A novel equipment remaining useful life prediction approach considering dynamic maintenance threshold

Abstract

In conventional remaining useful life (RUL) prediction approaches grounded on maintenance, the maintenance threshold is typically established as a stationary value. However, the actual maintenance threshold may exceed its preset value due to the uncertainty of degradation and other factors. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the dynamic maintenance threshold to improve the precision of remaining useful life prediction. By considering the Wiener process, the maintenance threshold error is introduced to reflect the dynamic nature of the maintenance threshold. The influence of maintenance on degradation amount, degradation rate, and degradation path are comprehensively considered to establish a multi‐stage maintenance‐affected degradation process model. The RUL formula of the equipment is derived using the first hitting time (FHT). The maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) approach and Bayesian theory are employed to estimate the model's parameters. The proposed approach is validated using simulation data and gyroscope degradation data. The outcomes reveal that the proposed approach can significantly enhance the precision of life prediction for the equipment.