Kiarash Naghavi Khanghah

Kiarash Naghavi Khanghah, Hoang Anh Nguyen, Anna C. Doris et al.

Engineering rulebooks and technical standards contain multimodal information like dense text, tables, and illustrations that are challenging for retrieval augmented generation (RAG) systems. Building upon the DesignQA framework [1], which relied on full-text ingestion and text-based retrieval, this work establishes a Multimodal ColPali Enhanced Retrieval and Reasoning Framework (MCERF), a system that couples a multimodal retriever with large language model reasoning for accurate and efficient question answering from engineering documents. The system employs the ColPali, which retrieves both textual and visual information, and multiple retrieval and reasoning strategies: (i) Hybrid Lookup mode for explicit rule mentions, (ii) Vision to Text fusion for figure and table guided queries, (iii) High Reasoning LLM mode for complex multi modal questions, and (iv) SelfConsistency decision to stabilize responses. The modular framework design provides a reusable template for future multimodal systems regardless of underlying model architecture. Furthermore, this work establishes and compares two routing approaches: a single case routing approach and a multi-agent system, both of which dynamically allocate queries to optimal pipelines. Evaluation on the DesignQA benchmark illustrates that this system improves average accuracy across all tasks with a relative gain of +41.1% from baseline RAG best results, which is a significant improvement in multimodal and reasoning-intensive tasks without complete rulebook ingestion. This shows how vision language retrieval, modular reasoning, and adaptive routing enable scalable document comprehension in engineering use cases.

Kiarash Naghavi Khanghah, Anandkumar Patel, Rajiv Malhotra et al.

Conventional predictive modeling of parametric relationships in manufacturing processes is limited by the subjectivity of human expertise and intuition on the one hand and by the cost and time of experimental data generation on the other hand. This work addresses this issue by establishing a new Large Language Model (LLM) framework. The novelty lies in combining automatic extraction of process-relevant knowledge embedded in the literature with iterative model refinement based on a small amount of experimental data. This approach is evaluated on three distinct manufacturing processes that are based on machining, deformation, and additive principles. The results show that for the same small experimental data budget the models derived by our framework have unexpectedly high extrapolative performance, often surpassing the capabilities of conventional Machine Learning. Further, our approach eliminates manual generation of initial models or expertise-dependent interpretation of the literature. The results also reveal the importance of the nature of the knowledge extracted from the literature and the significance of both the knowledge extraction and model refinement components.

Kiarash Naghavi Khanghah, Zhiling Chen, Lela Romeo et al.

Additive manufacturing enables the fabrication of complex designs while minimizing waste, but faces challenges related to defects and process anomalies. This study presents a novel multimodal Retrieval-Augmented Generation-based framework that automates anomaly detection across various Additive Manufacturing processes leveraging retrieved information from literature, including images and descriptive text, rather than training datasets. This framework integrates text and image retrieval from scientific literature and multimodal generation models to perform zero-shot anomaly identification, classification, and explanation generation in a Laser Powder Bed Fusion setting. The proposed framework is evaluated on four L-PBF manufacturing datasets from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, featuring various printer makes, models, and materials. This evaluation demonstrates the framework's adaptability and generalizability across diverse images without requiring additional training. Comparative analysis using Qwen2-VL-2B and GPT-4o-mini as MLLM within the proposed framework highlights that GPT-4o-mini outperforms Qwen2-VL-2B and proportional random baseline in manufacturing anomalies classification. Additionally, the evaluation of the RAG system confirms that incorporating retrieval mechanisms improves average accuracy by 12% by reducing the risk of hallucination and providing additional information. The proposed framework can be continuously updated by integrating emerging research, allowing seamless adaptation to the evolving landscape of AM technologies. This scalable, automated, and zero-shot-capable framework streamlines AM anomaly analysis, enhancing efficiency and accuracy.