Patent ID: 8055475

Claim:
A diagnostic computer system for determining a cause of an event in a product or process, comprising: a first measurement system for indicating the event in the product or process; a display for displaying a schematic of the product or process; a processor for: selecting, from an energy function model, a first energy function from a plurality of energy functions of the product or process, the first energy function associated with a particular function describing an action designed to be performed in the operation of the product or process, wherein the first energy function describes how the particular function uses energy during operation; identifying, for the first energy function, a plurality of energy paths within the product or process; displaying, on the schematic, the first energy function and a representation of the plurality of energy paths with respect to a displayed “how” direction, an opposing “why” direction, and a perpendicular “when” direction corresponding to dependencies between the plurality of energy functions; and identifying, based on the first energy function and the dependencies, a second measurement system for measuring a first energy to detect a contrast between how the product or process is actually performing and how the product or process is intended to perform, wherein the second measurement system is different than the first measurement system that indicated the event in the product or process; a user interface for accepting input from a user and for transmitting the input to the processor over a communications medium, wherein the processor responds to the input to select from among the plurality of energy paths, the first energy for measurement; the second measurement system comprising a sensor system operatively coupled to the processor for generating a plurality of measurements of the selected first energy; and a storage device operatively coupled to the processor for storing the plurality of generated measurements, wherein the diagnostic computer system conducts a progressive search on the contrast to identify a feature or property of the product or process responsible for causing the event.