Systems and methods for failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation using data acquisition and feedback for a distributed electronic system

• US 6,892,317 B1
• Filed: 12/16/1999
• Issued: 05/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Longhorn HD LLC (Alpha Alpha Intellectual Partners LLC)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Duke, Charles B., Sampath, Meera, Coleman, Charles P., Thieret, Tracy E., Rockwell, Ronald M.
• Primary Examiner(s): BADERMAN, SCOTT T
• Application Number:
  US09/464,597
• Time in Patent Office: 1,972 Days
• Field of Search: 714 4- 5, 714/44, 714 46- 57, 714/25, 714/26
• US Class Current: 714/4.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/25 Testing of logic operation, e.g. by logic analysers

Abstract

By using monitoring data, feedback data, and pooling of failure data from a plurality of electronic devices, real-time failure prediction and diagnoses of electronic systems operating in a network environment can be achieved. First, the diagnostic system requests data on the state of a machine and/or its components and collections thereof as part of the machine'"'"'s normal operation. Secondly, real-time processing of the data either at the machine site or elsewhere in the distributed network allows for predicting or diagnosing system failures. Having determined and/or predicted a system failure, a communication to one or more remote observers in the network allows the remote observers to view the diagnostic information and/or required action to repair the failure. Furthermore, interrogation of either the particular electronic system, or a database containing data on similar electronic systems by the diagnostic server allows the diagnostic server to refine original diagnoses based on this population data to achieve a comprehensive failure predication/diagnosing system.

Claims

1. A system for failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation of at least one electronic system in a distributed network comprising:

a data acquisition circuit that acquires data about the at least one electronic system;

a prediction circuit that performs at least one of a prognostic and a diagnostic analysis of the acquired data;

a repair planning circuit that determines an appropriate repair action in response to at least one of a prognostic and a diagnostic analysis, wherein the appropriate repair action is at least an autonomous repair; and

a database that stores at least a portion of the acquired data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the acquired data is at least one of component level data, system level data, event level data, job level data, control data, diagnostic data, environmental data, machine usage data, machine configuration data, single-machine value-added diagnostic data and population diagnostic data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the acquired data is acquired in one or more operational modes of the electronic system, including at least one of a normal mode, a diagnostic mode, a failed mode and a limp-along mode.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the prognostic and the diagnostic analysis is based on at least one of a threshold analysis, a statistical analysis, a signature analysis, a trend analysis, a timing analysis, an event sequence analysis, a pattern analysis, an image processing technique, a quantitative and a qualitative state estimation technique, a model based diagnostic technology, a look-up table, a bayesian network, a causal network, a neural network based analysis, a fuzzy logic based analysis, a rule based system analysis and an expert system.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a routing circuit that routes a part request to at least one part supplier.

6. A system for failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation of at least one electronic system in a distributed network comprising:

a data acquisition circuit that acquires data about the at least one electronic system;

a prediction circuit that performs at least one of a prognostic and a diagnostic analysis of the acquired data;

a repair planning circuit that determines an appropriate repair action in response to at least one of a prognostic and a diagnostic analysis, wherein the appropriate repair action is at least one of an autonomous repair, a customer type repair and a customer service engineer type repair;

an autonomous repair circuit that controls the autonomous repair; and

a database that stores at least a portion of the acquired data.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the autonomous repair circuit establishes a communication with the at least one electronic system, the communication including at least one of transferring monitoring information, interrogation information, control information, repair information and results of the failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation analysis.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the repair planning circuit forwards at least one of a repair information to a customer, a parts request to an appropriate entity, a service request notification to a customer service engineer and an autonomous repair entity.

9. A method for failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation of an electronic system in a distributed network comprising:

acquiring data about one or more electronic systems;

performing at least one of a prognostic and a diagnostic analysis of the acquired data;

determining an appropriate repair action in response to the at least one of the prognostic and the diagnostic analysis, wherein the appropriate repair action is at least an autonomous repair;

determining if additional data is required; and

requesting additional data from the electronic system.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising forwarding repair information to a customer.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising forwarding a parts request to an appropriate entity.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the acquired data is at least one of component level data, system level data, event level data, job level data, control data, diagnostic data, environmental data, machine usage data, machine configuration data, single-machine value-added diagnostic data and population diagnostic data.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the acquired data is collected in one or more modes of operation of the machine, including at least one of a normal mode, a diagnostic mode, a failed mode and a limp-along mode.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising spawning a distributed object call to a remote server.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one of the prognostic and the diagnostic analysis, the repair determination action and the repair action are performed at one or more of the electronic system or at a remote location.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one of the prognostic and the diagnostic analysis is based on at least one of a threshold analysis, a statistical analysis, a signature analysis, a trend analysis, a timing analysis, an event sequence analysis, a pattern analysis, an image processing technique, a quantitative and a qualitative state estimation technique, a model based diagnostic technology, a look-up table, a neural network based analysis, a fuzzy logic based analysis, a rule based system analysis and an expert system.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising routing a part request to at least one part supplier.

18. A method for failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation of an electronic system in a distributed network comprising:

acquiring data about one or more electronic systems;

performing at least one of a prognostic and a diagnostic analysis of the acquired data;

determining an appropriate repair action in response to the at least one of the prognostic and the diagnostic analysis, wherein the appropriate repair action is at least one of an autonomous repair, a customer type repair and a customer service engineer type repair;

initializing the autonomous repair when such repair action is to be performed;

determining if additional data is required; and

requesting additional data from the electronic system.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein initializing the autonomous repair includes establishing a communication with the electronic system.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the communication includes at least one of transferring monitoring information, interrogation information, control information and results information.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

initiating a customer service engineer service request; and

forwarding a service request notification to a customer service engineer.

22. An information storage medium that stores information for failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation of an electronic system in a distributed network comprising:

information that acquires data about one or more electronic systems;

information that performs at least one of a prognostic and a diagnostic analysis of the acquired data;

information that determines an appropriate repair action in response to the at least one of the prognostic and the diagnostic analysis, wherein the appropriate repair action is at least an autonomous repair;

information that determines if additional data is required; and

information that requests additional data from the electronic system.

23. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that forwards repair information to a customer.

24. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that forwards a parts request to an appropriate entity.

25. The information storage medium of claim 22, wherein the acquired data is at least one of component level data, system level data, event level data, job level data, control data, diagnostic data, environmental data, machine usage data, machine configuration data, single-machine value-added diagnostic data and population diagnostic data.

26. The information storage medium of claim 22, wherein the acquired data is collected in one or more modes of operation of the machine, including at least one of a normal mode, a diagnostic mode, a failed mode and a limp-along mode.

27. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that spawns a distributed object call to a remote server.

28. The information storage medium of claim 22, wherein the at least one of the prognostic and the diagnostic analysis, the repair determination action and the repair action are performed at one or more of the electronic system or at a remote location.

29. The information storage medium of claim 22, wherein the at least one of the prognostic and the diagnostic analysis is based on at least one of a threshold analysis, a statistical analysis, a signature analysis, a trend analysis, a timing analysis, an event sequence analysis, a pattern analysis, an image processing technique, a quantitative and a qualitative state estimation technique, a model based diagnostic technology, a look-up table, a neural network based analysis, a fuzzy logic based analysis, a bayesian network, a causal network, a rule based system analysis and an expert system.

30. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that routes a part request to at least one part supplier.

31. An information storage medium that stores information for failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation of an electronic system in a distributed network comprising:

information that acquires data about one or more electronic systems;

information that performs at least one of a prognostic and a diagnostic analysis of the acquired data;

information that determines an appropriate repair action in response to the at least one of the prognostic and the diagnostic analysis, wherein the appropriate repair action is at least one of an autonomous repair, a customer type repair and a customer service engineer type repair;

information that initializes the autonomous repair when such repair action is to be performed;

information that determines if additional data is required; and

information that requests additional data from the electronic system.

32. The information storage medium of claim 31, wherein initializing the autonomous repair includes establishing a communication with the electronic system.

33. The information storage medium of claim 32, wherein the communication includes at least one of transferring monitoring information, interrogation information, control information, repair information and results of the failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation analysis.

34. The information storage medium of claim 31, further comprising:

information that initiates a customer service engineer service request; and

information that forwards a service request notification to a customer service engineer.