Assessing conditions of industrial equipment and processes

A computer-implemented method for assessing at least one condition of industrial equipment, and/or at least one condition of a process running in an industrial plant, based on measurement data gathered by a plurality of sensors, the method comprising:

• obtaining at least one record of measurement data that describes an operating situation of the equipment, and/or of the process;
• obtaining a plurality of trained machine-learning models that are each configured to map the record of measurement data to an indication of the condition;
• determining, for each of the trained machine-learning models, a figure of fitness to assess a situation described by the record of measurement data by determining a measure for a type and/or a strength of any disturbance contained in the measurement data and determining a fitness of the trained machine-learning model to process measurement data that contain disturbances of the type and/or strength;
• selecting from the trained machine-learning models whose figure of fitness meets a predetermined criterion a simple model and a computationally intensive model, wherein the selection of the trained machine-learning models is further based on one or more of a requirement for accuracy and for a confidence of the assessment of the condition;
• and
• mapping the record of measurement data to a sought condition using the selected trained machine-learning models by cascading the plurality of trained machine-learning models in that:
• in an initial screening of the plant, a fast cursory assessment of the record of measurement data is performed by the simple model;
• and
• in response to the simple model indicating that the condition may be abnormal, the computationally intensive model that works on complex measurement data is applied and used to further investigate the condition, and
• in response to the abnormal condition meeting a predetermined criterion, taking one or more corrective actions including:
• flagging the equipment for maintenance and/or repair, and/or for future more frequent inspection;
• changing operating parameters of the equipment to ease a load on the equipment;
• changing operating parameters of the process to move the process to a stable state;
• and/or shutting down the equipment, and/or the process, to prevent further damage.