Wireless data logging system and method

Abstract

A data acquisition system including a first sensor, a second sensor, and an electronic data acquisition device. The sensors can assume a variety of forms, such as analog, digital, bus, GPS, etc., and have disparate information formats. The data acquisition unit is electronically coupled to the sensors, and includes a processor, an aggregator module and a communication device. The processor processes information from the sensors. The aggregator module correlates signaled information from the first sensor with signaled information from the second sensor based on time. Finally, the communication device is adapted to transmit information generated by the aggregator module to a location remote of the housing.

1 . A data acquisition system comprising::
 a first sensor adapted to sense a first parameter and signal sensed information in a first format;   a second sensor adapted to sense a second parameter and signal sensed information in a second format differing from the first format; and   an electronic data acquisition unit electronically coupled to the first and second sensors, the acquisition unit including:
 a housing, 
 a processor maintained by the housing, 
 an aggregator module maintained by the housing and in electronic communication with the processor, the aggregator module programmed to correlate information from the first sensor with information from the second sensor based on time, 
 a communication device maintained by the housing and adapted to transmit information generated by the aggregator module to a location remote of the housing. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first sensor is an analog sensor and the second sensor is selected from the group consisting of a digital sensor, a common area network bus, a UART serial bus, and a GPS sensor. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein a sampling rate of the first format differs from a sampling rate of the second format. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the sampling rate of the first format is faster than the sampling rate of the second format, and further wherein the aggregator module is programmed to:
 group information from the first sensor based upon a designated interval.   
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the designated interval corresponds with the sampling rate of the second format. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the aggregator module is further programmed to:
 assign a common time basis to the grouped information from the first sensor and the information from the second sensor for each interval.   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the system includes a multiplicity of disparate sensors electronically coupled to the acquisition unit, and further wherein the aggregator module is programmed to assign the common time basis to respective groups of information from each of the sensors based upon a slowest sampling rate associated with the sensors. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the grouped information is a summary of information signaled from the first sensor over the designated interval. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the information signaled from the first sensor over the designated interval includes a multiplicity of data points, and further wherein the summary of information includes a maximum data point, a minimum data point and an average of the multiplicity of data points. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 a memory electronically coupled to the aggregator module for storing information generated by the aggregator module.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , further comprising an event module electronically coupled to the processor and the memory, the event module programmed to:
 detect occurrence of a predetermined event; and   prompt the processor to store all information signaled from at least one of the sensors in the memory over an event window time period.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the predetermined event is defined by a user. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein event module is programmed to designate occurrence of a predetermined event upon determining that information signaled from the first sensor is outside of threshold limits. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the event module is further programmed to determine the threshold limits based upon a trend analysis of the information from the first sensor. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a data server located remote of the data acquisition unit and including a receiver adapted to interface with the communication device.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the receiver and the communication device are adapted to wirelessly interface. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a user interface located remote of the acquisition unit, the user interface adapted to interface with the communication device and to generate user-created commands relating to operation of the data acquisition unit.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the system is configured such that a user can remotely program an acquisition unit operational parameter selected from the group consisting of sensor sampling rate, threshold limit, aggregation rate, and sensor configuration via the user interface unit. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor includes a personal computer operating system. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the acquisition unit is configured to be installed to a vehicle and at least the first sensor is provided with the vehicle.