Real-Time Decision-Making for Digital Twin in Additive Manufacturing with Model Predictive Control using Time-Series Deep Neural Networks

Digital Twin-a virtual replica of a physical system enabling real-time monitoring, model updating, prediction, and decision-making-combined with recent advances in machine learning (ML), offers new opportunities for proactive control strategies in autonomous manufacturing. However, achieving real-time decision-making with Digital Twins requires efficient optimization driven by accurate predictions of highly nonlinear manufacturing systems. This paper presents a simultaneous multi-step Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework for real-time decision-making, using a multi-variate deep neural network (DNN), named Time-Series Dense Encoder (TiDE), as the surrogate model. Different from the models in conventional MPC which only provide one-step ahead prediction, TiDE is capable of predicting future states within the prediction horizon in one shot (multi-step), significantly accelerating MPC. Using Directed Energy Deposition additive manufacturing as a case study, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MPC in achieving melt pool temperature tracking to ensure part quality, while reducing porosity defects by regulating laser power to maintain melt pool depth constraints. In this work, we first show that TiDE is capable of accurately predicting melt pool temperature and depth. Second, we demonstrate that the proposed MPC achieves precise temperature tracking while satisfying melt pool depth constraints within a targeted dilution range (10%-30%), reducing potential porosity defects. Compared to the PID controller, MPC results in smoother and less fluctuating laser power profiles with competitive or superior melt pool temperature control performance. This demonstrates MPC's proactive control capabilities, leveraging time-series prediction and real-time optimization, positioning it as a powerful tool for future Digital Twin applications and real-time process optimization in manufacturing.

Towards a Digital Twin Framework in Additive Manufacturing: Machine Learning and Bayesian Optimization for Time Series Process Optimization

Laser-directed-energy deposition (DED) offers advantages in additive manufacturing (AM) for creating intricate geometries and material grading. Yet, challenges like material inconsistency and part variability remain, mainly due to its layer-wise fabrication. A key issue is heat accumulation during DED, which affects the material microstructure and properties. While closed-loop control methods for heat management are common in DED research, few integrate real-time monitoring, physics-based modeling, and control in a unified framework. Our work presents a digital twin (DT) framework for real-time predictive control of DED process parameters to meet specific design objectives. We develop a surrogate model using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)-based machine learning with Bayesian Inference to predict temperatures in DED parts. This model predicts future temperature states in real time. We also introduce Bayesian Optimization (BO) for Time Series Process Optimization (BOTSPO), based on traditional BO but featuring a unique time series process profile generator with reduced dimensions. BOTSPO dynamically optimizes processes, identifying optimal laser power profiles to attain desired mechanical properties. The established process trajectory guides online optimizations, aiming to enhance performance. This paper outlines the digital twin framework's components, promoting its integration into a comprehensive system for AM.

WaveletKernelNet: An Interpretable Deep Neural Network for Industrial Intelligent Diagnosis

Convolutional neural network (CNN), with ability of feature learning and nonlinear mapping, has demonstrated its effectiveness in prognostics and health management (PHM). However, explanation on the physical meaning of a CNN architecture has rarely been studied. In this paper, a novel wavelet driven deep neural network termed as WaveletKernelNet (WKN) is presented, where a continuous wavelet convolutional (CWConv) layer is designed to replace the first convolutional layer of the standard CNN. This enables the first CWConv layer to discover more meaningful filters. Furthermore, only the scale parameter and translation parameter are directly learned from raw data at this CWConv layer. This provides a very effective way to obtain a customized filter bank, specifically tuned for extracting defect-related impact component embedded in the vibration signal. In addition, three experimental verification using data from laboratory environment are carried out to verify effectiveness of the proposed method for mechanical fault diagnosis. The results show the importance of the designed CWConv layer and the output of CWConv layer is interpretable. Besides, it is found that WKN has fewer parameters, higher fault classification accuracy and faster convergence speed than standard CNN.

A Focal Any-Angle Path-finding Algorithm Based on A* on Visibility Graphs

In this research, we investigate the subject of path-finding. A pruned version of visibility graph based on Candidate Vertices is formulated, followed by a new visibility check technique. Such combination enables us to quickly identify the useful vertices and thus find the optimal path more efficiently. The algorithm proposed is demonstrated on various path-finding cases. The performance of the new technique on visibility graphs is compared to the traditional A* on Grids, Theta* and A* on Visibility Graphs in terms of path length, number of nodes evaluated, as well as computational time. The key algorithmic contribution is that the new approach combines the merits of grid-based method and visibility graph-based method and thus yields better overall performance.

Deep Learning and Its Applications to Machine Health Monitoring: A Survey

Since 2006, deep learning (DL) has become a rapidly growing research direction, redefining state-of-the-art performances in a wide range of areas such as object recognition, image segmentation, speech recognition and machine translation. In modern manufacturing systems, data-driven machine health monitoring is gaining in popularity due to the widespread deployment of low-cost sensors and their connection to the Internet. Meanwhile, deep learning provides useful tools for processing and analyzing these big machinery data. The main purpose of this paper is to review and summarize the emerging research work of deep learning on machine health monitoring. After the brief introduction of deep learning techniques, the applications of deep learning in machine health monitoring systems are reviewed mainly from the following aspects: Auto-encoder (AE) and its variants, Restricted Boltzmann Machines and its variants including Deep Belief Network (DBN) and Deep Boltzmann Machines (DBM), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN). Finally, some new trends of DL-based machine health monitoring methods are discussed.