# Scalable Concept Extraction in Industry 4.0

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.03551 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03551/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 50 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Jun 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Grad-CAM: Visual Explanations from Deep Networks via Gradient-based Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02391/) (2016)
- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [A Unified Approach to Interpreting Model Predictions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.07874/) (2017)
- ["Why Should I Trust You?": Explaining the Predictions of Any Classifier](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.04938/) (2016)
- [Learning Deep Features for Discriminative Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.04150/) (2015)
- [Shortcut Learning in Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.07780/) (2020)
- [Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI): Concepts, Taxonomies, Opportunities and Challenges toward Responsible AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10045/) (2019)
- [Interpretability Beyond Feature Attribution: Quantitative Testing with Concept Activation Vectors (TCAV)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.11279/) (2017)
- [Sanity Checks for Saliency Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.03292/) (2018)
- [Opportunities and Challenges in Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI): A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11371/) (2020)
- [On Completeness-aware Concept-Based Explanations in Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07969/) (2019)
- [A Survey on the Explainability of Supervised Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.07876/) (2020)
- [Explaining Classifiers with Causal Concept Effect (CaCE)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.07165/) (2019)
- [Automatic Classification of Defective Photovoltaic Module Cells in Electroluminescence Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.02894/) (2018)
- [Regression Concept Vectors for Bidirectional Explanations in Histopathology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.04520/) (2019)
- [Explainable Artificial Intelligence Applications in Cyber Security: State-of-the-Art in Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.14937/) (2022)
- [An Explainable Artificial Intelligence Approach for Unsupervised Fault Detection and Diagnosis in Rotating Machinery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.11848/) (2021)
- [Revisiting Sanity Checks for Saliency Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14297/) (2021)
- [MIAD: A Maintenance Inspection Dataset for Unsupervised Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.13968/) (2022)
- [ECLAD: Extracting Concepts with Local Aggregated Descriptors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.04531/) (2022)
- [PACE: Posthoc Architecture-Agnostic Concept Extractor for Explaining CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.13828/) (2021)
- [MACE: Model Agnostic Concept Extractor for Explaining Image Classification Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.01472/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Concept-Based Explanations in Computer Vision: Where Are We and Where Could We Go?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.13456/) (2024)
- [Multi-level Neural Networks for high-dimensional parametric obstacle problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.05026/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The industry 4.0 is leveraging digital technologies and machine learning techniques to connect and optimize manufacturing processes. Central to this idea is the ability to transform raw data into human understandable knowledge for reliable data-driven decision-making. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been instrumental in processing image data, yet, their ``black box'' nature complicates the understanding of their prediction process. In this context, recent advances in the field of eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) have proposed the extraction and localization of concepts, or which visual cues intervene on the prediction process of CNNs. This paper tackles the application of concept extraction (CE) methods to industry 4.0 scenarios. To this end, we modify a recently developed technique, ``Extracting Concepts with Local Aggregated Descriptors'' (ECLAD), improving its scalability. Specifically, we propose a novel procedure for calculating concept importance, utilizing a wrapper function designed for CNNs. This process is aimed at decreasing the number of times each image needs to be evaluated. Subsequently, we demonstrate the potential of CE methods, by applying them in three industrial use cases. We selected three representative use cases in the context of quality control for material design (tailored textiles), manufacturing (carbon fiber reinforcement), and maintenance (photovoltaic module inspection). In these examples, CE was able to successfully extract and locate concepts directly related to each task. This is, the visual cues related to each concept, coincided with what human experts would use to perform the task themselves, even when the visual cues were entangled between multiple classes. Through empirical results, we show that CE can be applied for understanding CNNs in an industrial context, giving useful insights that can relate to domain knowledge.