# US 12,007,442 B2 · Monitoring system for a low voltage, medium voltage, or high voltage circuit breaker

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- Number: US 12,007,442 B2
- Document ID: US12007442B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/875,680
- Filed: 2022-07-28
- Published: 2023-02-02
- Granted: 2024-06-11
- Earliest claimed: 2021-07-30
- Assignees: ABB Schweiz AG
- Applicants: ABB Schweiz AG
- Inventors: Aydin Boyaci; Ido Amihai
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12007442B2

## CPC

- G01R 31/327: Testing of circuit interrupters, switches or circuit-breakers
- G01R 31/3274: {Details related to measuring, e.g. sensing, displaying or computing; Measuring of variables related to the contact pieces, e.g. wear, position or resistance (measuring contact resistance G01R27/205)}
- G01R 31/3277: {of low voltage devices, e.g. domestic or industrial devices, such as motor protections, relays, rotation switches}
- G01R 31/3278: {of relays, solenoids or reed switches (measuring contact resistance G01R27/205; high voltage magnetic switches G01R31/3271, G01R31/333; testing electric windings G01R31/72; monitoring of fail safe circuits H01H47/002)}
- G01R 31/3333: {Apparatus, systems or circuits therefor}
- H01H 11/0062: {Testing or measuring non-electrical properties of switches, e.g. contact velocity (monitoring contacts H01H1/0015; monitoring gas density H01H33/563; monitoring vacuum H01H33/668; calibrating H01H69/01; adjusting H01H71/74; testing of electrical properties G01R31/333)}
- G01R: MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES (indicating correct tuning of resonant circuits H03J3/12)
- H01H: ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES (contact cables H01B7/10; electrolytic self-interrupters H01G9/18; emergency protective circuit arrangements H02H; switching by electronic means without contact-making H03K17/00)

## Abstract

A circuit breaker monitoring system and method includes a vibration sensor, a processing unit, and an output unit. The vibration sensor is configured to be mounted to a circuit breaker and to acquire a temporal vibration signal over at least a temporal portion of a closing operation of the circuit breaker. The closing operation comprises: initiation of the closing operation; latch release; movement of a moveable contact towards a fixed contact; contact touch of the moveable contact with the fixed contact; stop of movement of the moveable contact. The sensor provides the temporal vibration signal to the processing unit, which determines a plurality of physical switch events and corresponding plurality of time points of the plurality of physical switch events over the closing operation of the circuit breaker.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A circuit breaker monitoring system, comprising:
a vibration sensor;
a processing unit; and
an output unit;
wherein the vibration sensor is configured to be mounted to a circuit breaker and to acquire a temporal vibration signal over at least a temporal portion of a closing operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the closing operation comprises: initiation of the closing operation; latch release; movement of a moveable contact towards a fixed contact; contact touch of the moveable contact with the fixed contact; stop of movement of the moveable contact;
wherein the vibration sensor is configured to provide the temporal vibration signal to the processing unit;
wherein the processing unit is configured to determine a plurality of physical switch events and corresponding plurality of time points of the plurality of physical switch events over the closing operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the determination comprises analysis of the temporal vibration signal to identify a plurality of changes in the temporal vibration signal that are assigned to the plurality of physical switch events;
wherein the processing unit is configured to determine one or more characteristic times associated with the closing operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the determination comprises utilization of the plurality of physical switch events and corresponding plurality of time points;
wherein the processing unit is configured to determine an indication of operational functionality of the circuit breaker, wherein the determination comprises utilization of the one or more characteristic times associated with the closing operation of the circuit breaker; and
wherein the output unit is configured to output information relating to the indication of operational functionality of the circuit breaker.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein analysis of the temporal vibration signal to identify a plurality of changes in the temporal vibration signal comprises computation of a temporal signal envelope from the temporal vibration signal and wherein identification of the plurality of changes in the temporal vibration signal comprises identification of a plurality of change points in the temporal signal envelope that are assigned to the plurality of physical switch events.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein the processing unit is configured to implement a peak transform, an RMS transform, or a Hilbert transform to compute the temporal signal envelope from the temporal vibration signal.

### Claim 4 (depends on 2)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein the processing unit is configured to implement a change point detection algorithm, a piecewise linear approximation algorithm, a cluster based method, or a state space representation to identify the plurality of change points in the temporal signal envelope that are assigned to the plurality of physical switch events.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein the cluster based method is a Gaussian Mixture Model “GMM”, or a Hidden Markov Model “HMM”; and wherein the state space representation is a Kalman Filter or Likelihood Ratio Method.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 5, wherein the likelihood ratio method is RuLSIF or CUSUM.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the physical switch events comprises two or more of: instant of latch release; instant of onset of movement of the moveable contact towards the fixed contact; instant of contact touch of the moveable contact with the fixed contact; instant of stop of movement of the moveable contact.

### Claim 8 (depends on 2)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein computation of the temporal signal envelope from the temporal vibration signal comprises a low pass filtering of the temporal vibration signal.

### Claim 9 (depends on 2)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein identification of a plurality of change points in the temporal signal envelope comprises a high pass filtering of the temporal signal envelope.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein determination of the indication of operational functionality of the circuit breaker comprises a comparison of the one or more characteristic times associated with the closing operation of the circuit breaker with corresponding baseline characteristic times for one or more calibration circuit breakers.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The circuit breaker monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the vibration sensor is an accelerometer, acoustic “SAW” sensor, microphone, or RFID sensor.

### Claim 12

A circuit breaker monitoring system, comprising:
a vibration sensor;
a processing unit; and
an output unit;
wherein the vibration sensor is configured to be mounted to a circuit breaker;
wherein the vibration sensor is configured to acquire a temporal vibration signal over at least a temporal portion of an opening operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the opening operation comprises: initiation of the opening operation; latch release; movement of a moveable contact away from a fixed contact; separation of the moveable contact from the fixed contact; stop of movement of the moveable contact;
wherein the vibration sensor is configured to provide the temporal vibration signal to the processing unit;
wherein the processing unit is configured to determine a plurality of physical switch events and corresponding plurality of time points of the plurality of physical switch events over the opening operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the determination comprises analysis of the temporal vibration signal to identify a plurality of changes in the temporal vibration signal that are assigned to the plurality of physical switch events;
wherein the processing unit is configured to determine one or more characteristic times associated with the opening operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the determination comprises utilization of the plurality of physical switch events and corresponding plurality of time points;
wherein the processing unit is configured to determine an indication of operational functionality of the circuit breaker, wherein the determination comprises utilization of the one or more characteristic times associated with the opening operation of the circuit breaker; and
wherein the output unit is configured to output information relating to the indication of operational functionality of the circuit breaker.

### Claim 13

A circuit breaker monitoring method, comprising:
providing a vibration sensor mounted onto a circuit breaker;
acquiring by the vibration sensor a temporal vibration signal over at least a temporal portion of a closing operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the closing operation comprises: initiation of the closing operation; latch release; movement of a moveable contact towards a fixed contact; contact touch of the moveable contact with the fixed contact; stop of movement of the moveable contact;
providing the temporal vibration signal to a processing unit;
determining by the processing unit a plurality of physical switch events and corresponding plurality of time points of the plurality of physical switch events over the closing operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the determining comprises analyzing the temporal vibration signal to identify a plurality of changes in the temporal vibration signal that are assigned to the plurality of physical switch events;
determining by the processing unit one or more characteristic times associated with the closing operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the determining comprises utilizing the plurality of physical switch events and corresponding plurality of time points;
determining by the processing unit an indication of operational functionality of the circuit breaker, wherein the determining comprises utilizing the one or more characteristic times associated with the closing operation of the circuit breaker; and
outputting by an output unit information relating to the indication of operational functionality of the circuit breaker.

### Claim 14

A circuit breaker monitoring method, comprising:
providing a vibration sensor mounted to a circuit breaker;
acquiring by the vibration sensor a temporal vibration signal over at least a temporal portion of an opening operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the opening operation comprises: initiation of the opening operation; latch release; movement of a moveable contact away from a fixed contact; separation of the moveable contact from the fixed contact; stop of movement of the moveable contact;
providing the temporal vibration signal to a processing unit;
determining by the processing unit a plurality of physical switch events and corresponding plurality of time points of the plurality of physical switch events over the opening operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the determining comprises analyzing the temporal vibration signal to identify a plurality of changes in the temporal vibration signal that are assigned to the plurality of physical switch events;
determining by the processing unit one or more characteristic times associated with the opening operation of the circuit breaker, wherein the determining comprises utilizing the plurality of physical switch events and corresponding plurality of time points;
determining by the processing unit an indication of operational functionality of the circuit breaker, wherein the determining comprises utilizing the one or more characteristic times associated with the opening operation of the circuit breaker; and
outputting by an output unit information relating to the indication of operational functionality of the circuit breaker.