Patent Document ID: 8612087
Application ID: 13102770

Base Claim:
1. A method for detection of a component malfunction along a life of an internal combustion engine, said internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder and controlled by an Electronic Control Unit (ECU), the method comprising: defining, by the ECU, a pre-determined component malfunction classifier at the start of engine life; setting, by the ECU, said pre-determined component malfunction classifier as an active classifier, defining, by the ECU, a validity condition for said active classifier, acquiring, by the ECU, in real time a set of relevant signals relating to the operation of a component during the life of said internal combustion engine, feeding, by the ECU, said signals to said active classifier in order to determine the occurrence or not of a malfunction of said component and in case the validity condition of an actual classifier is not satisfied; defining, by the ECU, a new classifier using the most recent relevant signals recorded by said ECU; and substituting, by the ECU, the actual classifier with said new classifier, wherein a search for a new classifier is performed continuously by the ECU during the life of said internal combustion engine and said validity condition is satisfied if an absolute value of a difference between an original mean of the signals pertaining to a regular functioning of said component and a mean of the signals calculated using the most recent relevant signals pertaining to a regular functioning of said component is outside a range set by a minimum drift threshold and a higher than a maximum drift threshold.

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Claim 2:
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said pre-determined component malfunction classifier is defined with a training session in order to train said pre-determined component malfunction classifier to distinguish an occurrence of the malfunction of said component, said training session comprising an input into said pre-determined component malfunction classifier of a plurality of signals subdivided in signals pertaining to the malfunction of said component and signals pertaining to a regular functioning of said component.