Bearing Fault Diagnosis Using a Novel Classifier Ensemble Based on Lifting Wavelet Packet Transforms and Sample Entropy

In order to improve the fault detection accuracy for rolling bearings, an automated fault diagnosis system is presented based on lifting wavelet packet transform (LWPT), sample entropy (SampEn), and classifier ensemble. Bearing vibration signals are firstly decomposed into different frequency subbands through a three-level LWPT, resulting in a total of 8 frequency-band signals throughout the third layers of the LWPT decomposition tree. The SampEns of all the 8 components are then calculated as feature vectors. Such a feature extraction paradigm is expected to depict complexity, irregularity, and nonstationarity of bearing vibrations. Moreover, a novel classifier ensemble is proposed to alleviate the effect of initial parameters on the performance of member classifiers and to improve classification effectiveness. Experiments were conducted on electric motor bearings considering various set of fault categories and fault severity levels. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed diagnosis system can effectively improve bearing fault recognition accuracy and stability in comparison with diagnosis methods based on a single classifier.