2017 International Conference on Sensing, Diagnostics, Prognostics, and Control
Adaptive singular value decomposition and its application to
the feature extraction of planetary gearboxes
Qingliang Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission
Chongqing University
Chongqing, China
E-mail: 649388229@qq.com
Abstract—Since the vibration signal of the planetary gear box is
usually submerged by the noise, it is necessary to develop a method
of weak fault characteristics extraction. Traditional singular value
decomposition method is unable to select the number of the
effective singular value automatically, a new fault diagnosis
method of the planetary gear box based on adaptive singular value
decomposition is, therefore, proposed. Firstly, according to certain
conditions, several effective singular value numbers are selected
and different reconstructed signals are obtained by the method.
Secondly, the optimal reconstructed signal is automatically
selected on the basis of the skewness of these reconstructed signals.
At last, the envelope spectrum of the fault signal is acquired with
the envelope analysis. The results of simulation and experiment
show that this method performs better in eliminating noise and
extracting the weak fault characteristics of the vibration signal in
the planetary gear box compared to the traditional singular value
decomposition.
Keywords—planetary gear box; vibration signal; adaptive
singular value decomposition; envelope spectrum; noise reduction
I. INTRODUCTION
Planetary gear box has many advantages [1], such as
compact structure, small volume, light weight, strong bearing
capacity, big transmission ratio and high transmission
efficiency, which is widely used in many machine driven
systems. Most planetary gear boxes are applied in some severe
operation condition with low speed and heavy load, the
components are particularly prone to the failure. Diagnosing the
fault of the planetary gear box is able to avoid the huge economic
loss caused by accidents, which is of great significance.
Currently, diagnosing by the use of vibration signal is one of
the most effective methods among fault diagnosis technologies.
The vibration signal of the fault usually contains peaky and
mutational non-stationary signals, or non-stationary white noise,
which are the components of high frequency [2]. As a result of
the operation environment, electromagnetic interference and
sampling instrument limitation, the acquired data is unable to be
free of noise. Since the fault signal contained in the vibration
signal is rather weak and usually submerged in the noise, the
signal must be de-noised. In other words, it is necessary to
eliminate the high frequency components indicating the noise ,
and extract the high frequency components indicating the
mutational non-stationary signal. In order to eliminate the noise
contained in vibration signal, many methods have been put
forward, such as the adaptive noise cancellation method [3], the
Fund project ˖National Natural Science Foundation of China (51675065)
978-1-5090-4020-9/17 $31.00 © 2017 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/SDPC.2017.98
Yi Qin
College of Mechanical Engineering
Chongqing University
Chongqing, China
E-mail: 29137312@qq.com
time synchronous averaging method [4], the EEMD
decomposition method [5], and the wavelet threshold de-noising
method [6],etc. Although the adaptive noise cancellation method
is supposed to handle the noised-signal, the time delay, the order
of filter and convergence factor should be determined according
to the specific signal. The time synchronous averaging method
is supposed to divide the signal into N segments and then divide
by N after the summation of these segments. Although the effect
of the noise reduction will increase with the increase of N, the
length of the signal would also decrease so that the resolution
would diminish. The EEMD decomposition method is the
improvement of the EMD decomposition and has many
advantages, such as simple, high efficiency, high resolution and
mode aliasing restriction. However, the standard deviation of the
inserted Gaussian white noise only has a range of the value, and
can hardly be calculated through a specific formula. The wavelet
threshold de-noising is easily to be achieved with the less
computing work. But the selection of the parameters, such as
wavelet basis, the number of the decomposition layer and the
threshold, is indeterminate.
Singular value decomposition(SVD) is a nonlinear filtering
with a small phase shift [7] and no-time delay, which is widely
applied in the de-noising [8] of the vibration signal. The use of
the peak signal-to-noise ratio [9] is hardly to be achieved
because of the indeterminable signal-to-noise ratio of the actual
vibration signal. The difference spectrum of the singular value
[10] could self-adaptively select singular value number which is
used to reconstruct signal, but many weak impact signal
characteristics would be lost due to the singular value number
which is decided by the location of the maximum peak in
singular value difference spectrum. The application of peak
group [11] is the improvement of the maximized differential
singular value decomposition, while this approach would make
some weak impact signal characteristics lost. Nevertheless, the
selection of the effective singular value number must be decided
by observing the distribution of singular value difference
spectrum, which is unable to be realize automatically. Based on
existing singular value decomposition, a method of the adaptive
singular value decomposition is reported, which will extract the
weak fault characteristics of planetary gear box much more
accurately.
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 II. SINGULAR VALUE DECOMPOSITION THEORY
A. Singular value decomposition where As and Aɽ are the
Hankel matrices constructed by s(i) and ɽ(i), As, AɽęRm×n.
The Hankel matrix ‫ܣ‬௦ constructed by the ideal noise-free
signal only delays one data point from the previous row of
vector, so its adjacent two rows are highly correlated and the
Hankel matrix ‫ܣ‬௦ is a morbid matrix. The previous ݇ singular
values of this ill-conditioned matrix are relatively large, and the
subsequent singular values are close to zero. The singular values
curve has significant mutation at k-th, and k is actually the rank
of this matrix. Therefore, the singular value vector of the matrix
‫ܣ‬௦ constructed by the noise-free ideal signal can be
approximately written as: ɉሺ‫ܣ‬௦ ሻ ൌ ሺߣ௦ଵ ǡ ߣ௦ଶ ǡ ‫ ڮ‬ǡ ߣ௦௞ ǡ Ͳǡ ‫ ڮ‬ǡͲሻ, of
which the length ‫ ݍ‬ൌ ‹ሺ݉ǡ ݊ሻ , and the signal is represented
by the previous ݇ singular values.
The Hankel matrix ‫ܣ‬ఌ constructed by the noise signal delays
one data point from the previous row of vectors as well, but the
two adjacent rows of vectors are not related and the matrix is a
well-conditioned non-singular matrix. So all singular values are
uniform and not zero. Therefore, the ideal singular value vector
of the matrix ‫ܣ‬ఌ can be written as: ɉሺ‫ܣ‬ఌ ሻ ൌ ሺߣఌ ǡ ߣఌ ǡ ‫ ڮ‬ǡ ߣఌ ሻ, of
which length ‫ ݍ‬ൌ ‹ሺ݉ǡ ݊ሻ.
For a Hankel matrix ‫ ܣ‬constructed by a mixed signal with
noise, the singular value vector is not a simple summation of the
separate singular value vectors of the components. As to the
singular value vector of matrix sum, there is a theoretical in
equation [12] as follows:
σ௧௛ୀଵ ߣ௛ ሺ‫ ܣ‬൅ ‫ܤ‬ሻ ൑ σ௧௛ୀଵሾߣ௛ ሺ‫ܣ‬ሻ ൅ ߣ௛ ሺ‫ܤ‬ሻሿ ͳ ൑ ‫ ݐ‬൑ ‫( ݍ‬1)
where ‫ܣ‬ǡ ‫ܴ א ܤ‬௠ൈ௡ ,‫ ݍ‬ൌ ‹ሺ݉ǡ ݊ሻ, ߣ௛ ሺ‫ܣ‬ሻ represents the h-th
singular value in the singular value vector of matrix ‫ ; ܣ‬t
represents the accumulation number of the singular value. When
‫ ݍ‬is large enough, the singular value vector of the matrix sum
will have the following approximate relationship [13]:
ɉሺ‫ܣ‬ሻ ൎ ሺߣ௦ଵ ൅ ߣఌ ǡ ߣ௦ଶ ൅ ߣఌ ǡ ‫ ڮ‬ǡ ߣ௦௞ ൅ ߣఌ ǡ ߣఌ ǡ ‫ ڮ‬ǡ ߣఌ ሻ (2)
Obviously, for the Hankel matrix constructed by mixed
signal with noise, the subsequent ‫ ݍ‬െ ݇ singular values are
significantly smaller than those of the previous ݇ , which
represent the ideal signals to be extracted, and the singular
values are mutated at the k-th point. Thus the de-noised signal
would be obtained by selecting the previous ݇ singular values
for reconstruction.
A singular value difference spectrum theory has been
proposed [10], and the singular value difference spectrum is
defined as:
ܾ௞ ൌ ߣ௞ െ ߣ௞ାଵ ݇ ൌ ͳǡʹǡ ǡ ‫ ݍ‬െ ͳ (3)
Then the sequence ‫ ܤ‬ൌ ൫ܾଵ ǡ ܾଶ ǡ ǡ ܾ௤ିଵ ൯ which is formed by
all ܾ௞ is called singular value difference spectrum, which
describes the variation of the two adjacent singular values.
When the two adjacent singular values differ rather largely, there
will appear a peak in the difference spectrum.
The maximum differential singular value decomposition is a
method which selects a singular value number through the
coordinate position of the difference spectrum peak: when the
coordinate position of the maximum peak of the difference
spectrum is 1, which means that there is a large direct-current
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signal in the original signal and the second maximum peak
coordinate position determines the number of valid singular
values. Otherwise the maximum peak coordinate position
determines the number of effective singular values.
III. FAULT DIAGNOSIS METHOD BASED ON ADAPTIVE
SINGULAR VALUE DECOMPOSITION
Although maximum differential singular value
decomposition [10] can self-adaptively select singular value
number, many weak impact signal characteristics would be lost
because of the singular value number which is decided by the
location of the maximum peak in singular value difference
spectrum. However, the application of peak group [11] in
singular value difference spectrum is unable to self-adaptively
select singular value number. Therefore, in order to
automatically preserve the impact characteristic components of
the signal preferably and farthest suppress the noise
components, an adaptive singular value decomposition which
can self-adaptively select effective singular value number is put
forward based on the traditional singular value decomposition.
As mentioned above, the number of the effective singular
values is located at the position where the difference between
the singular value difference spectra before and after is rather
large. Thus, an appropriate ratio ݀ (for example, ݀ ൌ ͳͲͲ )
should be set and all the effective singular value numbers ݇
satisfying the formula ܾ௞ Τܾ௞ାଵ ൐ ݀ are obtained, leading to the
number of the effective singular value sequence ‫ ܭ‬ൌ
൫݇ଵ ǡ ݇ଶ ǡ ‫ ڮ‬ǡ ݇௣ ൯. Subsequently, the ‫ ݌‬reconstructed signals can
be reconstructed according to the number sequence of the
effective singular value ‫ܭ‬. Finally, calculate the skew of the
reconstructed signals separately, and the reconstructed signal
with the highest skewness is regarded as the result of the
adaptive singular value decomposition.
From the above, a fault diagnosis step of the planetary
gearbox based on the adaptive singular value decomposition is
as follows:
1) Decompose the Hankel matrix ‫ ܣ‬constructed by the noisy
signal ‫ݔ‬ሺ݅ሻ by, and the singular valuesߣ௜ are obtained;
2) Subtract these adjacent singular values from each other,
and the difference spectrum sequence ൌ ൫ܾଵ ǡ ܾଶ ǡ ‫ ڮ‬ǡ ܾ௤ିଵ ൯ is
obtained;
3) The effective singular value number sequence ‫ ܭ‬ൌ
൫݇ଵ ǡ ݇ଶ ǡ ‫ ڮ‬ǡ ݇௣ ൯ is obtained;
4) The ‫ ݌‬reconstructed signals is obtained according to the ‫݌‬
effective singular value numbers respectively;
5) Calculate the skew of the ‫ ݌‬reconstructed signals, and
take the reconstructed signal with the highest skew as the result
of the adaptive singular value decomposition;
6) The envelope spectrum is obtained by the means of
Hilbert transform and Fourier transform successively;
7) Identify the fault type of the planetary gearbox by the
characteristic spectrum of the envelope spectrum.
In summary, the specific flow chart of the planetary gearbox
vibration signal process is illustrated in Fig. 1:
 can well simulate the noise of the simulated signal, and then
accurately identify the existence of the fault.

(a) time domain waveform

Figure 1. The flow chart of the fault diagnosis.

IV. SIMULATED SIGNAL ANALYSIS

According to the planetary gearbox sun gear failure vibration
model [14], the simulation signal can be expressed as:
ሺ௥ሻ
‫ݔ‬ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ ൌ ൣͳ െ ܿ‫ݏ݋‬൫ʹߨ݂௦ ‫ݐ‬൯൧ሾͳ ൅ ‫ݏ݋ܿܣ‬ሺʹߨ݂௦ ‫ ݐ‬൅ ߶ሻሿ
ܿ‫ݏ݋‬ሾʹߨ݂௠ ‫ ݐ‬൅ ‫݊݅ݏܤ‬ሺʹߨ݂௦ ‫ ݐ‬൅ ߮ሻ ൅ ߠሿ ൅ ݊ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ (4)
(b) envelope spectrum
ሺ௥ሻ
where ݂௦ is the absolute rotation frequency of the sun wheel; Figure 2. Simulated signal in time domain waveform and envelope spectrum.
݂௦ is the fault character frequency of the sun wheel; ݂௠ is the
gear mesh frequency; ߶, ߮ and ߠ are the initial phase; ݊ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ is
ሺ௥ሻ
the Gaussian white noise. Let ݂௦ ൌ ͸Ǥ͸͹ˈ݂௦ ൌ ͷǤʹͳˈ݂௠ ൌ
ͳͶ͸ˈ߶ ൌ ߮ ൌ ߠ ൌ Ͳˈ‫ ܣ‬ൌ ‫ ܤ‬ൌ Ͳˈthe SNR of signal ‫ݔ‬ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ
equals to െʹͲ†„, the sampling frequency is set as ͸ͶͲœ, and
the sampling time is set as ͷ•.
The time domain waveform and envelope spectrum of the
simulated signal ‫ݔ‬ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ obtained by Eq. (4) are shown in Fig.2.
Obviously, there is no obvious peak in the envelope spectrum of
Fig.2b, that is the fault character frequency and absolute rotation
frequency of the sun gear in the simulated signal ‫ݔ‬ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ are
submerged in the noise signal and cannot be identified at all.
Therefore, the simulated signal need to be de-noised. (a) time domain waveform
In order to show the advantages of the proposed method, the
simulated signal ‫ݔ‬ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ is firstly decomposed by maximum
differential singular value decomposition. The results are shown
in Fig.3. In the envelope spectrum of Fig.3b, the amplitude at
the fault character frequency and absolute rotation frequency of
the sun gear is almost zero. As this method only selects the
singular value corresponding to the maximum peak position of
the singular value difference spectrum to reconstruct the signal
and loses the fault feature correlation component of the sun
wheel, which is not suitable for the fault diagnosis of such
signal. Then, the adaptive singular value decomposition method
is used to process the simulated signal ‫ݔ‬ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ, and the results are
shown in Fig.4. In the envelope spectrum of Fig. 4b, the peak (b) envelope spectrum
frequency can be written as the combination of the fault Figure 3. Simulated signal in time domain waveform and envelope spectrum
character frequency and absolute rotation frequency of the sun after maximized differential singular value decomposition.
ሺ௥ሻ
gear, ݂݉௦ േ ݂݊௦ ( ݉ and ݊ are integer, respectively).
According to the literature [14], there is a sun wheel failure.
Obviously, the proposed adaptive singular value decomposition

490
 fault character frequency and absolute rotation frequency of the
second stage sun gear in the envelope spectrum of Fig.5b, these
characteristic frequencies are not prominent enough due to the
noise interference. Therefore, it is necessary to extract the fault
feature from the vibration signal.

(a) time domain waveform

(a) time domain waveform

(b) envelope spectrum

Figure 4. Simulated signal in time domain waveform and envelope spectrum
after adaptive singular value decomposition.

V. ANALYSIS OF MEASURED VIBRATION SIGNAL OF (b) envelope spectrum

PLANETARY GEAR BOX Figure 5. Vibration signal in time domain waveform and envelope spectrum.
In this paper, the missing teeth of gears is simulated by the
drivetrain diagnostics simulator (DDS). The laboratory bench
consists of a two-stage planetary gear box and a two-stage
parallel gear box. The gear distribution and characteristic
frequencies of the planetary gear box are shown in Table 1 and
Table 2, respectively. The acceleration sensor is located at the
top of the planetary gear box, the input speed is ͶͲ ‫ݎ‬Τ‫ ݏ‬, the load
is ʹͷǤʹܰ݉, the sampling frequency is ͵ʹͲͲ‫ݖܪ‬, the fault gear is
the second stage transmission sun wheel.

TABLE I. DISTRIBUTED SITUATION OF GEARS IN PLANETARY GEAR BOX

sun gearࢠ࢙ planet gear (quantity)ࢠ࢖ gear ring ࢠ࢘
first stage 20 40(3) 100 (a) time domain waveform
second stage 28 36(4) 100

TABLE II. CHARACTERISTIC FREQUENCIES OF GEARS IN PLANETARY

GEAR BOX

gear absolute rotation fault character frequency

mesh frequency
frequen sun planet sun planet gear
ሺ࢘ሻ carrierࢌࢉ gearࢌ࢙ gear ࢌ࢖ ring ࢌ࢘
cyࢌ࢓ gearࢌ࢙
first 667 40 6.67 33.35 16.68 6.67
stage
second 146 6.67 1.46 5.21 4.06 1.46
stage

The time domain waveform and envelope spectrum of the (b) envelope spectrum
actual vibration signal of the planetary gear box sun gear are Figure 6. Vibration signal in time domain waveform and envelope spectrum
shown in Fig.1. Although there are combined frequencies of the after maximized differential singular value decomposition.

491
 For comparison, the vibration signal is first subjected to the
maximized differential singular value decomposition, and the
results are shown in Fig.6. In the envelope spectrum of Fig.6b,
it can be seen that the amplitude at all the characteristic
frequencies calculated in Table 2 is almost zero. It is clear that
this method eliminates the fault-related components with noise.
Then, the vibration signal is subjected to the adaptive
singular value decomposition, and the result is shown in Fig.7.
Obviously, in the envelope spectrum of Fig. 7b, the amplitudes
of the fault character frequency and double absolute rotation
frequency of the second stage sun gear are rather prominent.
Therefore, the existing local fault of the second stage sun gear
can be diagnosed. Comparing Fig. 6 with Fig. 7, it can be seen
that the adaptive singular value decomposition proposed in this
paper can accurately identify the corresponding fault, while the
maximum differential singular value decomposition fail to
achieve.
(a) time domain waveform
(b) envelope spectrum
Figure 7. Vibration signal in time domain waveform and envelope spectrum
after adaptive singular value decomposition.
CONCLUSION
Based on the maximum differential singular value
decomposition, a adaptive singular value decomposition
proposed in this paper selects the effective singular value series
 ൌ ൫݇ଵ ǡ ݇ଶ ǡ ‫ ڮ‬ǡ ݇௣ ൯ according to the difference between the
front and the back difference , and the optimal reconstructed
signal is selected in the reconstructed signals according to the
skewness maximum principle, making the singular value
decomposition more scientific and reasonable. The analyses of
492
the simulated signal and the actual vibration signal of the
planetary gear box show that the adaptive singular value
decomposition can eliminate the noise effectively, and then
effectively extract the weak fault characteristics of the planetary
gear box vibration signal, and the traditional maximized
differential singular value decomposition method can’t correctly
extract the fault feature. Therefore, this paper proposes a fault
feature extraction method based on adaptive singular value
decomposition can be effectively used for the detection of weak
faults in planetary gear box. In addition, the method can also be
applied to the fault diagnosis of other rotatory machinery (such
as rolling bearings) vibration signals.
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