Application of Monitoring, Fault Detection and Diagnosis for Next-Generation Fire Detection

Process fault monitoring, detection and diagnosis and fire detection and isolation technologies have been developed separately and have rich histories individually. However, there are many common characteristics between them and the amount of technological overlapping is being increased: Mitigation of sensor failures, context sensitivity, and minimization of Type I, II errors are important problems. Use of wireless sensors and merge of heterogeneous information are getting the focus en route to the next-generation technologies.

This paper discusses how the abnormal situation management technologies, studied in the process systems engineering perspective, would contribute in developing next-generation fire detection and management technologies and improve the safety of process plants and intelligent buildings as well. And the lessons from the fire detection research that could be applied for better monitoring, detection and diagnosis of processes are also discussed.