Condition templates: improved distributed models for automated fault monitoring of manufacturing systems

This paper considers the problem of monitoring automated manufacturing systems with discrete input and output signals. In such a systems, the timing and sequencing of signal changes (events) can be an indication of whether the process is operating correctly. We introduce condition templates as a model to represent the expected timing and sequencing relationships of these events. Condition templates can be distributed over multiple processors in the manufacturing system, allowing a distributed and robust method of fault monitoring. We present the condition templates monitoring method and develop a technique for deriving condition template models from timed automata models.