Diagnosis agent for remote plant diagnosis

• US 8,078,429 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Issued: 12/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Qiao, Liu
• Primary Examiner(s): KUNDU, SUJOY K
• Application Number:
  US12/394,227
• Publication Number:
  US 20100223028A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,019 Days
• Field of Search: 702 33- 35, 702 58- 59, 702/104, 702/113, 702/177, 702182-183, 736/58, 736/60, 324/555, 714/25, 700 29- 31, 701/40, 701/59, 345/595, 345/621
• 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 process for diagnosing a problem in a motor vehicle, the vehicle having a plurality of subsystems, each of the plurality of subsystems having one or more components that participate in the operation of the vehicle by performing one or more vehicle operations, each of the plurality of subsystems also having one or more sensors that detect the one or more vehicle 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 vehicle expert agent located in the vehicle 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 vehicle;

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

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

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

instructing the vehicle expert agent to perform the unstructured task and obtain a result, the vehicle 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 vehicle expert agent to the central facility; and

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

2. The process of claim 1, further comprising re-instructing the diagnosis agent to instruct the vehicle expert agent to perform an additional task and re-transmitting the diagnosis agent back to the vehicle expert agent.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the diagnosis agent is instructed by the adaptive global agent.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the diagnosis agent is instructed by an individual at the central facility using a computer interface.

5. The process of claim 1, further comprising determining a problem in the vehicle based on the result transmitted with the diagnosis agent from the vehicle expert agent to the central facility.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the result is in the form of data from one of the sensors of the vehicle.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein the result is in the form of a fault code assigned to one of the components of the vehicle.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein the result is in the form of a diagnostic analysis performed by said vehicle expert agent on at least one of the plurality of subsystems of the vehicle.

9. The process of claim 1, 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.

10. The process of claim 1 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.