Pad\'e Approximant Neural Networks for Enhanced Electric Motor Fault Diagnosis Using Vibration and Acoustic Data

TL;DR

This paper introduces Padé Approximant Neural Networks (PadéNets) that significantly improve fault diagnosis accuracy in induction motors by leveraging enhanced nonlinearity and compatibility with unbounded activation functions, outperforming traditional deep learning models.

Contribution

The study proposes and validates PadéNets as a novel neural network architecture that outperforms CNNs and Self-ONNs in diagnosing motor faults from vibration and acoustic data.

Findings

PadéNets achieved over 99% accuracy in fault diagnosis.

PadéNets outperformed CNNs and Self-ONNs in all tested scenarios.

Enhanced nonlinearity and unbounded activation functions improve diagnostic performance.

Abstract

Purpose: The primary aim of this study is to enhance fault diagnosis in induction machines by leveraging the Pad\'e Approximant Neuron (PAON) model. While accelerometers and microphones are standard in motor condition monitoring, deep learning models with nonlinear neuron architectures offer promising improvements in diagnostic performance. This research investigates whether Pad\'e Approximant Neural Networks (Pad\'eNets) can outperform conventional Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Self-Organized Operational Neural Networks (Self-ONNs) in the diagnosis of electrical and mechanical faults from vibration and acoustic data. Methods: We evaluate and compare the diagnostic capabilities of three deep learning architectures: one-dimensional CNNs, Self-ONNs, and Pad\'eNets. These models are tested on the University of Ottawa's publicly available constant-speed induction motor datasets, which include both vibration and acoustic sensor data. The Pad\'eNet model is designed to introduce enhanced nonlinearity and is compatible with unbounded activation functions such as LeakyReLU. Results and Conclusion: Pad\'eNets consistently outperformed the baseline models, achieving diagnostic accuracies of 99.96%, 98.26%, 97.61%, and 98.33% for accelerometers 1, 2, 3, and the acoustic sensor, respectively. The enhanced nonlinearity of Pad\'eNets, together with their compatibility with unbounded activation functions, significantly improves fault diagnosis performance in induction motor condition monitoring.