Leveraging Segment Anything Model (SAM) for Weld Defect Detection in Industrial Ultrasonic B-Scan Images

Automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) is a critical tool for infrastructure evaluation in industries such as oil and gas, and, while skilled operators manually analyze complex AUT data, artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods show promise for automating interpretation. However, improving the reliabi...

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Main Authors: Amir-M. Naddaf-Sh, Vinay S. Baburao, Hassan Zargarzadeh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-01-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/1/277
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author Amir-M. Naddaf-Sh
Vinay S. Baburao
Hassan Zargarzadeh
author_facet Amir-M. Naddaf-Sh
Vinay S. Baburao
Hassan Zargarzadeh
author_sort Amir-M. Naddaf-Sh
collection DOAJ
description Automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) is a critical tool for infrastructure evaluation in industries such as oil and gas, and, while skilled operators manually analyze complex AUT data, artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods show promise for automating interpretation. However, improving the reliability and effectiveness of these methods remains a significant challenge. This study employs the Segment Anything Model (SAM), a vision foundation model, to design an AI-assisted tool for weld defect detection in real-world ultrasonic B-scan images. It utilizes a proprietary dataset of B-scan images generated from AUT data collected during automated girth weld inspections of oil and gas pipelines, detecting a specific defect type: lack of fusion (LOF). The implementation includes integrating knowledge from the B-scan image context into the natural image-based SAM 1 and SAM 2 through a fully automated, promptable process. As part of designing a practical AI-assistant tool, the experiments involve applying both vanilla and low-rank adaptation (LoRA) fine-tuning techniques to the image encoder and mask decoder of different variants of both models, while keeping the prompt encoder unchanged. The results demonstrate that the utilized method achieves improved performance compared to a previous study on the same dataset.
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institution Kabale University
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spelling doaj-art-443d1e9371f940569cdd83bab3a65bd22025-01-10T13:21:26ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-01-0125127710.3390/s25010277Leveraging Segment Anything Model (SAM) for Weld Defect Detection in Industrial Ultrasonic B-Scan ImagesAmir-M. Naddaf-Sh0Vinay S. Baburao1Hassan Zargarzadeh2Phillip M. Drayer Electrical Engineering Department, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 77705, USACRC-Evans, Houston, TX 77066, USAPhillip M. Drayer Electrical Engineering Department, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 77705, USAAutomated ultrasonic testing (AUT) is a critical tool for infrastructure evaluation in industries such as oil and gas, and, while skilled operators manually analyze complex AUT data, artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods show promise for automating interpretation. However, improving the reliability and effectiveness of these methods remains a significant challenge. This study employs the Segment Anything Model (SAM), a vision foundation model, to design an AI-assisted tool for weld defect detection in real-world ultrasonic B-scan images. It utilizes a proprietary dataset of B-scan images generated from AUT data collected during automated girth weld inspections of oil and gas pipelines, detecting a specific defect type: lack of fusion (LOF). The implementation includes integrating knowledge from the B-scan image context into the natural image-based SAM 1 and SAM 2 through a fully automated, promptable process. As part of designing a practical AI-assistant tool, the experiments involve applying both vanilla and low-rank adaptation (LoRA) fine-tuning techniques to the image encoder and mask decoder of different variants of both models, while keeping the prompt encoder unchanged. The results demonstrate that the utilized method achieves improved performance compared to a previous study on the same dataset.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/1/277automated ultrasonic testingsegment anything modelvision foundation modeldefect detectionnondestructive testing
spellingShingle Amir-M. Naddaf-Sh
Vinay S. Baburao
Hassan Zargarzadeh
Leveraging Segment Anything Model (SAM) for Weld Defect Detection in Industrial Ultrasonic B-Scan Images
Sensors
automated ultrasonic testing
segment anything model
vision foundation model
defect detection
nondestructive testing
title Leveraging Segment Anything Model (SAM) for Weld Defect Detection in Industrial Ultrasonic B-Scan Images
title_full Leveraging Segment Anything Model (SAM) for Weld Defect Detection in Industrial Ultrasonic B-Scan Images
title_fullStr Leveraging Segment Anything Model (SAM) for Weld Defect Detection in Industrial Ultrasonic B-Scan Images
title_full_unstemmed Leveraging Segment Anything Model (SAM) for Weld Defect Detection in Industrial Ultrasonic B-Scan Images
title_short Leveraging Segment Anything Model (SAM) for Weld Defect Detection in Industrial Ultrasonic B-Scan Images
title_sort leveraging segment anything model sam for weld defect detection in industrial ultrasonic b scan images
topic automated ultrasonic testing
segment anything model
vision foundation model
defect detection
nondestructive testing
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/1/277
work_keys_str_mv AT amirmnaddafsh leveragingsegmentanythingmodelsamforwelddefectdetectioninindustrialultrasonicbscanimages
AT vinaysbaburao leveragingsegmentanythingmodelsamforwelddefectdetectioninindustrialultrasonicbscanimages
AT hassanzargarzadeh leveragingsegmentanythingmodelsamforwelddefectdetectioninindustrialultrasonicbscanimages