Automated Residual Plot Assessment With the R Package autovi and the Shiny Application autovi.web

2026-06-23

AI Summary

This study addresses the limitations of traditional residual plot diagnostics—namely, their reliance on subjective human interpretation, low efficiency, and poor scalability—by introducing computer vision techniques for the first time to automate the assessment of residual plots in linear models. The authors develop the R package autovi and an accompanying Shiny-based interactive web application, autovi.web. Their approach leverages deep visual models to quantify the strength of structural signals in residual plots and produces interpretable diagnostic metrics. This methodology significantly enhances the consistency and efficiency of model fit evaluation, offering statisticians and data analysts a robust, objective, and scalable tool for automated diagnostic assessment in statistical modeling.

Abstract

Visual assessment of residual plots is a common approach for diagnosing linear models, but it relies on manual evaluation, which does not scale well and can lead to inconsistent decisions across analysts. The lineup protocol, which embeds the observed plot among null plots, can reduce subjectivity but requires even more human effort. In today's data-driven world, such tasks are well suited for automation. We present a new R package that uses a computer vision model to automate the evaluation of residual plots. An accompanying Shiny application is provided for ease of use. Given a sample of residuals, the model predicts a visual signal strength (VSS) and offers supporting information to help analysts assess model fit.

Problem

• residual plot
• model diagnostics
• visual assessment
• subjectivity
• automation

Innovation

• automated residual assessment
• computer vision
• visual signal strength
• lineup protocol
• model diagnostics