Normal data-based ball bearing fault detection using CNN with self-labeling

Abstract

To train deep learning algorithms, a sufficient number of data are required. However, in most engineering systems, the acquisition of fault data is difficult or sometimes not feasible, while normal data are secured. The dearth of data is one of the major challenges to developing deep learning models, and fault diagnosis in particular cannot be made in the absence of fault data. With this context, this paper proposes an anomaly detection methodology for rotating machines using only normal data with self-labeling. Since only normal data are used for anomaly detection, a self-labeling method is used to generate a new labeled dataset. The overall procedure includes the following three steps: (1) transformation of normal data to self-labeled data based on a pretext task, (2) training the convolutional neural networks (CNN), and (3) anomaly detection using defined anomaly score based on the softmax output of the trained CNN. The softmax value of the abnormal sample shows different behavior from the normal softmax values. To verify the proposed method, four case studies were conducted, on the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) bearing dataset, IEEE PHM 2012 data challenge dataset, PHMAP 2021 data challenge dataset, and laboratory bearing testbed

and the results were compared to those of existing machine learning and deep learning methods. The results showed that the proposed algorithm could detect faults in the bearing testbed and compressor with over 0.999 AUROC. In particular, it was possible to detect not only bearing faults but also structural faults such as unbalance and belt looseness with very high accuracy. Compared with the existing GAN, the autoencoder-based anomaly detection algorithm, the proposed method showed high anomaly detection performance.