Knowledge stores for interactive diagnostics

• US 20060106796A1
• Filed: 11/17/2004
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Venkataraman, Sreedharan, Iqbal, Nayyer M., Upadhyay, Abhijit K., Hansalia, Saurabh Jentilal
• Application Number:
  US10/990,745
• Publication Number:
  US 20060106796A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45071 Aircraft, airplane, ship cleaning manipulator, paint stripping
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0216 Human interface functionality, e.g. monitoring system providing help to the user in the selection of tests or in its configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0275 Fault isolation and identification, e.g. classify fault; estimate cause or root of failure
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0289 Reconfiguration to prevent failure, e.g. usually as a reaction to incipient failure detection

Abstract

Knowledge stores, interactive diagnostic services, and interactive diagnostic systems are presented. Symptoms associated with an observed problem are used to mine a knowledge store for questions. Interactive answers to the questions are used to dynamically mine the data store for potential causes and for corrective actions to the problem.

Claims

1. A data store, implemented in a machine-accessible and readable medium, comprising:

resource identification entities, wherein each resource identification entity is associated with a resource; and

diagnostic entities, wherein each resource identification entity is associated with one or more of the diagnostic entities;

wherein each diagnostic entity includes information for symptoms and actions associated with a particular resource, and the particular resource is identified by one of the resource identification entities, and wherein the diagnostic entities are adapted to facilitate interactive diagnostics.

2. The data store of claim 1, further comprising preventative maintenance information associated with each of the resources.

3. The data store of claim 1, further comprising instructional information associated with portions of the actions within each of the diagnostic entities.

4. The data store of claim 1, wherein the symptoms are represented as system entities and the actions are represented as at least one of confirmation procedure entities, isolation procedure entities, and corrective action entities.

5. The data store of claim 4, wherein each diagnostic entity also includes at least one of question entities, answer entities, deferral entities, work card/document entities, isolated snag entities, subsystem entities, audio/video entities, warning/caution entities, part number entities, part identifier entities, fault noticed entities, tool entities, and equipment entities.

6. The data store of claim 5, wherein the symptom entities, the fault noticed entities, and the subsystem entities are logically associated as subjective entities.

7. The data store of claim 5, wherein the confirmation procedure entities, the question entities, and the answer entities are logically associated as objective entities.

8. A data store, implemented in a machine-accessible and readable medium, comprising:

resource identification entities; and

diagnostic entity for each resource identification entity;

wherein each diagnostic entity includes;

symptom entities;

question entities;

confirmation entities;

answer entities; and

corrective action entities; and

wherein each resource identification entity is adapted to be associated with a unique resource identifier value, the symptom entities are adapted to house symptom information for problems associated with a resource, the question entities are adapted to house questions based on symptom information, the confirmation entities are adapted to house actions to confirm or deny suspected causes of a potential problem, the answer entities are adapted to house answers provided to the questions, and the corrective action entities are adapted to house corrective actions to take with the resource in response to an identified problem associated with the resource.

9. The data store of claim 8, further comprising at least one of a part, unit, and model identifier associated with each diagnostic entity.

10. The data store of claim 8 further comprising, statistical problem resolution entities associated with at least one of the symptom entities, the question entities, the confirmation entities, the answer entities, and the corrective action entities.

11. The data store of claim 8, further comprising at least one of configuration, maintenance, and reference material entities associated with each diagnostic entity.

12. The data store of claim 8, wherein the data store is at least one of a single database and a collection of databases organized as a data warehouse.

13. The data store of claim 8, wherein the data store is implemented as at least one of a relational database and an object oriented database.

14. The data store of claim 8, wherein the resource identification entities and their diagnostic entities are organized in a hierarchical structure.

15. A data store, comprising:

a plurality of primary entities adapted to provide fault model information for a complex system, and adapted to select a particular fault model and wherein the primary entities include symptoms and corrective actions which are adapted to diagnose and remedy problems experienced with the complex system;

a first categorical entity adapted to correspond to the complex system and adapted to select and identify the particular fault model;

a second categorical entity adapted to define logical relationships between the plurality of primary entities/diagnostic entities, and the particular fault model; and

an interface adapted to communicate with the data store in order to provide a fault noticed with the complex system and further adapted to communicate one or more of the corrective actions mined from the data store.

16. The data store of claim 15, wherein the interface is adapted to dynamically and automatically communicate with an interface of the complex system.

17. The data store of claim 15, wherein the data store is a relational database.

18. The data store of claim 15, wherein the entities of the data store are hierarchically arranged within the data store on various different levels of abstraction.

19. The data store of claim 15, wherein the interface is adapted to communicate with an interactive diagnostic service that interfaces with a requestor associated with the complex system.

20. The data store of claim 15, wherein the values and relationships between the entities are adapted to be automatically populated to the data store by at least one of a document to knowledge service, a history to knowledge service, an experience to knowledge service, and a data population service.

21. A method, comprising:

receiving one or more symptoms observed for a problem;

posing one or more questions or procedures in response to the one or more symptoms;

receiving one or more answers to the one or more questions;

determining one or more corrective actions in response to the one or more answers after a cause is determined; and

presenting the one or more correction actions to resolve the problem.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein determining further includes posing one or more additional questions if one or more additional causes for the problem are detected in order to determine the cause.

23. The method of claim 21 further comprising, presenting one or more confirmation actions in response to the one or more answers before determining the one or more corrective actions.

24. The method of claim 21 further comprising, identifying a number of the corrective actions as actions that are to be delayed or deferred until one or more predefined dependencies or events are met.

25. The method of claim 21 further comprising, presenting metadata associated with a resource that is experiencing the problem, wherein the metadata is associated with at least one of configuration settings, reference manuals, and reference articles.

26. The method of claim 21 further comprising, presenting a cause for the problem in response to the one or more symptoms and the one or more answers received in response to the one or more questions.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein determining further includes querying a knowledge store with the one or more symptoms and the one or more answers in order to acquire the one or more corrective actions for the problem.

28. The method of claim 27 further comprising, associating the one or more corrective actions with the one or more questions and one or more answers within the knowledge store.

29. A method, comprising:

interacting with a requestor to resolve a problem observed with a resource;

querying a knowledge store with symptoms provided by the requestor in order to identify questions which are presented to the requestor;

querying the knowledge store with answers received from the requestor in response to questions in order to isolate a cause for the problem; and

presenting the requestor with corrective actions for correcting the problem observed with the resource.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising, presenting the requester with confirmation actions to confirm or deny potential candidate causes, which may be associated with the problem.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising, evaluating statistical problem resolution information housed in the knowledge store to assist in identifying the cause of the problem.

32. The method of claim 30 further comprising, notifying a service technician after presenting the corrective actions, if the corrective actions dictate using the service technician.

33. The method of claim 32 further comprising, placing an order on behalf of the requestor for one or more parts associated with the resource if the corrective actions dictate replacement parts.

34. The method of claim 29 further comprising, presenting metadata to the requestor about the resource, wherein the metadata is related to the cause and the corrective actions.

35. The method of claim 29 further comprising, presenting metadata to the requestor about the resource, wherein the metadata is related to preventative maintenance associated with the resource.

36. The method of claim 29 further comprising, processing the method as a closed-loop interactive diagnostic technique.

37. The method of claim 29 further comprising, assembling selective information from the knowledge store for the problem and structuring the selective information as an electronic document for subsequent presentation or retrieval.

38. The method of claim 29 wherein interacting with the requestor further includes interacting with the requestor through wireless communications.

39. A system, comprising:

a knowledge store;

a requester interface; and

a knowledge store interface, wherein the requestor interface is adapted to communicate symptoms of a problem associated with a resource to the knowledge store interface, and the knowledge store interface is adapted to query the knowledge store to acquire questions related to the symptoms and to acquire answers from the requester interface in response to the questions, and the knowledge store interface is further adapted to query the knowledge store with the answers to acquire corrective actions for an identified cause of the problem and to communicate the corrective actions to the requestor interface.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the knowledge store is remotely located over a network and is remote from at least one of the requester interface and the knowledge store interface.

41. The system of claim 39, wherein the knowledge store interface is implemented as a service accessible over a network to the requestor interface.

42. The system of claim 39, wherein the resource is at least one of a physical machine and a logical machine.

43. The system of claim 39, wherein the knowledge store includes reference materials or preventative maintenance materials associated with the resource, and wherein the knowledge store interface is adapted to communicate selective portions of the reference or preventative maintenance materials to the requestor interface.

44. The system of claim 39, wherein the knowledge store includes statistical problem resolution data associated with known and resolved prior problems with the resource, and wherein the knowledge interface is adapted to process the statistical problem resolution data in order to resolve the corrective actions.