Systems and methods for reporting a cause of an event or equipment state using causal relationship models in a building management system

• US 8,635,182 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2011
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tyco Fire & Security GmbH (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Original Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Inventors: Mackay, Douglas P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Assistant Examiner(s): RIOJAS RAMIREZ, MARIO
• Application Number:
  US13/252,105
• Publication Number:
  US 20120022698A1
• Time in Patent Office: 841 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/55
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0248 Causal models, e.g. fault tree; digraphs; qualitative physics
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A computerized method for evaluating and reporting a fault in a building management system includes receiving, at a processing circuit, multiple fault indications for different building equipment of the building management system. The method further includes displaying a single fault related to the multiple fault indications rather than reporting the multiple fault indications.

Claims

1. A computerized method for evaluating and reporting a fault in a building management system, the method comprising:

receiving, at a processing circuit, multiple fault indications for building equipment of the building management system;

determining to display a single fault causally related to each of the multiple fault indications rather than report the multiple fault indications using an ontological model of the building equipment stored in memory of the building management system, wherein determining to display the single fault rather than report the multiple fault indications comprises;

comparing a timestamp of the single fault to a timestamp of each of the multiple fault indications, and

making a determination to refrain from displaying the multiple fault indications in response to a determination that the timestamp of each of the multiple fault indications is later than the timestamp of the single fault and in response to a determination that the ontological model indicates that each of the multiple fault indications could be caused by the single fault, wherein the single fault is directly associated with a single faulty building equipment device; and

displaying the single fault causally related to each of the multiple fault indications rather than reporting the multiple fault indications.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the determining step further comprises:

making the determination to refrain from displaying, for each of the multiple fault indications, based on a determination that the timestamp for a multiple fault indication is earlier than a timestamp of the single fault.

3. The computerized method of claim 2, wherein the determination to refrain from displaying each of the multiple fault indications is further based on a determination that the ontological model indicates that the single fault could be caused by the multiple fault indications.

4. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the multiple fault indications are from first equipment that affects second equipment and the single fault is related to the second equipment.

5. The computerized method of claim 4, wherein the first equipment comprise equipment that have a child connection or control relationship relative to the second equipment.

6. The computerized method of claim 4, wherein the first equipment comprise equipment that have a parent connection or control relationship relative to the second equipment;

and wherein the method further comprises traversing multiple levels of a causal relationship model to find a root cause of the single fault and the multiple fault indications, wherein the determining step is based on a conclusion that the single fault is the root cause of the multiple fault indications.

7. A computer system for evaluating and reporting a cause of a performance change in a building management system, the computer system comprising:

a processing circuit configured to receive multiple fault indications for building equipment of the building management system,

wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine to display a single fault causally related to each of the multiple fault indications rather than report the multiple fault indications using an ontological model of the building equipment stored in memory of the building management system, wherein determining to display the single fault rather than report the multiple fault indications comprises,

comparing a timestamp of the single fault to a timestamp of each of the multiple fault indications, and

making a determination to refrain from displaying the multiple fault indications in response to a determination that the timestamp of each of the multiple fault indications is later than the timestamp of the single fault and in response to a determination that the ontological model indicates that each of the multiple fault indications could be caused by the single fault, wherein the single fault is directly associated with a single faulty building equipment device,

wherein the processing circuit is configured to display the single fault causally related to each of the multiple fault indications rather than report the multiple fault indications.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the fault cause analyzer is further configured to make a determination to refrain from displaying, for each of the multiple fault indications, based on a determination that the timestamp for a multiple fault indication is earlier than a timestamp of the single fault.

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the determination to refrain from displaying each of the multiple fault indications is further based on a determination that the ontological model indicates that the single fault could be caused by the multiple fault indications.

10. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the multiple fault indications are from first equipment that affects second equipment and the single fault is related to the second equipment.

11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the first equipment comprise equipment that have a child connection or control relationship relative to the second equipment.

12. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the first equipment comprise equipment that have a parent connection or control relationship relative to the second equipment;

wherein the wherein the fault cause analyzer is further configured to traverse multiple levels of a causal relationship model to find a root cause of the single fault and the multiple fault indications, wherein a root cause determination is based on a conclusion that the single fault is the root cause of the multiple fault indications.