Work machine with a differential protection system and method

An articulating work machine comprising:

• a front chassis;
• a front knock sensor coupled to the front chassis, the front knock sensor configured to convert a sensed vibration into an electrical signals;
• a front electronic differential lock;
• a rear chassis;
• a rear knock sensor coupled to the rear chassis configured to convert a sensed vibration into electrical signals;
• a rear electronic locking differential;
• an articulation joint disposed between the front chassis and the rear chassis wherein the articulation joint enables relative pivotal movement between the front chassis and the rear chassis along a vertical axis, facilitating a steering of the work machine;
• and
• a controller programmed to,
• energize a locker to lock one of the front differential lock and the rear differential lock in response to a slip condition and an engagement condition, receive and process the electrical signals generated by the front knock sensor and the rear knock sensor;
• determine a presence or a degree of severity of a risk of differential wear based on the processed electrical signals;
• deenergize the locker to unlock one of the front electronic differential lock and the rear electronic differential lock in response to the processed electrical signals indicative of a risk of differential wear;
• and
• inhibit locking of the electronic differential lock for a defined period responsive to the processed electrical signals indicative of a risk of differential wear.

A method for performing a predictive differential control on a work machine, comprising:

• receiving and processing a historical electrical signal data generated by a knock sensor associated with a sensed vibration of a differential lock;
• extracting one or more features from the processed historical electrical signal data, the one or more features associated with the wear of the differential lock;
• training a predictive model using the one or more features and a labeled dataset regarding a health information of the differential lock;
• applying the predictive model to the one or more features to generate a prediction of the health information of the differential lock;
• unlocking the differential lock when in a locked status in response to a processed electrical signal indicative of a risk of differential lock wear;
• and
• inhibiting locking of the differential lock for a defined period that starts in response to the unlocking of the differential lock, the defined period based on the health information.