System and method for detecting events in a system
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Solution Overview
Problem
Systems that rely on sensors for event detection often suffer from false alarms due to sensor errors, maintenance issues, and placement problems, leading to a need for methods to reduce such false alarms.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a dual-mode operation in sensors, where one sensor detects events and reports them while others switch to a data mode to corroborate the event by providing additional sensor data to a controller, which processes this data to confirm or refute the initial detection, thereby determining a confidence level in the reported event.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a sensor applies detection algorithms to sensor data to detect possible events, then event detection capability is improved, but false alarms increase due to sensor errors and maintenance issues
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by having the controller receive sensor data from multiple sensors and use this data to confirm or refute initial event detections. The controller processes sensor data from sensors that did not detect the event to provide feedback on the validity of the detected event, thereby reducing false alarms while maintaining detection capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller acts as an intermediary between the sensors and the event detection system. When a sensor detects a possible event, the controller intervenes by requesting additional sensor data from other sensors to verify the event before confirming it, thus mediating between individual sensor detections and final event confirmation.
2Measurement precision
If sensor data is transmitted to the controller for processing, then event confirmation accuracy is improved, but data transmission volume and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by having sensors operate in different modes based on their detection status. Sensors that detect possible events transmit their data to the controller, while sensors that do not detect events are instructed to provide sensor data in a different format or at different intervals, optimizing data transmission based on local detection conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses partial action by selectively requesting sensor data only from sensors that are relevant to confirming a detected event. Instead of continuously transmitting data from all sensors, the controller instructs specific sensors to provide data only when needed for event confirmation, reducing overall data transmission volume.
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of sensors are operably coupled to a system controller. Each sensor includes a detection mode in which the sensor applies one or more detection algorithms to sensor data generated by the corresponding sensor to detect a possible event and to report the possible event to the system controller, but does not report the system data to the system controller. Each sensor also includes a sensor data mode in which the sensor data is reported to the system controller. When one of the plurality of sensors reports a possible event to the system controller, the system controller instructs one or more of the plurality of sensors to switch from the detection mode to the sensor data mode. The system controller is configured to receive the sensor data and to process the received sensor data to confirm or otherwise provide a measure of confidence in the reported possible event.