JP2004070699A - Equipment management system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an equipment management system capable of executing a performance deterioration or failure prediction before a household electric appliance or component thereof is perfectly broken, and reporting it to a user or equipment maintenance person that is an equipment manager. <P>SOLUTION: This system comprises an information management terminal 4 for monitoring the internal state of the household electric appliance 2, which is connected via a network 3 to the appliance 2 having an equipment management data part 1 for retaining the internal state such as production information, operation information showing the operation time or performance of the appliance or the maintenance state of components, or failure information showing the failure point or failure state of the appliance; and an information management center device 7 which retains failure prediction determination data for performing the performance deterioration or failure prediction from the internal state of the appliance 2, and compares the determination data with the equipment management data showing the internal state of the appliance 2 collected from the information management terminal 4 through an external network 6 out of a home to perform the failure prediction of the appliance 2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a home appliance management system that collects device management data indicating the internal state of home appliances connected to a home communication network from inside and outside the home and performs performance deterioration or failure prediction thereof.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, failure detection or display of home appliances such as home air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and microwave ovens has been performed independently for each appliance.
[0003]
In addition, in order to notify the user of the home appliance with high accuracy of the failure status of the home appliance, the remote maintenance server is connected to the home appliance via a home network and monitors the internal status of each home appliance. In addition, while holding determination data for determining a failure location and a failure state of a home appliance, the determination data is collected from a remote maintenance server via an external network outside the home and indicates an internal state of the home appliance. There has been proposed a remote maintenance system including an out-of-home server that determines a failure state of the home electric appliance by comparing the data with data.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above-described conventional configuration, the user of the home appliance knows the trouble in using the device only after the home appliance breaks down. That is, there is no known system for performing performance degradation or failure prediction of a device before a failure occurs, not after a failure, or detecting a degradation state of a component.
[0005]
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and its purpose is to perform a performance deterioration or failure prediction before a complete failure of a home electric appliance to perform a user who is a device administrator, a device maintenance user, and the like. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device management system capable of notifying a user.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the conventional problem, the device management system according to the present invention includes manufacturing information indicating a manufacturing company, a device number, a manufacturing date, and the like, and indicates operation time and performance of the device or a maintenance state of a component. It is connected via a communication network to a home appliance having a device management data unit that holds internal state information such as operation information and failure information indicating a failure location or a failure state of the device, and monitors the internal state information of the home appliance. Information management terminal, and the data for failure prediction determination for performing performance degradation or failure prediction from the internal state information of the home electric appliance, and the data for failure prediction determination is stored in the information management terminal via an external network. An information management center device that performs a failure prediction of the home appliance in comparison with the device management data indicating the internal state of the home appliance collected from the It is intended.
[0007]
As a result, the device management data held in the device is sent from the information management terminal to the information management center, and is compared with the data for failure prediction determination to determine the performance deterioration and failure prediction before the home appliance completely fails. It can be implemented.
[0008]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
The invention according to claim 1 includes manufacturing information indicating a manufacturing company, a device number, a manufacturing date, and the like, operating information indicating an operating time and a performance of a device, a maintenance state of a component, and the like; An information management terminal that is connected via a communication network to a home appliance having a device management data unit holding internal state information such as failure information indicating a failure state, and monitors the internal state information of the home appliance; While holding the data for failure prediction determination for performing performance deterioration or failure prediction from the internal state information of the home appliance, the failure prediction determination data is collected from the information management terminal via an external network by the internal state of the home appliance. This is a device management system including an information management center device that predicts failures of home electric appliances by comparing the device management data with the device management data.
[0009]
According to the present invention, the internal state of the home appliance is monitored by the information management terminal, and device management data indicating the internal state of the home appliance is sent to the information management center device via the external network, and the device predicts failure. The performance degradation or failure of the home electric appliance is predicted by comparison with the data for use.
[0010]
Therefore, it is possible to predict the failure of the home appliance before the failure, not after the failure. For this reason, it is possible to take measures before the home appliance breaks down and troubles the user.
[0011]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the failure prediction determination data held by the information management center indicates a correlation between performance degradation or failure prediction corresponding to device management data indicating an internal state of each home appliance. An apparatus management system characterized by being correlation data.
[0012]
According to the present invention, since the determination data for performing the failure prediction of the home electric appliance is the correlation data corresponding to the device management data indicating the internal state for each device type, the failure prediction can be performed more accurately. it can.
[0013]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the failure prediction determination data held by the information management center corresponds to the failure state of the equipment management data indicating the internal state of performance degradation or failure for each model of the home electric appliance. An equipment management system characterized by correlation data indicating a correlation of failure prediction.
[0014]
According to the present invention, the failure prediction determination data leaves performance degradation or a reason for failure for each device model as data, and the device management data indicating the internal state including the data is replaced with the performance degradation or failure condition. Since the correlation data indicates the correlation so that the prediction is made correspondingly, the performance degradation and the failure can be predicted with higher accuracy.
[0015]
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information management terminal comprising: a power supply monitoring unit that monitors a power supply state supplied to a household electrical appliance; and a power supply data holding unit that holds data of a power supply abnormal state detected by the power supply monitoring unit. And a device management system that uses data of a power supply abnormal state collected from the information management terminal via an external network outside the home for failure prediction determination.
[0016]
According to the present invention, the state of the power supply (particularly commercial power supply) supplied to the home electric appliance is monitored by the power supply monitoring unit, so that the abnormality occurrence state (power failure occurrence situation, lightning surge occurrence situation, distortion waveform occurrence situation, etc.) is obtained. Since the detected data is stored in the power supply data holding unit in the information management terminal, it is possible to predict the performance degradation and failure of the component parts of the equipment and the equipment itself, taking into account the supplied power supply data. Accuracy can be improved.
[0017]
The invention according to claim 5, wherein the device management system performs performance degradation or failure prediction determination based on operation information of a specific component such as a motor or an operating unit constituting a home electric appliance.
[0018]
According to the present invention, the operation information of a mechanical operating component such as a motor or an operating unit constituting a home appliance is monitored as a specific component, and performance degradation or failure of a member that realizes a main function of the appliance is monitored. The prediction can be made with higher accuracy.
[0019]
The invention according to claim 6 is a program for causing a computer to function as all or a part of the device management system according to any one of claims 1 to 5. And since it is a program, a part or all of the device management system of the present invention can be easily realized using a general-purpose computer or server. Further, by recording the program on a recording medium or distributing the program using a communication line, distribution and installation of the program can be simplified.
[0020]
【Example】
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In these drawings, the same or corresponding portions are denoted by the same reference characters.
[0021]
(Example 1)
FIG. 1 shows a system configuration diagram of a device management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0022]
In FIG. 1, a device management data section 1 includes an internal state of a home electric device 2 installed in a home, that is, manufacturing information indicating a device manufacturing company, a device number, a manufacturing date, and the like, a device operating time. And internal states such as operation information indicating the performance status of the components or the maintenance of the components, and failure information indicating the failure location and the failure status of the device. The internal information of the home electric appliance 2 is connected to the information management terminal 4 via the communication network 3. In addition, while having a failure prediction determination data unit 5 that stores failure prediction determination data for performing performance degradation or failure prediction from the internal state of the home appliance 2, the determination data is stored in an external network outside the home. And an information management center device 7 that performs device performance degradation and failure prediction by comparing with device management data indicating the internal state of the home appliance 2 collected from the information management terminal 4 via the information management terminal 4.
[0023]
The home electric appliance 2 is an electric appliance installed in the home, such as an air conditioner, a washing machine, a refrigerator, a microwave oven, a rice cooker, and the like, and performs communication control for communicating with the information management terminal 4 via the home communication network 3. Part. Every time a new operation event occurs, the device management data unit 1 updates operation information indicating operation time, performance (efficiency, temperature rise, etc.) or maintenance state of component parts. Further, if a failure occurs as a result, failure information indicating a failure location, a failure state, and the like is held as an internal state and updated as data.
[0024]
The information of the device management data section 1 is transmitted to the information management terminal 4 installed in the home via the communication network 3. The information management terminal 4 transmits the internal state data transmitted from the monitored device to the information management center device 7 via the external network 6. In the information management center device 7, the transmitted internal state of the home electric appliance 2 is compared and determined by the failure prediction determination data unit 5 having failure prediction determination data for performing performance deterioration or failure prediction, and the device performance is determined. Alternatively, a deterioration state of component performance or a failure prediction is performed.
[0025]
The performance deterioration and failure state of the home electric appliance 2 and its components predicted in this way are displayed on the center device 7 as well as the information management installed in the home via the communication network. A display or an alarm can be issued on the terminal 4 or on each home electric device 2 in a form that can be understood by the device user. Further, when the performance degradation or the failure state of the device is grasped by the center device 7, it can be reported to a service company or a manufacturing company as device maintenance information. In this way, the display / warning in a form that can be understood by the user, and the information that reaches the equipment maintainer, allows the user to know the state of the equipment before a failure occurs. It can provide a useful mechanism.
[0026]
In addition, by providing the failure prediction determination data for performing performance degradation or failure prediction held in the failure prediction determination data unit 5 in correspondence with each type of home electric appliance to be evaluated, the center can be provided. The information that has come up can be quickly judged and evaluated. Furthermore, by managing information that has resulted in performance degradation or failure for each model or specific device, and by taking this information into consideration in the evaluation, it is possible to make even more accurate predictions. .
[0027]
(Example 2)
FIG. 2 shows a system configuration diagram of a device management system according to another embodiment of the present invention.
[0028]
In FIG. 2, the power supply monitoring unit 8 monitors the state of the power supply supplied to the household electric appliance 2, and detects and holds, as data, the occurrence of an abnormal state (for example, a power failure, lightning surge voltage application, or noise superimposition), The information is transmitted to the information management center device 7 together with the internal state data of the device management data unit 1.
[0029]
Based on the internal state data and the power supply monitoring data of the home electric appliance 2 transmitted in this manner, the failure prediction / judgment data unit 5 performs performance deterioration or failure prediction. Therefore, from the current situation where the abnormal state of the power supply applied to the device has a large effect on the device performance, the power supply monitoring data is greatly useful for performance degradation and failure prediction, and the accuracy thereof can be further improved.
[0030]
In addition, by performing performance prediction and failure prediction by specifying the main components of the household electric appliance 2, in particular, a motor or a sliding part having an operating part, or a power supply abnormality (impulse noise, lightning surge, etc.) absorbing element part, This can be a useful system for developing a service maintenance system. The specific components that make performance deterioration and failure prediction judgments are the main components of electrical equipment such as compressors for air conditioners and refrigerators, motors that rotate the rows of washing machines, cooking devices and hot water supply and heating systems for washing machines. It may be a component with a large load, such as a heating unit of the device.
[0031]
In the above description, the failure prediction determination data is provided in the center device that transmits the data via a network outside the home. However, the home information management terminal 4 has all or a main part related to home electric appliances. It can also be configured. In addition, the data for failure prediction determination described above can be placed in another device and pulled out from the center or the information management terminal in the home for determination.
[0032]
In the present invention, the crisis management data section and the failure prediction determination data section of the present embodiment may be implemented by software.
[0033]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to accurately perform performance deterioration prediction and failure prediction before the home electric appliance and its components completely fail. This prediction result can be notified to the user who is the device administrator or the device maintainer, so that quick response is possible, inconvenience in using the device can be reduced as much as possible, and a practical use state can be provided. Can be.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a device management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a device management system according to another embodiment of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Device management data part 2 Home electric appliances 3 Communication network 4 Information management terminal 5 Failure prediction judgment data part 6 External network 7 Information management center device 8 Power supply monitoring part

Claims (6)

Such as manufacturing information indicating the manufacturer, equipment part number, manufacturing date, etc., operating information indicating the operating time and performance of the equipment or the maintenance state of the component parts, and failure information indicating the failure location and the failure state of the equipment. An information management terminal that is connected via a communication network to a home appliance having a device management data unit that holds internal state information and monitors the internal state information of the home appliance, and a performance deterioration or failure based on the internal state information of the home appliance. While holding the failure prediction determination data for performing prediction, the failure prediction determination data is compared with device management data indicating the internal state of the home appliance collected from the information management terminal via an external network. And an information management center device for predicting failure of home electric appliances. The failure prediction determination data held by the information management center is correlation data indicating a correlation between performance degradation or failure prediction corresponding to device management data indicating an internal state of each type of home electric appliance. The device management system according to claim 1. Correlation data indicating the correlation of the failure prediction corresponding to the failure state of the device management data indicating the performance degradation or the internal state that led to the failure for each model of home electric appliance. The device management system according to claim 2, wherein An information management terminal having a power supply monitoring unit for monitoring a power supply state supplied to the household electric appliance and a power supply data holding unit for holding data of a power supply abnormal state detected by the power supply monitoring unit; The device management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein data of a power supply abnormal state collected from the information management terminal via the PC is used for failure prediction determination. The device management system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a performance deterioration or a failure prediction determination is performed based on operation information of a specific component such as a motor or an operating unit included in the home electric appliance. A program for causing a computer to function as all or a part of the means of the device management system according to claim 1.

Images