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Main Authors: Theisen, Maximilian F., Meesters, Gabrie M. H., Schweidtmann, Artur M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06826
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author Theisen, Maximilian F.
Meesters, Gabrie M. H.
Schweidtmann, Artur M.
author_facet Theisen, Maximilian F.
Meesters, Gabrie M. H.
Schweidtmann, Artur M.
contents Data-driven soft sensors help in process operations by providing real-time estimates of otherwise hard- to-measure process quantities, e.g., viscosities or product concentrations. Currently, soft sensors need to be developed individually per plant. Using transfer learning, machine learning-based soft sensors could be reused and fine-tuned across plants and applications. However, transferring data-driven soft sensor models is in practice often not possible, because the fixed input structure of standard soft sensor models prohibits transfer if, e.g., the sensor information is not identical in all plants. We propose a topology-aware graph neural network approach for transfer learning of soft sensor models across multiple plants. In our method, plants are modeled as graphs: Unit operations are nodes, streams are edges, and sensors are embedded as attributes. Our approach brings two advantages for transfer learning: First, we not only include sensor data but also crucial information on the plant topology. Second, the graph neural network algorithm is flexible with respect to its sensor inputs. This allows us to model data from different plants with different sensor networks. We test the transfer learning capabilities of our modeling approach on ammonia synthesis loops with different process topologies. We build a soft sensor predicting the ammonia concentration in the product. After training on data from one process, we successfully transfer our soft sensor model to a previously unseen process with a different topology. Our approach promises to extend the data-driven soft sensors to cases to leverage data from multiple plants.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_06826
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Transferring Graph Neural Networks for Soft Sensor Modeling using Process Topologies
Theisen, Maximilian F.
Meesters, Gabrie M. H.
Schweidtmann, Artur M.
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Data-driven soft sensors help in process operations by providing real-time estimates of otherwise hard- to-measure process quantities, e.g., viscosities or product concentrations. Currently, soft sensors need to be developed individually per plant. Using transfer learning, machine learning-based soft sensors could be reused and fine-tuned across plants and applications. However, transferring data-driven soft sensor models is in practice often not possible, because the fixed input structure of standard soft sensor models prohibits transfer if, e.g., the sensor information is not identical in all plants. We propose a topology-aware graph neural network approach for transfer learning of soft sensor models across multiple plants. In our method, plants are modeled as graphs: Unit operations are nodes, streams are edges, and sensors are embedded as attributes. Our approach brings two advantages for transfer learning: First, we not only include sensor data but also crucial information on the plant topology. Second, the graph neural network algorithm is flexible with respect to its sensor inputs. This allows us to model data from different plants with different sensor networks. We test the transfer learning capabilities of our modeling approach on ammonia synthesis loops with different process topologies. We build a soft sensor predicting the ammonia concentration in the product. After training on data from one process, we successfully transfer our soft sensor model to a previously unseen process with a different topology. Our approach promises to extend the data-driven soft sensors to cases to leverage data from multiple plants.
title Transferring Graph Neural Networks for Soft Sensor Modeling using Process Topologies
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06826