Software development for a portable fault diagnosis instrument

The advent of technology and hi-tech machinery into the modern world, especially in the field of manufacturing has led to improved speeds and increase in the production. The modern world is filled with complex industrial systems that are employed in every industry to aid automation and unmanned operations of various processes. This increase in complex machineries has created a need for increased troubleshooting and maintenance of faults. As, the complexity of the machine increases, it becomes harder for low skilled technicians and operators to maintain such systems. Hence, a need for a system to carry out the process of fault diagnosis as well as being portable and that which can be integrated with any complex industrial system with ease has become essential. This work involves the design, development and implementation of a software program for a portable fault diagnosis instrument. The software application program was developed using the LabView development platform provided by National Instruments. The algorithm that the software works on is the model based hybrid bond graph based fault detection and isolation technique. This thesis explains the software development for the portable instrument that carries out the task of fault detection and isolation in any industrial system that is connected to it. The thesis explains in the hardware design of the portable fault diagnosis instrument and also gives the details of the software implementation or the programming. It gives a complete picture of the input logic, the output logic, the core algorithm used and the decision making logics employed in the design of the software. Additionally, the thesis also gives a clear explanation on the graphical user interface designed for the operators to use the portable fault diagnosis instrument with ease. The GUI developed taking into consideration that even the low skilled operators would be able to easily diagnose the faults with this system and rectify them on time to avoid catastrophic failures and unwarranted shutdowns. The thesis finally elaborates on the extensive test procedures the software was taken through to check the robustness and effectiveness of the system during the occurrence of test faults.Master of Scienc