Automatic generator health assessment system that embedded with advanced fault diagnosis and expert system

Diesel engine type of generators that uses fuel to produce electricity are common in many countries which suffer from inconsistency in electricity supply. To lower the cost, manufacturers tend to purchase secondhand generators to ensure constant supply of electricity during production. However, manufacturers do not have the proper skill to assess the health of second-hand generators. This, coupled with poor maintenance due to insufficient technical staff, the efficiency of generators is intolerably low and facing frequent breakdown. Such deficiencies not only waste expensive fuel, but also reduce the productivity due to sudden loss of electricity supply. Hence, there is an urgent need to have an automatic generator health assessment system so that the efficiency of generators can be increased and the chance of fatal breakdown can be minimized. This paper presents a sophisticated generator health assessment system that can automatically diagnose the current health status of an inspected generator even without a baseline for comparison purpose. Initially, we focused on diagnosing the faults generated from the combustion process. Our system uses low-cost encoders to assess the health of engines. Compared to conventional methods, such capability could only be achieved using expensive pressure sensors. Moreover, an expert system was built to diagnose engine faults automatically. With the help of this automatic and low-cost system, the operators will be alerted if any anomaly is occurring in the engine. Hence, our system makes the monitored generator more reliable in operation and saves expensive fuel wasted by improper combustion process.