Faults in photovoltaic (PV) systems, which can result in energy loss, system shutdown or even serious safety breaches, are often difficult to avoid. Fault detection in such systems is imperative to improve their reliability, productivity, safety and efficiency. Here, an innovative model-based fault-detection approach for early detection of shading of PV modules and faults on the direct current (DC) side of PV systems is proposed. This approach combines the flexibility, and simplicity of a one-diode model with the extended capacity of an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart to detect incipient changes in a PV system. The one-diode model, which is easily calibrated due to its limited calibration parameters, is used to predict the healthy PV array's maximum power coordinates of current, voltage and power using measured temperatures and irradiances. Residuals, which capture the difference between the measurements and the predictions of the one-diode model, are generated and used as fault indicators. Then, the EWMA monitoring chart is applied on the uncorrelated residuals obtained from the one-diode model to detect and identify the type of fault. Actual data from the grid-connected PV system installed at the Renewable Energy Development Center, Algeria, are used to assess the performance of the proposed approach. Results show that the proposed approach successfully monitors the DC side of PV systems and detects temporary shading.

Swarm robotics requires continuous monitoring to detect abnormal events and to sustain normal operations. Indeed, swarm robotics with one or more faulty robots leads to degradation of performances complying with the target requirements. This paper present an innovative data-driven fault detection method for monitoring robots swarm. The method combines the flexibility of principal component analysis (PCA) models and the greater sensitivity of the exponentially-weighted moving average control chart to incipient changes. We illustrate through simulated data collected from the ARGoS simulator that a significant improvement in fault detection can be obtained by using the proposed methods as compared to the use of the conventional PCA-based methods.

This paper reports a development of a statistical approach for fault detection and diagnosis in a PV system. Specifically, the overarching goal of this work is to early detect and identify faults on the DC side of a PV system (e.g., short-circuit faults; open-circuit faults; and partial shading faults). Towards this end, we apply exponentially-weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart on the residuals obtained from the one-diode model. Such a choice is motivated by the greater sensitivity of EWMA chart to incipient faults and its low-computational cost making it easy to implement in real time. Practical data from a 3.2 KWp photovoltaic plant located within an Algerian research center is used to validate the proposed approach. Results show clearly the efficiency of the developed method in monitoring PV system status.

Fault detection is important for safe operation of various modern engineering systems. Partial least square (PLS) has been widely used in monitoring highly correlated process variables. Conventional PLS-based methods, nevertheless, often fail to detect incipient faults. In this paper, we develop new PLS-based monitoring chart, combining PLS with multivariate memory control chart, the multivariate exponentially weighted moving average (MEWMA) monitoring chart. The MEWMA are sensitive to incipient faults in the process mean, which significantly improves the performance of PLS methods and widen their applicability in practice. Using simulated distillation column data, we demonstrate that the proposed PLS-based MEWMA control chart is more effective in detecting incipient fault in the mean of the multivariate process variables, and outperform the conventional PLS-based monitoring charts.

Process monitoring has a central role in the process industry to enhance productivity, efficiency, and safety, and to avoid expensive maintenance. In this paper, a statistical approach that exploit the advantages of multiscale PLS models (MSPLS) and those of a generalized likelihood ratio (GLR) test to better detect anomalies is proposed. Specifically, to consider the multivariate and multi-scale nature of process dynamics, a MSPLS algorithm combining PLS and wavelet analysis is used as modeling framework. Then, GLR hypothesis testing is applied using the uncorrelated residuals obtained from MSPLS model to improve the anomaly detection abilities of these latent variable based fault detection methods even further. Applications to a simulated distillation column data are used to evaluate the proposed MSPLS-GLR algorithm.

This paper presents a model-based anomaly detection method for supervising the direct current (dc) side of photovotaic (PV) systems. Toward this end, a framework combining the benefits of k-nearest neighbors (kNN) with univariate monitoring approaches has been proposed. Specifically, kNN-based Shewhart and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) schemes with parametric and nonparametric thresholds have been introduced to suitably detect faults in PV systems. The choice of kNN method to separate normal and abnormal features is motivated by its capacity to handle nonlinear features and do not make assumptions on the underlying data distribution. In addition, because the EWMA approach is sensitive in detecting small changes. First, a simulation model for the inspected PV array is constructed. Then, residuals generated from this model are employed as the input for kNN-based schemes for anomaly detection. Parametric and nonparametric thresholds using kernel density estimation have been used to detect faults. The effectiveness of the kNN-based procedures is verified using actual measurements from a 9.54-kWp grid-connected system in Algeria. Results proclaim the efficiency of the proposed strategy to supervise the dc side of PV systems.

Reliable fault detection systems in industrial processes provide pertinent information for improving the safety and process reliability and reducing manpower costs. Here, we present a flexible and efficient fault detection approach based on the continuous ranked probability score (CRPS) metric to detect faults in multivariate data. This approach merges partial least squares (PLS) models and the CRPS metric to separate normal from abnormal features by simultaneously taking advantage of the feature representation ability of a PLS and the fault detection capacity of a CRPS-based scheme. The proposed approach uses PLS to generate residuals, and then apply the CRPS-based chart to reveal any abnormality. Specifically, two monitoring schemes based on CRPS measure have been introduced in this paper. The first approach uses the Shewhart scheme to evaluate the CRPS of the response variables residuals from the PLS model. The second approach merges the CRPS into the exponentially weighted moving average monitoring chart. We assess the effectiveness of these approaches by using real and simulated distillation column data. We also compare the detection quality of PLS-based CRPS charts to that of PLS-based T2, Q, multivariate cumulative sum, and multivariate exponentially weighted moving average methods. Results show that the capacity of the proposed scheme can reliably detect faults in multivariate processes.

This paper presents an efficient fault detection approach to monitor the direct current (DC) side of photovoltaic (PV) systems. The key contribution of this work is combining both single diode model (SDM) flexibility and the cumulative sum (CUSUM) chart efficiency to detect incipient faults. In fact, unknown electrical parameters of SDM are firstly identified using an efficient heuristic algorithm, named Artificial Bee Colony algorithm. Then, based on the identified parameters, a simulation model is built and validated using a co-simulation between Matlab/Simulink and PSIM. Next, the peak power (Pmpp) residuals of the entire PV array are generated based on both real measured and simulated Pmpp values. Residuals are used as the input for the CUSUM scheme to detect potential faults. We validate the effectiveness of this approach using practical data from an actual 20 MWp grid-connected PV system located in the province of Adrar, Algeria.