BearFusionNet: A Multi-Stream Attention-Based Deep Learning Framework with Explainable AI for Accurate Detection of Bearing Casting Defects

Manual inspection of onba earing casting defects is not realistic and unreliable, particularly in the case of some micro-level anomalies which lead to major defects on a large scale. To address these challenges, we propose BearFusionNet, an attention-based deep learning architecture with multi-stream, which merges both DenseNet201 and MobileNetV2 for feature extraction with a classification head inspired by VGG19. This hybrid design, figuratively beaming from one layer to another, extracts the enormity of representations on different scales, backed by a pre-preprocessing pipeline that brings defect saliency to the fore through contrast adjustment, denoising, and edge detection. The use of multi-head self-attention enhances feature fusion, enabling the model to capture both large and small spatial features. BearFusionNet achieves an accuracy of 99.66% and Cohen’s kappa score of 0.9929 in Kaggle’s Real-life Industrial Casting Defects dataset. Both McNemar’s and Wilcoxon signed-rank statistical tests, as well as five-fold cross-validation, are employed to assess the robustness of our proposed model. To interpret the model, we adopt Grad-Cam visualizations, which are the state of the art standard. Furthermore, we deploy BearFusionNet as a web-based system for near real-time inference (5–6 s per prediction), which enables the quickest yet accurate detection with visual explanations. Overall, BearFusionNet is an interpretable, accurate, and deployable solution that can automatically detect casting defects, leading to significant advances in the innovative industrial environment.