Enhanced geometry prediction in laser directed energy deposition using meta-learning

Accurate bead geometry prediction in laser-directed energy deposition (L-DED) is often hindered by the scarcity and heterogeneity of experimental datasets collected under different materials, machine configurations, and process parameters. To address this challenge, a cross-dataset knowledge transfer model based on meta-learning for predicting deposited track geometry in L-DED is proposed. Specifically, two gradient-based meta-learning algorithms, i.e., Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning (MAML) and Reptile, are investigated to enable rapid adaptation to new deposition conditions with limited data. The proposed framework is performed using multiple experimental datasets compiled from peer-reviewed literature and in-house experiments and evaluated across powder-fed, wire-fed, and hybrid wire-powder L-DED processes. Results show that both MAML and Reptile achieve accurate bead height predictions on unseen target tasks using as few as three to nine training examples, consistently outperforming conventional feedforward neural networks trained under comparable data constraints. Across multiple target tasks representing different printing conditions, the meta-learning models achieve strong generalization performance, with R-squared values reaching up to approximately 0.9 and mean absolute errors between 0.03-0.08 mm, demonstrating effective knowledge transfer across heterogeneous L-DED settings.