Identification of operating mode of a petrol chainsaw based on short-time parametrization and analysis of vibro-acoustic signals

•Identification of chainsaw operating mode is crucial from the point of view of user's health.•Identification can be made on the basis of analysis of acoustic, vibration and tachometric signals.•Discriminants were selected that allowed us to identify chainsaw operating modes.•Acoustic signal provided the best results in terms of identification of chainsaw operating mode.•But in field condition tachometric signal analysis turned out to be more promising.