Application of data mining techniques of batch profiles for process understanding and improvement

Batch processes are widely used in the chemical industry. Recently, much attention has been given to the monitoring and analysis of batch measurement data, or profiles, with an emphasis on the detection of problems. Similarly, methods to improve the final product quality in batch processes have multiplied in the literature. However, an area that is virtually unexplored is the utilization of the data mining techniques for monitoring and analysis of batch profiles for better understanding batch processes, rather than identifying problems in batches, in order to improve the process. The thrust of this work is to apply a systematic method to increase batch process understanding by sifting through the existing historical database of past batches, to discern directions for process improvement from the increased understanding, and to subsequently demonstrate better quality control through the use of online recipe adjustments. A database of past batches is generated from a simulated nylon-6, 6 process, with the main quality variable of interest being the number average molecular weight. The time and measurement variability in raw batch measurement profiles is characterized through scale parameters. These scale parameters are subjected to a standard principal component analysis (PCA) to understand the principal sources of variation present in a historical database of past batches. Directions for process improvement are discovered from the data mining study and appropriate manipulated variables to implement recipe adjustments are identified. Online predictions of the molecular weight are demonstrated which indicate off-target quality batches well before the end of the batch. A split-range linear molecular weight-based controller is developed that is able to reduce the variability in the quality around the target. Further process improvement is accomplished by reducing the cycle time in addition to tightly controlling the final quality. The approach for systematically analyzing batch process data is general and can be applied to any batch system, including non-reactive systems

Data-driven design of intelligent wireless networks: an overview and tutorial

Data science or "data-driven research" is a research approach that uses real-life data to gain insight about the behavior of systems. It enables the analysis of small, simple as well as large and more complex systems in order to assess whether they function according to the intended design and as seen in simulation. Data science approaches have been successfully applied to analyze networked interactions in several research areas such as large-scale social networks, advanced business and healthcare processes. Wireless networks can exhibit unpredictable interactions between algorithms from multiple protocol layers, interactions between multiple devices, and hardware specific influences. These interactions can lead to a difference between real-world functioning and design time functioning. Data science methods can help to detect the actual behavior and possibly help to correct it. Data science is increasingly used in wireless research. To support data-driven research in wireless networks, this paper illustrates the step-by-step methodology that has to be applied to extract knowledge from raw data traces. To this end, the paper (i) clarifies when, why and how to use data science in wireless network research; (ii) provides a generic framework for applying data science in wireless networks; (iii) gives an overview of existing research papers that utilized data science approaches in wireless networks; (iv) illustrates the overall knowledge discovery process through an extensive example in which device types are identified based on their traffic patterns; (v) provides the reader the necessary datasets and scripts to go through the tutorial steps themselves

An intelligent framework for monitoring student performance using fuzzy rule-based linguistic summarisation

Monitoring students' activity and performance is vital to enable educators to provide effective teaching and learning in order to better engage students with the subject and improve their understanding of the material being taught. We describe the use of a fuzzy Linguistic Summarisation (LS) technique for extracting linguistically interpretable scaled fuzzy weighted rules from student data describing prominent relationships between activity / engagement characteristics and achieved performance. We propose an intelligent framework for monitoring individual or group performance during activity and problem based learning tasks. The system can be used to more effectively evaluate new teaching approaches and methodologies, identify weaknesses and provide more personalised feedback on learner's progress. We present a case study and initial experiments in which we apply the fuzzy LS technique for analysing the effectiveness of using a Group Performance Model (GPM) to deploy Activity Led Learning (ALL) in a Master-level module. Results show that the fuzzy weighted rules can identify useful relationships between student engagement and performance providing a mechanism allowing educators to transparently evaluate teaching and factors effecting student performance, which can be incorporated as part of an automated intelligent analysis and feedback system

Data driven methods for updating fault detection and diagnosis system in chemical processes

Modern industrial processes are becoming more complex, and consequently monitoring them has become a challenging task. Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) as a key element of process monitoring, needs to be investigated because of its essential role in decision making processes. Among available FDD methods, data driven approaches are currently receiving increasing attention because of their relative simplicity in implementation. Regardless of FDD types, one of the main traits of reliable FDD systems is their ability of being updated while new conditions that were not considered at their initial training appear in the process. These new conditions would emerge either gradually or abruptly, but they have the same level of importance as in both cases they lead to FDD poor performance. For addressing updating tasks, some methods have been proposed, but mainly not in research area of chemical engineering. They could be categorized to those that are dedicated to managing Concept Drift (CD) (that appear gradually), and those that deal with novel classes (that appear abruptly). The available methods, mainly, in addition to the lack of clear strategies for updating, suffer from performance weaknesses and inefficient required time of training, as reported. Accordingly, this thesis is mainly dedicated to data driven FDD updating in chemical processes. The proposed schemes for handling novel classes of faults are based on unsupervised methods, while for coping with CD both supervised and unsupervised updating frameworks have been investigated. Furthermore, for enhancing the functionality of FDD systems, some major methods of data processing, including imputation of missing values, feature selection, and feature extension have been investigated. The suggested algorithms and frameworks for FDD updating have been evaluated through different benchmarks and scenarios. As a part of the results, the suggested algorithms for supervised handling CD surpass the performance of the traditional incremental learning in regard to MGM score (defined dimensionless score based on weighted F1 score and training time) even up to 50% improvement. This improvement is achieved by proposed algorithms that detect and forget redundant information as well as properly adjusting the data window for timely updating and retraining the fault detection system. Moreover, the proposed unsupervised FDD updating framework for dealing with novel faults in static and dynamic process conditions achieves up to 90% in terms of the NPP score (defined dimensionless score based on number of the correct predicted class of samples). This result relies on an innovative framework that is able to assign samples either to new classes or to available classes by exploiting one class classification techniques and clustering approaches.Los procesos industriales modernos son cada vez más complejos y, en consecuencia, su control se ha convertido en una tarea desafiante. La detección y el diagnóstico de fallos (FDD), como un elemento clave de la supervisión del proceso, deben ser investigados debido a su papel esencial en los procesos de toma de decisiones. Entre los métodos disponibles de FDD, los enfoques basados en datos están recibiendo una atención creciente debido a su relativa simplicidad en la implementación. Independientemente de los tipos de FDD, una de las principales características de los sistemas FDD confiables es su capacidad de actualización, mientras que las nuevas condiciones que no fueron consideradas en su entrenamiento inicial, ahora aparecen en el proceso. Estas nuevas condiciones pueden surgir de forma gradual o abrupta, pero tienen el mismo nivel de importancia ya que en ambos casos conducen al bajo rendimiento de FDD. Para abordar las tareas de actualización, se han propuesto algunos métodos, pero no mayoritariamente en el área de investigación de la ingeniería química. Podrían ser categorizados en los que están dedicados a manejar Concept Drift (CD) (que aparecen gradualmente), y a los que tratan con clases nuevas (que aparecen abruptamente). Los métodos disponibles, además de la falta de estrategias claras para la actualización, sufren debilidades en su funcionamiento y de un tiempo de capacitación ineficiente, como se ha referenciado. En consecuencia, esta tesis está dedicada principalmente a la actualización de FDD impulsada por datos en procesos químicos. Los esquemas propuestos para manejar nuevas clases de fallos se basan en métodos no supervisados, mientras que para hacer frente a la CD se han investigado los marcos de actualización supervisados y no supervisados. Además, para mejorar la funcionalidad de los sistemas FDD, se han investigado algunos de los principales métodos de procesamiento de datos, incluida la imputación de valores perdidos, la selección de características y la extensión de características. Los algoritmos y marcos sugeridos para la actualización de FDD han sido evaluados a través de diferentes puntos de referencia y escenarios. Como parte de los resultados, los algoritmos sugeridos para el CD de manejo supervisado superan el rendimiento del aprendizaje incremental tradicional con respecto al puntaje MGM (puntuación adimensional definida basada en el puntaje F1 ponderado y el tiempo de entrenamiento) hasta en un 50% de mejora. Esta mejora se logra mediante los algoritmos propuestos que detectan y olvidan la información redundante, así como ajustan correctamente la ventana de datos para la actualización oportuna y el reciclaje del sistema de detección de fallas. Además, el marco de actualización FDD no supervisado propuesto para tratar fallas nuevas en condiciones de proceso estáticas y dinámicas logra hasta 90% en términos de la puntuación de NPP (puntuación adimensional definida basada en el número de la clase de muestras correcta predicha). Este resultado se basa en un marco innovador que puede asignar muestras a clases nuevas o a clases disponibles explotando una clase de técnicas de clasificación y enfoques de agrupamientoPostprint (published version

Data-based ensemble approach for semi-supervised anomaly detection in machine tool condition monitoring

Data-based methods are capable to monitor machine components. Approaches for semi-supervised anomaly detection are trained using sensor data that describe the normal state of machine components. Thus, such approaches are interesting for industrial practice, since sensor data do not have to be labeled in a time-consuming and costly way. In this work, an ensemble approach for semi-supervised anomaly detection is used to detect anomalies. It is shown that the ensemble approach is suitable for condition monitoring of ball screws. For the evaluation of the approach, a data set of a regular test cycle of a ball screw from automotive industry is used

Patent Analytics Based on Feature Vector Space Model: A Case of IoT

The number of approved patents worldwide increases rapidly each year, which requires new patent analytics to efficiently mine the valuable information attached to these patents. Vector space model (VSM) represents documents as high-dimensional vectors, where each dimension corresponds to a unique term. While originally proposed for information retrieval systems, VSM has also seen wide applications in patent analytics, and used as a fundamental tool to map patent documents to structured data. However, VSM method suffers from several limitations when applied to patent analysis tasks, such as loss of sentence-level semantics and curse-of-dimensionality problems. In order to address the above limitations, we propose a patent analytics based on feature vector space model (FVSM), where the FVSM is constructed by mapping patent documents to feature vectors extracted by convolutional neural networks (CNN). The applications of FVSM for three typical patent analysis tasks, i.e., patents similarity comparison, patent clustering, and patent map generation are discussed. A case study using patents related to Internet of Things (IoT) technology is illustrated to demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of FVSM. The proposed FVSM can be adopted by other patent analysis studies to replace VSM, based on which various big data learning tasks can be performed