Patent ID: 7720638

Claim:
A method, implemented by a diagnostic device, for diagnosing functional faults of a functional architecture including functions for performing a service in an automobile with an internal combustion engine and associated with sensors and actuators that produce and consume data, said method comprising: mapping, by said diagnostic device, said functions onto a hardware architecture composed of hardware components; measuring, by said diagnostic device, a property of said automobile with at least one of said sensors so as to obtain raw data; creating a first list of particular values based on said raw data and corresponding to functional faults of the sensors and actuators of said automobile; creating a second list of particular values corresponding to functional states for said hardware components relative to a propagation of signals through said hardware architecture thereby indicating a state of propagation of information relating to said functional faults of said sensors and actuators across the functional architecture; formulating a functional diagnosis of the service based on the first and second lists of particular values; and recording the particular values and their propagation on a memory device.