Unsupervised Anomaly Detection in Marine Diesel Engines using Transformer Neural Networks and Residual Analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a novel unsupervised approach for detecting anomalies in marine diesel engines using a Transformer Neural Network based autoencoder (TAE) and residual analysis with Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT) and Sum of Squares of Normalized Residuals (SSNR). The proposed method can capture temporal dependencies in normal timeseries data without the need for labeled failure data. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a dataset of faulty data is generated under the same operational profile as the normal training data. The model is trained using normal data, and the faulty data is reconstructed using the trained model. SPRT and SSNR are then used to analyze the residuals from the observed and reconstructed faulty data, with significant deviations exceeding a predefined threshold being identified as anomalous behavior. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach can accurately and efficiently detect anomalies in marine diesel engines. Therefore, this approach can be considered as a promising solution for early anomaly detection, leading to timely maintenance and repair, and preventing costly downtime.