The efficient use of critical machines or equipment in a
manufacturing system requires reliable information about their
current operating conditions. This information is often used
as a basis for machine condition monitoring and fault
diagnosis—which essentially is an endeavor of knowledge
extraction. Rough set theory provides a novel way to knowledge
acquisition, especially when dealing with vagueness and
uncertainty. It focuses on the discovery of patterns in incomplete
and/or inconsistent data. However, rough set theory requires
the data analyzed to be in discrete manner. This paper proposes
a novel approach to the treatment of continuous-valued attributes
in multi-concept classification for mechanical diagnosis using
rough set theory. Based on the proposed approach, a prototype
system called RClass-Plus has been developed. RClass-Plus is
validated using a case study on mechanical fault diagnosis.
Details of the validation are described.