Predictive Usage Mining for Sustainability of Complex Systems Design

A new perspective of dynamic LCA (life cycle assessment) is proposed with the predictive usage mining for sustainability (PUMS) algorithm. By defining usage patterns as trend, seasonality, and level from a time series of usage information, predictive LCA can be conducted in a real time horizon. Large-scale sensor data of product operation is analyzed in order to mine usage patterns and build a usage model for LCA. The PUMS algorithm consists of handling missing and abnormal values, seasonal period analysis, segmentation analysis, time series analysis, and predictive LCA. A newly developed segmentation algorithm can distinguish low activity periods and help to capture patterns more clearly. Furthermore, a predictive LCA method is formulated using a time series usage model. Finally, generated data is used to do predictive LCA of agricultural machinery as a case study.