Fault detection and identification methodology under an incremental learning framework applied to industrial machinery

An industrial machinery condition monitoring methodology based on ensemble novelty detection and evolving classification is proposed in this study. The methodology contributes to solve current challenges dealing with classical electromechanical system monitoring approaches applied in industrial frameworks, that is, the presence of unknown events, the limitation to the nominal healthy condition as starting knowledge, and the incorporation of new patterns to the available knowledge. The proposed methodology is divided into four main stages: 1) a dedicated feature calculation and reduction over available physical magnitudes to increase novelty detection and fault classification capabilities; 2) a novelty detection based on the ensemble of one-class support vector machines to identify not previously considered events; 3) a diagnosis by means of eClass evolving classifiers for patterns recognition; and 4) re-training to include new patterns to the novelty detection and fault identification models. The effectiveness of the proposed fault detection and identification methodology has been compared with classical approaches, and verified by experimental results obtained from an automotive end-of-line test machine.This work was supported in part by the Generalitat de Catalunya (GRC MCIA) under Grant n◦ SGR 2014-101, in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Project TRA2016-80472-R Research, and in part by the CONACyT Scholarship under Grant 313604

A Systematic Semi-Supervised Self-adaptable Fault Diagnostics approach in an evolving environment

Fault diagnostic methods are challenged by their applications to industrial components operating in evolving environments of their working conditions. To overcome this problem, we propose a Systematic Semi-Supervised Self-adaptable Fault Diagnostics approach (4SFD), which allows dynamically selecting the features to be used for performing the diagnosis, detecting the necessity of updating the diagnostic model and automatically updating it. Within the proposed approach, the main novelty is the semi-supervised feature selection method developed to dynamically select the set of features in response to the evolving environment. An artificial Gaussian and a real world bearing dataset are considered for the verification of the proposed approach

Unsupervised Clustering for Fault Diagnosis in Nuclear Power Plant Components

International audienceThe development of empirical classification models for fault diagnosis usually requires a process of training based on a set of examples. In practice, data collected during plant operation contain signals measured in faulty conditions, but they are 'unlabeled', i.e., the indication of the type of fault is usually not available. Then, the objective of the present work is to develop a methodology for the identification of transients of similar characteristics, under the conjecture that faults of the same type lead to similar behavior in the measured signals. The proposed methodology is based on the combined use of Haar wavelet transform, fuzzy similarity, spectral clustering and the Fuzzy C-Means algorithm. A procedure for interpreting the fault cause originating the similar transients is proposed, based on the identification of prototypical behaviors. Its performance is tested with respect to an artificial case study and then applied on transients originated by different faults in the pressurizer of a nuclear power reactor

Signal fingerprinting and machine learning framework for UAV detection and identification.

Advancement in technology has led to creative and innovative inventions. One such invention includes unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs (also known as drones) are now an intrinsic part of our society because their application is becoming ubiquitous in every industry ranging from transportation and logistics to environmental monitoring among others. With the numerous benign applications of UAVs, their emergence has added a new dimension to privacy and security issues. There are little or no strict regulations on the people that can purchase or own a UAV. For this reason, nefarious actors can take advantage of these aircraft to intrude into restricted or private areas. A UAV detection and identification system is one of the ways of detecting and identifying the presence of a UAV in an area. UAV detection and identification systems employ different sensing techniques such as radio frequency (RF) signals, video, sounds, and thermal imaging for detecting an intruding UAV. Because of the passive nature (stealth) of RF sensing techniques, the ability to exploit RF sensing for identification of UAV flight mode (i.e., flying, hovering, videoing, etc.), and the capability to detect a UAV at beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) or marginal line-of-sight makes RF sensing techniques promising for UAV detection and identification. More so, there is constant communication between a UAV and its ground station (i.e., flight controller). The RF signals emitting from a UAV or UAV flight controller can be exploited for UAV detection and identification. Hence, in this work, an RF-based UAV detection and identification system is proposed and investigated. In RF signal fingerprinting research, the transient and steady state of the RF signals can be used to extract a unique signature. The first part of this work is to use two different wavelet analytic transforms (i.e., continuous wavelet transform and wavelet scattering transform) to investigate and analyze the characteristics or impacts of using either state for UAV detection and identification. Coefficient-based and image-based signatures are proposed for each of the wavelet analysis transforms to detect and identify a UAV. One of the challenges of using RF sensing is that a UAV\u27s communication links operate at the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band. Several devices such as Bluetooth and WiFi operate at the ISM band as well, so discriminating UAVs from other ISM devices is not a trivial task. A semi-supervised anomaly detection approach is explored and proposed in this research to differentiate UAVs from Bluetooth and WiFi devices. Both time-frequency analytical approaches and unsupervised deep neural network techniques (i.e., denoising autoencoder) are used differently for feature extraction. Finally, a hierarchical classification framework for UAV identification is proposed for the identification of the type of unmanned aerial system signal (UAV or UAV controller signal), the UAV model, and the operational mode of the UAV. This is a shift from a flat classification approach. The hierarchical learning approach provides a level-by-level classification that can be useful for identifying an intruding UAV. The proposed frameworks described here can be extended to the detection of rogue RF devices in an environment

Error management in ATLAS TDAQ : an intelligent systems approach

This thesis is concerned with the use of intelligent system techniques (IST) within a large distributed software system, specifically the ATLAS TDAQ system which has been developed and is currently in use at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics(CERN). The overall aim is to investigate and evaluate a range of ITS techniques in order to improve the error management system (EMS) currently used within the TDAQ system via error detection and classification. The thesis work will provide a reference for future research and development of such methods in the TDAQ system. The thesis begins by describing the TDAQ system and the existing EMS, with a focus on the underlying expert system approach, in order to identify areas where improvements can be made using IST techniques. It then discusses measures of evaluating error detection and classification techniques and the factors specific to the TDAQ system. Error conditions are then simulated in a controlled manner using an experimental setup and datasets were gathered from two different sources. Analysis and processing of the datasets using statistical and ITS techniques shows that clusters exists in the data corresponding to the different simulated errors. Different ITS techniques are applied to the gathered datasets in order to realise an error detection model. These techniques include Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP) and a comparison of the respective advantages and disadvantages is made. The principle conclusions from this work are that IST can be successfully used to detect errors in the ATLAS TDAQ system and thus can provide a tool to improve the overall error management system. It is of particular importance that the IST can be used without having a detailed knowledge of the system, as the ATLAS TDAQ is too complex for a single person to have complete understanding of. The results of this research will benefit researchers developing and evaluating IST techniques in similar large scale distributed systems

Power system stability scanning and security assessment using machine learning

Future grids planning requires a major departure from conventional power system planning, where only a handful of the most critical scenarios is analyzed. To account for a wide range of possible future evolutions, scenario analysis has been proposed in many industries. As opposed to the conventional power system planning, where the aim is to find an optimal transmission and/or generation expansion plan for an existing grid, the aim in future grids scenario analysis is to analyze possible evolution pathways to inform power system planning and policy making. Therefore, future grids’ planning may involve large amount of scenarios and the existing planning tools may no longer suitable. Other than the raised future grids’ planning issues, operation of future grids using conventional tools is also challenged by the new features of future grids such as intermittent generation, demand response and fast responding power electronic plants which lead to much more diverse operation conditions compared to the existing networks. Among all operation issues, monitoring stability as well as security of a power system and action with deliberated preventive or remedial adjustment is of vital important. On- line Dynamic Security Assessment (DSA) can evaluate security of a power system almost instantly when current or imminent operation conditions are supplied. The focus of this dissertation are, for future grid planning, to develop a framework using Machine Learning (ML) to effectively assess the security of future grids by analyzing a large amount of the scenarios; for future grids operation, to propose approaches to address technique issues brought by future grids’ diverse operation conditions using ML techniques. Unsupervised learning, supervised learning and semi-supervised learning techniques are utilized in a set of proposed planning and operation security assessment tools

Improved Heat Exchanger Lifecycle Prognostic Methods for Enhanced Light Water Reactor Sustainability

As the licenses of many nuclear power plants in the US and abroad are being extended, accurate knowledge of system and component condition is becoming increasingly important. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has funded a project with the primary goal of developing lifecycle prognostic methods to generate accurate and continuous Remaining Useful Life (RUL) estimates as components transition through unique stages of the component lifecycle. Specific emphasis has been placed on creating and transitioning between three distinct stages of operational availability. These stages correspond to Beginning Of Life (BOL) where little or no operational information is available, early onset operations at various expected and observed stress levels where there is the onset of detectable degradation, and degradation towards the eventual End Of Life (EOL). This paper provides an application overview of a developed lifecycle prognostic approach and applies it to a heat exchanger fouling test bed under accelerated degradation conditions resulting in an increased understanding of system degradation. Bayesian and Bootstrap Aggregation methods are applied to show improvements in RUL predictions over traditional methods that do not utilize these methods, thereby improving the lifecycle prognostic model for the component. The analyses of results from applying these lifecycle prognostic algorithms to a heat exchanger fouling experiment are detailed

FAULT DETECTION AND PREDICTION IN ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS VIA THE DISCRETIZED STATE VECTOR-BASED PATTERN ANALYSIS OF MULTI-SENSOR SIGNALS

Department of System Design and Control EngineeringIn recent decades, operation and maintenance strategies for industrial applications have evolved from corrective maintenance and preventive maintenance, to condition-based monitoring and eventually predictive maintenance. High performance sensors and data logging technologies have enabled us to monitor the operational states of systems and predict fault occurrences. Several time series analysis methods have been proposed in the literature to classify system states via multi-sensor signals. Since the time series of sensor signals is often characterized as very-short, intermittent, transient, highly nonlinear, and non-stationary random signals, they make time series analyses more complex. Therefore, time series discretization has been popularly applied to extract meaningful features from original complex signals. There are several important issues to be addressed in discretization for fault detection and prediction: (i) What is the fault pattern that represents a system???s faulty states, (ii) How can we effectively search for fault patterns, (iii) What is a symptom pattern to predict fault occurrences, and (iv) What is a systematic procedure for online fault detection and prediction. In this regard, this study proposes a fault detection and prediction framework that consists of (i) definition of system???s operational states, (ii) definitions of fault and symptom patterns, (iii) multivariate discretization, (iv) severity and criticality analyses, and (v) online detection and prediction procedures. Given the time markers of fault occurrences, we can divide a system???s operational states into fault and no-fault states. We postulate that a symptom state precedes the occurrence of a fault within a certain time period and hence a no-fault state consists of normal and symptom states. Fault patterns are therefore found only in fault states, whereas symptom patterns are either only found in the system???s symptom states (being absent in the normal states) or not found in the given time series, but similar to fault patterns. To determine the length of a symptom state, we present a symptom pattern-based iterative search method. In order to identify the distinctive behaviors of multi-sensor signals, we propose a multivariate discretization approach that consists mainly of label definition, label specification, and event codification. Discretization parameters are delicately controlled by considering the key characteristics of multi-sensor signals. We discuss how to measure the severity degrees of fault and symptom patterns, and how to assess the criticalities of fault states. We apply the fault and symptom pattern extraction and severity assessment methods to online fault detection and prediction. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of the proposed framework through the following six case studies: abnormal cylinder temperature in a marine diesel engine, automotive gasoline engine knockings, laser weld defects, buzz, squeak, and rattle (BSR) noises from a car door trim (using a typical acoustic sensor array and using acoustic emission sensors respectively), and visual stimuli cognition tests by the P300 experiment.ope