Physics Based Deep Learning Technique for Prognostics

Abstract

Remaining useful life (RUL) estimation is one of the most important aspects of prognostics and health management (PHM). Various deep learning (DL) based techniques have been developed and applied for the purposes of RUL estimation. One limitation of DL is the lack of physical interpretations as they are purely data driven models. Another limitation is the need for an exceedingly large amount of data to arrive at an acceptable pattern recognition performance for the purposes of RUL estimation. This research is aimed to overcome these limitations by developing physics based DL techniques for RUL prediction and validate the method with real run-to-failure datasets. The contribution of the research relies on creating hybrid DL based techniques as well as combining physics based approaches with DL techniques for effective RUL prediction.