An Application of the Information Theory Approach to Failure Diagnosis

Brulé, Johnson, and Kletsky¹ have developed a technique based on information theory which leads to highly efficient procedures for diagnosing equipment failures. This paper demonstrates by means of a practical example the validity of this technique. In addition, the feasibility of the approach is shown and the procedure to be used in its implementation is outlined in detail. The paper concludes with a general discussion including comments on the generality of the technique, the possibility of machine computation, and possible areas of application.