PSO driven designing of robust and computation efficient 1D-CNN architecture for transmission line fault detection

In spite of the amazing success of deep learning in various complex classification tasks, its real-time applications have been greatly hindered due to the enormous computational burden and extensive processing time. In this context, the present investigation is a path-breaking idea and journey toward designing robust and computationally efficient One-dimensional Convolutional Neural Networks (1D-CNN) for the classification of transmission line faults, which demands accurate decisions within 20 ms. Following the multi-channel signal processing approach, sampled three-phase line currents of each half-cycle duration are concatenated to form a one-dimensional array and fed to the 1D-CNN model for exploring unique patterns of line currents associated with various faults. A Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) driven multi-objective optimization technique is exclusively used to select an optimum number of kernels and kernel sizes for designing a less computation-intensive but robust architecture, making it suitable for fast fault detection and classification without compromising the performance. The efficacy of this holistic design approach has been demonstrated in the simulated environment of an IEEE 5-bus system with significant penetration of distributed generation. With excellent fault pattern extraction through the convolution process, the optimally designed 1D-CNN has proven its strength for accurate transmission line fault classification by combating bidirectional power flow due to renewable energy penetration. The emulation time of the optimally designed 1D-CNN architecture for low-cost, low-power FPGA demonstrates its fastness and suitability for time-critical real-time transmission line fault classification. In general the proposition in the paper explains the candidate Deep Learning (DL) algorithm for multi-channel signal processing focusing on low-computing edge devices.