A Systematic Review and Taxonomy of Machine Learning Methods for Process Optimization and Control in Laser Welding Jan Voets, Hasan Tercan, Tobias Meisen, Cemal Esen Applied Sciences Switzerland, 2026 Laser welding is widely used in complex manufacturing processes and valued for its reliability, flexibility, and high energy density. However, achieving the desired weld quality requires the detection and, ideally, the prevention of defects. Besides other methods, machine learning (ML) has been integrated into laser welding with the primary goal of process optimization and quality improvement, for example, by enabling process adaptation before or during welding to reduce defects. This survey systematically reviews publications from 2015 to 2025 that integrate machine learning and deep learning methods into laser welding optimization or adaptation processes. An extensive analysis identifies which parts of the process and for what purposes ML methods are researched and implemented and how they are evaluated, as well as the sensors, lasers, and materials involved. Furthermore, the findings are analyzed and organized into taxonomies that define overarching meta-categories into which existing approaches can be classified and contextualized. The results reveal that various ML approaches are applied for tasks, such as surrogate modeling, process planning, direct control, and virtual sensing and monitoring. Although many different control parameters and optimization targets are considered, laser power and welding speed dominate as the most frequently adjusted parameters, while penetration depth and weld geometry-related properties are the most common optimization targets. Finally, the survey identifies major challenges, including the lack of benchmarking datasets, standardized evaluation protocols, and interpretable models.
Partial observability in vision-based forklift navigation with compressed visual information Simon Hadwiger, David Kube, Tobias Meisen International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications, 2026 In industry, transportation tasks are more frequently handled by mobile robotic systems such as Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). The deployment of such systems alongside humans entails the need to handle load carriers with imprecisely known or unknown position. In this work, we apply our previously introduced method to control a forklift AGV based on a single RGB camera and a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agent. This agent utilizes compressed visual information in form of bounding box data to perform the final approaching and precise alignment in front of these load carriers. Hereby, the limited field of view of the camera results in a partially observable environment state, a typical issue for vision-based vehicles. To address this problem, we propose a direction estimation module, which uses a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network to keep track of previous interactions with the environment. We design the proposed module to provide an additional input for the agent, enabling an independent training and verification of the system components. Through this extension, our DRL agent achieves a reduction of the lateral mean absolute error of up to 78% compared to the DRL baseline without the direction estimation module. The application of Domain Randomization (DR) to investigate the influences of inaccurate bounding box detections revealed an even higher importance of the direction estimation module, if combined with an imprecise detector. We also apply two distinct methods to speed up our training process. Firstly, a privileged agent is employed to generate expert demonstrations for the training of the DRL agent and LSTM network. Secondly, we accelerate the generation of bounding box data through the projection of tightly-fitted 3D bounding boxes. This method reduces the time required for the generation of observations by more than 89%.
Data-Driven Inverse Design of Hybrid Waveguide Gratings Using Reflection Spectra via Tandem Networks and Conditional VAEs Shahrzad Dehghani, Christopher Knoth, Shaghayegh Eskandari, Maximilian Buchmüller, Tobias Meisen, et al. Optics, 2025 This study presents a data-driven inverse design approach for one-dimensional hybrid waveguide gratings using full reflection spectra across the visible range and a complete span of incident angles. Traditionally, designing such structures to achieve specific optical responses relies on parameter sweeps and iterative simulations which are computationally expensive, time-consuming, and often inefficient. To overcome this, we generated a comprehensive dataset using rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) simulations and trained two machine learning models: a deterministic tandem network and a generative conditional Variational Autoencoder (cVAE). Both models were trained on noisy reflection spectra to mimic real-world measurements. They both predict structural parameters accurately on clean and noisy data. On clean data, the mean absolute error (MAE) for silver thickness and grating period is below 1 nm. For the dielectric layer, the error is about 13–15 nm. When noise is added, the Tandem network performs best with low to moderate noise. The cVAE, however, stays more stable under high noise conditions. At σ=0.3, the cVAE model reliably predicts the silver thickness and grating period, with MAEs below 6 nm. The main error comes from the dielectric thickness. Sensitivity analysis of reflection spectra confirms this trend. The reflection is least sensitive to the dielectric thickness, while silver thickness and grating period dominate. This analysis provides physical insight for waveguide design as well in which, accurate control of silver thickness and grating period is far more critical than small errors in dielectric thickness. In general, our approach enables rapid prediction of structural parameters of hybrid waveguide gratings from reflection spectra. This reduces design time and reliance on complex microscopic measurements, with potential applications in sensing, communication, and integrated photonics.
Emergent language: a survey and taxonomy Jannik Peters, Constantin Waubert de Puiseau, Hasan Tercan, Arya Gopikrishnan, Gustavo Adolpho Lucas de Carvalho, et al. Autonomous Agents and Multi Agent Systems, 2025
Designing an Ontology Network for Digital Product Passports Maike Jansen, Eva Blomqvist, Robin Keskisärkkä, Huanyu Li, Mikael Lindecrantz, et al. Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2025
On the detection and classification of objects in scarce sidescan sonar image dataset with deep learning methods Underwater Acoustic Conference and Exhibition Series, 2023
PLASMA: A Semantic Modeling Tool for Domain Experts Alexander Paulus, Andreas Burgdorf, Tristan Langer, André Pomp, Tobias Meisen, et al. International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management Proceedings, 2022
A Filter is Better Than None: Improving Deep Learning-Based Product Recommendation Models by Using a User Preference Filter Miguel Alves Gomes, Hasan Tercan, Todd Bodnar, Philipp Meisen, Tobias Meisen 2021 IEEE 23rd International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications 7th International Conference on Data Science and Systems 19th International Conference on Smart City and 7th International Conference on Dependability in Sensor Cloud and Big Data Systems and Applications Hpcc Dss Smartcity Dependsys 2021, 2022
Predicting the progress of vehicle development projects: An approach for the identification of input features Icaart 2021 Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence, 2021
Visual Analytics for Industrial Sensor Data Analysis International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems Iceis Proceedings, 2021
Global Reward Design for Cooperative Agents to Achieve Flexible Production Control under Real-time Constraints International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems Iceis Proceedings, 2021
PLASMA: Platform for Auxiliary Semantic Modeling Approaches International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems Iceis Proceedings, 2021
Manufacturing control in job shop environments with reinforcement learning Icaart 2021 Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence, 2021
Integration of a reactive scheduling solution using integration of a reactive scheduling solution using reinforcement learning in a manufacturing system VDI Berichte, 2020
Similarity recognition of interval-based sleep data Marc Habler, Andreas Burgdorf, Christian Kohlschein, Tobias Meisen 2018 IEEE 20th International Conference on E Health Networking Applications and Services Healthcom 2018, 2018
An extensible semantic search engine for biomedical publications Christian Kohlschein, Daniel Klischies, Alexander Paulus, Andreas Burgdorf, Tobias Meisen, et al. 2018 IEEE 20th International Conference on E Health Networking Applications and Services Healthcom 2018, 2018
AUDIME: Augmented Disaster Medicine Alexander Paulus, Michael Czaplik, Frederik Hirsch, Philipp Meisen, Tobias Meisen, et al. Automation Communication and Cybernetics in Science and Engineering 2015 2016, 2016
Querying time interval data Philipp Meisen, Diane Keng, Tobias Meisen, Marco Recchioni, Sabina Jeschke Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2015
A methodological implementation of a pervasive information system in high pressure die casting manufacturing 23rd International Conference for Production Research Icpr 2015, 2015
AUDIME: Augmented disaster medicine Alexander Paulus, Philipp Meisen, Tobias Meisen, Sabina Jeschke, Michael Czaplik, et al. 2015 17th International Conference on E Health Networking Application and Services Healthcom 2015, 2015
Virtual production intelligence - A contribution to the digital factory Rudolf Reinhard, Christian Büscher, Tobias Meisen, Daniel Schilberg, Sabina Jeschke Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2012
Visualization Thomas Beer, Tobias Meisen Integrative Computational Materials Engineering Concepts and Applications of A Modular Simulation Platform, 2012
Distributed Simulations Thomas Beer, Tobias Meisen, Rudolf Reinhard Integrative Computational Materials Engineering Concepts and Applications of A Modular Simulation Platform, 2012
Virtual Production Systems Wolfgang Schulz, Christian Bischof, Kirsten Bobzin, Christian Brecher, Thomas Gries, et al. Integrative Production Technology for High Wage Countries, 2012
Application integration of simulation tools considering domain specific knowledge Iceis 2011 Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, 2011
A framework for adaptive data integration in digital production 21st International Conference on Production Research Innovation in Product and Production Icpr 2011 Conference Proceedings, 2011
InCaRPose: In-Cabin Relative Camera Pose Estimation Model and Dataset F Stillger, L Hahn, F Hasecke, T Meisen arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.03814 , 2026 2026
A literature review on deep reinforcement learning for machine scheduling problems CW de Puiseau, F Ercan, J Peters, M Brune, H Tercan, C Prinz, T Meisen, ... Journal of Manufacturing Systems 85, 96-126 , 2026 2026 Citations: 1
Goal-Oriented Reactive Simulation for Closed-Loop Trajectory Prediction H Yadav, T Meisen arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.24155 , 2026 2026
Rectify, Don't Regret: Avoiding Pitfalls of Differentiable Simulation in Trajectory Prediction H Yadav, C Bohn, T Meisen arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.23393 , 2026 2026 Citations: 1
Failure Modes for Deep Learning-Based Online Mapping: How to Measure and Address Them M Hubbertz, Q Han, T Meisen arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.19852 , 2026 2026
Robotic Foundation Models for Industrial Control: A Comprehensive Survey and Readiness Assessment Framework D Kube, S Hadwiger, T Meisen arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.06749 , 2026 2026
Dataset curation for a domain-specific people detection system J Benkert, P Wagner, M Zinnen, V Christlein, T Meisen Eighteenth International Conference on Machine Vision (ICMV 2025) 14114, 401-408 , 2026 2026
Faster Training, Fewer Labels: Self-Supervised Pretraining for Fine-Grained BEV Segmentation D Busch, C Bohn, T Kurbiel, K Friedrichs, R Meyes, T Meisen arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.18066 , 2026 2026
EXCODER: EXplainable Classification Of DiscretE time series Representations Y Hahn, A Königsfeld, H Tercan, T Meisen arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.13087 , 2026 2026
A Systematic Review and Taxonomy of Machine Learning Methods for Process Optimization and Control in Laser Welding J Voets, H Tercan, T Meisen, C Esen Applied Sciences 16 (3), 1568 , 2026 2026
Partial observability in vision-based forklift navigation with compressed visual information S Hadwiger, D Kube, T Meisen International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications, 1-24 , 2026 2026
Bridging the Synchrony Gap: A Deterministic GSMDP Approach for Integrating Deep Reinforcement Learning with Commercial Discrete Event Simulators MD Varici, H Tercan, T Meisen Proceedings of the Conference on Production Systems and Logistics: CPSL 2026 … , 2026 2026
Graph Query Networks for Object Detection with Automotive Radar L Saini, H Tercan, T Meisen Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer … , 2026 2026
Data-Driven Inverse Design of Hybrid Waveguide Gratings Using Reflection Spectra via Tandem Networks and Conditional VAEs S Dehghani, C Knoth, S Eskandari, M Buchmüller, T Meisen, P Görrn Optics 6 (4), 61 , 2025 2025
Out of Distribution Detection for Efficient Continual Learning in Quality Prediction for Arc Welding Y Hahn, J Voets, A Königsfeld, H Tercan, T Meisen Proceedings of the 34th ACM International Conference on Information and … , 2025 2025 Citations: 4
Efficient Inter-Task Attention for Multitask Transformer Models C Bohn, T Kurbiel, K Friedrichs, H Tercan, T Meisen International Conference on Neural Information Processing, 336-350 , 2025 2025
Multi-Agent Multimodal Large Language Model Framework for Automated Interpretation of Fuel Efficiency Analytics in Public Transportation Z Ma, AR Bahja, A Burgdorf, A Pomp, T Meisen, BN Jørgensen, ZG Ma Applied Sciences 15 (21), 11619 , 2025 2025 Citations: 3
Material-resolving computed tomography of lithium-ion batteries using deep learning M Weiss, K Mrzljak, M von Schmid, G Erbach, N Brierley, T Meisen NDT & E International, 103565 , 2025 2025
Timbre Transfer for Ship Radiated Noise N Müller, J Reermann, T Meisen 2025 33rd European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO), 326-330 , 2025 2025
Detection Transformers Under the Knife: A Neuroscience-Inspired Approach to Ablations N Hütten, F Hölken, H Tercan, T Meisen arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.21723 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Industrial internet of things and cyber manufacturing systems S Jeschke, C Brecher, T Meisen, D Özdemir, T Eschert Industrial Internet of Things: Cybermanufacturing Systems, 3-19 , 2016 2016 Citations: 1385
Ablation studies in artificial neural networks R Meyes, M Lu, CW De Puiseau, T Meisen arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.08644 , 2019 2019 Citations: 515
Machine learning and deep learning based predictive quality in manufacturing: a systematic review H Tercan, T Meisen Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 33 (7), 1879-1905 , 2022 2022 Citations: 428
A review on customer segmentation methods for personalized customer targeting in e-commerce use cases M Alves Gomes, T Meisen Information Systems and e-Business Management 21 (3), 527-570 , 2023 2023 Citations: 273
Towards an infrastructure enabling the internet of production J Pennekamp, R Glebke, M Henze, T Meisen, C Quix, R Hai, L Gleim, ... 2019 IEEE international conference on industrial cyber physical systems … , 2019 2019 Citations: 190
Transfer-learning: Bridging the gap between real and simulation data for machine learning in injection molding H Tercan, A Guajardo, J Heinisch, T Thiele, C Hopmann, T Meisen Procedia Cirp 72, 185-190 , 2018 2018 Citations: 171
Deep learning for automated visual inspection in manufacturing and maintenance: A survey of open-access papers N Hütten, M Alves Gomes, F Hölken, K Andricevic, R Meyes, T Meisen Applied System Innovation 7 (1), 11 , 2024 2024 Citations: 162
Stop guessing in the dark: Identified requirements for digital product passport systems M Jansen, T Meisen, C Plociennik, H Berg, A Pomp, W Windholz Systems 11 (3), 123 , 2023 2023 Citations: 154
Survey on deep learning based computer vision for sonar imagery Y Steiniger, D Kraus, T Meisen Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 114, 105157 , 2022 2022 Citations: 136
Motion planning for industrial robots using reinforcement learning R Meyes, H Tercan, S Roggendorf, T Thiele, C Büscher, M Obdenbusch, ... Procedia CIRP 63, 107-112 , 2017 2017 Citations: 132
A review on methods for state of health forecasting of lithium-ion batteries applicable in real-world operational conditions F von Bülow, T Meisen Journal of Energy Storage 57, 105978 , 2023 2023 Citations: 100
Continual learning of neural networks for quality prediction in production using memory aware synapses and weight transfer H Tercan, P Deibert, T Meisen Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 33 (1), 283-292 , 2022 2022 Citations: 86
Multi-agent reinforcement learning for job shop scheduling in flexible manufacturing systems S Baer, J Bakakeu, R Meyes, T Meisen 2019 Second International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for … , 2019 2019 Citations: 86
On reliability of reinforcement learning based production scheduling systems: a comparative survey C Waubert de Puiseau, R Meyes, T Meisen Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 33 (4), 911-927 , 2022 2022 Citations: 84
Vision transformer in industrial visual inspection N Hütten, R Meyes, T Meisen Applied Sciences 12 (23), 11981 , 2022 2022 Citations: 64
Manufacturing Control in Job Shop Environments with Reinforcement Learning. V Samsonov, M Kemmerling, M Paegert, D Lütticke, F Sauermann, ... ICAART (2), 589-597 , 2021 2021 Citations: 63
Continuous integration of field level production data into top-level information systems using the OPC interface standard M Hoffmann, C Büscher, T Meisen, S Jeschke Procedia Cirp 41, 496-501 , 2016 2016 Citations: 59
Industrial transfer learning: Boosting machine learning in production H Tercan, A Guajardo, T Meisen 2019 IEEE 17th international conference on industrial informatics (INDIN) 1 … , 2019 2019 Citations: 58
A recurrent neural network architecture for failure prediction in deep drawing sensory time series data R Meyes, J Donauer, A Schmeing, T Meisen Procedia Manufacturing 34, 789-797 , 2019 2019 Citations: 54
Where to park? predicting free parking spots in unmonitored city areas A Ionita, A Pomp, M Cochez, T Meisen, S Decker Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Web Intelligence, Mining … , 2018 2018 Citations: 53