Apparatus and method for monitoring a pump

1. An apparatus for monitoring a pump, the apparatus comprising:

a control module configured to:

receive at least one signal representing an operational parameter of the pump, and

estimate an estimated output quantity data value of the pump based on the signal representing the operational parameter;

a support vector machine based module configured to:

receive the estimated output quantity data value from the control module,

process the received estimated output quantity data value to provide a processed estimated output quantity data value based on a combined H-Q-SVM model via the support vector machine based module, and

supply the processed estimated output quantity data value to the error detection unit instead of the estimated output quantity data value of the control module; and

an error detection unit configured to:

receive the processed estimated output quantity data value from the support vector machine based module,

receive a measured output quantity data value of the pump provided by a sensor,

provide a difference data value by subtracting the processed estimated output quantity data value from the measured output quantity data value,

compare the difference data value with a predetermined threshold value and provide a corresponding comparison result, and

output an error status signal of the pump based on a result of the comparison.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the support vector machine based module is further configured to operate machine learning support vector machine regression.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the support vector machine based module is configured to be trained with real data of operational parameters of the pump.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the support vector machine based module is configured to be trained with real data of operational parameters of the pump.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is further configured to receive signals for all operational parameters of the pump and configured to estimate the estimated output quantity data value based on all signals of the operational parameters.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is further configured to estimate the estimated output quantity data value based on an H-Q-model which, in turn, is based on H-Q-curves provided by a manufacturer of the pump.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is configured to monitor a centrifugal pump.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is further configured to detect an electric parameter of an electric machine driving the pump.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the error detection unit is further configured to calculate the predetermined threshold value from a Root Mean Square of a predetermined number of difference data values.

10. A method for monitoring a pump, the method comprising:

receiving at least one signal representing an operational parameter of the pump;

estimating an estimated output quantity data value of the pump based on a signal of the operational parameter;

receiving the estimated output quantity data value from a control module;

processing the received estimated output quantity data value by a support vector machine based module to provide a processed estimated output quantity data value based on a combined H-Q-SVM model via the support vector machine based module;

supplying the processed estimated output quantity data value to an error detection unit instead of the estimated output quantity data value of the control module;

receiving the processed estimated output quantity data value from the support vector machine based module;

receiving a measured output quantity data value of the pump provided by a sensor;

providing a difference data value by subtracting the processed estimated output quantity data value from the received measured output quantity data value;

comparing the difference data value with a predetermined threshold value and providing a corresponding comparison result; and

outputting an error status signal of the pump based on a result of the comparison.

11. A non-transitory computer program product including a computer program executing on a processing device to monitor a pump, said program comprising:

software code portions for receiving at least one signal representing an operational parameter of the pump;

software code portions for estimating an estimated output quantity data value of the pump based on a signal of the operational parameter;

software code portions for receiving the estimated output quantity data value from a control module;

software code portions for processing the received estimated output quantity data value by the support vector machine based module to provide a processed estimated output quantity data value based on a combined H-Q-SVM model via the support vector machine based module;

software code portions for supplying the processed received estimated output quantity data value instead of the estimated output quantity data value of the control module for subtraction;

software code portions for receiving the processed estimated output quantity data value from the support vector machine based module;

software code portions for receiving a measured output quantity data value of the pump provided by a sensor;

software code portions for providing a difference data value by subtracting the processed estimated output quantity data value from the received measured output quantity data value;

software code portions for comparing the difference data value with a predetermined threshold value and providing a corresponding comparison result;

software code portions for outputting an error status signal of the pump based on a result of the comparison.