Fault diagnosis of the bushing infrared images based on mask R‐CNN and improved PCNN joint algorithm

Abstract Bushings are served as an important component of the power transformers; it's of great significance to keep the bushings in good insulation condition. The infrared images of the bushing are proposed to diagnose the fault with the combination of image segmentation and deep learning, including object detection, fault region extraction, and fault diagnosis. By building an object detection system with the frame of Mask Region convolutional neural network (CNN), the bushing frame can be exactly extracted. To distinguish the fault region of bushings and the background, a simple linear iterative clustering‐based pulse coupled neural network is proposed to improve the fault region segmentation performance. Then, two infrared image feature parameters, the relative position and area, are explored to classify fault type effectively based on the K‐means cluster technique. With the proposed joint algorithm on bushing infrared images, the accuracy reaches 98%, compared with 44% by the conventional CNN classification method. The integrated algorithm provides a feasible and advantageous solution for the field application of bushing image‐based diagnosis.