A Robust AI Framework for Safety-Critical LIB Degradation Prognostics: SE-VMD and Dual-Branch GRU-Transformer

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are critical components in safety-critical systems such as electric vehicles, aerospace, and grid-scale energy storage. Their degradation over time can lead to catastrophic failures, including thermal runaway and uncontrolled combustion, posing severe threats to human safety and infrastructure. Developing a robust AI framework for degradation prognostics in safety-critical systems is essential to mitigate these risks and ensure operational safety. However, sensor noise, dynamic operating conditions, and the multi-scale nature of degradation processes complicate this task. Traditional denoising and modeling approaches often fail to preserve informative temporal features or capture both abrupt fluctuations and long-term trends simultaneously. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a hybrid data-driven framework that combines Sample Entropy-guided Variational Mode Decomposition (SE-VMD) with K-means clustering for adaptive signal preprocessing. The SE-VMD algorithm automatically determines the optimal number of decomposition modes, while K-means separates high- and low-frequency components, enabling robust feature extraction. A dual-branch architecture is designed, where Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs) extract short-term dynamics from high-frequency signals, and Transformers model long-term trends from low-frequency signals. This dual-branch approach ensures comprehensive multi-scale degradation feature learning. Additionally, experiments with varying sliding window sizes are conducted to optimize temporal modeling and enhance the framework’s robustness and generalization. Benchmark dataset evaluations demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms traditional approaches in prediction accuracy and stability under diverse conditions. The framework directly contributes to Artificial Intelligence for Security by providing a reliable solution for battery health monitoring in safety-critical applications, enabling early risk mitigation and ensuring operational safety in real-world scenarios.