Improving small sample prediction performance via novel nonlinear interpolation virtual sample generation with self-supervised learning

Abstract

In the early stages of production processes, due to expensive experimental costs and demanding experimental conditions, the amounts of collected samples are relatively limited. Information and knowledge extracted from minimal experimental data may be distorted and unreliable. Tackling this task, some researchers have recommended virtual sample generation (VSG), aiming at improving prediction accuracy of forecasting models for small sample sets by creating informative artificial samples. To more effectively capture nonlinear feature representations in small data, in this paper, we propose a promising VSG method based on self-supervised learning architecture to generate optimal, feasible virtual samples. The suggested technology considers distilling nonlinear feature representations using a manifold algorithm. Based on these representations, we integrated Newton’s divided difference and Chebyshev interpolation to create nonlinear interpolation points. We feed those interpolation points into a U-net model and an encoder-decoder net model to produce virtual sample inputs and output, respectively. Additionally, in this paper, we developed a Siamese network model to select virtual samples resembling original data. In the experiments, two industrial datasets were utilized to demonstrate efficacy of the proposed method. These experimental results show that the proposed method can more successfully boost prediction accuracy compared to the other three cutting-edge VSG methods.