Problem state monitoring system

Claim 1

An expert system for diagnosing and providing remedies for problems in a controlled system, said controlled system having a plurality of data points from which said problems may be determined and said expert system comprising a set of nodes, each node comprising at least four necessary elements: a state holder means, having an indication of the state of the node, for communicating the state of the node to other nodes; an immediate descendant tally means for holding a representation of state information of all direct descendant nodes relative to the node having said tally means, and for providing an indication of whether said direct descendant has been "confirmed" or "rejected" as a cause of said problem; test means for determining whether said node has a problem by referencing an information holder; algorithmic mechanism means for performing the activities of said node; and, at least a select one of the following additional elements: an advice list means, having a list of advice members, for solving a problem and providing a flag for each member of the advice list indicative of whether a particular advice member has been given advice currently, a communications link means for transferring advice to an entity that monitors or controls the controlled system, and an information holder means connected to an information generating device for indicating the state of the information generating device; and wherein the algorithmic mechanism means element of each node comprises means for: A. Determining whether the problem has been remedied; if so, transitioning to a "Resolved" state, B. Otherwise, if new direct descendants of the node can be generated, adding them to said tally means and transitioning the node to a "Pending" state, C. Otherwise, if more than zero of the node's descendants are not either in a "Confirmed" or a "Rejected" state, no transitioning is made, D. Otherwise, if the node has no descendants in a "Confirmed" state, then if the node has an advice list which contains some remedial advice associated with said node, transitioning the node to a "Ready" state; else transitioning the node to a "No-Remedy" state, E. Otherwise, if more than zero of the nodes which are in the "Confirmed" state are furthermore in either a "Fixed" or a "Can't-be-Fixed" state, transitioning the node to a "Diagnosed" state, F. Otherwise, if the node has direct descendants in the "Can't-be-Fixed" state, and the node is not already transitioned to the "No-Remedy" state, transitioning said node to the "No-Remedy" state; if not then transitioning said node to an "Uncle" state, and, G. Otherwise, if the advice list contains some remedial advice associated with this node, transitioning the node to the "Ready" state unless the node is not already transitioned to the "No-Remedy" state, in which case transitioning the node to the "No-Remedy" state; otherwise, transitioning the node to the "Uncle" state.