Clustering Algorithms in Mining Fans Operating Mode Identification Problem

Most of the machinery and equipment of the mine infrastructure is controlled by an industrial automation system. In practice, SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems very often acquire many operational parameters that have no further analytical use. The variability of recorded signals very often depends on the machine load, as well as organizational and technical aspects. Therefore, SCADA systems can be a practically free source of information used to determine KPI (e.g. performance, energy and diagnostic) for a single object as well as given mining process. For example, the ability to reliably identify different operational modes of the mining industrial fans based on data from SCADA gives a wide range of potential applications. Accurate information on this subject could be used - apart from basic monitoring and reporting needs (e.g. actual work vs. schedule comparison) – also in more complex problems, like power consumption predictions. Given the variety of industrial fans used in the mining industry and the different operational data collected, this is yet not a trivial task in a general case. The main aim of this article is to provide reliable algorithms solving fans operational mode identification issue, which will be possible to apply in a wide range of potential applications.