A Detailed Investigation into Low-Level Feature Detection in Spectrogram Images

Being the first stage of analysis within an image, low-level feature detection is a crucial step in the image analysis process and, as such, deserves suitable attention. This paper presents a systematic investigation into low-level feature detection in spectrogram images. The result of which is the identification of frequency tracks. Analysis of the literature identifies different strategies for accomplishing low-level feature detection. Nevertheless, the advantages and disadvantages of each are not explicitly investigated. Three model-based detection strategies are outlined, each extracting an increasing amount of information from the spectrogram, and, through ROC analysis, it is shown that at increasing levels of extraction the detection rates increase. Nevertheless, further investigation suggests that model-based detection has a limitation—it is not computationally feasible to fully evaluate the model of even a simple sinusoidal track. Therefore, alternative approaches, such as dimensionality reduction, are investigated to reduce the complex search space. It is shown that, if carefully selected, these techniques can approach the detection rates of model-based strategies that perform the same level of information extraction. The implementations used to derive the results presented within this paper are available online from http://stdetect.googlecode.com

A Precise Electrical Disturbance Generator for Neural Network Training with Real Level Output

Power Quality is defined as the study of the quality of electric power lines. The detection and classification of the different disturbances which cause power quality problems is a difficult task which requires a high level of engineering expertise. Thus, neural networks are usually a good choice for the detection and classification of these disturbances. This paper describes a powerful tool, developed by the Institute for Natural Resources and Agrobiology at the Scientific Research Council (CSIC) and the Electronic Technology Department at the University of Seville, which generates electrical patterns of disturbances for the training of neural networks for PQ tasks. This system has been expanded to other applications (as comparative test between PQ meters, or test of effects of power-line disturbances on equipment) through the addition of a specifically developed high fidelity power amplifier, which allows the generation of disturbed signals at real levels.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2006-15467-C02-0

Fast non-recursive extraction of individual harmonics using artificial neural networks

A collaborative work between Northumbria University and University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka). It presents a novel technique based on Artificial Neural Networks for fast extraction of individual harmonic components. The technique was tested on a real-time hardware platform and results obtained showed that it is significantly faster and less computationally complex than other techniques. The paper complements other publications by the author (see paper 1) on the important area of “Power Quality” of electric power networks. It involves the application of advanced techniques in artificial intelligence to solve power systems problems

Boosting Deep Open World Recognition by Clustering

While convolutional neural networks have brought significant advances in robot vision, their ability is often limited to closed world scenarios, where the number of semantic concepts to be recognized is determined by the available training set. Since it is practically impossible to capture all possible semantic concepts present in the real world in a single training set, we need to break the closed world assumption, equipping our robot with the capability to act in an open world. To provide such ability, a robot vision system should be able to (i) identify whether an instance does not belong to the set of known categories (i.e. open set recognition), and (ii) extend its knowledge to learn new classes over time (i.e. incremental learning). In this work, we show how we can boost the performance of deep open world recognition algorithms by means of a new loss formulation enforcing a global to local clustering of class-specific features. In particular, a first loss term, i.e. global clustering, forces the network to map samples closer to the class centroid they belong to while the second one, local clustering, shapes the representation space in such a way that samples of the same class get closer in the representation space while pushing away neighbours belonging to other classes. Moreover, we propose a strategy to learn class-specific rejection thresholds, instead of heuristically estimating a single global threshold, as in previous works. Experiments on RGB-D Object and Core50 datasets show the effectiveness of our approach.Comment: IROS/RAL 202

Improving acoustic vehicle classification by information fusion

We present an information fusion approach for ground vehicle classification based on the emitted acoustic signal. Many acoustic factors can contribute to the classification accuracy of working ground vehicles. Classification relying on a single feature set may lose some useful information if its underlying sound production model is not comprehensive. To improve classification accuracy, we consider an information fusion diagram, in which various aspects of an acoustic signature are taken into account and emphasized separately by two different feature extraction methods. The first set of features aims to represent internal sound production, and a number of harmonic components are extracted to characterize the factors related to the vehicle’s resonance. The second set of features is extracted based on a computationally effective discriminatory analysis, and a group of key frequency components are selected by mutual information, accounting for the sound production from the vehicle’s exterior parts. In correspondence with this structure, we further put forward a modifiedBayesian fusion algorithm, which takes advantage of matching each specific feature set with its favored classifier. To assess the proposed approach, experiments are carried out based on a data set containing acoustic signals from different types of vehicles. Results indicate that the fusion approach can effectively increase classification accuracy compared to that achieved using each individual features set alone. The Bayesian-based decision level fusion is found fusion is found to be improved than a feature level fusion approac

Assessing the effects of power quality on partial discharge behaviour through machine learning

Partial discharge (PD) is commonly used as an indicator of insulation health in high voltage equipment, but research has indicated that power quality, particularly harmonics, can strongly influence the discharge behaviour and the corresponding pattern observed. Unacknowledged variation in harmonics of the excitation voltage waveform can influence the insulation's degradation, leading to possible misinterpretation of diagnostic data and erroneous estimates of the insulation's ageing state, thus resulting in inappropriate asset management decisions. This paper reports on a suite of classifiers for identifying pertinent harmonic attributes from PD data, and presents results of techniques for improving their accuracy. Aspects of PD field monitoring are used to design a practical system for on-line monitoring of voltage harmonics. This system yields a report on the harmonics experienced during the monitoring period

Identifying harmonic attributes from online partial discharge data

Partial discharge (PD) monitoring is a key method of tracking fault progression and degradation of insulation systems. Recent research discovered that the harmonic regime experienced by the plant also affects the PD pattern, questioning the conclusions about equipment health drawn from PD data. This paper presents the design and creation of an online system for harmonic circumstance monitoring of distribution cables, using only PD data. Based on machine learning techniques, the system can assess the prevalence of the 5th and 7th harmonic orders over the monitoring period. This information is key for asset managers to draw correct conclusions about the remaining life of polymeric cable insulation, and prevent overestimation of the degradation trend