Advanced Diagnostics of Mechatronic Components

Let’s discover AwareVu™, the system patented by Automationware (AW) to provide real-time control of every single AW component installed in a plant or production line. The AwareVu App proprietary software, allows users to monitor the cycle and its programming, while the AwareVu Diagnostic Tool (AwDT) application makes it possible to graphically represent the data of the various acquisitions.

by Cesare Pizzorno

The AwareVu™ diagnostic system developed by Automationware, a company specializing in advanced mechatronic components whose new headquarters are in via Cacace 5-7 in Maerne (VE), using an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) algorithm is capable to analyze the 3D vibration profile of the product. The system also perceives the dynamic profile at various frequencies (normal operational cycle) and highlights any possible change over time.
The latter can be a sign of possible malfunctions that could have consequences for the production process. The cycle monitoring and its programming are carried out thanks to a proprietary software called AwareVu App (see Figure 1). The AwareVu App makes it possible to configure the system and perform a quick real-time check. It refers to a suite of software applications allowing the user to configure the parameters related to the measures to be carried out from a PC on the AwareVu device, thus saving them onto text files.
Once the user has chosen the sensor with the relative axis to be analysed, the sampling frequency, the number of samples and the alarm thresholds, the system starts to acquire and process the measurements, saving them in three separate “.dat” text files generated by it.

The application of “ex post” diagnostics
In order to integrate the functionality of AwareVu, Automationware has developed an additional software tool for diagnostics. The AwareVu Diagnostic Tool (AwDT) is a separate application that allows users to graphically represent data of the various acquisitions contained in the “.dat” files generated by the AwareVu App applications.
This is a WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) application, developed in C# language, usable by a PC, which processes the measures produced by AwareVu, saved in “.dat” files, representing them on 3D and 2D diagrams with the help of the SciChart graphic package. The AwDT aims to provide an “ex post” diagnostics to analyze the measurements carried out in a given time interval. The results of the acceleration or temperature measurements can be analyzed by verifying the trend over time (Time Analysis), the frequency trend obtained by FFT (Frequency Analysis) or rather by observing the recorded alarm events (Alarm Analysis) in correspondence with the violation of some given preset thresholds. Figure 2 shows an example of “Time Analysis”. The representation makes it possible to evaluate the trend of vibrations over time, highlighting any possible degradation in terms of performance.

Several options for the user
The tool offers a different page for each type of measure, providing, in addition to the 3D graphic representation, also a series of features. Among the latter is the possibility to zoom (for instance on a given range of frequencies and/or acquisitions) or to import multiple files simultaneously based on selection criteria chosen by the user. Details of the various acquisitions and the related detection times are displayed in the “Details of Acquisition” section.
For each type and day of measurement, the AwareVu system generates a separate “.dat” file. Each of these can also contain thousands of acquisitions. Therefore, if the user wishes to import measures for several days, it is more convenient to use a daily analysis. By selecting the check-box with the same name, each imported file is processed. Considering the observed time or frequency interval, the AwDT returns the daily average of the measurements as well as a diagram of the maximum values acquired on each sample. Figure 3 shows the representation of a frequency diagram obtained by selecting a given range of acquisitions (2-12) referring to a given frequency range (10-40 Hz). The AwDT reduces the processing time of the data produced by AwareVu, providing a representation that could be more convenient to the user, also making its easier to detect any anomaly that may affect the monitored device.

0 Condivisioni