Bioinspired intelligence for situation awareness and health management of hydroelectric units: perspective of reliability-centered maintenance

As fundamental prerequisites for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of hydroelectric units, situation awareness and health management have emerged as research hotspots in recent years. Bioinspired intelligence, with advantages such as high efficiency, environmental adaptability, robust performance, and transferability, provides new research ideas, methods, and applications for the O&M of hydroelectric units, especially in situation awareness and health management. This paper reviews the prospects, current applications, and technical challenges of bioinspired intelligence in situation awareness and health management of hydroelectric units from the perspective of reliability-centered maintenance (RCM). First, the technical requirements and features of situation awareness and health management for hydroelectric units in RCM are elucidated. Next, the technical frameworks of hydroelectric units are reviewed from the perspective of bioinspired intelligence. A detailed discussion is then provided regarding the relevant implementation strategies in multiple domains, including real-time monitoring, multi-source signal fusion, state characteristic extraction, intelligent health diagnostics, maintenance decision-making optimization, and smart O&M systems. Finally, future trends and development opportunities in applying bioinspired intelligence to situation awareness and health management of hydroelectric units are proposed: integrating the advantages of bioinspired intelligence with the engineering requirements of RCM and innovating approaches for intelligent O&M, which would provide further support for safe, reliable, and efficient energy systems.