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Designing cutting tools for the turning industry, providing optimal cutting parameters is of importance for both the client, and for the company's own research. By examining the metal chips that form in the turning process, operators can recommend optimal cutting parameters. Instead of doing manual classification of metal chips that come from the turning process, an automated approach of detecting chips and classification is preferred. This thesis aims to evaluate if such an approach is possible using either a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) or a CNN feature extraction coupled with machine learning (ML).

The thesis started with a research phase where we reviewed existing state of the art CNNs, image processing and ML algorithms. From the research, we implemented our own object detection algorithm, and we chose to implement two CNNs, AlexNet and VGG16. A third CNN was designed and implemented with our specific task in mind. The three models were tested against each other, both as standalone image classifiers and as a feature extractor coupled with a ML algorithm. Because the chips were inside a machine, different angles and light setup had to be tested to evaluate which setup provided the optimal image for classification.

A top view of the cutting area was found to be the optimal angle with light focused on both below the cutting area, and in the chip disposal tray. The smaller proposed CNN with three convolutional layers, three pooling layers and two dense layers was found to rival both AlexNet and VGG16 in terms of both as a standalone classifier, and as a feature extractor. The proposed model was designed with a limited system in mind and is therefore more suited for those systems while still having a high accuracy. The classification accuracy of the proposed model as a standalone classifier was 92.03%. Compared to the state of the art classifier AlexNet which had an accuracy of 92.20%, and VGG16 which had an accuracy of 91.88%. When used as a feature extractor, all three models paired best with the Random Forest algorithm, but the accuracy between the feature extractors is not that significant. The proposed feature extractor combined with Random Forest had an accuracy of 82.56%, compared to AlexNet with an accuracy of 81.93%, and VGG16 with 79.14% accuracy.