Fault Diagnosis in Induction Motors through Infrared Thermal Images Using Convolutional Neural Network Feature Extraction

Abstract

The development of diagnostic systems for rotating machines such as induction motors (IMs) is a task of utmost importance for the industrial sector. Reliable diagnostic systems allow for the accurate detection of different faults. Different methods based on the acquisition of thermal images (TIs) have emerged as diagnosis systems for the detection of IM faults to prevent the further generation of faults. However, these methods are based on artisanal feature selection, so obtaining high accuracy rates is usually challenging. For this reason, in this work, a new system for fault detection in IMs based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and thermal images (TIs) is presented. The system is based on the training of a CNN using TIs to select and extract the most salient features of each fault present in the IM. Subsequently, a classifier based on a decision tree (DT) algorithm is trained using the features learned by the CNN to infer the motor conditions. The results of this methodology show an improvement in the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score metrics for 11 different conditions.