Related Event Log Extraction for Industrial Control Fault Analysis

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Solution Overview

Problem

In industrial network systems, unskilled users face difficulties in analyzing vast event logs to identify the root cause of events, especially when multiple events are interconnected, leading to time-consuming and often impossible tasks.

Innovation Solution

An information processing device that displays event logs, allows users to designate attention events, and extracts relevant logs based on predetermined rules, facilitating the display of attention and relevant event logs for easier analysis.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If event logs are collected from multiple slave devices in a master-slave control system, then the quantity of event logs increases, but unskilled users experience difficulty and time consumption in analyzing the logs to identify root causes

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvequantity of event logsVSAvoidease of log analysis

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the vast event logs by extracting and displaying only the relevant events related to the attention event selected by the user. This segmentation transforms the overwhelming complete log data into manageable, focused subsets that are directly relevant to the specific event being analyzed, making it easy for unskilled users to understand the root cause without being overwhelmed by unrelated information

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an event extraction unit as an intermediary between the complete event logs and the user. This intermediary automatically processes the logs, extracts relevant events based on predetermined rules, and presents them in a simplified format. The extraction unit acts as a mediator that translates complex log data into user-friendly information, eliminating the need for users to manually analyze vast amounts of raw log data

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Loss of information

If all event logs are displayed to users, then complete information is provided, but unskilled users cannot efficiently identify related events among the vast number of logs

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinformation completenessVSAvoidtime to identify related events

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary extraction of relevant events before presenting information to the user. The event extraction unit pre-processes the complete event logs by identifying and extracting only those events that are relevant to the attention event, based on predetermined extraction rules. This preliminary action filters out irrelevant information in advance, so when users view the extracted events, they immediately see only the pertinent information without needing to search through all logs

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts specific relevant events from the complete set of event logs using the event extraction unit. By applying predetermined extraction rules, the system takes out only the necessary subset of events related to the attention event, separating them from the vast amount of unrelated log data. This extraction process maintains the essential information needed for analysis while eliminating time-consuming search efforts

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Reliability

If event logs are stored for each event in a log storage part, then comprehensive log data is maintained, but unskilled persons find it nearly impossible to specify the basic event that is the true cause among complicatedly related events

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelog data integrityVSAvoiddifficulty of identifying root cause

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The event extraction unit serves as an intermediary that processes the complete log data and presents only the relevant events to users. This intermediary automatically applies extraction rules to identify which events are causally related to the attention event, eliminating the need for users to manually navigate through complicated event relationships. The extraction unit translates complex causal relationships into a simplified, organized presentation that reveals the root cause clearly

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the complicated event relationships by extracting and displaying only the specific events that are relevant to the attention event. This segmentation breaks down the complex web of related events into manageable, logically organized subsets that show clear causal relationships. By segmenting the information in this way, unskilled users can easily identify the basic event that is the true cause without being confused by unrelated or less relevant events

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS11435714B2Information processing device, control method, and recording medium for specifying related event from collected event logs

Publication Date: 2022.09.06 OMRON CORP

AI summary

The purpose of the present invention is to enable even an unskilled person to easily identify a related event in a short time from a collected event log. A system management device (1) is provided with: a display control part (32) for causing a display part (14) to display an event log; an identification part (30) for identifying an event of interest log specified by a user through an operation part (11); and an extraction part (31) for extracting a related event log related to an event of interest from an event log database (20). The display control part (32) causes the display part (14) to display the event of interest log and the related event log.