Online and remote machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis system using wireless sensor networks

Motor systems are critical equipment in modern industry. To make the equipment maintenance more efficient, this paper proposes an online and remote machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis system for motor system based on WIA-PA (Wireless network for Industry Automation — Process Automation). The system continuously monitors the status of the target motor systems using wireless vibration transmitters. After extracting the feature of vibration signals, the wireless vibration transmitters send feature data to host computer through WIA-PA wireless sensor network. These data are processed further in host computer to make diagnosis for the motor system using the customized expert system. This paper describes the structure of the system, vibration transmitter, WIA-PA wireless network and host computer system in detail. The proposed system was tested in field, and the results are presented.