Mahalanobis Taguchi System (MTS) as a Prognostics Tool for Rolling Element Bearing Failures

In this paper, a novel Mahalanobis–Taguchi system (MTS)-based fault detection, isolation, and prognostics scheme is presented. The proposed data-driven scheme utilizes the Mahalanobis distance (MD)-based fault clustering and the progression of MD values over time. MD thresholds derived from the clustering analysis are used for fault detection and isolation. When a fault is detected, the prognostics scheme, which monitors the progression of the MD values, is initiated. Then, using a linear approximation, time to failure is estimated. The performance of the scheme has been validated via experiments performed on rolling element bearings inside the spindle headstock of a microcomputer numerical control (CNC) machine testbed. The bearings have been instrumented with vibration and temperature sensors and experiments involving healthy and various types of faulty operating conditions have been performed. The experiments show that the proposed approach renders satisfactory results for bearing fault detection, isolation, and prognostics. Overall, the proposed solution provides a reliable multivariate analysis and real-time decision making tool that (1) presents a single tool for fault detection, isolation, and prognosis, eliminating the need to develop each separately and (2) offers a systematic way to determine the key features, thus reducing analysis overhead. In addition, the MTS-based scheme is process independent and can easily be implemented on wireless motes and deployed for real-time monitoring, diagnostics, and prognostics in a wide variety of industrial environments.