Managing the determination of a transfer function of a measurement sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10914808-B2
Application number	US-201715691438-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2017
Priority date	Aug 30, 2017
Publication date	Feb 9, 2021
Grant date	Feb 9, 2021

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to generating a measurement sensor profiling summary in relation to a measurement sensor of an electrical measurement system, the measurement sensor being suitable for measuring an electrical property. The profiling summary is generated by obtaining a plurality of profiling results each comprising an estimate of a transfer function of a measurement sensor of the electrical measurement system and a corresponding certainty value indicative of the accuracy of the estimate of the transfer function, wherein the plurality of profiling results are based on estimates of the transfer function of the measurement sensor and corresponding certainty values that were determined by a monitor module of the electrical measurement system during a profiling period of time; and generating a profiling summary based on at least one of the plurality of profiling results.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electrical measurement system for characterizing an electrical property of a utility meter, the system comprising:
a utility meter measurement sensor, included in the utility meter, which includes a voltage measurement apparatus to obtain a voltage measurement associated with the utility meter;
a microcontroller unit, included in the utility meter and connected to the utility meter measurement sensor to receive the voltage measurement, the microcontroller unit including a utility meter profiler apparatus configured to:
obtain, from a register of profiling results in the utility meter profiler apparatus, a plurality of profiling results of the electrical measurement system for the utility meter, each profiling result comprising:
1) an estimate of a transfer function of the utility meter measurement sensor of the electrical measurement system, and
2) a corresponding certainty value indicative of an accuracy of the estimate of the transfer function,
wherein the plurality of profiling results are determined during a profiling period of time and stored in a memory circuit at the end of a profiling period; and
generate for display, via the microcontroller unit, a profiling summary based on the estimate of the transfer function and corresponding certainty value of at least one of the plurality of profiling results.

2. The electrical measurement system of claim 1 , wherein the profiling summary is indicative of at least one of:
an effective average of the estimates of the transfer function in the plurality of profiling results;
an effective average of the certainty values in the plurality of profiling results;
a difference between an effective average of the estimates of the transfer function in the plurality of profiling results and a benchmark transfer function value;
the number of profiling results in the plurality of profiling results; or
a proportion of the profiling period of time that was spent determining the estimates of the transfer function and corresponding certainty values.

3. The electrical measurement system of claim 1 , wherein the profiler apparatus is further configured to determine:
1) an effective average of the estimates of the transfer function based at least in part on the plurality of estimates of the transfer function and
2) the corresponding plurality of certainty values.

4. The electrical measurement system of claim 3 , wherein determination of the effective average of the estimates of the transfer function comprises:
weighting each of the plurality of estimates of the transfer function based on their corresponding certainty value; and
determining the effective average of the estimates of the transfer function based at least in part on the weighted plurality of estimates of the transfer function.

5. The electrical measurement system of claim 1 , further configured to:
identify, based at least in part on the plurality of profiling results, a sensor event that took place during the profiling period of time.

6. The electrical measurement system of claim 5 , wherein identifying a sensor event is based at least in part on the estimate of the transfer function in at least some of the plurality of profiling results.

7. The electrical measurement system of claim 6 , wherein identifying a sensor event comprises comparing the estimate of the transfer function in at least some of the plurality of profiling results against a benchmark transfer function value, wherein a profiling result comprising an estimate of the transfer function that is different from the benchmark transfer function value by more than an event threshold amount is indicative of a sensor event that took place during the profiling period of time.

8. The electrical measurement system of claim 7 , wherein if a profiling result is determined to be indicative of a sensor event, the profiling summary comprises an indication of a magnitude of the difference between the benchmark transfer function and the estimate of the transfer function in that profiling result.

9. The electrical measurement system of claim 7 , wherein a profiling result comprising an estimate of the transfer function that is different from the benchmark transfer function value by more than a max difference threshold is indicative of signal failure sensor event.

10. The electrical measurement system of claim 6 , wherein identifying a sensor event is based at least in part on the certainty value in at least some of the plurality of profiling results.

11. The electrical measurement system of claim 10 , wherein identifying a sensor event comprises comparing the certainty value in one or more of the plurality of profiling results a threshold minimum level of accuracy.

12. The electrical measurement system of claim 11 , wherein the threshold minimum level of accuracy is based on the event threshold amount.

13. The electrical measurement system of claim 11 , wherein:
a profiling result comprising an estimate of the transfer function that is different from a benchmark transfer function value by more than the event threshold amount and a corresponding certainty value indicative of an accuracy of the estimate of the transfer function that achieves the minimum level of accuracy is indicative of a sensor event that took place during the profiling period of time.

14. The electrical measurement system of claim 11 , wherein:
if an effective average of the certainty values in the plurality of profiling results is indicative of an accuracy that fails to meet the threshold minimum level of accuracy, an accuracy failure sensor event is identified.

15. The electrical measurement system of claim 5 , wherein the sensor event comprises a burst event indicative of a temporary change in the transfer function during the profiling period of time.

16. The electrical measurement system of claim 5 , wherein the sensor event comprises a change event indicative of a lasting change in the transfer function during the profiling period of time.

17. The electrical measurement system of claim 1 wherein the microcontroller unit is further configured to:
obtain from a monitor module of the electrical measurement system a plurality of monitor results, wherein the monitor module performs a set of control instructions to obtain the monitor results and each of the plurality of monitor results comprises:
an estimate of the transfer function of the measurement sensor that was determined by the monitor module over an individual run length of time that is within the profiling period of time, and
a corresponding certainty value indicative of the accuracy of the estimate of the transfer function; and
determine the plurality of profiling results based at least in part on the plurality of monitor results.

18. The electrical measurement system of claim 17 is further configured to determine at least one of the profiling results of the plurality of profiling results by:
identifying two or more monitor results that were determined over successive periods of time;
determining the estimate of the transfer function for the profiling result based at least in part on the estimates of the transfer function in the identified two or more monitor results; and
determining the certainty value for the profiling result based at least in part on the certainty values in the identified two or more monitor results.

19. The electrical measurement system of claim 1 , wherein the microcontroller unit is configured to:
generate a report for the electrical measurement system to be displayed on a display, whe

Assignees

• Analog Devices International Unlimited Co

Inventors

• Danesh Seyed Amir Ali
• Stuart John

Classifications

• G01R11/56

  Special tariff meters · CPC title

• G01R11/25

  Arrangements for indicating or signalling faults · CPC title

• G01R21/007

  Adapted for special tariff measuring (G01R21/01, G01R21/02, G01R21/08, G01R21/10, G01R21/1278 and G01R21/1333 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01R21/1333

  adapted for special tariff measuring · CPC title

• G01R15/04

  Voltage dividers · CPC title