Trustworthy Soft Sensing in Water Supply Systems using Deep Learning

In many industrial and scientific applications, accurate sensor measurements are crucial. Instruments such as nitrate sensors are vulnerable to environmental conditions, calibration drift, high maintenance costs, and degrading. Researchers have turned to advanced computational methods, including mathematical modeling, statistical analysis, and machine learning, to overcome these limitations. Deep learning techniques have shown promise in outperforming traditional methods in many applications by achieving higher accuracy, but they are often criticized as 'black-box' models due to their lack of transparency. This thesis presents a framework for deep learning-based soft sensors that can quantify the robustness of soft sensors by estimating predictive uncertainty and evaluating performance across various scenarios. The framework facilitates comparisons between hard and soft sensors. To validate the framework, I conduct experiments using data generated by AI and Cyber for Water and Ag (ACWA), a cyber-physical system water-controlled environment testbed. Afterwards, the framework is tested on real-world environment data from Alexandria Renew Enterprise (AlexRenew), establishing its applicability and effectiveness in practical settings.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Sreng, Chhayly

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Batarseh, Feras A.
• Ha, Dong S.

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Ha, Sook Shin

• Soft Sensor
• Water Supply System
• Data-Driven
• Testbed
• Trustworthy AI
• Nitrate
• Context

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:40862

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119056