DIAGNOSIS AGENT FOR REMOTE PLANT DIAGNOSIS

• US 20100223028A1
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Published: 09/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Qiao, Liu
• Granted Patent: US 8,078,429 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/183
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4184 characterised by fault tolerance, reliability of production system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31211 Communicate diagnostic data from intelligent field device controller to central
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31434 Zone supervisor, collects error signals from, and diagnoses different zone

Abstract

The present invention discloses a plant diagnostic system for diagnosing a problem with the plant. The plant diagnostic system can include an agent-based plant diagnostic network that has an adaptive global agent located in a central facility, a plant expert agent located at the plant and a plurality of subsystem resident agents. Each of the subsystem resident agents can be assigned to a subsystem of the plant. A diagnosis agent can also be included, the diagnosis agent operable to be instructed by the adaptive global agent, transmitted to the plant expert agent, be received by the plant expert agent, transmitted by the plant expert agent back to the adaptive global agent and be received by the adaptive global agent.

Claims

1. A plant diagnostic system for diagnosing a problem with a plant, the plant having a plurality of subsystems, each of the plurality of subsystems having one or more components that participate in the operation of the plant by performing one or more plant operations, each of the plurality of subsystems also having one or more sensors that detect the one or more plant operations and transmit data related thereto, said system comprising:

an agent-based plant diagnostic network having an adaptive global agent located in a central facility, a plant expert agent located at the plant and a plurality of subsystem resident agents, each of said plurality of subsystem resident agents assigned to one of the plurality of subsystems of the plant; and

a diagnosis agent operable to be instructed by said adaptive global agent, transmitted to said plant expert agent, received by said plant expert agent, transmitted by said plant expert agent and received by said adaptive global agent;

said plant expert agent operable to receive said diagnosis agent transmitted from said adaptive global agent, transmit an instruction from said diagnosis agent to at least one of said plurality of subsystem resident agents, receive information from said at least one of said plurality of subsystem resident agents, exchange said information with said diagnosis agent and transmit said diagnosis agent back to said adaptive global agent.

2. The plant diagnostic system of claim 1, wherein said diagnosis agent instructs said plant expert agent to perform a task.

3. The plant diagnostic system of claim 2, wherein said task is an unstructured task.

4. The plant diagnostic system of claim 3, wherein said plant expert agent performs said unstructured task and obtains a result.

5. The plant diagnostic system of claim 4, wherein said diagnosis agent obtains said result from said plant expert agent and returns to said adaptive global agent with said result.

6. The plant diagnostic system of claim 5, wherein said result is data from one of the sensors of the plant.

7. The plant diagnostic system of claim 5, wherein said result is a fault code assigned to one of the components of the plant.

8. The plant diagnostic system of claim 5, wherein said result is a diagnostic analysis performed by said plant expert agent on at least one of the plurality of subsystems of the plant.

9. The plant diagnostic system of claim 5, wherein said adaptive global agent re-instructs said diagnosis agent and transmits said diagnosis agent back to the plant.

10. A process for diagnosing a problem in a plant, the plant having a plurality of subsystems, each of the plurality of subsystems having one or more components that participate in the operation of the plant by performing one or more plant operations, each of the plurality of subsystems also having one or more sensors that detect the one or more plant operations and transmit data related thereto, the process comprising:

providing a multi-agent network having an adaptive global agent located in a central facility, a plant expert agent located at the plant and a plurality of subsystem resident agents, each of said plurality of subsystem resident agents assigned to one of the plurality of subsystems of the plant;

providing a diagnosis agent operable to be instructed by said adaptive global agent, transmitted to said plant expert agent, received by said plant expert agent, transmitted by said plant expert agent and received by said adaptive global agent;

instructing the diagnosis agent to instruct the plant expert agent to perform an unstructured task;

transmitting the diagnosis agent from the central facility to the plant expert agent, the plant expert agent receiving the diagnosis agent;

instructing the plant expert agent to perform the unstructured task and obtain a result, the plant expert agent performing the unstructured task and obtaining a result;

reporting the result to the diagnosis agent;

transmitting the diagnosis agent with the result from the plant expert agent to the central facility; and

analyzing the result from the plant expert agent with the adaptive global agent, whereby a problem in the plant is diagnosed.

11. The process of claim 10, further comprising re-instructing the diagnosis agent to instruct the plant expert agent to perform an additional task and re-transmitting the diagnosis agent back to the plant expert agent.

12. The process of claim 10, wherein the diagnosis agent is instructed by the adaptive global agent.

13. The process of claim 10, wherein the diagnosis agent is instructed by an individual at the central facility using a computer interface.

14. The process of claim 10, further comprising determining a problem in the plant based on the result transmitted with the diagnosis agent from the plant expert agent to the central facility.

15. The process of claim 10, wherein the result is in the form of data from one of the sensors of the plant.

16. The process of claim 10, wherein the result is in the form of a fault code assigned to one of the components of the plant.

17. The process of claim 10, wherein the result is in the form of a diagnostic analysis performed by said plant expert agent on at least one of the plurality of subsystems of the plant.

18. The process of claim 10, wherein the plant expert agent is a vehicle expert agent located in a motor vehicle.

19. The process of claim 18, wherein the diagnosis agent instructed with an unstructured task is transmitted to the motor vehicle after the motor vehicle has been introduced into the market.

20. The process of claim 18, wherein the diagnosis agent instructed with an unstructured task is transmitted to the motor vehicle after the motor vehicle has been sold to a customer.