Prova Systems Announces the Vehicle Inertia Monitor: a Dual Mode Advanced CAN-Bus Vibration Analyzer and Vehicle Attitude Sensor for Heavy Duty Vehicle Prognostics

    CARBONDALE, PA, September 16, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Prova Systems is announcing its Vehicle Inertia Monitor (VIM). The VIM is a new dual mode advanced J1939 CAN-bus vibration analyzer and vehicle attitude sensor for heavy duty vehicle prognostics and performance monitoring.

The VIM vibration mode helps maintenance engineers plot equipment performance over time to characterize normal operating metrics. It captures and highlights subtle changes in vibration through use of high resolution sub-Hz analysis via multi-rate signal processing. This provides indicators pointing towards degradation in equipment performance. Subsequently, preventive maintenance can be performed to improve efficiency and avoid catastrophic system failure replacement costs.

The VIM attitude mode incorporates advanced signal processing techniques to estimate vehicle orientation using dynamic modeling and detected vehicle motion from the SAE J1939 CAN-Bus communication link. This results in extremely accurate pitch / roll estimates while the vehicle is in motion. Additionally the VIM filters noise from these attitude estimates via MEMS sensor data fusion within a predictive Kalman filter to provide fast, smooth data results in real-time.

In addition to vehicle and engine maintenance prognostics common applications for the Vehicle Inertia Monitor include:

- Real-Time Stabilized Vehicle Pitch / Roll Estimation for Moving HEV Power Tradeoff Control
- Road Grade and Pitch Profiling
- Brake Life Estimation
- Gearbox Vibration Monitoring
- Fleet Management Analytics
- Vehicle Maintenance Prognostics

Designed to support 24x7 operation and connect to the equipment's CAN-bus, the VIM communicates its data over the CAN bus to any monitoring tool which can perform SPN monitoring and/or queries. The VIM ships with its own PC software to enable configuration, maintenance and real-time monitoring. It can also be used with Vehicle Spy3 or any tool that supports J1939 protocol.

"Prognostics is the holy grail for fleet management systems and other applications where equipment maintenance is a primary concern," explained John Collins, President of Prova Systems. "The VIM offers customers and engineers a game changing capability to capture equipment performance profiles and use that to schedule maintenance before diagnostic warnings or catastrophic failures occur."

The system is suitable for fleet management, military, aerospace or any application where prognostic monitoring is a benefit. The VIM is available to order immediately and is priced at $569 for a single unit. Discounted volume pricing for vehicle fleets and larger installations is available. The VIM will be incorporate in Prova's Fleet Genius fleet maintenance software in 2016.

ABOUT PROVA SYSTEMS: Prova Systems designs and manufactures Fleet Genius fleet management SAAS software and wireless OBD-2 and J-1939 vehicle monitors to support trip tracking, preventive maintenance management, driver performance monitoring, fuel economy management and vehicle diagnostics and prognostics for use in fleet management, drive-by emissions testing, secure access controls, usage based insurance and distracted driver programs and other critical commercial vehicle applications. Prova's line of wireless OBD-2 vehicle monitors, wireless sensors and analysis products capture real-time operational diagnostics for use in its own Fleet Genius SaaS application and 3rd party partner applications. The company focuses on OEM and aftermarket technologies which make consumer and commercial vehicles safer, more fuel efficient and greener. The company is based in Carbondale, PA and sells its products directly and through resellers in the USA and internationally. www.fleet-genius.com

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