The Use of eXplainable Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Operation Principles to Support the Continuous Development of Machine Learning-Based Solutions in Fault Detection and Identification

Machine learning (ML) revolutionized traditional machine fault detection and identification (FDI), as complex-structured models with well-designed unsupervised learning strategies can detect abnormal patterns from abundant data, which significantly reduces the total cost of ownership. However, their opaqueness raised human concern and intrigued the eXplainable artificial intelligence (XAI) concept. Furthermore, the development of ML-based FDI models can be improved fundamentally with machine learning operations (MLOps) guidelines, enhancing reproducibility and operational quality. This study proposes a framework for the continuous development of ML-based FDI solutions, which contains a general structure to simultaneously visualize and check the performance of the ML model while directing the resource-efficient development process. A use case is conducted on sensor data of a hydraulic system with a simple long short-term memory (LSTM) network. Proposed XAI principles and tools supported the model engineering and monitoring, while additional system optimization can be made regarding input data preparation, feature selection, and model usage. Suggested MLOps principles help developers create a minimum viable solution and involve it in a continuous improvement loop. The promising result motivates further adoption of XAI and MLOps while endorsing the generalization of modern ML-based FDI applications with the HITL concept.