A deep learning counting model applied to quality control

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to present two different methods to speed up a test used in the sanitary ware industry that requires to count the number of granules that remains in the commodity after flushing. The test requires that 2,500 granules are added to the lavatory and less than 125 remain.Design/methodology/approachThe problem is approached using two deep learning computer vision (CV) models. The first model is a Vision Transformers (ViT) classification approach and the second one is a U-Net paired with a connected components algorithm. Both models are trained and evaluated using a proprietary data set of 3,518 labeled images, and performance is compared.FindingsIt was found that both algorithms are able to produce competitive solutions. The U-Net algorithm achieves accuracy levels above 94% and the ViT model reach accuracy levels above 97%. At this time, the U-Net algorithm is being piloted and the ViT pilot is at the planning stage.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first approach using CV to solve the granules problem applying ViT. In addition, this work updates the U-Net-Connected components algorithm and compares the results of both algorithms.