Data Acquisition System for Condition-Based Maintenance

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A data acquisition system for monitoring one or more components of rotating machinery, the data acquisition system comprising:
 a plurality of separate sensor modules, each of said plurality of separate sensor modules being associated with one of a plurality of separate components of rotating machinery and configured to detect a parameter associated with a condition of at least said separate respective component and to generate data comprising a representation of said condition of at least said separate respective component based, at least in part, on said detected parameter; and   a data bus configured to couple each of said plurality of separate sensor modules to a server, wherein said server is configured to provide an estimate of remaining useful life of a selected one of said separate respective components of said rotating machinery to a user based, at least in part, on a representation of a condition of said selected one of said separate respective components.   
     
     
         2 . The data acquisition system of  claim 1 , wherein each of said plurality of separate sensor modules comprises:
 at least one sensor directly coupled to a separate respective component of said rotating machinery and configured to detect a parameter associated with a condition of said separate respective component or a component indirectly coupled thereto and to provide sensor data based at least in part on said detected parameter; and   at least one interface module coupled to said at least one sensor and configured to receive and analyze said sensor data from said at least one sensor and to generate module output data based at least in part on said sensor data, said module output data comprising a representation of said condition of said separate respective component or said component indirectly coupled thereto.   
     
     
         3 . The data acquisition system of  claim 2 , wherein said data bus is configured to allow transmission of module output data from each of said plurality of separate sensor modules to said server. 
     
     
         4 . The data acquisition system of  claim 2 , wherein said at least one sensor is selected from the group consisting of a tachometer configured to detect a rotational speed of a separate respective component or a component indirectly coupled thereto of the rotating machinery and an accelerometer configured to detect vibration of a separate respective component or a component indirectly coupled thereto. 
     
     
         5 . The data acquisition system of  claim 1 , wherein said selected one of said separate respective components or said component indirectly coupled thereto is a shaft, a bearing or a gear. 
     
     
         6 . The data acquisition system of  claim 1 , wherein said data bus is a daisy chain and each of said plurality of separate sensor modules is connected to at most two other sensor modules. 
     
     
         7 . The data acquisition system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a local data concentrator coupled to each of said plurality of separate sensor modules and configured to provide media access control (MAC) for to at least one of said separate sensor modules, to transmit commands to at least one of said separate sensor modules, to receive data from at least one of said separate sensor modules and to provide received data to said server via said data bus.   
     
     
         8 . The data acquisition system of  claim 7 , wherein said data bus is configured to carry power from said local data concentrator to at least one of the separate sensor modules. 
     
     
         9 . The data acquisition system of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of said plurality of separate sensor modules comprises a controller configured to perform floating point calculations in hardware. 
     
     
         10 . A system comprising:
 rotating machinery; and   a data acquisition system mounted on said rotating machinery and configured to monitor one or more components of said rotating machinery, said data acquisition system comprising:
 a plurality of separate sensor modules, each of said plurality of separate sensor modules being associated with one of a plurality of separate components of said rotating machinery and configured to detect a parameter associated with a condition of at least said separate respective component and to generate data comprising a representation of said condition of at least said separate respective component based, at least in part, on said detected parameter; 
 a data bus configured to couple each of said plurality of separate sensor modules to a server, wherein said server is configured to provide an estimate of remaining useful life of a selected one of said separate respective components of said rotating machinery to a user based, at least in part, on a representation of a condition of said selected one of said separate respective components; and 
 a local data concentrator coupled to each of said plurality of separate sensor modules and configured to provide media access control (MAC) for to at least one of said separate sensor modules, to transmit commands to at least one of said separate sensor modules, to receive data from at least one of said separate sensor modules and to provide received data to said server via said data bus. 
   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein each of said plurality of separate sensor modules comprises:
 at least one sensor directly coupled to a separate respective component of said rotating machinery and configured to detect a parameter associated with a condition of said separate respective component or a component indirectly coupled thereto and to provide sensor data based at least in part on said detected parameter; and   at least one interface module coupled to said at least one sensor and configured to receive and analyze said sensor data from said at least one sensor and to generate module output data based at least in part on said sensor data, said module output data comprising a representation of said condition of said separate respective component or said component indirectly coupled thereto.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein said data bus is configured to allow transmission of module output data from each of said plurality of separate sensor modules to said server. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein said at least one sensor is selected from the group consisting of a tachometer configured to detect a rotational speed of a separate respective component or a component indirectly coupled thereto of the rotating machinery and an accelerometer configured to detect vibration of a separate respective component or a component indirectly coupled thereto. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein said selected one of said separate respective components or said component indirectly coupled thereto is a shaft, a bearing or a gear. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein said rotating machinery is selected from the group consisting of a wind turbine, gas turbines and gearboxes associated with ground vehicles, ships and/or aircraft. 
     
     
         16 . A method of determining an estimate of a remaining useful life of a monitored component of rotating machinery, the method comprising:
 providing a data acquisition system mounted on rotating machinery, said data acquisition system comprising:
 a plurality of separate sensor modules, each of said plurality of separate sensor modules being associated with one of a plurality of separate components of said rotating machinery; and 
   detecting a parameter associated with a condition of a selected one of at selected one of said plurality of separate components or a component indirectly coupled thereto and generating sensor output data based, at least in part, on said parameter;   analyzing said sensor output data;   generating module output data comprising a representation of said condition of said selected one of said plurality of separate components or said component indirectly coupled thereto based, at least in part, on said sensor output data;   transmitting said output data to a server, and   estimating remaining useful life of said selected one of said plurality of components or said component indirectly coupled thereto based, at least in part, on a representation of a condition of said selected one of said plurality of components or said component indirectly coupled thereto.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein each of said plurality of separate sensor modules comprises:
 at least one sensor directly coupled to a separate respective component of said rotating machinery, wherein said detecting of said parameter and generating of said output sensor data is performed by said at least one sensor; and   at least one interface module coupled to said at least one sensor and configured to receive sensor data from said at least one sensor, wherein said analyzing is performed by said associated interface module.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein said analyzing comprises performing a transform to determine a frequency spectrum based on said sensor output data, the frequency spectrum associated with said condition of said selected one of said plurality of components or said component indirectly coupled thereto. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising determining statistics based, at least in part, on said frequency spectrum, wherein said statistics are associated with said condition of said selected one of said plurality of components or said component indirectly coupled thereto. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein said analyzing comprises determining a vector of average sensor output data for a time period corresponding to a revolution of said selected one of said plurality of components or said component indirectly coupled thereto.