Mechanical Fault Diagnosis Based on Self-Sensing Motor Drive: Review and Key Issues

The development of condition monitoring and fault diagnosis can improve the security and reliability for CNC (computer numerical control) machines, industrial robots and other key manufacturing equipment. Compared with traditional vibration analysis methods, motor drive system, the actuator in mechatronic system, can be served as the self-sensing equipment and provides a mechanical fault diagnosis approach without external sensors. This paper focuses on the application of motor drive in mechanical fault diagnosis. Firstly, the mechanical fault diagnosis methods rely on measuring, observing and identifying information from motor drive are summarized. Then, based on mechatronic characteristics and industrial applications, some key issues and potential solutions for diagnosis with self-sensing motor drive system are proposed. Finally, experiment is conducted in practical application to verify the effectiveness of self-sensing signals on mechanical fault detection and location.