aiqbench analysis
This research investigates whether integrating physical laws into machine learning models can lower the carbon footprint of structural health monitoring by reducing compute time and data requirements. The study finds that physics-informed approaches generally emit less during training compared to traditional black-box methods, though input augmentation remains an exception. Ultimately, the work highlights a necessary trade-off between model complexity and data efficiency when aiming for greener AI deployment in engineering contexts.
From Grey-Box to Green-Box: When can Physics-Informed Machine Learning Reduce Carbon Footprints in Structural Health Monitoring?
arXiv:2609.33387v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Machine learning plays an increasingly vital role in engineering, but the corresponding increase in compute time is not without environmental cost. Physics-informed machine learning or "grey-box" models have been developed to overcome some of the limitations of traditional black-box learners, utilising the physical insight that an engineer would have about the structure they are modelling and have shown promising results in the structural engineering field among many others. This work explores whether an additional advantage could be a reduced environmental impact, considering the relationship between training data quantity and training time, linking this duration to carbon emissions from computing. In a structural health monitoring context, four physics-informed machine learning approaches - spanning Gaussian processes and neural networks - are evaluated: residual modelling, input augmentation, hybrid modelling, and constrained learning. The emissions for training each of the models to reach a given error threshold is compared, and in most examples, shown to be lower for the physics-informed models (with input augmented models being an exception). This reduction in training emissions further compounds the environmental savings achieved by collecting and storing less data. Although promising results, we cannot expect a silver bullet and the case studies demonstrate that a trade-off is needed between the increased complexity that comes from introducing physics into a machine learner, against the gain from reduced training data requirements.
Title:From Grey-Box to Green-Box: When can Physics-Informed Machine Learning Reduce Carbon Footprints in Structural Health Monitoring?
Abstract:Machine learning plays an increasingly vital role in engineering, but the corresponding increase in compute time is not without environmental cost. Physics-informed machine learning or "grey-box" models have been developed to overcome some of the limitations of traditional black-box learners, utilising the physical insight that an engineer would have about the structure they are modelling and have shown promising results in the structural engineering field among many others. This work explores whether an additional advantage could be a reduced environmental impact, considering the relationship between training data quantity and training time, linking this duration to carbon emissions from computing. In a structural health monitoring context, four physics-informed machine learning approaches - spanning Gaussian processes and neural networks - are evaluated: residual modelling, input augmentation, hybrid modelling, and constrained learning. The emissions for training each of the models to reach a given error threshold is compared, and in most examples, shown to be lower for the physics-informed models (with input augmented models being an exception). This reduction in training emissions further compounds the environmental savings achieved by collecting and storing less data. Although promising results, we cannot expect a silver bullet and the case studies demonstrate that a trade-off is needed between the increased complexity that comes from introducing physics into a machine learner, against the gain from reduced training data requirements.
Machine Learning (cs.LG)
arXiv:2609.33387 [cs.LG]
(or arXiv:2609.33387v1 [cs.LG] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.33387 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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