HG-XAI: human-guided tool wear identification approach through augmentation of explainable artificial intelligence with machine vision

Identifying tool wear state is essential for machine operators as it assists in informed decisions for timely tool replacement and subsequent machining operations. As each wear state corresponds to a unique mitigation strategy, timely identification is vital while implementing solutions to minimize tool wear. The paper presents a novel Human Guided-eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (HG-XAI) approach for identifying the tool wear state by integrating human intelligence and eXplainable AI with a pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Efficient-Net-b0 model. The tool wear states were identified based on different wear mechanisms during the machining of IN718. The study considers four distinct tool wear states, i.e., Flank, Flank+BUE, Flank+Face, and Chipping, representing abrasion, adhesion, diffusion, and fracture wear mechanisms. The image-based datasets were created to depict various tool wear states by machining IN718 at varying surface speeds. The effectiveness of the proposed HG-XAI approach was evaluated by comparing its prediction accuracy with a standalone Efficient-Net-b0 model lacking human intelligence and XAI. Further, the scalability of the HG-XAI approach was examined by predicting wear states from images acquired at different cutting parameters. The results from the present study showed that the HG-XAI approach can predict the tool wear state with an accuracy of 93.08% and is scalable to variations in cutting conditions. Also, the proposed approach can be extended while developing vision-based on-machine tool wear monitoring systems. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.