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Low cost hand held acoustic camera

Conference Paper · December 2014

DOI: 10.1109/ICSPCC.2014.6986223

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 Low cost, hand held acoustic camera
Maciej Orman
Corporate Research Center
ABB Ltd.
Shanghai, P.R. China
Cajetan T. Pinto
Motors and Generators Service
ABB Ltd.
Mumbai, India
Abstract— The work described in this paper focuses on the
design of a low cost, hand held acoustic camera. The novel process
of creating the camera has been entirely engineered in ABB Ltd.
Even though the creation of the acoustic camera with the use of 3D
printing techniques may come at the cost of slightly decreased
accuracy of the measurements, when compared with the
commercially available solutions, however this is entirely
acceptable in many applications. Additionally the costs saving
related with the in-house manufacturing adds to the attractiveness
of such an approach. The paper aims to present that with the
advent of new technologies e.g. 3D printing it becomes possible for
simple-design tools capable of delivering high quality results to be
created by virtually anyone.
Index Terms—Acoustic camera, low cost, sound localization.
I. INTRODUCTION
Recently acoustic analysis has attracted more and more
attention and it has been applied in many fields, for example
speech recognition, nevertheless still very rarely it is applied in
industrial environment for condition monitoring purposes.
Main reason for it is that the quality of acoustic analysis is often
very much dependent on the background noise of the
environment the machine is operated in. However still the very
first diagnostic is often performed by human ear and the
assessment of the nature of the emitted sound. Considering an
example of electric motors it is typically the abnormal or
excessive sound that is first recognized by the operators as the
indicator of faulty motor operating condition. Even if many of
the fault types can be audible by humans, automatic acoustic
analysis might be complicated due to the background noise and
therefore many existing condition monitoring systems are not
based on the sound analysis. Often standard condition
monitoring systems for electric motors are equipped with
vibration sensors, electric current probes, temperature sensors,
etc [1], [2]. Among them the most popular approaches are those
which focus around measurement of the electric currents [3]-
[7]. Even if electric current measurement-based methods can
successfully identify motor faulty conditions, there are not
providing the answer to the first question typically ask by the
motor operators: where is the abnormal sound originating from
and what does it mean for the production line.
Pawel Rzeszucinski
Corporate Research Center
ABB Ltd.
Krakow, Poland
Having said that some attempts on using acoustic analysis for
condition monitoring of electric motors have been reported in
the past [8]-[11] however the number of work related to this
subject compared with the amount of research related to the
analysis based on vibration or electric current is negligible.
Additionally, in some embodiments of the acoustic analysis,
e.g. in [8], required the measurement of just the background
noise to be conducted prior to operating the monitored
induction machine. Such an arrangement allowed for the
background noise to be removed from the measurements with
the induction machine in operation. Even though effective in
controlled environment, similar methods cannot be accepted in
industrial applications since it requires interference in the
industrial process.
This paper shows the possibility of utilizing the device called
acoustic camera to perform localization of specific sound
frequencies for the purpose of condition monitoring of electric
motors. Acoustic camera is a device which can perform
localization of sound source in the monitored scene and by that
it can be used to separate the sounds originating from the object
of interest from the background noise. The paper presents an
acoustic camera designed to be printed with the use of 3D
printing techniques. This allows the reduction of otherwise
relatively high cost and, as shown in the results section, the
accompanying decrease in the accuracy of the measurements is
entirely acceptable for electric motor condition monitoring
applications. Additionally the costs saving related with the in-
house manufacturing adds to the attractiveness of the proposed
solution.
II. ACOUSTIC CAMERA PRINCIPLE
The concept of acoustic camera is to make sound visible.
Acoustic cameras come in different shapes and sizes but the
inseparable elements present in each version of acoustic camera
comprise a digital camera and an array of microphones [12].
The microphones signals are recoded simultaneously and based
on the phase relationships between the acquired signals the
localization of the sound source can be calculated and mapped
on a photography of the monitored scene. Acoustic camera is
currently used for many different application for example: The phase relations can be exploited to judge on the relative
localization of sound of road vehicles [13], trains and airplanes position of the sound sources with respect to the acoustic
[14], [15], quantification of industrial noise [16], measurement camera. For stationary signals, as in the case of e.g. direct-on-
of wind turbines [17]. Some works presents results of using line supplied electric motors, the calculation of the phase of a
acoustic camera in underwater applications for example: signal is rather straightforward and can be conducted by many
obtaining acoustic images of seafloor hydrothermal flaws [19], methods [23].
[19], observation of marine fauna [21] or underwater unmanned
vehicles [18].
Together with the sound localization, the general concept of
sound analysis is an important part of many machinery
condition monitoring tasks. Failing machinery often changes
the character of its operation resulting in, among other
symptoms, generation of sounds of abnormal nature. In many
occasions these signatures are unique for the given malfunction
type and can be easily differentiated from the normal operating
conditions. Such a situation is common in e.g. rolling element
bearings, where the fault modes lead to generation of
characteristic fault frequencies. Acoustic camera is capable of
Fig. 1 View of acoustic camera from top, schematic illustration of principles
localizing the source of the given frequency component which of acoustic camera
greatly improves the robustness of the diagnostic exercises in
complex systems. The location of the given frequency is one of
the possible criterions based on which the localization can be
III. LOW COST ACOUSTIC CAMERA
carried out. The other common reference point might be the
highest amplitude present in the scene which localizes the The design and manufacturing of the described tool was entirely
loudest parts of the machine. performed in ABB Corporate Research Center. The project of
The acoustic camera typically consists of two types of the camera was made in one of the Computer Aided Design
(CAD) software packages. Once completed it was transferred
electronic devices and a frame. There is typically a set of
to a dedicated printer capable of printing 3 dimensional objects.
microphones carefully located in a pre-determined fashion
The camera head has a circular shape with the diameter of 40cm
which can be e.g. circular, triangular or pseudo-random. The
with microphones mounted at the circumference of the circle.
microphones record the acoustic scene of the monitored
There is a total of 8 evenly spaced microphones which
components and based on relations of the signals arriving at the
translates to the angular distance of /4 between consecutive
microphones, e.g. their phase differences, the sound can be
localized. Once completed the result is mapped into a transducers. Each microphone is placed in a dedicated slot
photographic picture, taken by a digital camera attached to the inside of the device casing. The central part of the head is
dedicated for a digital camera for capturing the measurement
frame of the tool.
scene. Apart from the circular head, the design comprises a
One of the most commonly used techniques for sound source hollow pipe which is used as the housing for the microphone
localization is the beamforming algorithm. This approach is cables as well as a handle. The camera has been printed in a
capable of estimating the sound field in a given distance from number of steps and assembled at the end of the process.
the source. This is made by measuring acoustic parameters Additionally the design allows for the tool to be integrated with
away from the monitored element via an array of microphones an external tripod for even higher reliability. The CAD model
mounted in the camera. The following paragraph presents only of the acoustic camera is shown in Fig. 2 and, subsequently,
the basic principles of the technique, while more details can be Fig. 3 shows the printed and assembled version of the camera.
found in a number of published sources e.g. [13] or [22].
Fig. 1 shows a schematic representation of the main principle
of acoustic camera operation. In the presented scenario both
sources of sound (Source 1 and Source 2) are located on the
same plane. Moreover Sound 1 is located in front of the Camera
view, with equal distance to both microphones (Mic1 and Mic2)
thus = . Such an arrangement translates to the phases of
waveforms originating from Source 1 and reaching both
microphones to be equal i.e. = . For the case of sound
emitted by Source 2 the time of arrival to Mic 2 will be smaller
than to Mic 1 due to differences in distances between both
microphones and the sound source. The inequality >
results in . Fig. 2 CAD model of acoustic camera

Fig. 3 Assembled acoustic camera
The microphones that have been used in the design are of
capsule type, made by Sennheiser (model KE 4-211-2). These
transducers presented the optimal trade-off between the cost
and the required parameters. Each of the microphones was
soldered according to the instructions contained in the
manufacturer’s datasheet. The dimensions of the microphones
as well as their frequency response characteristic can be seen in
Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 respectively.
Fig. 4 Microphone dimensions (in mm) [24]
Fig. 5 Microphone frequency response characteristic [24]
IV. RESULTS
The validation of the sound source localization capabilities of
the acoustic camera has been performed on a test rig which
comprised an electric motor, a coupling and a compressor
acting as a loading on the system. The nameplate details of the
electric motor are presented in Table 1.
TABLE 1 NAMEPLATE DETAILS OF THE ELECTRIC MOTOR
Parameter Value
Active power [kW] 15
Nominal voltage [V] 400
Nominal current [A] 26.3
Nominal power factor [-] 0.91
Nominal speed [RPM] 2927
Winding connection [-] Y
Number of poles
1
per phase winding [-]
Nominal frequency [Hz] 50
The measurement scenario is shown in Fig. 6. All the elements
in the test rig were in healthy condition and so no abnormal
sound generation could be observed. The motor was supplied
by variable speed drive in direct-torque-control mode. The
speed was set up to 3000RPM which translates to 50Hz. The
localization of the sound source focused on the typically
prominent frequencies of a healthy motor e.g. shaft rotational
speed. The results presented in this paper however are related
to the location of the principal slot harmonic frequency,
centered at 1700Hz. Fig. 7 shows the spectrum of the acoustic
signal centered around this frequency. The measurements were
conducted twice, once with the camera pointing at the center of
the motor body (Fig. 8 left) and second time when camera was
pointing at the drive side bearing of the motor (Fig. 8 right)
Fig. 6 Test rig used for the measurements
It can be seen that the local maximum of the amplitude related
to this frequency is located on the cover of the terminal box of
the motor. Even though it was impossible to determine any
structural resonances by ear, the results clearly suggest that the
cover acted as a type of very rigid membrane of a loudspeaker,
focusing the energy of the given frequency component.
Equally valid with the successful location of the given
frequency component on the specific part of the motor body is
the capability of effectively separating the motor-specific
components from the background noise. Since the sound source
was localized as originating from the cover of the terminal box
of the motor in both measurement scenarios, this simply proves
that this particular frequency is not caused by any background
noise but it originates from the motor itself.

Fig. 7 Acoustic spectrum for one microphone, zoomed in the area of motor
principal slot harmonic
Fig. 8 Localization of principal slot harmonic frequency
V. CONCLUSIONS
The most commonly used property of acoustic cameras is the
ability of localizing the loudest source of sound in the
monitored scene. However other uses of this tool are also
possible, including locating the origin of the given frequency
components. This finds utilization in many different fields of
engineering e.g. in rotating machinery diagnostics for
localizing the characteristic fault frequencies of the given
components. Typically acoustic cameras are manufactured to
extremely precise tolerances at the expense of relatively high
cost. At the same time there are many applications that do not
require such an exact measurements and high expenditure
becomes difficult to justify. This paper presented a low cost
implementation of an acoustic camera. The entire process from
the design stage up to the manufacturing has been performed
in-house. It has been shown that the frequency of interest is
located in the most probable location i.e. at the cover of the
terminal box which is thought to act as a type of resonant
membrane of a loudspeaker. The advent of the 3D printing
technique makes it possible for virtually any element of
relatively simple design to be created in non-industrial
environment. Even though the accuracy of the resultant
measurements might be slightly lower compared to the off-the-
shelf products, the trade-off between the price and the required
precision might often tilt the balance in the cost-saving
direction.
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