On the topological modeling and analysis of industrial process data using the SOM

In this paper, we overview and discuss the implementation of topology-based approaches to modeling and analyzing industrial process data. Emphasis is given to the representation of the data obtained with the self-organizing map (SOM). The methods are used in visualizing process measurements and extracting relevant information by exploiting the topological structure of the observations. Benefits of the SOM with industrial data are presented for a set of process measurements measured in an industrial gas treatment plant. The practical goal is to identify significant operational modes and most sensitive process variables before developing an alternative control strategy. The results confirmed that the SOM-based approach is capable of providing valuable information and offers possibilities for direct application to other process monitoring tasks.