Centroid Loss for Weakly-Supervised Semantic Segmentation in a Quality-Control Application

Process automation is enabling a level of accuracy and productivity that goes beyond human ability, and one critical area where automation is making a big difference is quality control. In this paper, we describe a semantic segmentation solution aiming at detecting the presence of quality control elements in surgery toolboxes prepared by the sterilization unit of a hospital. In order to reduce the time required to prepare pixel-level ground truth, this work focuses on the use of weakly-supervised annotations (scribbles). Moreover, our solution integrates a clustering approach into a semantic segmentation network, thereby reducing the negative effects caused by weakly-supervised annotations. The paper describes the design process and reports on the results obtained.