In this paper, we construct a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1DCNN), which directly takes as the input the vibration signal in the mechanical operation process. It can realize intelligent mechanical fault diagnosis and ensure the authenticity of signal samples. Moreover, due to the excellent interpretability of the 1DCNN, we can explain the feature extraction mechanism of convolution and the synergistic work ability of the convolution kernel by analyzing convolution kernels and their output results in the time-domain, frequency-domain. What’s more, we propose a novel network parameter-optimization method by matching the features of the convolution kernel with those of the original signal. A large number of experiments proved that, this optimization method improve the diagnostic accuracy and the operational efficiency greatly.

Hydraulic systems have the characteristics of strong fault concealment, powerful nonlinear time-varying signals, and a complex vibration transmission mechanism; hence, diagnosis of these systems is a challenge. To provide accurate diagnosis results automatically, numerous studies have been carried out. Among them, signal-based methods are commonly used, which employ signal processing techniques based on the state signal used for extracting features, and further input the features into the classifier for fault recognition. However, their main deficiencies include the following: (1) The features are manually designed and thus may have a lack of objectivity. (2) For signal processing, feature extraction and pattern recognition are conducted using independent models, which cannot be jointly optimized globally. (3) The machine learning algorithms adopted by these methods have a shallow architecture, which limits their capacity to deeply mine the essential features of a fault. As a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, deep learning holds the potential to overcome such deficiencies. Based on deep learning, deep neural networks (DNNs) can automatically learn the complex nonlinear relations implied in a signal, can be globally optimized, and can obtain the high-level features of multi-dimensional data. In this paper, the main technology used in an intelligent fault diagnosis and the current research status of hydraulic system fault diagnosis are summarized and analyzed. The significant prospect of applying deep learning in the field of intelligent fault diagnosis is presented, and the main ideas, methods, and principles of several typical DNNs are described and summarized. The commonality between a fault diagnosis and other issues regarding typical pattern recognition are analyzed, and research ideas for applying DNNs for hydraulic fault diagnosis are proposed. Meanwhile, the research advantages and development trend of DNNs (both domestically and overseas) as applied to an intelligent fault diagnosis are reviewed. Furthermore, the fault characteristics of a complex hydraulic system are summarized and discussed, and the key problems and possible research ideas of applying DNNs to an intelligent hydraulic fault diagnosis are presented and comprehensively analyzed.

Traffic sign detection systems provide important road control information for unmanned driving systems or auxiliary driving. In this paper, the Faster region with a convolutional neural network (R-CNN) for traffic sign detection in real traffic situations has been systematically improved. First, a first step region proposal algorithm based on simplified Gabor wavelets (SGWs) and maximally stable extremal regions (MSERs) is proposed. In this way, the region proposal a priori information is obtained and will be used for improving the Faster R-CNN. This part of our method is named as the highly possible regions proposal network (HP-RPN). Second, in order to solve the problem that the Faster R-CNN cannot effectively detect small targets, a method that combines the features of the third, fourth, and fifth layers of VGG16 to enrich the features of small targets is proposed. Third, the secondary region of interest method to enhance the feature of detection objects and improve the classification capability of the Faster R-CNN is proposed. Finally, a method of merging the German traffic sign detection benchmark (GTSDB) and Chinese traffic sign dataset (CTSD) databases into one larger database to increase the number of database samples is proposed. Experimental results show that our method improves the detection performance, especially for small targets.

Effective intelligent fault diagnosis of bearings is important for improving safety and reliability of machine. Benefiting from the training advantages, deep learning method can automatically and adaptively learn more abstract and high-level features without much priori knowledge. To realize representative features mining and automatic recognition of bearing health condition, a diagnostic model of stacked sparse denoising autoencoder (SSDAE) which combines sparse autoencoder (SAE) and denoising autoencoder (DAE) is proposed in this paper. The sparse criterion in SAE, corrupting operation in DAE and reasonable designing of the stack order of autoencoders help to mine essential information of the input and improve fault pattern classification robustness. In order to provide better input features for the constructed network, the raw non-stationary and nonlinear vibration signals are processed with ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and multiscale permutation entropy (MPE). MPE features which are extracted based on both the selected characteristic frequency-related intrinsic mode function components (IMFs) and the raw signal, are used as low-level feature for the input of the proposed diagnostic model for health condition recognition and classification. Two experiments based on the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) dataset and the measurement dataset from laboratory were conducted, and results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and highlight its excellent performance relative to existing methods.

This paper constructs a novel network structure (SVD-1DCNN) based on singular value decomposition (SVD) and one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1DCNN), which takes the original signal as input to realize intelligent diagnosis of bearing faults. The output of the first convolution layer was also analyzed from the perspectives of time domain and time-frequency domain in the simulation experiment. Through qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, it was found that the convolution kernel not only extracted the classification features of signals but also gradually highlighted the learned features in the network training process. Moreover, applying this network in fault diagnosis of bearing date provided by the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Bearing Data Center, it was found that the convolution kernel could also achieve the above operation. The novel network of this paper achieved a good classification effect on both the simulated signals and the measured signals.