a developed combined lumped and distributed parameter system numerical approximation. The broken rail model was validated with real data collected from an instrumented freight car. The model was then used to train and validate the defect detection methodologies for various train and rail physical parameters and operating conditions. / Ph. D.

Integrated circuit (IC) layer topology analysis methods are the main research topic of this doctoral thesis. Multiple methods are presented for IC layer feature analysis along with a software system where they are implemented and tested. Each of different IC layers has distinct features therefore it is very difficult to use universal algorithm for their analysis. A specialized software system was developed to test various analysis algorithms. The system and its architecture is a part of this thesis. Main tasks solved during research of this these were: finding or developing of optimal methods suitable for IC layer structure recognition, software system design and implementation, experimental testing of implemented methods accuracy and efficiency. Thesis consists of introduction, four chapters and the chapter of conclusions. In the introduction scientific novelty of the work is described as well as the aims and tasks of the work are formulated and the author’s publications and structure of the thesis are presented. The first chapter is dedicated to literature review. It covers existing IC layer structure analysis systems and algorithms which are used for this task. Generic image processing and analysis algorithms and methods are also covered as they are used as part of methodology developed in this thesis. The second chapter details different types of IC layers and their properties. Image processing and analysis methods suitable for each of these layer types are... [to full text] / Disertacijoje nagrinėjama integrinių grandynų (IG) topologijos elementų atpažinimo sistemos metodai ir algoritmai, jų taikymas bei pačios sistemos architektūra. Integrinių schemų projektavimo ir gamybos pramonėje problema yra automatinis kiekvieno technologinio lusto sluoksnio vaizdinės informacijos apdorojimas ir analizė, tiksliai išskiriant gamybos proceso metu suformuotas struktūras, tam kad šių duomenų pagalba galima būtų atlikti gamybos proceso tikslumo patikrinimą. Šio disertacijos darbo tyrimų objektas yra puslaidininkinių integrinių schemų sluoksniuose suformuoti elementai. Kiekvieno iš skirtingų sluoksnių struktūros pasižymi skirtingomis savybėmis, todėl labai sunku sukurti universalius analizės metodus. Dėl šios priežasties buvo sukurta speciali programinės įrangos (PĮ) sistema. PĮ architektūra yra disertacijos tyrimų objektas. Pagrindiniai disertacijoje sprendžiami uždaviniai: IG elementų struktūrų atpažinimo metodų pritaikymas ir kūrimas, PĮ sistemos projektavimas ir įgyvendinimas, eksperimentinis įdiegtų metodų efektyvumo ir tikslumo tyrimas. Disertaciją sudaro įvadas, keturi skyriai ir rezultatų apibendrinimas. Įvade nagrinėjamas problemos aktualumas, formuluojamas darbo tikslas bei uždaviniai, aprašomas mokslinis darbo naujumas, pristatomi autoriaus pranešimai ir publikacijos, disertacijos struktūra. Pirmasis skyrius skirtas analitinei literatūros apžvalgai. Jame nagrinėjamos žinomos IG topologijos elementų atpažinimo sistemos ir jose naudojami metodai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

In large scale productions of metal sheets, it is important to maintain an effective way to continuously inspect the products passing through the production line. The inspection mainly consists of detection of defects and tracking of ID numbers. This thesis investigates the possibilities to create an automatic inspection system by evaluating different machine learning algorithms for defect detection and optical character recognition (OCR) on metal sheet data. Digit recognition and defect detection are solved separately, where the former compares the object detection algorithm Faster R-CNN and the classical machine learning algorithm NCGF, and the latter is based on unsupervised learning using a convolutional autoencoder (CAE). The advantage of the feature extraction method is that it only needs a couple of samples to be able to classify new digits, which is desirable in this case due to the lack of training data. Faster R-CNN, on the other hand, needs much more training data to solve the same problem. NCGF does however fail to classify noisy images and images of metal sheets containing an alloy, while Faster R-CNN seems to be a more promising solution with a final mean average precision of 98.59%. The CAE approach for defect detection showed promising result. The algorithm learned how to only reconstruct images without defects, resulting in reconstruction errors whenever a defect appears. The errors are initially classified using a basic thresholding approach, resulting in a 98.9% accuracy. However, this classifier requires supervised learning, which is why the clustering algorithm Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is investigated as well. The result shows that it should be possible to use GMM, but that it requires a lot of GPU resources to use it in an end-to-end solution with a CAE.