Fuzzy classification with restricted Boltzman machines and echo-state networks for predicting potential railway door system failures

In this paper, a fuzzy classification approach applying a combination of Echo-State Networks (ESNs) and a Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) is proposed for predicting potential railway rolling stock system failures using discrete-event diagnostic data. The approach is demonstrated on a case study of a railway door system with real data. Fuzzy classification enables the use of linguistic variables for the definition of the time intervals in which the failures are predicted to occur. It provides a more intuitive way to handle the predictions by the users, and increases the acceptance of the proposed approach. The research results confirm the suitability of the proposed combination of algorithms for use in predicting railway rolling stock system failures. The proposed combination of algorithms shows good performance in terms of prediction accuracy on the railway door system case study.