Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system – Performance or efficiency evaluation
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-11
2001-07-03
Assouad, Patrick (Department: 2857)
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system
Performance or efficiency evaluation
C702S184000, C702S188000, C701S029000, C701S035000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256594
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for monitoring machine faults based on the operating status of machine such as construction machine, and more particularly to an apparatus allowing the amount of data to be reduced when operating status data are collected at a monitoring station to monitor faults based on such data.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,018 is an example of an invention relating to the surveillance of faults such as drops in vehicle engine oil pressure or overheating based on the operating status of vehicles such as construction machine.
In this document, to monitor vehicle faults, data relating to the operating status from a vehicle are collected at a monitoring station, and a determination is made, on the basis of the collected data, whether or not to deal with the fault by repairing the vehicle, issuing an emergency stop command, or the like.
That is, when a fault such as a drop in engine oil pressure is detected in a vehicle, a fault (drop in engine oil pressure) code is generated, and the fault code is transmitted to a monitoring station. The monitoring station monitors a plurality of vehicles, and stores vehicle history data for each vehicle, such as the type of faults occurring in the past, the frequency of such faults, and the date on which they occurred.
When a fault code is transmitted from a vehicle, it is compared with the aforementioned vehicle history data. When it is determined that the fault code indicates an infrequently occurring fault (drop in engine oil pressure), a snapshot data request command is issued to the corresponding vehicle to conduct a detailed search of the status prevailing at the time the fault occurred so as to send snapshot data from around the time the fault occurred to the monitoring station. In cases where the fault indicated by the fault code is frequently occurring, snapshot data from when this type of fault has occurred will already have been stored at the monitoring station, and no request command is sent to the corresponding vehicle, on the assumption that the data are not significant.
Here, “snapshot data” refers to data from around a prescribed period of time at the time the fault is detected in a vehicle, which are the data of the vehicle operating parameters (engine rotational speed, speed, etc.) relating to the fault (such as a drop in engine oil pressure).
The vehicle receiving the request command transmits snapshot data from around the point in time at which the fault was detected to the monitoring station.
Thus, in conventional inventions, in cases where the same malfunction frequently occurs in the same machine, no snapshot data are requested of the vehicle so as to minimize the accumulation of data in the monitoring station.
In the aforementioned conventional technique, however, it is possible that snapshot data necessary for monitoring faults will be overlooked by the monitoring station because the determination as to whether or not snapshot data are needed is made merely by comparing the vehicle history data in which the type, frequency, date and the like of the fault indicated by the fault code are recorded in time sequence. It is also possible, on the other hand, that snapshot data which are not needed for monitoring faults will be requested.
That is, even though the same type of fault may have occurred frequently in the past, the circumstances under which it occurs vary, and the same fault is not necessarily produced under the same operating circumstances. Thus, even though the same fault may have occurred numerous times in the past under the same operating circumstances without impeding actual operations, the same fault occurring under different operating circumstances can fatally damage the vehicle. When, therefore, the need for snapshot data is determined solely on the basis of the past frequency of the fault, there is a risk that the vehicle could sustain major damage because of the inability to collect scarce snapshot data indicating the potential for fatal damage to the vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is intended to solve such problems by transmitting, in addition to a fault code, a status code which indicates the status at the time a fault occurs, from the vehicle to the monitoring station, thereby allowing the monitoring station to make more accurate determinations as to whether or not snapshot data should be requested, allowing only snapshot data necessary for monitoring faults to be collected from the vehicle, and allowing faults to be monitored in a more reliable manner. The present invention is also intended to solve such problems by making it possible to collect only snapshot data necessary for monitoring faults from vehicles, thereby minimizing the amount of data and the memory storage volume in the monitoring station.
The first of the present inventions is a machine fault monitoring apparatus having, for each of a plurality of machines, fault detection means for detecting various faults occurring during the operation of the machines, and a monitoring station for monitoring operating status of the plurality of machines by collecting fault detection data detected by the fault detection means of the plurality of machines, wherein each machine comprises:
operating parameter detection means for sequentially detecting various types of operating parameter values which change during the operation of said machine;
history data update means for updating fault detection history data every time a fault is detected by said fault detection means during the operation of said machine;
determination means for determining, based on said history data, whether or not to transmit to said monitoring station sequential values of the operating parameters within a specified period of time around a point in time at which the fault was detected, in cases where said fault was detected by said fault detection means during the operation of said machine; and
transmission means for transmitting to said monitoring station, in cases where it has been determined by said determination means that a transmission should be made, a type of fault that was detected, a value detected by said operating parameter detection means at the point in time at which the fault was detected, as well as the sequential values of said operating parameters within the specified period of time around the point in time at which the fault was detected, and also for transmitting to said monitoring station, in cases where it has been determined by said determination means that no transmission should be made, the type of fault that was detected and the value detected by said operating parameter detection means at the point in time the fault was detected.
In the second of the present inventions, in addition to the structure of the first invention, said monitoring station comprises:
relation data generating means for accumulating the type of faults transmitted from each machine and the various operating parameter values at the time the fault was detected, so as to generate data that relate the types and values of the operating parameters with the fault;
relation determination means for collating said related data with the type of fault transmitted from said machine and the values of the various parameters at the time the fault was detected to determine whether or not the fault is related to the types and values of the operating parameters; and
request signal transmission means for transmitting to the machine, in cases where no relation was determined by said relation determination means, a signal requesting that values detected by said operating parameter detection means be transmitted to said monitoring station for a given period of time.
According to the structure of the first invention, as shown in
FIG. 4
, various operating parameters A, B, C, and D (engine rotational speed, lever operating position, vehicle speed, tractive force), which change during the operation of the machine, are sequentially detected in each machine.
As shown in
FIG. 3
, the fau
Akagi Jiro
Akiyama Sadachika
Hasegawa Nobuki
Imanishi Kunihiko
Kuromoto Kazunori
Assouad Patrick
Barbee Manuel L.
Komatsu Ltd.
Welsh & Katz Ltd.
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