Diagnosing intermittent faults
First Claim
1. A method for diagnosing any combination of persistent and intermittent faults or intermittent faults in a system, comprising:
- obtaining a measured behavior of a system by measuring and/or probing the system at particular points;
investigating a predicted behavior of a modeled system of the system by drawing inferences based on at least conditional probabilities, prior observations and component models of the modeled system;
comparing the predictions to their corresponding points in the system;
determining if conflicts and/or deviations exist between the measured behavior and the predicted behavior;
adjusting the conditional probabilities to more and more accurately reflect action faults in the system, so they will accept a possibility that a subsequent measuring and/or probing will produce a different value or output; and
using the conflicts or deviations between the predicted behavior and the actual behavior to obtain a final result based on a new value or output,wherein intermittent failures arise from a stochastic physical process which is intermittent at any level of abstraction of the system model, and wherein the intermittent failures diagnosed by adjusting conditional probabilities so that they continue to accept the possibility the subsequent measuring and/or probing will produce a different value acts to avoid irreconcilable inconsistencies in the system.
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Abstract
A method and system for diagnosing any combination of persistent and intermittent faults. The behavior of a system under test is obtained by measuring or probing the system at a particular location(s). The predicted behavior of a modeled system corresponding to the system under test is investigated by drawing inferences based on at least conditional probabilities, prior observations and component models. The predictions are compared to their corresponding points in the system under test. A determination is made if a conflict exists between the measured behavior and the predicted behavior, and the conditional probabilities are adjusted to more and more accurately reflect the action fault(s) in the system under test. The conflicts or deviations between the obtained predicted behavior and the actual behavior are used to isolate the components of the system causing the faults.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method for diagnosing any combination of persistent and intermittent faults or intermittent faults in a system, comprising:
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obtaining a measured behavior of a system by measuring and/or probing the system at particular points; investigating a predicted behavior of a modeled system of the system by drawing inferences based on at least conditional probabilities, prior observations and component models of the modeled system; comparing the predictions to their corresponding points in the system; determining if conflicts and/or deviations exist between the measured behavior and the predicted behavior; adjusting the conditional probabilities to more and more accurately reflect action faults in the system, so they will accept a possibility that a subsequent measuring and/or probing will produce a different value or output; and using the conflicts or deviations between the predicted behavior and the actual behavior to obtain a final result based on a new value or output, wherein intermittent failures arise from a stochastic physical process which is intermittent at any level of abstraction of the system model, and wherein the intermittent failures diagnosed by adjusting conditional probabilities so that they continue to accept the possibility the subsequent measuring and/or probing will produce a different value acts to avoid irreconcilable inconsistencies in the system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 20, 21)
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7. A method of troubleshooting a real world system having multiple components, and containing any combination of intermittent or non-intermittent faults, the method comprising:
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generating a model of the real world system, the system model including multiple model components; associating with each model component of the system model, two probabilities, (1) a probability the real world component deviates from its design such that it may exhibit a malfunction, and (2) a conditional probability the faulted component malfunctions when observed; recalculating the conditional probabilities associated with possible fault causes, to guide a next stage of observation and/or measurement; undertaking a next stage of observation and/or measurement; determining when enough data has been obtained; and reaching a final result. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A troubleshooting system implemented by a computing device which includes a processor, a memory an input and a display the troubleshooting system comprising:
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a diagnostic section configured to diagnose any combination of persistent and intermittent faults or intermittent faults in a real world multi-component system by, a probe section configured to obtain measured behaviors of the real world multi-component system by measuring or probing the real world multi-component system at particular points; an inference section configured to investigate predicted behaviors of a modeled system of the real world multi-component system by drawing inferences based on at least conditional probabilities, prior observations and component models; a comparison section configured to compare the predicted behaviors to their corresponding points in the real world multi-component system; determining if conflicts or deviations exist between the measured behaviors and the predicted behaviors; adjusting the conditional probabilities to more and more accurately reflect actual faults in the real world multi-component system, so they will accept a possibility that a subsequent measurement will produce a different value; and using the conflicts and/or deviations between the predicted behaviors and the actual measured behaviors to obtain a final result based on a new value or output, wherein intermittent failures arise from a stochastic physical process which is intermittent at any level of abstraction of the system model, and wherein the intermittent failures diagnosed by adjusting conditional probabilities so that they continue to accept the possibility the subsequent measuring and/or probing will produce a different value acts to avoid irreconcilable inconsistencies in the real world multi-component system. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification