System Condition Monitoring Based on a Standardized Latent Space and the Nataf Transform

This work introduces a new condition monitoring approach for complex systems based on a standardized latent space representation. Latent variable models such as the variational autoencoders are widely used to analyze systems described by a high-dimensional physical space. The encoding of such space defines a low-dimensional and physically representative latent space. Of note, however, the latent space obtained for complex systems operating under multiple conditions is often difficult to exploit in defining an efficient Health Index, thanks to the non-deterministic and hyperparameter-dependent nature of the latent space. In addition, the distribution of the healthy cluster is not known a priori. The original contribution of this paper is to use the Nataf isoprobabilistic transform to map the latent space into a standardized space. This normalizes the spatial structure of the latent space and relaxes the model’s sensitivity to hyperparameters during the learning process. Moreover, the characterization of the healthy condition in the standard Nataf space leads to the definition of two complementary health indices suitable for complex systems. An implementation in two case studies demonstrates the potential of the proposed approach. First, the approach was successfully applied within NASA’s Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation dataset. The second case study consisted of analyzing multiple degradation in operating wind turbines. Encouraging results emerge from both case studies, with critical conditions being detected significantly earlier than in competing approaches. The proposed approach can be generalized to complex systems equipped with multiple sensors, and overcomes difficulties related to latent space analysis of multiple condition systems.