Patent ID: 7206965

Claim:
A method for processing a new diagnostics case relative to historical case data for a machine undergoing diagnostics, the method comprising: providing a database storing historical case data for the machine undergoing diagnostics; calculating a degree of similarity between the new case and respective cases stored in the database; determining a list of neighboring cases relative to the new case based on the calclated degree of similarity between the new case and the respective cases stored in the database; processing the list of neighboring cases to determine a ranking for possible corrective actions for the new case; and selecting a corrective action for the new case based on the ranking of the possible corrective actions for the new case, wherein the calculated degree of similarity (S) is based on the following equation, S = [ sum ] 2 Count [ { Fi } ] × Count [ { Fj } ] , wherein if a fault Fiε{Ci} & εFi {Cj}, then sum=a+(1−a)*{[Min(count(Fi), count(Fj)]/[Max(count(Fi), count(Fj)]}, count(Fi) is a number of distinct faults in the ith Case, and Count(Fj) is a number of distinct faults in the jth case, and a is a parameter having a value between zero and one for weighing a frequency of occurrence of faults shared in common between any two cases whose degree of similarity is being calculated.