Application of relevance vector machine and logistic regression for machine degradation assessment

Degradation parameter or deviation parameter from normal to failure condition of machine part or system is needed as an object of prediction in prognostics method. This study proposes the combination between relevance vector machine (RVM) and logistic regression (LR) in order to assess the failure degradation and prediction from incipient failure until final failure occurred. LR is used to estimate failure degradation of bearing based on run-to-failure datasets and the results are then regarded as target vectors of failure probability. RVM is selected as intelligent system then trained by using run-to-failure bearing data and target vectors of failure probability estimated by LR. After the training process, RVM is employed to predict failure probability of individual units of machine component. The performance of the proposed method is validated by applying the system to predict failure time of individual bearing based on simulation and experimental data. The result shows the plausibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, which can be considered as the machine degradation assessment model. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.