Expert-Informed Hierarchical Diagnostics of Multiple Fault Modes of a Spacecraft Propulsion System

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive study on diagnosing a spacecraft propulsion system utilizing data provided by the Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) society, specifically obtained as part of the Asia-Pacific PHM conference’s data challenge 2023. The objective of the challenge is to identify and diagnose known faults as well as unknown anomalies in the spacecraft’s propulsion system, which is critical for ensuring the spacecraft’s proper functionality and safety. To address this challenge, the proposed method follows a systematic approach of feature extraction, feature selection, and model development. The models employed in this study are kMeans clustering and decision trees combined to ensembles, enriched with expert knowledge. With the method presented, our team was capable of reaching high accuracy in identifying anomalies as well as diagnosing faults, resulting in attaining the seventh place with a score of 93.08 %.