Intangles, an AI-powered predictive maintenance platform for the transportation industry introduced a new AI-enabled diesel particulate filter (DPF) management solution. Intangles made the announcement during a press conference held on March 3, Technology Maintenance Council’s Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition in New Orleans.

Craig Vanderheide, director of product management for Intangles told the press that the system informs fleets on the quality of DPF regeneration in order to optimize the fuel efficiency and the engine performance of commercial vehicles.

 DPF Data in Real Time

At present Vanderheide noted, fleets can access only very limited information about DPF performance. In most cases, this is limited to the percentage of clogging (or soot load) in the particulate filter.

He said Intangles’ solution not only monitors the performance of the DPF system in real time, but also predicts future performance of the system based on environmental and vehicle specific conditions. The insights are accurate enough to forecast excess costs, in dollars, due to DPF inefficiency.

“We’re always looking for ways to leverage our physics-based AI to save fleets time and money,” Vanderheide said. “This new feature is designed to take the guesswork out of forced DPF regens and keep soot levels at an optimal level. Fleets deserve to have better insights when it comes to DPF.”

The DPF solution is built using Intangles’ proprietary hardware, adaptive algorithms and scalable cloud infrastructure to solve problems in new ways, Vanderheide said.

Intangles leverages Digital Twin technology to create a virtual replica of a vehicle’s DPF in the cloud. Once a replica is created, Intangles can test how the virtual DPF will perform under varying conditions such as extreme cold weather, periods of prolonged idling, or stop/start driving situations, which can be particularly hard on DPF clogging.

As a result, Vanderheide said the Intangles solution not only predicts how a truck’s DPF will perform in differing conditions, but also grants insight into how best to optimize soot load and regeneration.

“Our fleets know firsthand how a clogged DPF can lead to a loss of power and fuel economy,” continued Vanderheide. “And I don’t know of any drivers who are thrilled to deal with DPF issues when they are focused on getting where they need to be. We knew this was an issue and we set out to solve it.”

Advanced Exhaust Stream Prognostics

The Intangles DPF solution is an advanced prognostic, which is now available on Intangles’ predictive maintenance platform and is part of a larger suite of vehicle health tools designed to detect issues with vehicles well before a diagnostic trouble code is triggered.

Intangles’ DPF Solution:

• Monitors and measures the percentage of soot in a vehicle’s DPF in real-time

• Informs the user of the quality of each DPF regeneration

• Provides insights on the impact of inefficient regeneration

• Guides users on how to optimize forced DPF regeneration

• Optimizes fuel efficiency, engine performance, and extends the life of a vehicle.

In addition, Vanderheide said, the Intangles platform offers fleets a full suite of actionable insights, including real-time alerts, critical diagnostic trouble codes with severity and repair strategies, precise fuel analysis tools, driver behavior monitoring solutions, vehicle tracking, and best-in-class fleet performance tools all on one intuitive, easy-to-use interface. 

“Thanks to the approach we’ve taken, in the coming months, this solution will work effectively in most of the makes and models that we currently support worldwide,” Vanderheide said. “We currently cover over 2,000 engine configurations and are adding more daily. And our hardware can be installed seamlessly alongside any existing telematics device. It’s important to us to keep things simple for our customers.”