JP2024053933A - Alarm Aggregation System - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide an alarm aggregation system that appropriately controls the frequency (number of times) of alarms notified to a mobile terminal.
[Solution] The alarm aggregation system 1 of the present invention has a work machine 100, a server 500 that acquires alarm data from the work machine, and a terminal 600 that receives alarm notifications from the server, and the work machine creates daily report data recording the operation details for one day and sends it to the server, and the server notifies the terminal of an alarm if alarm data with the same content has not been acquired previously, or if alarm data with the same content has been acquired previously and daily report data created after the time of acquisition exists (S250), and does not notify the terminal of an alarm if daily report data created after the time of acquisition of alarm data with the same content does not exist (S240).
[Selected figure] Figure 4

Description

The present invention relates to an alarm aggregation system.

As shown in the following Patent Document 1, a system has been proposed in the past in which, when a fault occurs in the body of a work machine, the fault is detected by a sensor on the body, alarm information is generated, and the alarm information is sent to a remote server using a communication terminal. The server then receives the alarm information and sends it to a mobile terminal held by a serviceman, who is an inspector in charge of inspecting the work machine, enabling the serviceman to take appropriate measures and perform maintenance.

JP 2018-119257 A

In the above system, whenever the server obtains detection data from the vehicle's sensors that exceeds a threshold, it derives corresponding alarm information from the detection data and transmits the corresponding alarm information to a mobile device held by the service technician, which then issues an alarm. The service technician checks his or her own mobile device, tallies the number of alarms, and compares it with the number of alarms (average occurrence rate) of multiple alarms, including those of other work machines, to determine the priority of the response (the order of response). In other words, the number of alarms is used as a standard, and if it is higher than the average for other work machines, adjustments are made such as increasing the priority of the response. In this way, events that repeatedly trigger alarms are considered to have a high priority for response, but there are also events that have a high priority even if they are only issued a small number of times.

As it is not realistic to distinguish between the two, one solution is to keep notifying the user until the event is resolved. However, when fault-related events occur in multiple locations, multiple alarms will be repeatedly issued from each location, resulting in a huge number of alarms being displayed on the mobile device, and there is a risk that important alarms will be overlooked. This creates the risk that the service technician will not be able to carry out the tasks that they are supposed to be doing.

Therefore, the present invention has been devised to solve these problems, and provides an alarm aggregation system that optimizes the frequency (number of times) of alarms notified to the serviceman's mobile device, making it possible to prevent important alarms from being overlooked.

The alarm aggregation system of the present invention solves the above problem by collecting data from the vehicle body sensor that exceeds a threshold due to a component failure or other reason, and by collecting the data as an alarm from the server. However, if an alarm is issued with the same content as an alarm that has already been received, the first notification is displayed on the service technician's mobile device.

According to the present invention, alarms that occur during the operation hours of a work machine are tallied and sent to a server each time, but if it is determined that the alarm is the same as before, only the first alarm is notified, reducing and optimizing the number of alarm notifications, which prevents important alarms from being overlooked and reduces the burden on inspectors who visit the site. Further features related to the present invention will become apparent from the description in this specification and the attached drawings. Problems, configurations and effects other than those described above will become apparent from the description of the embodiment below.

1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an alarm aggregation system according to the present invention; Hardware block diagram of the vehicle body and server. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing communication between the vehicle body and the server. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the contents of a notification determination process of alarm data executed by a control device of the server. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of daily report data of a work machine. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of an alarm data list. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a data table showing alarm names. FIG. 1 is a hardware block diagram showing communication between a server and a terminal. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a display on a mobile terminal.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
1 is an overall configuration diagram showing one embodiment of an alarm aggregation system according to the present invention. The alarm aggregation system 1 of this embodiment is a system that acquires alarm data from a work machine 100, aggregates it, and notifies users such as service personnel and customers. In this embodiment, a case will be described in which the work machine 100 is a hydraulic excavator.

The alarm aggregation system 1 has a work machine 100, a communication satellite 200, a base station 300, a network 400, a server 500, and a mobile terminal 600. In this embodiment, an example is described in which there is one work machine 100, one base station 300, one server 500, and one mobile terminal 600, but there may be more than one. In addition, communication with the work machine 100 is not limited to communication with the communication satellite 200, and the system may be configured to communicate directly with the base station 300.

In addition to the server 500, the base station 300 and the mobile terminal 600 are also connected to the network 400, allowing two-way communication of information. The mobile terminal 600 is a digital device that can be connected to the network 400, and is used by service personnel and customers. The mobile terminal 600 is equipped with a touch panel display that displays information and allows touch input, and is, for example, a tablet or smartphone. The server 500 can send and receive data to and from these nodes connected to the network 400, namely the base station 300 and the mobile terminal 600.

FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram of the vehicle body and the server.
The work machine 100 has a sensor group 110 , a display device 120 , a controller 130 , a storage device 140 , and a communication device 150 .

The sensor group 110 is made up of multiple sensors, and if the work machine 100 is a hydraulic excavator, for example, it detects the state of each part required to operate the hydraulic excavator, such as the engine operating state and temperature, and the hydraulic pump discharge pressure and pilot pressure. Generally, several tens to several hundreds of sensor groups 110 are provided for one hydraulic excavator. The signals from these various sensor groups 110 are input to the controller 130 at any time via dedicated signal lines.

The controller 130 has a CPU, memory, and an input/output interface, and performs calculations on input signals from the various sensors 110 according to a predetermined control program, and outputs the data and control signals to the storage device 140, communication device 150, and display device 120.

The storage device 140 is an external storage device such as a hard disk drive or SSD (Solid State Drive), and mainly stores and saves alarm data and aggregated data output from the controller 130 so that they can be read at any time. The communication device 150 communicates data with a remote server 500 via a network such as a satellite communication network or a mobile phone network. The communication device 150 is equipped with an antenna for wireless communication and a GPS function for sending location information of the current location.

The server 500 is connected to the network 400 and is installed in a remote location far away from the work site. As shown in FIG. 2, the server 500 has a display device 510, a communication device 520, a control device 530, and a storage device 540. The communication device 520 acquires alarm data from the work machine 100 via the network 400, and the control device 530 performs calculation processing based on the alarm data acquired by the communication device 52. The storage device 540 stores the alarm data and the calculation results processed by the control device 530, and the display device 510 displays the alarm data, the calculation results, etc.

The mobile terminal 600 can be connected to the server 500 via the network 400, and data can be downloaded from the server 500 to the mobile terminal 600 and data can be transmitted from the mobile terminal 600 to the server 500.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the exchange between the vehicle body and the server.
FIG. 3 diagrammatically shows the flow of information from the exchange between the work machine 100 and the server 500 to the mobile terminal 600.

The controller 130 of the work machine 100 receives detection information from each part of the work machine 100 from the sensor group 110, performs calculation processing using the detection information, and stores the calculation result data in the storage device 140. The controller 130 has an alarm data determination unit that compares the data with a threshold value and determines that data that exceeds the threshold value is alarm data. The controller 130 determines that the threshold value has been exceeded when the sensor detection value of the sensor group 110 exceeds the upper limit value, when the number of times that the sensor detection value has exceeded the upper limit value is equal to or greater than a specified number of times, when the cumulative time that the sensor detection value has exceeded the upper limit value is equal to or greater than a specified time, etc.

The controller 130 has a daily report data creation unit that creates daily report data for the work machine 100. The daily report data creation unit creates daily report data, for example, each time a day's work is completed. The daily report data records the operation details of the work machine 100 for that day. The daily report data is transmitted from the work machine 100 to the server 500 and stored by day in the storage device 540 of the server 500. The communication device 150 of the work machine 100 constitutes a data transmission unit that transmits the daily report data and alarm data to the server 500.

When the server 500 receives alarm data from the work machine 100 via the communication device 520, the control device 530 performs processing to determine whether or not to notify the mobile terminal 600 of the alarm. The data used to determine whether or not to notify the alarm is recorded in the storage device 540 within the server 500, and will be used the next time the same alarm data is received.

Figure 4 is a flowchart explaining the contents of the alarm notification determination process executed by the control device 530 of the server 500.

In step S210, the alarm data transmitted from the work machine 100 is acquired. In step S220, it is determined whether or not alarm data with the same content as the alarm data acquired in step S210 has been acquired previously (data acquisition determination unit). The determination of whether or not alarm data with the same content has been acquired previously is made by comparing with data recorded in the storage device 540 in the server 500. Then, if alarm data with the same content has been acquired previously, the process proceeds to step S230.

In step S230, it is determined whether or not there is daily report data created between the time when alarm data with the same content was previously acquired and the time when the current alarm data is acquired, that is, whether or not there is daily report data created after the time when alarm data with the same content was previously acquired (daily report data determination unit). Daily report data is data that records the operation of the work machine 100 on a daily basis, and is created whenever the work machine 100 is operated on a day. Daily report data is created by the work machine 100, for example, each time a day's work is completed, transmitted from the work machine 100 to the server 500, and stored by day in the storage device 540 of the server 500. If daily report data exists on a specified date, it can be determined that normal work was performed by the work machine 100 on that day, that is, the condition of the work machine 100 is normal, and no alarm data was received from the work machine 100.

The presence or absence of this daily report data is determined in step S230 to determine whether the alarm data acquired this time is alarm data with the same content acquired consecutively because the cause of the previous alarm has not been resolved, or whether the cause has been resolved once, but new alarm data with the same content has been acquired.

For example, the controller 130 of the work machine 100 may create alarm data indicating an abnormality in a part of the work machine 100 and transmit it to the server 500, but if the abnormality is not resolved, the controller 130 may create alarm data with the same content again and repeatedly transmit it to the server 500. On the other hand, after a service technician receives an alarm notification and resolves the abnormality, a new abnormality may occur in the same part, and alarm data may be created and transmitted to the server 500. In such a case, the server 500 cannot distinguish whether the alarm data it has received this time is data that has been repeatedly transmitted in succession without the abnormality being resolved, or data that has been transmitted about a new abnormality that occurred after the abnormality was once resolved.

Therefore, the server 500 determines whether or not there is daily report data that was created between the time when the same alarm data was previously acquired and the time when the current alarm data is acquired, that is, whether or not there is daily report data that was created after the same alarm data was previously acquired, and, depending on the presence or absence of daily report data, determines whether the alarm data received this time is the data that was repeatedly sent in succession because the abnormality had not been resolved, or the data that was sent about a new abnormality that had occurred after the abnormality had been resolved.

For example, if there is no daily report data created during the specified period, that is, if there is no daily report data created after the point in time when alarm data with the same content was previously acquired, it is determined that the alarm data acquired this time is alarm data with the same content that was acquired consecutively because the cause of the previous alarm has not been resolved. In this way, if there is no daily report data created during the specified period, the process proceeds to step S240, and the alarm data is stored in the server 500 without notifying the mobile terminal 600 of the alarm.

If there is daily report data created during a specified period, it is determined that after the abnormality was resolved, a new abnormality occurred in the same part, alarm data was created, and the data was sent to the server 500; in other words, the alarm data acquired this time is different, new alarm data with the same content that was acquired, although the cause of the previous alarm has been resolved. This means that, for example, it can be determined that the same alarm was previously notified, and at that time some kind of repair was performed by a serviceman, and the alarm was able to be turned off once, and it can be determined that this is a different alarm rather than a consecutive alarm.

If it is determined in step S220 that alarm data with the same content has not been previously acquired, and if it is determined in step S230 that daily report data exists for the specified period, the process proceeds to step S250. In step S250, a process of notifying the mobile terminal 600 of the alarm is performed.

Therefore, when an abnormality occurs in the work machine 100, only the first alarm can be notified to the mobile terminal 600, and this is optimized, and it is possible to prevent the same alarm from being repeatedly notified without the abnormality being resolved. This prevents the serviceman from overlooking an important alarm, and allows him to go where he should be.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of daily report data for a work machine.
The daily report data includes at least the model code of the working machine 100, the machine number (individual number), the date and time the daily report data was generated, and information identifying the machine number (the last digit of the machine number), and although not shown, depending on the machine, it also includes information such as the engine operating time and the time each engine mode was operated that day. In the example shown in Figure 5, September 20, 2021 is recorded in the item for the date and time the daily report data was generated.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a list of alarm data transmitted from a work machine.
The model code, unit number, alarm code, and occurrence date and time are shown in chronological order. Note that the alarm code string is actually a string of multiple characters, but in Fig. 6 it is simplified and written as "A, B, C." Also, the alarm codes are not limited to A, B, and C, and many codes are prepared according to the alarm pattern and type.

For example, if the model code a, unit number 000001, and alarm code A are acquired by the server 500 at 18:04 on September 4, 2021, they are compared with previous alarm data recorded in the server 500.

The alarm data acquired by server 500 at 13:04 on September 3, 2021, which is a time prior to 18:04 on September 4, 2021, is model code a, unit number 000001, and alarm code A, and has the same content as the alarm data acquired at 18:04 on September 4, 2021. Therefore, it can be determined that the alarm data acquired at 18:04 on September 4, 2021 is the same alarm data as the previously acquired alarm data.

The server 500 checks whether there is daily report data for a specified period, that is, whether there is daily report data created between 13:04 on September 3, 2021 and 18:04 on September 4, 2021. If there is no daily report data, it is considered to be a continuous alarm, and the server 500 does not notify the mobile terminal 600 of the alarm. If there is daily report data, it is not considered to be a continuous alarm, and the server 500 notifies the mobile terminal 600 of the alarm as a separate alarm.

Figure 7 is a data table showing alarm names, and shows the specific content of the alarm codes in Figure 6. There are multiple alarm codes, such as "warning" and "abnormality," depending on the part of the body that the alarm is directed to and the nature of the alarm. If there is data from a sensor that exceeds a threshold, such as an overheat warning or engine oil pressure warning, such a warning or abnormality alarm is issued.

FIG. 8 is a hardware block diagram showing the communication between the server and the mobile terminal.
The portable terminal 600 has a communication device 610 , a control device 620 , a storage device 630 , an operation device 640 , an imaging device 650 , and a display device 660 .

When the mobile terminal 600 receives an alarm notification from the server 500 via the communication device 610, it displays the alarm code and alarm name corresponding to the alarm data on the display device 660. By looking at the display on the display device 660, the service technician can actually take action such as repair or maintenance.

Figure 9 shows an example of a display on the mobile device 600, which is a screen that displays the alarm data notified to the mobile device.

The display device 660 of the mobile terminal 600 has a display monitor 661 that displays alarm data on a screen. The upper part of the screen of the display monitor 661 displays the model 671 of the work machine 100, the machine number 672, the customer name 673, the engine operating hours 674, the number of years of use 675, and the address 676.

The alarm history 677 is displayed in the center of the screen of the display monitor 661, with alarm data arranged in chronological order from the top. When alarm data is repeatedly sent multiple times from the work machine 100 to the server 500, only one item is displayed in the alarm history. Therefore, the serviceman can recognize the importance or priority of the alarms displayed in chronological order on the mobile terminal 600 and carry out repairs or maintenance.

The method of displaying alarm data on the mobile terminal 600 is not limited to chronological order. The display device 660 may display alarm data in a color according to the nature of the alarm data, such as the urgency or priority of the alarm data. Specifically, even if the alarm data is displayed later in the chronological order, alarm data that requires urgent attention may have a red background color in the display area, and alarm data with normal priority may be displayed in blue. The background color is not limited to red or blue, and can be set arbitrarily. By indicating the urgency, the service personnel can know which alarms should be given priority.

In another embodiment, a portion of the screen may display an image of the entire vehicle body, with the relevant area for which an alarm has been notified identified by a circle or an arrow pointer. By looking at this display, the service technician can visually and intuitively grasp the areas that need to be inspected.

According to the alarm aggregation system 1 of this embodiment, alarm data from the work machine 100 is acquired by the server 500, and if the same alarm data was previously acquired within the server 500, only the first one is displayed as a notification on the mobile terminal 600, so alarm notifications to the mobile terminal 600 are reduced and optimized, preventing a huge number of alarms from being notified to the mobile terminal 600 and reducing the burden on service personnel who visit the site. Therefore, the service personnel can prevent important alarms from being overlooked and can go to the work machine 100 that requires maintenance or repair.

The alarm aggregation method of this embodiment includes a step in which the server 500 receives alarm data exceeding a threshold value from the work machine 100, and determines in the control device 530 of the server 500 whether the same alarm data has been received previously. If the same alarm data has been received, the method includes a step in which the server 500 determines whether there is daily report data created between the time when the same alarm data was previously received and the time when the current alarm data is received. If the server 500 has not received the same alarm data from the work machine 100, and if daily report data exists, the method includes a step in which the server 500 notifies the mobile terminal 600 of the alarm, and if there is no daily report data, the method includes a step in which the server 500 does not notify the mobile terminal 600 of the alarm.

According to the alarm aggregation method of this embodiment, when the same alarm data as before is received from the work machine 100, only the first one is notified to the mobile terminal 600 as an alarm. This reduces alarm notifications to the mobile terminal 600, reduces the chance of alarms being overlooked by service personnel, and allows them to respond without forgetting to alarms that do not require an immediate response, which leads to preventing customer machine downtime in advance.

Other Embodiments
In relation to the description of Fig. 6, the list of alarm data may include "location information". Then, prior to alarm notification, only terminals that belong to the notification destination range are specified. This makes it possible to set the mobile terminal to receive alarm data only for work machines within the range of the current location, rather than receiving all alarm notifications, while not displaying work machines that are far away outside the range, thereby enabling efficient response.
Alternatively, when there are multiple service personnel within a given area, the system may be set to give priority to notifying the service personnel closest to the location information of the machine that is issuing the alarm.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above in detail, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various design changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention described in the claims. For example, the above-described embodiments have been described in detail to clearly explain the present invention, and are not necessarily limited to those having all of the configurations described. In addition, it is possible to replace part of the configuration of one embodiment with the configuration of another embodiment, and it is also possible to add the configuration of another embodiment to the configuration of one embodiment. Furthermore, it is possible to add, delete, or replace part of the configuration of each embodiment with other configurations.

100...working machine (hydraulic excavator), 200...communication satellite, 300...base station, 400...network, 500...server, 600...mobile terminal, 110...sensor group, 120...display device, 130...controller, 140...storage device, 150...communication device, 510...display device, 520...communication device, 530...controller, 540...storage device, 610...communication device, 620...controller, 630...storage device, 640...operation device, 650...imaging device, 660...display device

Claims (3)

An alarm aggregation system having a server that acquires alarm data from a work machine and transmits an alarm notification to a terminal,
The server,
A communication device that receives daily report data that records operation details for one day and the alarm data from the work machine, and a control device,
The control device includes:
determining whether or not alarm data having the same content has been previously acquired, and determining whether or not there is any daily report data created after the time point at which the alarm data having the same content was previously acquired, among the daily report data;
when alarm data of the same contents has not been acquired previously, or when alarm data of the same contents has been acquired previously and there is daily report data created after the time of the acquisition, notifying the terminal of the alarm via the communication device, and when there is no daily report data created after the time of the acquisition of alarm data of the same contents, notifying the terminal of the alarm;
1. An alarm aggregation system comprising: The alarm aggregation system according to claim 1, characterized in that the control device displays the alarm data in chronological order on the display device of the terminal as an alarm to be notified to the terminal. The alarm aggregation system according to claim 3, characterized in that the control device selects the terminal to which the alarm is to be notified based on the position information of the work machine and the terminal.

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