Label Propagation With Contrastive Anchors for Deep Semi-Supervised Superheat Degree Identification in Aluminum Electrolysis Process

Accurate identification of multimodal Superheat Degree (SD) plays a critical decision-making role in Aluminum Electrolysis Process (AEP). Because the labeled SD data are scarce and annotation is expensive in real-world AEP, it is a challenge to develop a well-behaved SD identification model. In this paper, a Contrastive Anchors-based Label Propagation (CALP) algorithm is proposed to construct a Deep Semi-Supervised Learning (DSSL) model, called CALP-DSSL, for better identifying SD by utilizing large-scale unlabeled data and limited labeled data. Specifically, to improve the reliability of affinity graph and its affinity matrix, positive anchors and negative anchors are generated by estimating the uncertainty of label predictions, which can guide the correct direction of inferring pseudo-labels. For tackling the unsupervised domain adaptation problems existing in AEP, we propose a Variational Information Domain Adaptation (VIDA) module using the pseudo-labels generated by CALP to fine-tune the deep Variational Information Bottleneck (VIB) network. Finally, the overall CALP-DSSL model is trained by the Mini-Batch Incremental Learning (MBIL) technique in local level. It matches the nearest neighbors based on batch embedded features, which provides more distinct information flow during subsequent label propagation to construct the affinity graph. Benchmark datasets verify the superiority of CALP algorithm. Case study on a real-world AEP shows that CALPDSSL model improves the accuracy of SD identification over other state-of-art DSSL methods. Our source code is available at https://github.com/wjiecsu/CALP-DSSL. Note to Practitioners—The focus of this paper is to develop a well-behaved SD identification model based on the improved deep semi-Supervised learning (CALP-DSSL) model. In this model, a Contrastive Anchors based-Label Propagation (CALP) algorithm is used to predict pseudo-labels to construct DSSL model for improving the reliability of the generated pseudolabels. In this way, a Variational Information Domain Adaption (VIDA) module is constructed to solve the domain shift problems existed in the unstable working conditions. Moreover, the overall model is trained by Mini-Batch Incremental Learning (MBIL) strategy to build better underlying representation for supporting effective label propagation.

I. Introduction

Electrolytic aluminum industry plays a strategic foundation position in ensuring the construction of major national projects and promoting the growth of the national economy [1]. In recent twenty years, modern electrolytic aluminum industry is developing towards large-scale and complex, which puts forward higher requirements for efficient, energy-saving and high-quality production [2].