Residual wide-kernel deep convolutional auto-encoder for intelligent rotating machinery fault diagnosis with limited samples

This paper deals with the development of a novel deep learning framework to achieve highly accurate rotating machinery fault diagnosis using residual wide-kernel deep convolutional auto-encoder. Unlike most existing methods, in which the input data is processed by fast Fourier transform (FFT) and wavelet transform, this paper aims to learn important features from limited raw vibration signals. Firstly, the wide-kernel convolutional layer is introduced in the convolutional auto-encoder that can ensure the model can learn effective features from the data without any signal processing. Secondly, the residual learning block is introduced in convolutional auto-encoder that can ensure the model with sufficient depth without gradient vanishing and overfitting problems. Thirdly, convolutional auto-encoder can learn constructive features without massive data. To evaluate the performance of the proposed model, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) bearing dataset and Southeast University (SEU) gearbox dataset are used to test. The experiment results and comparisons verify the denoising and feature extraction ability of the proposed model in the case of very few training samples.