Voice Controlled Vibration Data Analyzer Systems and Methods

• US 20140122085A1
• Filed: 10/26/2012
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Azima Holdings Incorporated (Fortive Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Azima Holdings Incorporated (Fortive Corp.)
• Inventors: Piety, Kenneth Ralph, Dahl, K. C.
• Granted Patent: US 9,459,176 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 7/00 Vibration-testing of structures; Shock-testing of structures G01M9/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command

Abstract

Embodiments of the present general inventive concept provide a voice controlled vibration data analyzer system, including a vibration sensor to detect vibration data from a machine-under-test, a data acquisition unit to receive the vibration data from the vibration sensor, and a control unit having a user interface to receive manual and audio input from a user, and to communicate information relating to the machine-under-test, the control unit executing commands in response to the manual or audio input to control the data acquisition unit and/or user interface to output an audio or visual message relating to a navigation path of multiple machines to be tested, to collect and process the vibration data, and to receive manual or audio physical observations from the user to characterize collected vibration data.

Claims

1. A voice controlled vibration data analyzer system, comprising:

a vibration sensor to detect vibration data from a machine-under-test;

a data acquisition unit to receive the vibration data from the vibration sensor; and

a control unit having a user interface to receive manual and audio input from a user, and to communicate information relating to the machine-under-test, the control unit executing commands in response to the manual or audio input to control the data acquisition unit and/or user interface to output an audio or visual message relating to a navigation path of multiple machines to be tested, to collect and process the vibration data, and to receive manual or audio physical observations from the user to characterize collected vibration data.

2. The voice controlled vibration data analyzer of claim 1, wherein the control unit executes commands in response to the manual or audio input to locate a particular machine and measurement location using identification (ID) tag numbers, to enter or measure a predetermined operational parameter of the machine-under-test, and/or to take a photograph of the machine-under-test or operating environment thereof.

3. A voice controlled vibration data analyzer, comprising:

a vibration sensor mountable to various locations of a machine-under-test to detect vibration data;

a data acquisition unit to receive the vibration data from the vibration sensor; and

a control module having a touch-visual user interface to receive and display information relating to machine conditions, and an audio user interface to receive and communicate information relating to machine conditions such that the control module controls operation of both user interfaces simultaneously to execute commands to be performed by the data acquisition unit in response to an audio input to the audio user interface without a manual input to the touch-visual user interface, to locate a desired machine among multiple machines along a predetermined collection route, to enable predefined and elective modes of data collection, to log results from a user relating to physical observations of the machine-under-test, and to determine whether additional measurements are needed.

4. The vibration data analyzer of claim 3, further comprising:

a noise filter to filter various background noise sources corresponding to various machine testing environments.

5. A field inspection device to perform mechanical health assessments of equipment, comprising:

an audio interface to receive verbal input from an operator, including verbal instructions and verbal notations from the operator;

a visual interface to receive manual instructions from the operator and to display information relating to the health of the equipment;

a vibration sensor to interact with the equipment in order to gather vibration data relative to the equipment;

a control module in electronic communication with the audio interface, visual interface, and vibration sensor, the control module including;

a speech recognition engine to accept and recognize a voice input and to filter the voice input from other noise signals received by the audio interface;

a command recognition engine to accept and recognize verbal instructions and manual instructions via the audio interface, the command recognition engine comparing verbal input to a lexicon of known verbal instruction terms and to designate a verbal input as a verbal instruction when the verbal input corresponds to one of the known verbal instruction terms; and

a controller engine to control the collection of data, the display of data, the evaluation of the quality of the data and the health of the machine, the communication of data and equipment status, the selection of operational modes, in response to the verbal instructions, and the selection of active lexicon commands depending on the operational mode.

6. In a vibration data analyzer system having a vibration sensor to detect vibration data from a machine-under-test, a data acquisition unit to receive the vibration data from the vibration sensor, and a control unit to control operation of the data acquisition unit, a method of collecting vibration data from the machine-under-test, the method comprising:

inputting a first verbal command from a user to the control unit to instruct the data acquisition unit to receive vibration data from the vibration sensor, without the user manually touching the control unit;

outputting an audio message from the control unit to the user to communicate information relating to received vibration data, without the user having to visualize the control unit; and

inputting a second verbal command from the user to the control unit to instruct the control unit to output an audio message relating to a navigation path of multiple machines to be tested, and to record an audible observation from the user about a condition of the machine-under-test.