Systems and methods for identifying faulty sensors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9404775-B2
Application number	US-11284908-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2008
Priority date	Apr 30, 2008
Publication date	Aug 2, 2016
Grant date	Aug 2, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for identifying a faulty sensor are provided. One system includes multiple sensors, each generating a first set of parameters based on detected measurands. The system also includes a fusion module for generating a second set of parameters by fusing the first sets of parameters, and a sensor fault module including multiple fault templates defining sensor faults, an estimation module for generating a third set of parameters based on the first and second sets of parameters, and an evaluation module. The evaluation module is configured to compare the third set of parameters and the fault templates, and determine a sensor fault based on the comparison. A method includes receiving a first set of parameters based on measurands from multiple sensors and a second set of parameters based on a measurand from a sensor, and determining a sensor fault based on the first and second set of parameters.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sensor system comprising:
at least one sensor device;
a fusion module; and
a sensor fault module, the sensor fault module further comprising:
a fault template module configured to store a set of fault templates, each fault template indicative of one of a plurality of faults for the at least one sensor device;
an estimation module configured to generate a third set of parameters representing an estimated measurand for the at least one sensor device based on a first set of parameters generated by the at least one sensor device and a second set of parameters generated by the fusion module; and
an evaluation module coupled to the fault template module and to the estimation module, wherein the evaluation module is configured to:
compare the third set of parameters and the set of fault templates, and
determine one of the plurality of faults for the at least one sensor device based on the comparison, wherein the sensor fault module is coupled between the at least one sensor device and the fusion module.

2. The sensor fault module of claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of faults is a noise fault characterized by a noise parameter in the third set of parameters being greater than an upper limit of a standard deviation for the noise parameter.

3. The sensor fault module of claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of faults is a frozen fault characterized by a noise parameter in the third set of parameters being less than a lower limit of a standard deviation for the noise parameter.

4. The sensor fault module of claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of faults is a saturation fault characterized by a calibration parameter in the estimated measurand being beyond an upper or lower limit of a predetermined range for the measurand.

5. The sensor fault module of claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of faults is a bias fault characterized by an input parameter in the third set of parameters having a non-zero value.

6. The sensor fault module of claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of faults is a spike fault characterized by a delay parameter in the third set of parameters having an absolute value much larger than an upper limit of a standard deviation for the delay parameter.

7. The sensor fault module of claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of faults is an oscillation fault characterized by a delay parameter in the third set of parameters having an absolute value larger than an upper limit of a standard deviation for the delay parameter.

8. The sensor fault module of claim 1 , wherein the estimation module is configured to perform a least square minimization algorithm on the first and second sets of parameters to generate the third set of parameters.

9. A sensor system for identifying a faulty sensor, comprising:
a plurality of sensors configured to generate a first set of parameters representing a detected measurand;
a fusion module coupled directly to the plurality of sensors and configured to generate a second set of parameters by fusing the first sets of parameters; and
a plurality of sensor fault modules, each sensor fault module coupled to one of the plurality of sensors and to the fusion module, each sensor fault module comprising:
a fault template module configured to store a set of fault templates indicative of a plurality of faults for the plurality of sensors,
an estimation module configured to generate a third set of parameters representing an estimated measurand for a sensor of the plurality of sensors based on the first and second sets of parameters, and
an evaluation module coupled to the fault template module and the estimation module, wherein the evaluation module is configured to:
compare the third set of parameters and the set of fault templates, and
determine one of the plurality of faults for the sensor based on the comparison.

10. The sensor system of claim 9 , wherein the one of the plurality of faults is one of:
a noise fault characterized by a noise parameter in the third set of parameters being greater than an upper limit of a standard deviation for the noise parameter;
a frozen fault characterized by the noise parameter being less than a lower limit of the noise parameter standard deviation;
a saturation fault characterized by a calibration parameter in the third set of parameters being beyond the upper or lower limit of a predetermined range for the measurand;
a bias fault characterized by an input parameter in the third set of parameters having a non-zero value;
a spike fault characterized by a delay parameter in the third set of parameters having an absolute value much larger than an upper limit of a standard deviation for the delay parameter; and
an oscillation fault characterized by the delay parameter absolute value being larger than an upper limit of the delay parameter standard deviation.

11. The sensor system of claim 10 , wherein the fusion module is configured to isolate the first set of parameters from the sensor in generating the second set of parameters when the one of the plurality of faults is determined.

12. The sensor system of claim 9 , wherein the estimation module is configured to perform a least square minimization algorithm on the first and second sets of parameters to generate the third set of parameters.

Assignees

• Mylaraswamy Dinkar
• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Mylaraswamy Dinkar

Classifications

• G01D18/00 Primary

  Testing or calibrating apparatus or arrangements provided for in groups G01D1/00 - G01D15/00 · CPC title