Condition-Based Monitoring in Variable Machine Running Conditions Using Low-Level Knowledge Transfer With DNN

Traditional machine learning methods assume that training and testing data must be from the same machine running condition (MRC) and drawn from the same distribution. However, in several real-time industrial applications, this assumption does not hold. The traditional methods work satisfactorily in steady-state conditions but fail in time-varying conditions. In order to utilize time-varying data in variable MRCs, this article proposes a novel low-level knowledge transfer framework using a deep neural network (DNN) model for condition monitoring of machines in variable running conditions. The low-level features have been extracted in time, frequency, and time–frequency domains. These features are extracted from the source data to train the DNN. The trained DNN-based parameters are then transferred to another DNN, which is modified according to the low-level features extracted from the target data. The proposed approach is validated through three case studies on: 1) the air compressor acoustic data set; 2) the Case Western Reserve University bearing data set; and 3) the intelligent maintenance system bearing data set. The prediction accuracy obtained for the above case studies is as high as 100%, 93.07%, and 100%, respectively, with fivefold cross-validation. These real-time results show considerable improvement in the prediction performance using the proposed approach. Note to Practitioners —Condition-based monitoring schemes are widely applicable to rotating machines in various industries since they operate in tough working situations, and consequently, unpredicted failures occur. These unpredicted failures may cause perilous accidents in the industries. CBM systems prevent such failures, which results in the reduction of equipment damage and, hence, increases machinery lifetime. Modern industries are so complex and generating huge data, and these data can be collected using sensors, but placing a large number of sensors is difficult and expensive for different but similar kinds of faults in industries. This also increases the cost due to additional sensors and circuits. In this article, the authors have proposed a novel low-level knowledge transfer framework using the deep neural network (DNN)-based method for condition monitoring of machines in variable running conditions. Low-level features have been extracted to reduce the computations of DNN drastically with improved performance. This article also considered additional faults in the target domain, which is more practical in real-time applications. The proposed scheme has been validated with three case studies on acoustic and vibration signatures.