# M3-AD: Reflection-aware Multi-modal, Multi-category, and Multi-dimensional Benchmark and Framework for Industrial Anomaly Detection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.00055 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.00055/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 36 of its 56 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Feb 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 36)

- [Qwen2 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10671/) (2024)
- [Visual Prompt Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12119/) (2022)
- [Towards Total Recall in Industrial Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.08265/) (2021)
- [Vision-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06749/) (2025)
- [PaDiM: a Patch Distribution Modeling Framework for Anomaly Detection and Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.08785/) (2020)
- [VLM-R1: A Stable and Generalizable R1-style Large Vision-Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.07615/) (2025)
- [Training Language Models to Self-Correct via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.12917/) (2024)
- [SPot-the-Difference Self-Supervised Pre-training for Anomaly Detection and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.14315/) (2022)
- [VL-Rethinker: Incentivizing Self-Reflection of Vision-Language Models with Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08837/) (2025)
- [WinCLIP: Zero-/Few-Shot Anomaly Classification and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.14814/) (2023)
- [AnomalyCLIP: Object-agnostic Prompt Learning for Zero-shot Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.18961/) (2023)
- [VT-ADL: A Vision Transformer Network for Image Anomaly Detection and Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10036/) (2021)
- [AnomalyGPT: Detecting Industrial Anomalies Using Large Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.15366/) (2023)
- [DAST: Difficulty-Adaptive Slow-Thinking for Large Reasoning Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04472/) (2025)
- [Deep Industrial Image Anomaly Detection: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.11514/) (2023)
- [Segmentation-Based Deep-Learning Approach for Surface-Defect Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.08536/) (2019)
- [AdaCLIP: Adapting CLIP with Hybrid Learnable Prompts for Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15795/) (2024)
- [Mixed supervision for surface-defect detection: from weakly to fully supervised learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.06064/) (2021)
- [Visual Planning: Let's Think Only with Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.11409/) (2025)
- [SRPO: Enhancing Multimodal LLM Reasoning via Reflection-Aware Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.01713/) (2025)
- [Towards Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection and Reasoning with Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07601/) (2025)
- [FiLo: Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection by Fine-Grained Description and High-Quality Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.13671/) (2024)
- [MMAD: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Multimodal Large Language Models in Industrial Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.09453/) (2024)
- [Myriad: Large Multimodal Model by Applying Vision Experts for Industrial Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.19070/) (2023)
- [Reflect, Retry, Reward: Self-Improving LLMs via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.24726/) (2025)
- [Bayesian Prompt Flow Learning for Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10080/) (2025)
- [AdaptCLIP: Adapting CLIP for Universal Visual Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.09926/) (2025)
- [AnomalyR1: A GRPO-based End-to-end MLLM for Industrial Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.11914/) (2025)
- [PAG: Multi-Turn Reinforced LLM Self-Correction with Policy as Generative Verifier](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.10406/) (2025)
- [CoTFormer: A Chain-of-Thought Driven Architecture with Budget-Adaptive Computation Cost at Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10845/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [GSO-Net: Visual State Machines for Hazardous Freight Transfer Compliance at Petrochemical Logistics Nodes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.12408/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Although multimodal large language models (MLLMs) have advanced industrial anomaly detection toward a zero-shot paradigm, they still tend to produce high-confidence yet unreliable decisions in fine-grained and structurally complex industrial scenarios, and lack effective self-corrective mechanisms. To address this issue, we propose M3-AD, a unified reflection-aware multimodal framework for industrial anomaly detection. M3-AD comprises two complementary data resources: M3-AD-FT, designed for reflection-aligned fine-tuning, and M3-AD-Bench, designed for systematic cross-category evaluation, together providing a foundation for reflection-aware learning and reliability assessment. Building upon this foundation, we propose RA-Monitor, which models reflection as a learnable decision revision process and guides models to perform controlled self-correction when initial judgments are unreliable, thereby improving decision robustness. Extensive experiments conducted on M3-AD-Bench demonstrate that RA-Monitor outperforms multiple open-source and commercial MLLMs in zero-shot anomaly detection and anomaly analysis tasks. Code will be released at https://github.com/Yanhui-Lee/M3-AD.
