Variational Discriminative Stacked Auto-Encoder: Feature Representation Using a Prelearned Discriminator, and Its Application to Industrial Process Monitoring

In deep-learning-based process monitoring, obtaining an effective feature representation is a critical step in constructing a reliable deep-learning monitoring model. Conventional deep-learning methods like stacked auto-encoders (SAEs) capture feature representation by minimizing the data reconstruction errors, which lack the expression of essential information and ultimately lead to degradation of the monitoring performance. To solve this problem, variational discriminative SAE (VDSAE) is proposed in this article. First, a variational generative discriminative structure is designed to obtain a reliable prelearned discriminator. Based on this new variational discriminator, the authenticity of the reconstructed data is evaluated as an important criterion for feature learning. Then, an SAE incorporating the prelearned discriminator is trained by both minimizing the reconstruction error and maximizing the data authenticity. In this way, the prelearned discriminator makes the network effectively capture the essential expression of the reconstructed data. The proposed approach enables SAE to learn a better feature representation owing to the excellent reconstruction performance. Finally, the feature representation and fault detection performance of VDSAE are verified in two cases. The results show that the average fault detection rates (FDRs) of the multiphase flow facility and the waste-water treatment process (WWTP) can be improved to 72% and 97%, respectively, compared with the other fault detection methods.