Machine Learning Framework for Audio-Based Equipment Condition Monitoring: A Comparative Study of Classification Algorithms

Audio-based equipment condition monitoring suffers from a lack of standardized methodologies for algorithm selection, hindering reproducible research. This paper addresses this gap by introducing a comprehensive framework for the systematic and statistically rigorous evaluation of machine learning models. Leveraging a rich 127-feature set across time, frequency, and time-frequency domains, our methodology is validated on both synthetic and real-world datasets. Results demonstrate that an ensemble method achieves superior performance (94.2% accuracy, 0.942 F1-score), with statistical testing confirming its significant outperformance of individual algorithms by <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$8-15\%$</tex>. Ultimately, this work provides a validated benchmarking protocol and practical guidelines for selecting robust monitoring solutions in industrial settings.