Vehicle Intermittent Failure Detection Using Counter Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Intermittent vehicle failures are difficult to reproduce and diagnose due to their non-consistent occurrence and complex interaction with system components, making it challenging for service technicians to identify and repair the underlying issues.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that provide data indicative of intermittent failures by using counter data to determine occurrence rates, error values, and statistical methods, along with decision patterns and threshold values, to reliably identify whether a failure is intermittent or not, and to distinguish it from ghost failures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional failure detection methods are used, then consistent failures can be identified, but intermittent failures cannot be reliably detected due to their non-consistent occurrence
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by continuously monitoring and counting test cycle results before a failure is fully manifested. The counter data accumulates information about test outcomes over multiple cycles, enabling early detection of intermittent failures before they become consistent problems that are easier to detect but harder to resolve in time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms by evaluating counter data that tracks test failure occurrences across multiple cycles. The intermittent failure evaluation provides feedback about the consistency of failures, allowing the system to distinguish between intermittent and consistent failures based on the accumulated counter information rather than single-instance detection.
2Productivity
If service technicians rely on traditional diagnostic methods, then repair time for consistent failures is reasonable, but repair time for intermittent failures increases significantly due to reproducibility issues
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary diagnostic work by automatically analyzing counter data and evaluating failure patterns before the service technician arrives. This preliminary evaluation categorizes failures as intermittent or consistent, providing advance information that guides the technician's approach and reduces on-site diagnostic time.
Solution Approach 2:
The counter data and intermittent failure evaluation act as an intermediary between the vehicle's diagnostic system and the service technician. This intermediary provides processed information about failure characteristics, eliminating the need for technicians to perform time-consuming manual reproduction attempts and directly guiding them to the appropriate repair approach.
3Measurement precision
If comprehensive testing is performed to capture intermittent failures, then detection accuracy improves, but system complexity increases due to multiple test cycles and counter management
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the diagnostic process into distinct components: test execution, counter data generation, and intermittent failure evaluation. By dividing the complex diagnostic task into these manageable segments, the system achieves accurate failure classification while maintaining manageable complexity through modular organization of diagnostic functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The counter data serves as an intermediary structure that simplifies the complexity of tracking multiple test cycle results. Instead of directly analyzing complex patterns across numerous tests, the system uses the counter as an intermediate representation that captures essential failure occurrence information, making the evaluation process more manageable while maintaining measurement precision.
Data Source
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AI summary
The disclosure relates to a computer-implemented method (100) for providing data indicative of an intermittent failure for a vehicle, comprising: providing (110) failure data of the vehicle; providing (120) counter data, wherein counter data is provided for each provided failure data; providing (130) data indicative of an intermittent failure at least based on the counter data.