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Interpretable and Explainable Machine Learning for Ultrasonic Defect Sizing

delete2023-04-01
delete10
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OA
AI
R
Richard Pyle *
R
Robert R. Hughes
P
Paul D. Wilcox
DOI:10.1109/TUFFC.2023.3248968delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Despite its popularity in literature, there are few examples of machine learning (ML) being used for industrial nondestructive evaluation (NDE) applications. A significant barrier is the black box nature of most ML algorithms. This article aims to improve the interpretability and explainability of ML for ultrasonic NDE by presenting a novel dimensionality reduction method: Gaussian feature approximation (GFA). GFA involves fitting a 2-D elliptical Gaussian function in an ultrasonic image and storing the seven parameters that describe each Gaussian. These seven parameters can then be used as inputs to data analysis methods such as the defect-sizing neural network presented in this article. GFA is applied to ultrasonic defect sizing for inline pipe inspection as an example application. This approach is compared to sizing with the same neural network, and two other dimensionality reduction methods [the parameters of 6 dB drop boxes and principal component analysis (PCA)], as well as a convolutional neural network (CNN) applied to raw ultrasonic images. Of the dimensionality reduction methods tested, GFA features produce the closest sizing accuracy to the sizing from the raw images, with only a 23% increase in root mean square error (RMSE), despite a 96.5% reduction in the dimensionality of the input data. Implementing ML with GFA is implicitly more interpretable than doing so with PCA or raw images as inputs, and gives significantly more sizing accuracy than 6 dB drop boxes. Shapley additive explanations (SHAPs) are used to calculate how each feature contributes to the prediction of an individual defect's length. Analysis of SHAP values demonstrates that the GFA-based neural network proposed displays many of the same relationships between defect indications and their predicted size as occur in traditional NDE sizing methods.
Keywords:
Acoustics
Inspection
Pipelines
Neural networks
Imaging
Frequency control
Data models
Defect characterization
interpretability
Index Terms
machine learning (ML) ultrasound
neural network
plane wave imaging (PWI)
simulation

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control cover
IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control
IF:
3.7
Papers:
6.7K
Citations:
1.4W

Organization

U
University of Bristol
Scholars:
3.1W
Papers: 3.0W
Citations: 5.3W