A Data Driven Frequency Based Feature Extraction and Classification Method for EMA Fault Detection and Isolation

This research investigates a novel data driven approach to condition monitoring of Electro-Mechanical Actuators (EMAs) consisting of feature extraction and fault classification. The approach is able to accommodate time-varying loads and speeds since EMA’s typically operate under non-steady conditions. The feature extraction process exposes fault frequencies in signal data that are synchronous with motor position through a series of signal processing techniques. A resulting reduced dimension feature is then used to determine the condition of the EMA with a trained Bayesian Classifier. Signal data collected from EMAs in known health configurations is used to train the algorithms so that the condition of EMA’s with unknown health may be predicted. Although the process was developed for EMAs, it can be used generically on other rotating machine applications as a Health and Usage Management System (HUMS) tool.