JPH06259648A - Method for diagnosing cause of defect of electronic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable even a person other than an experts to diagnose the cause of a defect of an electronic apparatus like a vending machine in a short time. CONSTITUTION:A pertinent defect item is selected from defect items and is inputted to an operation controller provided with a knowledge base 4 and an inference engine 6 through a man-machine interface 10. Production rules are successively interpreted and executed by the inference engine 6 with respect to each of class frames corresponding to the defect item. The inspection position prescribed in the condition part of an executed production rule is displayed on the man-machine interface 10 to indicate the inspection. If the input value of the inspection result of this inspection position is normal, the inference engine 6 interprets and executes the next production rule by linking; but if the input value of the inspection result is abnormal, the diagnosis value prescribed in the operation part of the production rule is outputted as the diagnosis result to the man-machine interface 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for diagnosing a cause of failure in an electronic device such as a vending machine, which assists in diagnosing a cause of failure in an electronic device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a manufacturing line for electronic devices such as vending machines, an operator performs an operation check on the completed inspection of the electronic devices with respect to predetermined inspection items.
When a defective item is found, the defective portion is diagnosed based on the past data, and the cause of the defect is found by referring to a separately prepared circuit diagram, connection diagram, or the like. Such a method of diagnosing a cause of failure requires a skilled person who has accumulated knowledge and diagnostic experience with respect to the electronic device to be diagnosed, so to speak, the cause of failure is diagnosed based on the knowledge and intuition of the expert.

[0003]

However, the above-described method of diagnosing the cause of a defect requires a skilled worker, but due to lack of manpower, there are many part workers and temporary workers, and skilled workers are trained. I have a difficult problem. Further, since the diagnostic work is performed while referring to the circuit diagram and the connection diagram, there is a problem that it takes time to investigate the cause. Furthermore, there is a problem in that the diagnosis time and the diagnosis method vary depending on the skill level of the operator.

The present invention solves the above problems, and even a worker with little experience in diagnosing electronic equipment, which relies on the knowledge and intuition of a skilled worker, can make a diagnosis almost equivalent to that of a skilled worker. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for diagnosing the cause of failure in electronic equipment.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, an electronic device failure diagnosing method of the present invention uses various empirical rules for performing a diagnosing operation of a cause of failure of an electronic device, a condition section and an operation. Stipulated by production rules that consist of
For each defective item related to this production rule,
And to the arithmetic and control unit equipped with a knowledge base that is hierarchically classified and stored as a class frame sequentially and stored, and an inference engine that interprets and executes the production rules in this knowledge base, via an input medium. Select and input the corresponding defective item from the defective items, sequentially interpret and execute each production rule for each class frame corresponding to the defective item by the inference engine, and execute it in the condition part of the executed production rule. The specified inspection points are displayed on the output medium to instruct inspection, and if the inspection result input value for this inspection point is "normal", the inference engine will interpret the following production rules in a chained manner and execute the inspection. If the result input value is "abnormal", the diagnostic value specified in the operation part of the production rule is output as the diagnostic result. It is obtained by a configuration to output.

[0006]

With the above configuration, when diagnosing the cause of the defect, the operator finds the cause of the defect simply by checking the inspection point according to the instruction of the arithmetic processing unit after inputting the defective item into the arithmetic processing unit. You can do it. Therefore, even a person who is not an expert or an operator who has no special knowledge can surely diagnose the cause of the defective item in a short time.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a defect diagnosis system. The defect cause diagnosis system 1 includes an expert system 2, a knowledge editor 3a, and a database management utility 3b.
The expert system 2 comprises a knowledge base 4, a database 5, an inference engine 6, interface routines 7, 8, 9 and a man-machine interface 1.
It consists of zero. And defect cause diagnosis system 1
In the figure, each component except the man-machine interface 10 represents a functional circuit formed by a program on an arithmetic processing unit (not shown) of a computer,
The man-machine interface 10 is composed of a display, a printer or the like as an output medium and a keyboard or the like as an input medium.

The knowledge base 4 stores the knowledge of the expert through the knowledge editor 3a.
Various rules of thumb for performing the work of diagnosing the cause of failure of the are defined in the production rule consisting of the condition section and the operation section, and this production rule is hierarchically classified into related defective items and hierarchically as a class frame. It is classified and stored sequentially. As shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 4, in the highest defective item frame 100, lower frames that form large classification items such as lamp frames 20, coin-related frames 30, column-related frames 40 are defined as slots. . In each of these lower frames, for example, the lamps frame 20, lower sold lower frames such as a sold-out lamp frame 21, a sold-out lamp frame 22 and a fishing-out lamp frame, which are small classification items, are defined. In the lowest frame, for example, the sold-out lamp frame 21, a plurality of diagnostic points to be inspected are defined.

The inference engine 6 interprets and executes the production rules in the knowledge base 4. The database 5 stores defective items that have occurred in the past and their causes, and is input via the database management utility 3b.

The operation of the above structure will be described below with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. First, the worker 12 activates the failure cause diagnosis system 1 via the man-machine interface 10. The defect cause diagnosis system 1 uses the man-machine interface 10 to describe the contents of the defect item 100 in the upper frame, that is, the lamps 20, coins 30, and columns 40, which are roughly classified.
And the like, and prompts the worker 12 to make a selection. afterwards,
Items of the lower frame selected by the worker 12, for example,
The contents of the lamps 20 are presented and the operator 12 is prompted to select again.

The worker 12 selects and inputs a defective item, for example, the sold-out lamp 21 from the items of the lower frame through the input means of the man-machine interface 10, and finishes the selection 51. At this time, a plurality of defective items can be selected and instructed.

The failure cause diagnosis system 1 includes an inference engine 6
Interpret each production rule for each class frame corresponding to the defective item by
2 is performed, and the history of past defect causes in the selected defect item is presented on the man-machine interface 10. Next, the failure cause diagnosis system 1 interprets the production rules, presents the diagnosis procedure (1) 53 to the worker 12 via the man-machine interface 10, and instructs the inspection point. This content is defined as a slot in the frame of the sold-out lamp 21.

The operator 12 performs inspection result input 54 via the man-machine interface 10 after inspecting the inspection location of the electronic device 11 presented by the diagnostic procedure (1) 53, for example, "connector CN36". The inference engine 6 "determines whether or not the inspection result is abnormal" 55 based on the inspection result input value. If the inspection result input value for the inspection location is "normal", that is, if the inspection location is not abnormal, The inference engine 6 interprets and executes the next production rule in a chained manner, and repeats the presentation of the diagnostic procedure (n) 56. If the inspection result input value is "abnormal", the diagnostic value defined in the operation part of the production rule is output as the diagnostic result 57 to the output medium of the man-machine interface 10.

Therefore, when diagnosing the cause of the defect, the operator 12 can find the cause of the defect only by inputting the defect item and then inspecting the inspection location according to the instruction of the defect cause diagnosis system 1. Therefore, even a person who is not an expert or an operator who does not have special knowledge can surely diagnose the cause of the defective item in a short time.

Further, the worker 12 can directly see the contents of the knowledge base 4 and the database 5 through the man-machine interface 10 and the interfaces 7 and 9 without passing through the inference engine 6.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the operator can find out the cause of the defect only by inspecting the inspection point according to the instruction of the arithmetic processing unit, and even if the operator is not skilled or special Even a worker who does not have proper knowledge can surely diagnose the cause of the defective item in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a defect cause diagnosis system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a hierarchical structure of frames in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the defect cause diagnosis system in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the defect cause diagnosis system in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Failure Cause Diagnosis System 2 Expert System 4 Knowledge Base 5 Database 6 Inference Engine 10 Man-Machine Interface 11 Electronic Equipment 12 Worker

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Various types of empirical rules for performing a diagnostic work of a cause of failure of an electronic device are defined by a production rule including a condition section and an operation section, and the production rule is classified according to related defective items and For an arithmetic and control unit equipped with a knowledge base that is hierarchically classified and stored as a class frame sequentially, and an inference engine that interprets and executes the production rules in this knowledge base,
Select and input the corresponding defective item from the defective items via the input medium, sequentially interpret and execute each production rule for each class frame corresponding to the defective item by the inference engine, and execute the executed production rule. The inspection point specified in the condition part of the rule is displayed on the output medium to instruct the inspection. If the inspection result input value for this inspection point is "normal", the inference engine interprets the next production rule in a chain. If the inspection result input value is "abnormal", the diagnostic value defined in the operation part of the production rule is output to the output medium as the diagnostic result, and the method for diagnosing the cause of failure of the electronic device is performed.