Title of Invention	AN INTEGRATED PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR ACQUISITION ANALYSIS AND REPORTING OF TEST RIG DATA
Abstract	This invention relates to a method and system for acquiring, auto-uploading, auto-analyzing & reporting test rig data by establishing an interface between the hardware components required for data acquisition and data anlysis. This invention communicates with the data acquisition hardware, mirrors the data collected, transfers it and then automatically generates a test report in predefined format then reports them by emailing the same to any Internet mailing address through SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). This invention acts as an integrator between hardware and software. It extends by giving hardware platform independence to the user which puts this development ahead of the existing techniques present worldwide.

Title of Invention

AN INTEGRATED PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR ACQUISITION ANALYSIS AND REPORTING OF TEST RIG DATA

Abstract

This invention relates to a method and system for acquiring, auto-uploading, auto-analyzing & reporting test rig data by establishing an interface between the hardware components required for data acquisition and data anlysis. This invention communicates with the data acquisition hardware, mirrors the data collected, transfers it and then automatically generates a test report in predefined format then reports them by emailing the same to any Internet mailing address through SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). This invention acts as an integrator between hardware and software. It extends by giving hardware platform independence to the user which puts this development ahead of the existing techniques present worldwide.

Full Text	FORM 2 THE PATENTS ACT 1970 (39 of 1970) & THE PATENTS RULES, 2003 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (See Section 10; rule 13) TITLE OF THE INVENTION AN INTEGRATED PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR ACQUISITION ANALYSIS AND REPORTING OF TEST RIG DATA APPLICANTS TATA MOTORS LIMITED, an Indian company having its registered office at Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street, Hutatma Chowk, Mumbai 400 001 Maharashtra, India INVENTORS Nitin Harish, Chandrakant Awate and Sanjeev Annigeri all Indian nationals of TATA MOTORS LIMITED, an Indian company having its registered office at Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street, Hutatma Chowk, Mumbai 400 001 Maharashtra, India PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION The following Complete specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed. Field of Invention This invention relates to a system and method of data acquisition. This invention further relates to an integrated method and system for collection, analysis and reporting of test rig data. Background of Invention With the advent of next generation of data acquisition systems incorporating colossal sampling rates the accuracy and precision of testing has ascended tremendously. In spite of the introduction of revolutionary and sophisticated hardware, human intervention is still required for segregating and adorning collected data to make sense and highlight test's importance whether in graphical or tabular way. Data acquisition systems are of two types based on platform required for acquisition task: 1. Windows based System 2. Real-time Based system Data acquisition process can be viewed online i.e. data can be seen while it is being acquired or the data once collected can be viewed once the test gets finished i.e. offline viewing. Windows based systems comprises GUI (Graphical User Interface) through which the user can see the recorded data as and when required but they are slower in performance and are not robust for high speed acquisition requirements. Whereas real time based systems are faster but they do not have GUIs for human visualizations. The major drawback of the real-time system over the windows based system is the absence of 2 online viewing of data. On the other hand the real-time based systems are preferred over windows systems because of extremely rugged, flexible and high level of determinism offered by real time hardware. Data acquisition systems based on electronic hardware which works on real time operating platform, records data from sensors such as thermocouples, strain gages, accelerometers and L.V.D.T's at rapidly faster rates. This data after collection resides on the data acquisition PC or real time based system and can be taken up for report generation or any kind of analysis, which requires human intervention, as the data has to be uploaded from data acquisition PC to office PC and then reported in a structured way. Current practice for data acquisition and reporting using real time systems are depicted in Fig.l (Prior art). In this process different software are used in each step. None of the current real time systems are embedded with online viewing feature to report the data as and when it is getting acquired. They are manually uploaded by the use of known software. Real time based systems require manual uploading of the test data from real time based PC to windows based PC. Thus it requires devoted human interaction and supervision of the system. Known applications are used for uploading the data. If the collected test data has to be analyzed or reported in a structured way it has to undergo data plaguing through any of the analysis software, which again entails human involvement. Macro building also necessitates its manual starting per usage. Again 3 dedicated software has to be used for instance nSoft E, DIAdem etc. which also requires manual involvement After report building the electronic format has to be either manually emailed to required authorities or taken up for paper printing. There is no single system that can help in viewing online data on real time system and having features of auto-uploading, auto-reporting e-mailing test rig data. Therefore a need for a single system, which will handle all these process or provide an interface between them, is required. Summary of the Invention Considering the incapability of current systems, a methodology has been evolved that integrates the process of viewing, acquiring, analyzing and presenting the test rig data and communicates between the different processes to achieve full level of automation. This invention bundles all the activities mentioned above and integrates the advantages of real time hardware by enhancing its features with online viewing This new invention makes up for this deficiency of online viewing by embedding FTP based features into the real time system. By interacting directly with the real time system, this invention features automatic data upload from real time system to windows based PC. 4 After automatically uploading the test data the application developed extends further to incorporate additional features of automatic data analysis and auto-reporting in structured predefined format. This new application also generates an automatic email, which attaches the final report for submission. So, in nutshell the newly developed application demonstrates integration of data acquisition, auto-uploading, auto analysis & report generation with automatic emailing with very little human involvement. Brief Description of the drawings Fig 1 A block diagram of the process for data acquisition and reporting (Prior Art) Fig 2 A block diagram of integrated process for data acquisition, auto-analysis and reporting under the present invention. Description This new application amalgamates the steps of viewing, acquiring, analyzing and presenting into a single step and provides with automation and also ensures no human involvement with reduction in testing and reporting time. The controller card is a real time computer by itself, which will be called HOST PC from here onwards. It has no GUI for online or offline data viewing. NI PXI-8186 is used as controller card for this invention. Windows based computer on which sensor details, scripts, codes and final reports are published for viewing will be called OFFICE PC from here onwards. 5 First the controller card (NI PXI-8186) is connected to data acquisition card (NI-PXI 6052E). This is done through the internal bus architecture of NI PXI chassis- 1000B, which connects both the Controller card and the Data acquisition card. The data acquisition card (PXI-6052E) is now connected to back pane of Signal Conditioner. The NI SCXI-1314 card acts as the signal conditioner, which is connected, to the data acquisition card by use of a 90-pin connector. As the name suggests the signal conditioner (NI SCXI-1314) provides conditioned data from the sensors to the Data Acquisition card, which in turn acts as an interface between the Controller card (NI-PXI 6052E). The data either digital or analog use the 90 pin connector. Analog or digital output sensors with or without external excitation (e.g. thermocouples, strain gages, vibration sensors, RPM tachometers, accelerometers, linear displacement transducers e.t.c) are connected to front pane of SCXI-1314 card using Wheatstone bridge principle. If test area is nearby, then the HOST PC is connected through cross-cable for peer-to-peer connection with OFFICE PC. If test area is located remotely then the HOST PC is connected through network cable for LAN (Local Area Network) connection with OFFICE PC. The sensor specification as connected for data acquisition is defined by means of NI-LabVIEW. The programming is configured to run on real time platform. The information such as sampling rates, number of samples of data to be collected with excitation voltages and details regarding bridge type (full, half or quarter bridge) are entered, defined and specified in the application. The controller card (NI-PXI 8186 RT) is configured based on the requirements and they are done on the real time system. This controller keeps functioning as 6 configured until the system power is switched off. The Controller card has a hard disk, which accumulates the data from all the sensors. This data can be viewed offline or used for further application when required. The controller is communicated by means of scripts written on NI-DiAdem which makes the real time based data acquisition process (without GUI and hence being offline data viewing system) as a online system by mirror imaging the data being collected, thus overcoming the inherent disadvantage of the real-time systems. This mirror imaging is made possible by calling windows based FTP functionality. This is accomplished by means of batch files, as they execute a set of commands by sitting on the root drive of OFFICE PC. The real time system or HOST PC and the Root drive of the OFFICE PC are connected by means of an unique IP address designated to the OFFICE PC. The data collected in HOST PC is now automatically transferred to the root drive of OFFICE PC. This data transference happens by using UNIX based commands on RT system (HOST PC). All this is done automatically thus avoiding the use of dedicated application. This online data is now analyzed and displayed as required. The analysis of the data is predefined based on certain parameters, which are predetermined by means of NI-DIAdem using VISUAL BASIC scripts. This configuration helps in displaying the data as a structured report in the determined format thus eliminating the step of data analysis by human intervention. The report thus obtained is then saved in a recognizable file format. With the help of scripting done in Visual Basic the application is now configured to automatically send the report to a destined email address thus avoiding the need for manual intervention. 7 Thus data acquisition, online viewing, uploading, analysis, reporting and emailing happen in single application and all the steps are fully automated for addition of online viewing in RT system and less human intervention throughout the process. The application can handle over 2 billion data points i.e. 555.56 hours of test data with 1000 samples per second, so faster turnout of result and practically zero error rate unlike previous methods. The application uses very little memory resources. Moreover, this application is hardware independent. So, irrespective of the hardware architecture used this application can run smoothly. As it uses open source code it can be easily configured to accommodate different architecture of controller card and it is easily customizable to different requirements of the user and can also be implemented on UNIX platform. It can also be configured to accommodate a number of analog channels as per user requirement and the sensors needed. 8 We Claim 1. An Integrated process for acquisition, analysis and reporting of test rig data in a real time system by establishing an interface between the hardware components comprising the steps of - defining the parameters of sensor specification - acquisition of test data from the sensors - uploading of test data by mirror imaging the data collected - analyzing the collected data as per certain predefined parameters - displaying the report in a structured format and saving them in a required format - sending the report to one or more predefined email address automatically 2. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the step of defining is by means of configuration on real time system 3. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the step of sending the report is performed through communicating with the real time system 4. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the step of definition, acquisition, uploading data, reporting, e-mailing, is provided to be done on any of the real time based hardware and is provided to be customized as per different user requirements. 9 5. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of uploading comprises the mirror imaging the data collected by calling the windows based FTP functionality in the root drive. 6. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the step of analysis and displaying is by means of configuration of the parameters by scripting on the windows based PC. 7. The process as claimed in any of the previous claims wherein, the parameters are plurality of defined conditions configured as per user requirement 8. An integrated system for acquisition, analysis and reporting of test rig data by establishing an interface between the hardware components comprising - Sensors connected to the test vehicle or test rig; - Signal conditioner wherein the front pane of the signal conditioner is in interface with the sensors by Wheatstone bridge principle; - Data acquisition card wherein it is in interface with the signal conditioner card by means of a 90 pin connector; - Controller card which acts as the real time system and - A means of displaying is connected to the controller card by means of peer-to peer or LAN connection 9. An Integrated process for acquisition, analysis and reporting of test rig data in a real time system by establishing an interface between the hardware components substantially as herein described with reference to figure 2. 10 10. An integrated system for acquisition, analysis and reporting of test rig data by establishing an interface between the hardware components substantially as herein described with reference to figure 2. Dated this 3rd day of August 2006 TATA MOTORS LIMITED By their Agent & Attorney (Karuna Goleria) of DePENNING & DePENNING ABSTRACT ("An integrated process and system for acquisition analysis and reporting of test rig data") FIGURE 2 12 This invention relates to a method and system for acquiring, "auto-uploading, auto-analyzing & reporting test rig data by establishing an interface between the hardware components required for data acquisition and data analysis. The invention communicates with the data acquisition hardware, mirrors the data collected, transfers it and then automatically generates a test report in a predefined format then reports them by emailing the same to any Internet mailing address through SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). This invention acts as an integrator between hardware and software. It extends by giving hardware platform independence to the user which puts this development ahead of the existing techniques present worldwide.

Full Text

FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10; rule 13)
TITLE OF THE INVENTION
AN INTEGRATED PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR ACQUISITION ANALYSIS AND REPORTING OF TEST RIG DATA
APPLICANTS
TATA MOTORS LIMITED, an Indian company
having its registered office at Bombay House,
24 Homi Mody Street, Hutatma Chowk, Mumbai 400 001 Maharashtra, India
INVENTORS
Nitin Harish, Chandrakant Awate and Sanjeev Annigeri
all Indian nationals of TATA MOTORS LIMITED, an Indian company
having its registered office at Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street,
Hutatma Chowk, Mumbai 400 001 Maharashtra, India
PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION
The following Complete specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it
is to be performed.

Field of Invention
This invention relates to a system and method of data acquisition. This invention further relates to an integrated method and system for collection, analysis and reporting of test rig data.
Background of Invention
With the advent of next generation of data acquisition systems incorporating colossal sampling rates the accuracy and precision of testing has ascended tremendously. In spite of the introduction of revolutionary and sophisticated hardware, human intervention is still required for segregating and adorning collected data to make sense and highlight test's importance whether in graphical or tabular way.
Data acquisition systems are of two types based on platform required for acquisition task:
1. Windows based System
2. Real-time Based system
Data acquisition process can be viewed online i.e. data can be seen while it is being acquired or the data once collected can be viewed once the test gets finished i.e. offline viewing.
Windows based systems comprises GUI (Graphical User Interface) through which the user can see the recorded data as and when required but they are slower in performance and are not robust for high speed acquisition requirements. Whereas real time based systems are faster but they do not have GUIs for human visualizations. The major drawback of the real-time system over the windows based system is the absence of
2

online viewing of data. On the other hand the real-time based systems are preferred over windows systems because of extremely rugged, flexible and high level of determinism offered by real time hardware.
Data acquisition systems based on electronic hardware which works on real time operating platform, records data from sensors such as thermocouples, strain gages, accelerometers and L.V.D.T's at rapidly faster rates.
This data after collection resides on the data acquisition PC or real time based system and can be taken up for report generation or any kind of analysis, which requires human intervention, as the data has to be uploaded from data acquisition PC to office PC and then reported in a structured way.
Current practice for data acquisition and reporting using real time systems are depicted in Fig.l (Prior art). In this process different software are used in each step.
None of the current real time systems are embedded with online viewing feature to report the data as and when it is getting acquired. They are manually uploaded by the use of known software.
Real time based systems require manual uploading of the test data from real time based PC to windows based PC. Thus it requires devoted human interaction and supervision of the system. Known applications are used for uploading the data.
If the collected test data has to be analyzed or reported in a structured way it has to undergo data plaguing through any of the analysis software, which again entails human involvement. Macro building also necessitates its manual starting per usage. Again
3

dedicated software has to be used for instance nSoft E, DIAdem etc. which also requires manual involvement
After report building the electronic format has to be either manually emailed to required authorities or taken up for paper printing.
There is no single system that can help in viewing online data on real time system and having features of auto-uploading, auto-reporting e-mailing test rig data.
Therefore a need for a single system, which will handle all these process or provide an interface between them, is required.
Summary of the Invention
Considering the incapability of current systems, a methodology has been evolved that integrates the process of viewing, acquiring, analyzing and presenting the test rig data and communicates between the different processes to achieve full level of automation. This invention bundles all the activities mentioned above and integrates the advantages of real time hardware by enhancing its features with online viewing
This new invention makes up for this deficiency of online viewing by embedding FTP based features into the real time system.
By interacting directly with the real time system, this invention features automatic data upload from real time system to windows based PC.
4

After automatically uploading the test data the application developed extends further to incorporate additional features of automatic data analysis and auto-reporting in structured predefined format.
This new application also generates an automatic email, which attaches the final report for submission.
So, in nutshell the newly developed application demonstrates integration of data acquisition, auto-uploading, auto analysis & report generation with automatic emailing with very little human involvement.
Brief Description of the drawings
Fig 1 A block diagram of the process for data acquisition and reporting (Prior Art)
Fig 2 A block diagram of integrated process for data acquisition, auto-analysis and
reporting under the present invention.
Description
This new application amalgamates the steps of viewing, acquiring, analyzing and presenting into a single step and provides with automation and also ensures no human involvement with reduction in testing and reporting time.
The controller card is a real time computer by itself, which will be called HOST PC from here onwards. It has no GUI for online or offline data viewing. NI PXI-8186 is used as controller card for this invention. Windows based computer on which sensor details, scripts, codes and final reports are published for viewing will be called OFFICE PC from here onwards.
5

First the controller card (NI PXI-8186) is connected to data acquisition card (NI-PXI 6052E). This is done through the internal bus architecture of NI PXI chassis- 1000B, which connects both the Controller card and the Data acquisition card. The data acquisition card (PXI-6052E) is now connected to back pane of Signal Conditioner. The NI SCXI-1314 card acts as the signal conditioner, which is connected, to the data acquisition card by use of a 90-pin connector. As the name suggests the signal conditioner (NI SCXI-1314) provides conditioned data from the sensors to the Data Acquisition card, which in turn acts as an interface between the Controller card (NI-PXI 6052E). The data either digital or analog use the 90 pin connector. Analog or digital output sensors with or without external excitation (e.g. thermocouples, strain gages, vibration sensors, RPM tachometers, accelerometers, linear displacement transducers e.t.c) are connected to front pane of SCXI-1314 card using Wheatstone bridge principle.
If test area is nearby, then the HOST PC is connected through cross-cable for peer-to-peer connection with OFFICE PC. If test area is located remotely then the HOST PC is connected through network cable for LAN (Local Area Network) connection with OFFICE PC.
The sensor specification as connected for data acquisition is defined by means of NI-LabVIEW. The programming is configured to run on real time platform. The information such as sampling rates, number of samples of data to be collected with excitation voltages and details regarding bridge type (full, half or quarter bridge) are entered, defined and specified in the application.
The controller card (NI-PXI 8186 RT) is configured based on the requirements and they are done on the real time system. This controller keeps functioning as
6

configured until the system power is switched off. The Controller card has a hard disk, which accumulates the data from all the sensors. This data can be viewed offline or used for further application when required.
The controller is communicated by means of scripts written on NI-DiAdem which makes the real time based data acquisition process (without GUI and hence being offline data viewing system) as a online system by mirror imaging the data being collected, thus overcoming the inherent disadvantage of the real-time systems. This mirror imaging is made possible by calling windows based FTP functionality. This is accomplished by means of batch files, as they execute a set of commands by sitting on the root drive of OFFICE PC.
The real time system or HOST PC and the Root drive of the OFFICE PC are connected by means of an unique IP address designated to the OFFICE PC. The data collected in HOST PC is now automatically transferred to the root drive of OFFICE PC. This data transference happens by using UNIX based commands on RT system (HOST PC). All this is done automatically thus avoiding the use of dedicated application.
This online data is now analyzed and displayed as required. The analysis of the data is predefined based on certain parameters, which are predetermined by means of NI-DIAdem using VISUAL BASIC scripts. This configuration helps in displaying the data as a structured report in the determined format thus eliminating the step of data analysis by human intervention.
The report thus obtained is then saved in a recognizable file format. With the help of scripting done in Visual Basic the application is now configured to automatically send the report to a destined email address thus avoiding the need for manual intervention.
7

Thus data acquisition, online viewing, uploading, analysis, reporting and emailing happen in single application and all the steps are fully automated for addition of online viewing in RT system and less human intervention throughout the process. The application can handle over 2 billion data points i.e. 555.56 hours of test data with 1000 samples per second, so faster turnout of result and practically zero error rate unlike previous methods.
The application uses very little memory resources. Moreover, this application is hardware independent. So, irrespective of the hardware architecture used this application can run smoothly. As it uses open source code it can be easily configured to accommodate different architecture of controller card and it is easily customizable to different requirements of the user and can also be implemented on UNIX platform. It can also be configured to accommodate a number of analog channels as per user requirement and the sensors needed.
8

We Claim
1. An Integrated process for acquisition, analysis and reporting of test rig data in a real time system by establishing an interface between the hardware components comprising the steps of
- defining the parameters of sensor specification
- acquisition of test data from the sensors
- uploading of test data by mirror imaging the data collected
- analyzing the collected data as per certain predefined parameters
- displaying the report in a structured format and saving them in a required format
- sending the report to one or more predefined email address automatically
2. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the step of defining is by means of configuration on real time system
3. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the step of sending the report is performed through communicating with the real time system
4. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the step of definition, acquisition, uploading data, reporting, e-mailing, is provided to be done on any of the real time based hardware and is provided to be customized as per different user requirements.
9

5. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of uploading comprises the mirror imaging the data collected by calling the windows based FTP functionality in the root drive.
6. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the step of analysis and displaying is by means of configuration of the parameters by scripting on the windows based PC.
7. The process as claimed in any of the previous claims wherein, the parameters are plurality of defined conditions configured as per user requirement
8. An integrated system for acquisition, analysis and reporting of test rig data by establishing an interface between the hardware components comprising
- Sensors connected to the test vehicle or test rig;
- Signal conditioner wherein the front pane of the signal conditioner is in interface with the sensors by Wheatstone bridge principle;
- Data acquisition card wherein it is in interface with the signal conditioner card by means of a 90 pin connector;
- Controller card which acts as the real time system and
- A means of displaying is connected to the controller card by means of peer-to peer or LAN connection
9. An Integrated process for acquisition, analysis and reporting of test rig data in a real time system by establishing an interface between the hardware components substantially as herein described with reference to figure 2.
10

10. An integrated system for acquisition, analysis and reporting of test rig data by establishing an interface between the hardware components substantially as herein described with reference to figure 2.
Dated this 3rd day of August 2006
TATA MOTORS LIMITED By their Agent & Attorney

(Karuna Goleria)
of DePENNING & DePENNING

ABSTRACT
("An integrated process and system for acquisition analysis and reporting of test rig data")
FIGURE 2
12
This invention relates to a method and system for acquiring, "auto-uploading, auto-analyzing & reporting test rig data by establishing an interface between the hardware components required for data acquisition and data analysis. The invention communicates with the data acquisition hardware, mirrors the data collected, transfers it and then automatically generates a test report in a predefined format then reports them by emailing the same to any Internet mailing address through SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). This invention acts as an integrator between hardware and software. It extends by giving hardware platform independence to the user which puts this development ahead of the existing techniques present worldwide.

AN INTEGRATED PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR ACQUISITION ANALYSIS AND REPORTING OF TEST RIG DATA

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