FLAT-HIERARCHY SYSTEM FOR CONDITION-BASED MONITORING OF DISTRIBUTED EQUIPMENT

摘要

Systems and methods for monitoring the condition of equipment in a manufacturing plant or other facility. A computing node is attached to each piece of equipment under consideration. Each node gathers relevant information from the machine using sensors and is capable of determining the condition of the machine from a preexisting set of possible conditions, using only the information obtained from the sensors. Each node is thus entirely self-sufficient, in that it requires no interaction with a global controller or with other nodes in order to make a decision about the condition of the equipment, and does not necessarily require any information about the past history of the equipment. The nodes are capable of communicating the condition of their corresponding equipment to key maintenance or other personnel, potentially via a wireless network to a convenient wireless-capable device such as a cellular phone or laptop.