Remaining Useful Life Estimation based on Noise Injection and a Kalman Filter Ensemble of modified Bagging Predictors

Abstract

Ensuring reliability of a machinery system involve the prediction of remaining useful life (RUL). In most RUL prediction approaches, noise is always considered for removal. Nevertheless, noise could be properly utilized to enhance the prediction capabilities. In this paper, we proposed a novel RUL prediction approach based on noise injection and a Kalman filter ensemble of modified bagging predictors. Firstly, we proposed a new method to insert Gaussian noises into both observation and feature spaces of an original training dataset, named GN-DAFC. Secondly, we developed a modified bagging method based on Kalman filter averaging, named KBAG. Then, we developed a new ensemble method which is a Kalman filter ensemble of KBAGs, named DKBAG. Finally, we proposed a novel RUL prediction approach GN-DAFC-DKBAG in which the optimal noise-injected training dataset was determined by a GN-DAFC-based searching strategy and then inputted to a DKBAG model. Our approach is validated on the NASA C-MAPSS dataset of aero-engines. Experimental results show that our approach achieves significantly better performance than a traditional Kalman filter ensemble of single learning models (KESLM) and the original DKBAG approaches. We also found that the optimal noise-injected data could improve the prediction performance of both KESLM and DKBAG. We further compare our approach with two advanced ensemble approaches, and the results indicate that the former also has better performance than the latters. Thus, our approach of combining optimal noise injection and DKBAG provides an effective solution for RUL estimation of machinery systems.