An unsupervised approach towards promptable defect segmentation in laser-based additive manufacturing by Segment Anything

TL;DR

This paper introduces an unsupervised, promptable defect segmentation framework using a Vision Transformer foundation model for laser-based additive manufacturing, achieving high accuracy without labeled data and enabling real-time defect detection.

Contribution

It presents a novel unsupervised prompt generation scheme with a Vision Transformer model for defect segmentation in LAM, eliminating the need for labeled data.

Findings

High accuracy porosity segmentation achieved

Effective unsupervised prompt generation method

Potential for real-time anomaly detection in manufacturing

Abstract

Foundation models are currently driving a paradigm shift in computer vision tasks for various fields including biology, astronomy, and robotics among others, leveraging user-generated prompts to enhance their performance. In the Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM) domain, accurate image-based defect segmentation is imperative to ensure product quality and facilitate real-time process control. However, such tasks are often characterized by multiple challenges including the absence of labels and the requirement for low latency inference among others. Porosity is a very common defect in LAM due to lack of fusion, entrapped gas, and keyholes, directly affecting mechanical properties like tensile strength, stiffness, and hardness, thereby compromising the quality of the final product. To address these issues, we construct a framework for image segmentation using a state-of-the-art Vision Transformer (ViT) based Foundation model (Segment Anything Model) with a novel multi-point prompt generation scheme using unsupervised clustering. Utilizing our framework we perform porosity segmentation in a case study of laser-based powder bed fusion (L-PBF) and obtain high accuracy without using any labeled data to guide the prompt tuning process. By capitalizing on lightweight foundation model inference combined with unsupervised prompt generation, we envision constructing a real-time anomaly detection pipeline that could revolutionize current laser additive manufacturing processes, thereby facilitating the shift towards Industry 4.0 and promoting defect-free production along with operational efficiency.