CNN-based and transformer-based informative twin for defect detection in fused deposition modeling
摘要
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is susceptible to in-process defects, including under-extrusion holes, layer misalignment, and material voids. If these defects are not detected during the process, they can critically undermine the strength and reliability of the part. Deep learning approaches provide a robust and dependable solution for in-process monitoring, correction, and decision-making. This paper introduces two novel end-to-end pipelines for the detection, segmentation, and classification of defects on the Creality Ender-3 V3 KE printer. The first approach employs a CNN-based methodology utilizing YOLOv11n, DeepLabV3 + , and EfficientNet, while the second approach is a transformer-based hybrid architecture leveraging YOLOv11n, SegFormer-B2, and ConvNeXt V2. A Unity 3D graphical interface is utilized for creating informative twins and facilitating real-time decision-making. This work presents the first systematic benchmark comparing CNN and transformer-based multi-stage pipelines for in-situ FDM defect detection, offering actionable guidance for selecting architectures based on application-specific considerations of recall, precision, and inference speed.