Systems and methods for distributed fault diagnosis using precompiled finite state automata

Most model-based diagnostic approaches are at least partially centralized. Routing information to or through a centralized processing unit is vulnerable to failure of the central processing unit and/or of the communication system connecting the central processing unit to the sensor or the local diagnostic subsystems. Centralized schemes also limit the amount of processing to that provided by the single centralized processing unit. The systems and methods according to this invention use local diagnostic subsystems that include finite state automata to model the possible states of local components given local sensor readings and potential inputs from other local diagnostic subsystems. Potential states are found during diagnosis of a local component, give one or more observations of that component. This state information is then distributed to other local diagnostic subsystems. Potential states are then found diagnosis of the local component, given state information provided concerning the states of other components.