Waveform analytics for optimizing performance of a machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017191899-A1
Application number	US-201514984725-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 30, 2015
Priority date	Dec 30, 2015
Publication date	Jul 6, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

An apparatus obtains a plurality of waveforms representing measurements of a physical characteristic of a machine's operation and a plurality of performance results of the machine corresponding respectively to the plurality of waveforms, each of the performance results indicative of the machine's performance under conditions at which the measurement represented by the corresponding waveform was made. The apparatus divides each of the waveforms into a common plurality of intervals and calculates, for each of at least one of the intervals, an influence value that represents a degree of influence of the plurality of waveforms on the plurality of performance results over the interval.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus comprising:
a data input section operable to obtain a plurality of waveforms representing measurements of a physical characteristic of a machine's operation and a plurality of performance results of the machine corresponding respectively to the plurality of waveforms, each of the performance results indicative of the machine's performance under conditions at which the measurement represented by the corresponding waveform was made; a dividing section operable to divide each of the waveforms into a common plurality of intervals; and a calculating section operable to calculate, for each of at least one of the intervals, an influence value that represents a degree of influence of the plurality of waveforms on the plurality of performance results over the interval.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
an influence determining section operable to determine whether the influence value calculated for each of the at least one of the intervals represents a degree of influence higher than a threshold.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the calculating section is operable to calculate the influence value for each of at least two of the intervals.

4 . The apparatus of claim 3 , further comprising:
a ranking section operable to rank the at least two of the intervals by the absolute values of the influence values calculated for the at least two of the intervals.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
an estimating section operable to estimate, using the calculated influence value for each of the at least one of the intervals, an unknown performance result corresponding to a new waveform representing a hypothetical measurement of the physical characteristic of the machine's operation, the unknown performance result assumed to be indicative of the machine's performance under conditions at which the hypothetical measurement represented by the new waveform would be made.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the calculating section includes:
a difference calculator operable to calculate, for each of the at least one of the intervals, a difference between each of the waveforms and a standard waveform over the interval; and an influence value calculator operable to calculate the influence value for each of the at least one of the intervals from the differences calculated for the interval and the corresponding performance results.

7 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the difference calculator is operable to calculate, for each of the at least one of the intervals, as the difference between each of the waveforms and the standard waveform over the interval, the area between the waveform and the standard waveform over the interval.

8 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the difference calculator is operable to calculate, for each of the at least one of the intervals, as the difference between each of the waveforms and the standard waveform over the interval, the difference between the slope of the waveform and the slope of the standard waveform at the beginning or end of the interval.

9 . The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:
a standard waveform generating section operable to generate the standard waveform based on the plurality of waveforms.

10 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the standard waveform generating section is operable to generate the standard waveform by averaging the plurality of waveforms.

11 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the standard waveform generating section is operable to select, as the standard waveform, the waveform whose difference with respect to the other waveforms is smallest among the plurality of waveforms.

12 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the standard waveform generating section is operable to select, for each of the intervals, the waveform whose difference with respect to the other waveforms is smallest over the interval among the plurality of waveforms and generate the standard waveform by combining the selected waveforms.

13 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the intervals are irregular.

14 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the dividing section is operable to approximate the standard waveform with a plurality of line segments and divide each of the waveforms using, as the plurality of intervals, intervals between endpoints of the line segments.

15 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the machine is a combustion engine and the physical characteristic of the machine's operation is a heat release rate of the engine.

16 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein each of the waveforms represents a measurement of the heat release rate of the engine during a different engine cycle.

17 . The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the waveforms are of the form heat release rate vs. time or heat release rate vs. crank angle of a crankshaft of the engine.

18 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the performance results represent noise of the engine.

19 . A method comprising:
obtaining a plurality of waveforms representing measurements of a physical characteristic of a machine's operation and a plurality of performance results of the machine corresponding respectively to the plurality of waveforms, each of the performance results indicative of the machine's performance under conditions at which the measurement represented by the corresponding waveform was made; dividing each of the waveforms into a common plurality of intervals; and calculating, for each of at least one of the intervals, an influence value that represents a degree of influence of the plurality of waveforms on the plurality of performance results over the interval.

20 . A computer program product including a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions stored therein, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a plurality of waveforms representing measurements of a physical characteristic of a machine's operation and a plurality of performance results of the machine corresponding respectively to the plurality of waveforms, each of the performance results indicative of the machine's performance under conditions at which the measurement represented by the corresponding waveform was made; dividing each of the waveforms into a common plurality of intervals; and calculating, for each of at least one of the intervals, an influence value that represents a degree of influence of the plurality of waveforms on the plurality of performance results over the interval.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Katsuki Takayuki
• Rudy Raymond H P

Classifications

• F02D35/00 Primary

  Controlling engines, dependent on conditions exterior or interior to engines, not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• G01R23/16

  Spectrum analysis; Fourier analysis · CPC title

• G01M15/04

  Testing internal-combustion engines · CPC title

• G01M13/00

  Testing of machine parts · CPC title

• G06F17/18

  for evaluating statistical data {, e.g. average values, frequency distributions, probability functions, regression analysis (forecasting specially adapted for a specific administrative, business or logistic context G06Q10/04)} · CPC title