System and method to combine and weight multiple sensors with overlapping sensing range to create a measurement system utilized in a high integrity or safety environment

• US 7,313,502 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2006
• Issued: 12/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Schuster, George K., Dogul, James E., Galera, Richard, Rollins, George E., Jones, Derek W., Nair, Suresh R., Delcher, Ray C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Raymond, Edward
• Application Number:
  US11/360,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20070198222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 670 Days
• Field of Search: 702/127, 702182-185, 702/188, 702/117, 702/118, 714/25, 709/201
• US Class Current: 702/188
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 1/00 Measuring arrangements giving results other than momentary value of variable, of general application G01D3/00 takes precedence; in tariff metering apparatus G01D4/00; transducers not specially adapted for a specific variable G01D5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/37325 Multisensor integration, fusion, redundant

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides industrial automation systems and/or methods that can aggregate data. A plurality of sensors can provide redundant detected data. Additionally, a weighting component can respectively weight the detected data based upon a confidence of accurate measurement corresponding to each of the plurality of sensors. Further, a combination component can assemble the redundant detected data based at least in part upon the weights to generate harmonized data.

Claims

1. An industrial automation system that aggregates data, comprising:

a plurality of sensors that provide redundant detected data;

a weighting component that respectively weights the detected data based upon a confidence of accurate measurement corresponding to each of the plurality of sensors; and

a combination component that assembles the redundant detected data based at least in part upon the weights and utilizes a voting configuration that provides a manner in which to combine the detected data and associated weights to generate harmonized data.

2. The system of claim 1, the plurality of sensors provides redundancy by utilizing overlapping sensing ranges.

3. The system of claim 1, the plurality of sensors detects data related to at least one of a machine, a person, a process, a product, and an environment.

4. The system of claim 1, the plurality of sensors include one or more of thermal energy sensors, electromagnetic sensors, mechanical sensors, chemical sensors, optical sensors, radiation sensors, acoustic sensors, and biological sensors.

5. The system of claim 1, the plurality of sensors measure at least one of a signal, a physical condition, and a chemical compound.

6. The system of claim 1, the weighting component evaluates factors related to at least one of a particular one of the plurality of sensors and a target to generate corresponding weights.

7. The system of claim 6, the factors evaluated by the weighting component include at least one of a geographic overlap, a detection resolution, a probability of failure per hour (PFH), a probability of failure per day (PFD), an age, an expected lifetime, a mean time between failure (MTBF), a detection technology and environment, a diversity, a sensing range, a location of a target within sensing range, an accuracy, an ambient lighting, and other environmental conditions.

8. The system of claim 1, the weighting component adjusts the detected data based upon a weight corresponding to a particular one of the plurality of sensors that provides the detected data.

9. The system of claim 1, the weighting component assigns a weight to detected data provided by a particular one of the plurality of sensors.

10. The system of claim 1, the weighting component determines a confidence associated with a particular one of the plurality of sensors by evaluating (C1W1+C2W2+C3W3+ . . . ) for the sensor, Cx being a characteristic associated with at least one of the sensor and a target and Wx being an appropriate weighting factor.

11. The system of claim 1, the combination component sums weighted data obtained from the weighting component.

12. The system of claim 1, the combination component modifies the detected data based at least in part upon a corresponding assigned weight and aggregates the modified detected data.

13. The system of claim 1, the voting configuration provides at least one of a high level of safety, a high level of availability, and a combination of safety and availability.

14. The system of claim 1, the combination component aggregates confidences to detect a target by adding (C1W1+C2W2+C3W3+ . . . ) for each of the plurality of sensors, Cx being a characteristic associated with at least one of a particular one of the plurality of sensors and a target and Wx being an appropriate weighting factor.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sensor evaluation component that monitors characteristics associated with each of the plurality of sensors.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a dynamic alteration component that dynamically modifies the weights associated with each of the plurality of sensors during operation.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising an error correction component that identifies commonly existent errors associated with the detected data provided by a particular one of the plurality of sensors and modifies the detected data to mitigate the errors.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising an optimization component that generates a voting configuration that the combination component employs to assemble the detected data.

19. The system of claim 18, the optimization component yields the voting configuration at a time of setup.

20. The system of claim 18, the optimization component produces the voting configuration dynamically during runtime.

21. The system of claim 18, the optimization component identifies an amount of available redundancy and allocates the available redundancy as part of the voting configuration to provide an optimized combination of safety and availability.

22. The system of claim 1, further comprising a control component that evaluates the harmonized data to identify at least one of a fault, a condition, and a property, and modifies operation of a machine based upon the at least one fault, condition and property.

23. The system of claim 1, further comprising a monitor component that inspects the harmonized data for at least one of a failure and degraded performance.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising an alarm component that provides at least one of a visual alarm and an audible alarm in response the monitor component identifying at least one of the failure and the degraded performance.

25. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface component that enables a user to provide an input that is weighted at least in part upon a user profile related to whether the user typically provides appropriate modifications.

26. A method that facilitates weighting and combining detected data from multiple, redundant sensors, comprising:

obtaining detected data from a plurality of sensors;

weighting the detected data based upon factors corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of sensors that provides the detected data;

combining the detected data based at least in part upon the weighted data to yield aggregated data; and

optimizing a voting configuration based upon the aggregated data.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising obtaining detected data related to at least one of a signal, a physical condition, and a chemical compound.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising obtaining a redundant sense of a measured target by utilizing the plurality of sensors.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising weighting the detected data based upon at least one of a geographic overlap, a detection resolution, a probability of failure per hour (PFH), a probability of failure per day (PFD), an age, an expected lifetime, a mean time between failure (MTBF), a detection technology and environment, a diversity, a sensing range, a location of a target within sensing range, an accuracy, an ambient lighting, and other environmental conditions.

30. The method of claim 26, further comprising determining a confidence of accurate detection associated with each of the plurality of sensors.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising controlling operations of a machine based upon the aggregated data.

32. The method of claim 26, further comprising providing an alarm based upon the aggregated data.

33. The method of claim 26, further comprising identifying changes to weighting factors based upon the aggregated data.

34. The method of claim 26, further comprising at least one of displaying the aggregated data and storing the aggregated data.

35. The method of claim 26, further comprising evaluating factors that impact a confidence to provide an accurate measurement associated with the plurality of sensors.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising determining appropriate weights for each of the factors corresponding to each of the plurality of sensors.

37. A system that enables aggregating data from multiple, redundant sensors, comprising:

means for receiving detected data from a plurality of sensors;

means for weighting the detected data based upon factors that relate to abilities of each of the plurality of sensors to provide accurate detected data;

means for combining the detected data based at least in part upon the weighting yield aggregated data; and

means for optimizing a voting configuration based upon the aggregated data.