Generation of an output signal value from sensor signal values of at least three redundant sensors
A device for the generation of an output signal value making use of sensor signal values of at least three redundant sensors comprises a computing device that is configured to calculate absolute magnitudes of the differences between all possible pairs of the sensor signal values, and to determine the output signal value taking the calculated absolute magnitudes into consideration.
1. A device for generating an output signal value making use of sensor signal values of at least three redundant sensors, the device comprising:
a computing device that is configured to:
calculate mean values of possible pairs of sensor signal values, so that an associated absolute magnitude and an associated mean value are calculated for each pair of the possible pairs;
determine an associated weighting factor for each pair, of the possible pairs, that depends on a distance of the associated absolute magnitude from a threshold value;
determine, based on the calculated mean values and the determined weighting factors, contributions of channels associated with the at least three redundant sensors;
determine the output signal value based on a proportional channel accumulation using the determined contributions of channels;
perform, based on the output signal value, at least one of a fault-tolerant acquisition or fault correction of at least three redundant sensor channels associated with the at least three redundant sensors; and
generate an output signal based on performing at least one of the fault-tolerant acquisition or the fault correction.
2. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the computing device is configured to:
compare each calculated absolute magnitudes with another threshold value;
check, for each sensor signal value of the pair of signal values, whether the absolute magnitudes calculated making use of the sensor signal value exceed the other threshold value, and mark the sensor signal value as valid if not all the absolute magnitudes calculated making use of the sensor signal value exceed the other threshold value;
mark the sensor signal value as invalid if all the absolute magnitudes calculated making use of the sensor signal value exceed the other threshold value; and
determine the output signal value making use of the sensor signal values that are marked as valid.
3. The device as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the computing device is configured to determine the output signal value as a mean value of all the sensor signal values that have been marked as valid.
4. The device as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the computing device is configured to:
calculate absolute magnitudes dXij of sensor signal values of n redundant sensors in accordance with
dXij=Xi−Xj with: i= 1, . . . , n− 1, j=i+ 1, . . . , n
determine a comparison result Vij for each absolute magnitude with respect to a threshold value dsml in accordance with
Vij
=
{
1
,
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
dXij
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
<
dsml
0
,
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
dXij
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
≥
dsml
)
with
i
=
1
,
…
,
n
-
1
,
j
=
i
+
1
,
…
,
n
determine a validity result Xi_ok for each sensor signal value in accordance with
Xi_ok
=
{
0
,
if
Vij
=
0
and
Vik
=
0
1
,
else
)
with
:
i
=
1
…
n
,
j
=
mod
(
i
+
1
,
n
)
,
k
=
mod
(
i
-
1
,
n
)
,
Vij
=
Vji
and determine the output signal value Y in accordance with
Y
=
∑
i
=
1
n
Xi
·
Xi_ok
∑
i
=
1
n
Xi_ok
5. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the computing device is configured to:
compare each of the calculated absolute magnitudes with another threshold value;
calculate mean values of the possible pairs of sensor signal values; and
take mean values of pairs of sensor signal values whose absolute magnitude does not exceed the other threshold value into consideration when determining the output signal value, and not take mean values of pairs of sensor signal values whose absolute magnitude exceeds the other threshold value into consideration when determining the output signal value.
6. The device as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the computing device is configured to:
calculate absolute magnitudes dXij of sensor signal values of n redundant sensors in accordance with
dXij=Xi−Xj with: i= 1, . . . , n− 1, j=i+ 1, . . . , n
determine a comparison result Vij for each absolute magnitude with respect to a threshold value dsml in accordance with
Vij
=
{
1
,
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
dXij
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
<
dsml
0
,
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
dXij
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
≥
dsml
)
with
:
i
=
1
…
n
-
1
,
j
=
i
+
1
…
n
calculate mean values of the possible pairs of sensor signal values in accordance with
Xij
=
Xi
+
Xj
2
with
:
i
=
1
…
n
-
1
,
j
=
i
+
1
…
n
and
calculate the output signal value Y in accordance with
Y
=
∑
i
=
1
n
-
1
∑
j
=
i
+
1
n
Xij
·
Vij
∑
i
=
1
n
-
1
∑
j
=
i
+
1
n
Vij
7. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the computing device is configured to:
calculate absolute magnitudes dXij of sensor signal values of n redundant sensors in accordance with
dXij=Xi−Xj with: i= 1, . . . , n− 1, j=i+ 1, . . . , n
calculate mean values of the possible pairs of sensor signal values in accordance with
Xij
=
Xi
+
Xj
2
with
:
i
=
1
…
n
-
1
,
j
=
i
+
1
…
n
calculate weighting factors Gij for the possible pairs in accordance with
Gij
=
{
dsml
-
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
dXij
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
,
if
dsml
-
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
dXij
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
>
0
0
,
else
)
with
:
i
=
1
…
n
-
1
,
j
=
i
+
1
…
n
and
determine the output signal value Y in accordance with
Y
=
∑
i
=
1
n
-
1
∑
j
=
i
+
1
n
Xij
·
Gij
∑
i
=
1
n
-
1
∑
j
=
i
+
1
n
Gij
8. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the computing device is configured to:
calculate absolute magnitudes dXij of sensor signal values of n redundant sensors in accordance with
dXij=Xi−Xj with: i= 1, . . . , n− 1, j=i+ 1, . . . , n
calculate mean values of the possible pairs of sensor signal values in accordance with
Xij
=
Xi
+
Xj
2
with
:
i
=
1
…
n
-
1
,
j
=
i
+
1
…
n
calculate weighting factors Gij for the possible pairs in accordance with
Gij
=
{
dsml
-
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
dXij
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
,
if
dsml
-
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
dXij
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
>
0
0
,
else
)
with
:
i
=
1
…
n
-
1
,
j
=
i
+
1
…
n
and
determine the output signal value Y in accordance with
Y
=
∑
i
=
1
n
-
1
∑
j
=
i
+
1
n
Xij
·
Gij
∑
i
=
1
n
-
1
∑
j
=
i
+
1
n
Gij
9. A sensor system, comprising:
at least three redundant sensors that are designed to output sensor signal values; and
a device as claimed in claim 1 that is designed to generate the output signal making use of the sensor signal values.
10. The sensor system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the sensors and the device are integrated into a circuit.
11. The sensor system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the sensors are integrated into a sensor circuit and the device is implemented in an external microcontroller.
12. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the output signal value is generated based on the sensor signal values associated with at least three redundant sensors.
13. A device for generating an output signal value making use of sensor signal values of at least three redundant sensors, the device comprising:
a computing device that is configured to:
ascertain for each signal value a deviation between the sensor signal value and a mean value of all the other sensor signal values;
determine the sensor signal value for which the largest deviation was ascertained;
determine the output signal value, wherein the sensor signal value for which the largest deviation has been ascertained is not taken into consideration in the determination of the output signal value;
perform, based on the determined output signal value, at least one of a fault-tolerant acquisition or fault correction of at least three redundant sensor channels associated with the at least three redundant sensors; and
generate an output signal based on performing at least one of the fault-tolerant acquisition or the fault correction.
14. The device as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the computing device is configured to:
calculate deviations dXi in accordance with
dXi
=
Xi
-
∑
j
=
1
,
j
≠
i
n
Xj
n
-
1
with
:
i
=
1
…
n
calculate a maximum indicator UXi for each sensor signal value i in accordance with
UXi
=
{
1
,
else
0
,
if
dXi
=
max
(
dX
1
…
dXn
)
)
with
:
i
=
1
…
n
and
determine the output signal value Y in accordance with
Y
=
∑
i
=
1
n
Xi
·
UXi
∑
i
=
1
n
UXi
15. A method for generating an output signal value making use of sensor signal values of at least three redundant sensors, comprising:
calculating mean values of possible pairs of sensor signal values, so that an associated absolute magnitude and an associated mean value are calculated for each pair of the possible pairs;
determining an associated weighting factor for each pair, of the possible pairs, that depends on a distance of the associated absolute magnitude from a threshold value;
determining, based on the calculated means value and the determined weighting factors, contributions of channels associated with the at least three redundant sensors;
determining the output signal value based on a proportional channel accumulation using the determined contributions of channels;
performing, based on the determined output signal value, at least one of a fault-tolerant acquisition or fault correction of at least three redundant sensor channels associated with the at least three redundant sensors; and
generating an output signal based on performing at least one of the fault-tolerant acquisition or the fault correction.
16. The method as claimed in claim 15 , further comprising:
comparing each calculated absolute magnitude with a threshold value;
checking for each sensor signal value whether all of the absolute magnitudes calculated making use of the sensor signal exceed the threshold value;
marking the sensor signal value as valid if not all the absolute magnitudes calculated making use of the sensor signal value exceed the threshold value;
marking the sensor signal value as invalid if all the absolute magnitudes calculated making use of this sensor signal value exceed the threshold value; and
determining the output signal value making use of the sensor signal values that are marked as valid, wherein sensor signal values that are marked as invalid are not taken into consideration.
17. The method as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the output signal value is determined as a mean value of all the sensor signal values that have been marked as valid.
18. The method as claimed in claim 15 , further comprising:
comparing the calculated absolute magnitudes with a threshold value;
calculating values of the possible pairs of sensor signal values; and
taking mean values of pairs of sensor signal values whose absolute magnitude does not exceed the threshold value into consideration when determining the output signal value, and not taking mean values of pairs of sensor signal values whose absolute magnitude exceeds the threshold value into consideration when determining the output signal value.
19. A computer program product with instructions which, when they are executed on a computer, carry out a method according to claim 15 .
20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the output signal value is generated based on the sensor signal values associated with at least three redundant sensors.
21. A method for generating an output signal value making use of sensor signal values of at least three redundant sensors, the method comprising:
ascertaining for each signal value a deviation between a respective sensor signal value and a mean value of all the other sensor signal values;
determining a sensor signal value, of the sensor signal values, for which the largest deviation was ascertained;
determining the output signal value, wherein the sensor signal value for which the largest deviation has been ascertained is not taken into consideration in the determination of the output signal value;
performing, based on the determined output signal value, at least one of a fault-tolerant acquisition or fault correction of at least three redundant sensor channels associated with the at least three redundant sensors; and
generating an output signal based on performing at least one of the fault-tolerant acquisition or the fault correction.