MONITORING SYSTEM

• US 20120130701A1
• Filed: 08/02/2010
• Published: 05/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BAE Systems Plc
• Original Assignee: BAE Systems Plc
• Inventors: Khella, Mandeep Singh
• Granted Patent: US 8,959,007 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/13
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 17/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/37027 Sensor integrated with tool or machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A method for designing a secondary sub-system for monitoring the condition of a platform is disclosed. The platform can include one or more primary sub-systems. The method can include identifying stakeholders of the platform, capturing information requirements of the stakeholders, determining data requirements corresponding to the information requirements, defining a sensor array comprising sensors suitable for providing output signals relating to condition characteristics of the one or more primary sub-systems, and defining procedures for converting the output signals from the sensor array to the data requirements, thereby to fulfil the information requirements of the stakeholders. The method can be implemented using a design tool having a graphical user interface with a hierarchical layer structure.

Claims

1. A method for designing a secondary sub-system for monitoring the condition of a platform, the platform comprising at least one primary sub-system;

the method comprising;

identifying stakeholders of the platform;

capturing information requirements of the stakeholders;

determining data requirements corresponding to the information requirements;

defining a sensor array comprising sensors suitable for providing output signals relating to condition characteristics of the at least one primary sub-system; and

defining procedures for converting the output signals from the sensor array to the data requirements, thereby to fulfil the information requirements of the stakeholders.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the platform comprises a plurality of primary sub-systems, and wherein the method comprises:

before defining the sensor array, identifying the primary sub-systems from which the data requirements can be fulfilled;

and wherein the sensor array comprises sensors suitable for providing output signals relating to condition characteristics of the identified primary sub-systems.

3. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein defining the sensor array comprises identifying existing sensors of the identified primary sub-systems having output signals suitable for conversion to fulfil the data requirements.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein defining the sensor array further comprises:

identifying unfulfilled data requirements that cannot be fulfilled by the existing sensors; and

specifying new sensors for inclusion in the sensor array so as to provide output signals suitable for fulfilling said unfulfilled data requirements.

5. The method of any preceding Claim, further comprising identifying any unused sensors in the sensor array whose output signals are not being used to fulfil the data requirements.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

identifying any existing data requirements that could be fulfilled by said output signals of said unused sensors; and

defining one or more procedures for converting said output signals to said existing data requirements.

7. The method of claim 5 or claim 6, further comprising:

identifying new data requirements that could be fulfilled by said output signals of said unused sensors;

identifying new information requirements that could be fulfilled by said new data requirements;

determining whether said new information requirements are useful to one or more stakeholders;

and, if so, defining procedures for converting said output signals to said new data requirements.

8. The method of any preceding Claim, further comprising optimising the sensor array by:

identifying any redundant sensors in the sensor array whose output signals are not required by the secondary sub-system;

determining whether the output signals of the redundant sensors are required by a primary sub-system of the platform;

and, if one or more of the redundant sensors are not so required, removing those sensors from the sensor array.

9. The method of any preceding Claim, wherein the step of defining procedures comprises defining a plurality of alternative procedures for converting one or more of the signals to one of the data requirements.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising assigning a method classification to each one of the plurality of alternative procedures.

11. The method of claim 9 or claim 10, comprising selecting one or more of the plurality of alternative procedures.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising determining an operating environment of the platform, and selecting one or more of the plurality of alternative procedures according to the operating environment.

13. The method of any preceding Claim, further comprising:

recording one or more attributes of each of the sensors in the sensor array;

for each data requirement, aggregating the attributes of the sensors whose output signals are used to fulfil that data requirement to define data requirement attributes;

for each information requirement, aggregating the data requirement attributes of the data requirements associated with that information requirement to define information requirement attributes; and

for each stakeholder, aggregating the information requirements attributes of the information requirements associated with that stakeholder to define stakeholder attributes.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein one or more of the attributes relate to resource usage of the sensors, and wherein the method further comprises optimising the design of the secondary sub-system by using one or more of the data requirements attributes, information requirements attributes and stakeholder attributes to determine a net resource usage of the respective data requirements, information requirements and stakeholders.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of optimising the design of the secondary sub-system comprises eliminating one or more of the sensors, data requirements, information requirements and stakeholders based on the determined net resource usage.

16. The method of any preceding Claim, comprising representing the secondary sub-system in a graphical format, the graphical format comprising a hierarchical structure of information layers including:

a stakeholders layer including stakeholder blocks representing the stakeholders;

an information requirements layer adjacent to the stakeholders layer and including information requirements blocks representing the information requirements;

a data requirements layer adjacent to the information requirements layer and including data requirements blocks representing the data requirements;

a data transformation layer adjacent to the data requirements layer and including procedure blocks representing the procedures for converting the output signals to the data requirements;

a sensors layer adjacent to the data transformation layer and including sensor blocks representing the signals;

a sub-systems layer adjacent to the data transformation layer and including sub-system blocks representing the primary sub-systems of the platform; and

connectors for representing information flows between blocks in adjacent layers.

17. The method of claim 16, comprising verifying the design of the secondary sub-system by:

selecting a block in one of the information layers

determining whether the block is appropriately connected to blocks in adjacent layers;

and, if the block is not appropriately connected, recording a failure in respect of that block.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of recording a failure comprises providing a graphical indication relating to the block that is not appropriately connected.

19. A graphical user interface arranged to allow a user to design a secondary sub-system for monitoring the condition of a platform comprising a plurality of primary sub-systems using the method of any of claims 1 to 15, the graphical user interface comprising a hierarchical structure of information layers including:

a stakeholders layer including stakeholder blocks representing the stakeholders;

an information requirements layer adjacent to the stakeholders layer and including information requirements blocks representing the information requirements;

a data requirements layer adjacent to the information requirements layer and including data requirements blocks representing the data requirements;

a data transformation layer adjacent to the data requirements layer and including procedure blocks representing the procedures for converting the output signals to the data requirements;

a sensors layer adjacent to the data transformation layer and including sensor blocks representing the sensors;

a sub-systems layer adjacent to the data transformation layer and including sub-system blocks representing the primary sub-systems of the platform; and

connectors for representing information flows between blocks in adjacent layers.

20. A software tool arranged to allow a user to design a secondary sub-system for monitoring the condition of a platform comprising a plurality of primary sub-systems using the method of any of claims 1 to 18.

21. A computer program that, when loaded onto a computer, causes the computer to carry out the method of any of claims 1 to 18.

22. A sub-system for monitoring the condition of a platform including a plurality of further sub-systems, the sub-system comprising:

a stakeholder layer specifying stakeholders in the platform;

an information requirements layer specifying condition-related information requirements of the stakeholders;

a data requirements layer, comprising data requirements corresponding to the information requirements;

a sensors layer comprising a plurality of sensors arranged to output signals relating to condition characteristics of the further sub-systems; and

a data transformation layer comprising procedures for converting the output signals to the data requirements, thereby to fulfil the information requirements of the stakeholders.

23. A method for assessing the suitability of an existing sensor array in a legacy platform for use in a sub-system for monitoring the condition of the platform, the platform comprising a plurality of primary sub-systems being monitored by the existing sensor array, the method comprising:

identifying stakeholders of the platform, each stakeholder being an entity that wishes to monitor the condition of a part of interest of the platform;

capturing information requirements of the stakeholders, each information requirement being information that a stakeholder requires to monitor the part of interest;

determining data requirements corresponding to the information requirements;

identifying the primary sub-systems from which the data requirements can be fulfilled;

defining a required sensor array having output signals suitable for conversion to fulfil the data requirements; and

comparing the existing sensor array of the legacy platform with the required sensor array to determine the suitability of the existing sensor array.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of comparing the existing sensor array of the legacy platform with the required sensor array comprises identifying missing sensors in the existing sensor array, the missing sensors being present in the required sensor array and absent in the existing sensor array.

25. The method of claim 23 or claim 24, wherein the step of comparing the existing sensor array of the legacy platform with the required sensor array comprises identifying surplus sensors in the existing sensor array, the surplus sensors being present in the existing sensor array and absent in the required sensor array.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising identifying new data requirements that could be fulfilled by said output signals of said surplus sensors.

27. A method for designing a secondary sub-system for monitoring the condition of a platform, the platform comprising a plurality of primary sub-systems;

the method comprising;

designing, for each one of the plurality of primary sub-systems, a respective module of the secondary sub-system by;

identifying stakeholders of the respective primary sub-system;

capturing information requirements of the stakeholders;

determining data requirements corresponding to the information requirements;

identifying the data requirements that can be fulfilled from the respective primary sub-system;

defining a sensor array comprising sensors suitable for providing output signals relating to condition characteristics of the respective primary sub-system; and

defining procedures for converting the output signals from the sensor array to the data requirements, thereby to fulfil the information requirements of the stakeholders.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the method further comprises integrating the modules of the secondary sub-system so as to design an integrated secondary sub-system for monitoring the condition of the platform.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein integrating the modules comprises:

identifying identical stakeholders, information requirements and data requirements present in two or more modules; and

combining said identical stakeholders, information requirements, and data requirements.