Decomposition technique for remaining useful life prediction

US8725456B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• The United States of America as Represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) · US

Inventors

• Bhaskar Saha · Redwood City, US
• Kai Frank Goebel · Mountain View, US
• Abhinav Saxena · Mountain View, US
• Jose R. Celaya · Sunnyvale, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 5, 2009
• Grant date: May 13, 2014
• Expiry date: Nov 18, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G05B23/0283
• WIPO field: Control
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

The prognostic tool disclosed here decomposes the problem of estimating the remaining useful life (RUL) of a component or sub-system into two separate regression problems: the feature-to-damage mapping and the operational conditions-to-damage-rate mapping. These maps are initially generated in off-line mode. One or more regression algorithms are used to generate each of these maps from measurements (and features derived from these), operational conditions, and ground truth information. This decomposition technique allows for the explicit quantification and management of different sources of uncertainty present in the process. Next, the maps are used in an on-line mode where run-time data (sensor measurements and operational conditions) are used in conjunction with the maps generated in off-line mode to estimate both current damage state as well as future damage accumulation. Remaining life is computed by subtracting the instance when the extrapolated damage reaches the failure threshold from the instance when the prediction is made.