Generation of instructions for repairing an electromechanical system

• US 9,684,553 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2014
• Issued: 06/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Klein, Jan Patrick, Seidl, Markus
• Primary Examiner(s): Leibovich, Yair
• Application Number:
  US14/529,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20160124821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• Field of Search: 714 26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0739 in a data processing system embedded in automotive or aircraft systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0766 Error or fault reporting or storing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/40 Data acquisition and logging for input to computer G06F3/00

Abstract

The invention provides for an electromechanical system comprising a machine. The machine comprises at least one mechanical component and at least one electrical sensor for acquiring measurement data. The system further comprises a data logger computer system for logging the measurement data and error reports as historical data, wherein the error reports are descriptive of one or more failure modes of the at least one mechanical component, wherein the error reports are further descriptive of repair actions taken to repair the one or more failure modes. The system further comprises a machine monitor comprising a repair solution engine, wherein the machine monitor comprises a memory containing processor instructions that implement the repair solution engine, wherein the machine monitor comprises a processor for executing the processor instructions. The system further comprises a data transfer system for transferring the data from the machine to the machine monitor. The system further comprises a client computer system. Execution of the processor instructions cause the processor to: receive the measurement data from the data transfer system; receive the historical data from the data logger computer system; search the historical data to determine a current failure mode and a selected repair action, wherein the current failure mode is selected from the one or more failure modes of the historical data, wherein the selected repair action is selected from the repair actions; generate repair instructions using the selected repair action; and transfer the repair instructions of the selected repair entry to the client computer system.

Claims

1. An electromechanical system comprising:

a machine, wherein the machine comprises at least one mechanical component, wherein the machine further comprises at least one electrical sensor for acquiring measurement data descriptive of the at least one mechanical component;

a data logger computer system for logging the measurement data and error reports as historical data, wherein the error reports are descriptive of one or more failure modes of the at least one mechanical component, wherein the error reports are further descriptive of repair actions taken to repair the one or more failure modes;

a machine monitor comprising a repair solution engine, wherein the machine monitor comprises;

a memory containing processor instructions that implement the repair solution engine;

a processor for executing the processor instructions;

a network interface to a network;

a data transfer system for transferring the measurement data from the machine to the machine monitor via the network; and

a client computer system;

wherein execution of the processor instructions cause the processor to;

receive the measurement data from the data transfer system;

receive the historical data from the data logger computer system;

search the historical data to determine a current failure mode and a selected repair action, wherein the current failure mode is selected from the one or more failure modes of the historical data, wherein the selected repair action is selected from the repair actions;

generate repair instructions using the selected repair action; and

transfer the repair instructions of the selected repair action to the client computer system,

wherein the measurement data is transferred from the machine to the machine monitor without interposition of the client computer system, and wherein the error reports comprise text entered by a user at the client computer system and transferred from the client computer system to the data logger computer system, and wherein the data logger computer system is configured for at least partially collecting the error reports using a text mining module and one or more text documents.

2. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein the client computer system further comprises a user interface, wherein the data logger computer system is further configured for receiving the error reports at least partially from the user interface of the client computer system.

3. The electromechanical system of claim 2, wherein the client computer system comprises a display, wherein the client computer system is further configured for receiving the historical data from the data logger computer system, wherein the client computer system is further configured for displaying the historical data on the display, wherein the client computer system is further configured for receiving the error reports from the user interface in response to displaying the historical data, wherein displaying the historical data comprises displaying the measurement data of the historical data.

4. The electromechanical system of claim 3, wherein the measurement data is associated with the historical data and is displayed as a parallel coordinate plot.

5. The electromechanical system of claim 3, wherein the measurement data is associated with the historical data and is displayed as a contour plot or a heatmap.

6. The electromechanical system of claim 3, wherein the measurement data is associated with the historical data and is displayed as a scatter plot.

7. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein the machine monitor is configured to determine the current failure mode and the selected repair action from the historical data using any one of the following:

cluster analysis, association analysis, a classification algorithm, and combinations thereof.

8. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein the client computer system comprises a display, wherein the client computer system is further configured for displaying the repair instructions on the display, wherein the client computer system is configured for receiving a repair report after displaying the repair instructions, wherein the repair report comprises a repair quality score, wherein the machine monitor is configured for modifying the error reports in the historical data using the repair quality score.

9. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein the selected repair action is determined at least partially using any one of the following:

data mining, pattern recognition, and combinations thereof.

10. The electromechanical system of claim 1, wherein the client computer system is a battery powered computing device.

11. A system for monitoring a machine, wherein the machine comprises at least one mechanical component and at least one electrical sensor for acquiring measurement data descriptive of the at least one mechanical component, the system comprising:

a machine monitor comprising a repair solution engine, wherein the machine monitor comprises a memory containing processor instructions that implement the repair solution engine, wherein the machine monitor comprises a processor for executing the processor instructions;

a data transfer system configured to;

receive the measurement data from the machine;

aggregate the measurement data to provide aggregated measurement data; and

transfer the aggregated measurement data to the machine monitor;

wherein execution of the processor instructions cause the processor of the machine monitor to;

receive the aggregated measurement data from the data transfer system;

receive historical data from a data logger computer system, wherein the data logger computer system is configured for logging the aggregated measurement data and error reports as historical data, wherein the error reports are descriptive of one or more failure modes of the at least one mechanical component, wherein the error reports are further descriptive of repair actions taken to repair the one or more failure modes;

search the historical data to determine a current failure mode and a selected repair action, wherein the current failure mode is selected from the one or more failure modes of the historical data, wherein the selected repair action is selected from the repair actions;

generate repair instructions using the selected repair action; and

transfer the repair instructions of the selected repair action to a client computer system,

wherein the aggregated measurement data is transferred to the machine monitor without interposition of the client computer system, and wherein the error reports comprise text entered by a user at the client computer system and transferred from the client computer system to the data logger computer system, and wherein the data logger computer system is configured for at least partially collecting the error reports using a text mining module and one or more text documents.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing machine executable instructions for implementing a repair solution engine, wherein execution of the machine executable instructions cause a processor to:

receive measurement data from a data transfer system, wherein the data transfer system is configured for transferring the measurement data from a machine to a machine monitor, wherein the machine comprises at least one mechanical component, wherein the machine further comprises at least one electrical sensor for acquiring measurement data descriptive of the at least one mechanical component;

receive historical data from a data logger computer system, wherein the data logger computer system is configured for logging the measurement data and error reports as historical data, wherein the error reports are descriptive of one or more failure modes of the at least one mechanical component, wherein the error reports are further descriptive of repair actions taken to repair the one or more failure modes;

search the historical data to determine a current failure mode and a selected repair action, wherein the current failure mode is selected from the one or more failure modes of the historical data, wherein the selected repair action is selected from the repair actions;

generate repair instructions using the selected repair action; and

transfer the repair instructions of the selected repair action to a client computer system,

wherein the measurement data is received from the data transfer system without interposition of the client computer system, and wherein the error reports comprise text entered by a user at the client computer system and transferred from the client computer system to the data logger computer system, and wherein the data logger computer system is configured for at least partially collecting the error reports using a text mining module and one or more text documents.

13. A method of repairing an electromechanical system, wherein the electromechanical system comprises:

a machine, wherein the machine comprises at least one mechanical component, wherein the machine further comprises at least one electrical sensor for acquiring measurement data descriptive of the at least one mechanical component;

a machine monitor comprising a repair solution engine, wherein the machine monitor comprises a memory containing processor instructions that implement the repair solution engine;

a data transfer system configured to receive the measurement data from the machine, aggregate the measurement data to provided aggregated measurement data and transfer the aggregated measurement data to the machine monitor;

a data logger computer system for logging the aggregated measurement data and error reports as historical data, wherein the error reports are descriptive of one or more failure modes of the at least one mechanical component, wherein the error reports are further descriptive of repair actions taken to repair the one or more failure modes; and

a client computer system;

wherein the method comprises;

receiving the aggregated measurement data from the data transfer system;

receiving the historical data from the data logger computer system;

searching the historical data to determine a current failure mode and a selected repair action, wherein the current failure mode is selected from the one or more failure modes of the historical data, wherein the selected repair action is selected from the repair actions;

generating repair instructions using the selected repair action; and

transferring the repair instructions of the selected repair action to the client computer system,

wherein the aggregated measurement data is received from the data transfer system without interposition of the client computer system;

the method further comprising;

receiving, the data logger computer system, the error reports at least partially from a user interface of the client computer system, wherein the error reports comprise text entered by a user at the client computer system; and

collecting, by the data logger computer system, the error reports at least partially using a text mining module and one or more text documents.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the client computer system comprises a display, wherein the method further comprises displaying the repair instructions on the display, wherein the method further comprises repairing the at least one mechanical component according to the repair instructions.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the client computer system comprises a display, wherein the method further comprises the client computer system:

receiving the historical data from the data logger computer system;

displaying at least the aggregated measurement data of the historical data on the display; and

receiving the error report from the user interface in response to displaying at least the aggregated measurement data of the historical data.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises displaying the aggregated measurement data as any one of the following:

a parallel coordinate plot, a contour plot, a heatmap, and a scatterplot.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises the machine monitor determining the current failure mode and the selected repair action from the historical data using any one of the following:

cluster analysis, association analysis, a classification algorithm, and combinations thereof.