In prognostics and health management (PHM), the majority of fault detection and diagnosis is performed by adopting segregated methodology, where electrical faults are detected using motor current signature analysis (MCSA), while mechanical faults are detected using vibration, acoustic emission, or ferrography analysis. This leads to more complicated methods for overall fault detection and diagnosis. Additionally, the involvement of several types of data makes system management difficult, thus increasing computational cost in real-time. Aiming to resolve that, this work proposes the use of the embedded electrical current signals of the control unit (MCSA) as an approach to detect and diagnose mechanical faults. The proposed fault detection and diagnosis method use the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to analyze the electric motor current signals in the time-frequency domain. The technique decomposes current signals into wavelets, and extracts distinguishing features to perform machine learning (ML) based classification. To achieve an acceptable level of classification accuracy for ML-based classifiers, this work extends to presenting a methodology to extract, select, and infuse several types of features from the decomposed wavelets of the original current signals, based on wavelet characteristics and statistical analysis. The mechanical faults under study are related to the rotate vector (RV) reducer mechanically coupled to electric motors of the industrial robot Hyundai Robot YS080 developed by Hyundai Robotics Co. The proposed approach was implemented in real-time and showed satisfying results in fault detection and diagnosis for the RV reducer, with a classification accuracy of 96.7%.
Recently, prognostic and health management (PHM) has become a prominent field in modern industry. The rotate vector (RV) reducer is one of the widely used mechanical components in industrial systems, specifically in robots. The RV reducer is known for its unique characteristics of small size, efficient speed transmission, and high torsion. The RV reducer is prone to several kinds of faults, due to its continuous operation in an industrial robot. To keep the operation smooth and steady, timely PHM of the RV reducer has become essential. Previously, the RV reducer fault was diagnosed via various techniques, such as ferrography analysis, vibration analysis, and acoustic emission analysis. However, these conventional techniques have various issues. To resolve those issues, we introduce a novel approach to use the embedded electrical current system for the fault detection of the RV reducer. However, this is quite complicated to investigate mechanical fault using an electrical current signature, since the RV reducer is not an integral part of the electric motor, and finding a fault pattern in faulty components needs thorough examination. We therefore focus on the application of machine learning (ML) for fault classifications. We present an approach for feature extraction, feature selection, and feature reduction using the information obtained from the motor current signature analysis to create an ML-based fault classification system with distinguishable prominent features. Finally, the authenticity of the presented approach is justified via the improved values of evaluating parameters, such as accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity, for ML classifiers.
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