In the last two decades Soft Sensors established themselves as a valuable alternative to the traditional means for the acquisition of critical process variables, process monitoring and other tasks which are related to process control. This paper discusses characteristics of the process industry data which are critical for the development of data-driven Soft Sensors. These characteristics are common to a large number of

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This work presents an algorithm for the development of adaptive soft sensors. The method is based on the local learning framework, where locally valid models are built and maintained. In this framework, it is possible to model nonlinear relationship between the input and output data by the means of a combination of linear models. The method provides the possibility to perform adaptation at two levels: (i) recursive adaptation of the local models and (ii) the adaptation of the combination weights. The dataset used for evaluation of the algorithm describes a polymerization reactor where the target value is a simulated catalyst activity in the reactor. This dataset is also used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The results show that the traditional recursive partial least squares algorithm struggles to deliver accurate predictions. In contrast to this, by exploiting the two-level adaptation scheme, the proposed algorithm delivers more accurate results. V

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This work presents an architecture for the development of on-line prediction models. The architecture defines unified modular environment based on three concepts from machine learning, these are: (i) ensemble methods, (ii) local learning, and (iii) meta learning. The three concepts are organised in a three layer hierarchy within the architecture. For the actual prediction making any data-driven predictive method such as artificial neural network, support vector machines, etc. can be implemented and plugged in. In addition to the predictive methods, data pre-processing methods can also be implemented as plug-ins. Models developed according to the architecture can be trained and operated in different modes. With regard to the training, the architecture supports the building of initial models based on a batch of training data, but if this data is not available the models can also be trained in incremental mode. In a scenario where correct target values are (occasionally) available during the run-time, the architecture supports life-long learning by providing several adaptation mechanisms across the three hierarchical levels. In order to demonstrate its practicality, we show how the issues of current soft sensor development and maintenance can be effectively dealt with by using the architecture as a construction plan for the development of adaptive soft sensing algorithms.

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Abstract. When it comes to application of computational learning techniques in practical scenarios, like for example adaptive inferential control, it is often difficult to apply the state-of-the-art techniques in a straight forward manner and usually some effort has to be dedicated to tuning either the data, in a form of data pre-processing, or the modelling techniques, in form of optimal parameter search or modification of the training algorithm. In this work we present a robust approach to on-line predictive modelling which is focusing on dealing with challenges like noisy data, data outliers and in particular drifting data which are often present in industrial data sets. The approach is based on the local learning approach, where models of limited complexity focus on partitions of the input space and on an ensemble building technique which combines the predictions of the particular local models into the final predicted value. Furthermore, the technique provides the means for on-line adaptation and can thus be deployed in a dynamic environment which is demonstrated in this work in terms of an application of the presented approach to a raw industrial data set exhibiting drifting data, outliers, missing values and measurement noise.

Abstract. Automatic data acquisition systems provide large amounts of streaming data generated by physical sensors. This data forms an input to computational models (soft sensors) routinely used for monitoring and control of industrial processes, traffic patterns, environment and natural hazards, and many more. The majority of these models assume that the data comes in a cleaned and pre-processed form, ready to be fed directly into a predictive model. In practice, to ensure appropriate data quality, most of the modelling efforts concentrate on preparing data from raw sensor readings to be used as model inputs. This study analyzes the process of data preparation for predictive models with streaming sensor data. We present the challenges of data preparation as a four-step process, identify the key challenges in each step, and provide recommendations for handling these issues. The discussion is focused on the approaches that are less commonly used, while, based on our experience, may contribute particularly well to solving practical soft sensor tasks. Our arguments are illustrated with a case study in the chemical production industry.