A method and system for detecting fault in a machine. During operation, the system obtains control signals and corresponding sensor data that indicates a condition of the machine. The system determines consistent time intervals for each of the control signals. During a consistent time interval the standard deviation of a respective control signal is less than a respective predetermined threshold. The system aggregates the consistent time intervals to determine aggregate consistent intervals. The system then maps the aggregate consistent intervals to the sensor data to determine time interval segments for the sensor data. The system may generate features based on the sensor data. Each respective feature is generated from a time interval segment of the sensor data. The system trains a classifier using the features, and applies the classifier to additional sensor data indicating a condition of the machine over a period of time to detect a machine fault.