DISTRIBUTED HISTORIAN ARCHITECTURE AND INTERFACES

• US 20070112447A1
• Filed: 09/28/2006
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Herbst, Robert, Hartman, Justin, McGreevy, Robert, Sadowski, Deborah
• Granted Patent: US 7,738,973 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/83
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4183 characterised by data acquisition, e.g. workpiece identification
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31288 Archive collected data into history file
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32389 Reception, assembly, testing, management workorder, schedule, history, file, packing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A distributed historian framework is provided where historical data is collected in accordance with an organizational model of a hierarchical system that is distributed across various elements of an enterprise. A directory service operates with the organizational model to enable configuration of historian components within the organization and to enable data to be located within the organization. In one aspect, an industrial automation system is provided. The system includes at least one historian component to archive data within an organization. A common data model then exposes functionality and data of the organization to the historian component.

Claims

1. A user interface for an industrial automation system, comprising:

at least one display object to display data associated with at least one historian component that collects information across one or more layers of an organization; and

a common data model that manages the information across the one or more layers of the organization.

2. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a first field that includes a plurality of selectable or expandable entities and a second field that includes data relating to a selected entity.

3. The user interface of claim 2, the first field includes a folder that relates to data collection plans where expansion of the folder reveals an icon that relates to an equipment model.

4. The user interface of claim 2, the second field provides a hierarchical view of an equipment model.

5. The user interface of claim 2, the second field includes an option to add a new control module or a new data point and includes a plurality of tabs, wherein selection of one of the plurality of tabs enables provision of plant-related data or options to a user not found within a different tab.

6. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising one or more objects relating to data collection plans including data collection rates, events and data collection duration times.

7. The user interface of claim 6, further comprising an object that provides a summary of the data collection plan.

8. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising an object to display and manipulate diagnostic information associated with the historian component.

9. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising an object to display and manipulate audit information associated with the historian component.

10. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising an object to display and manipulate alarms or events information associated with the historian component, where contextual display of event information is overlaid with process data.

11. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising an object for reading or generating a report associated with the historian component.

12. The user interface of claim 11, further comprising a time series icon, a histogram icon, an alarm counts icon, or an events icon.

13. The user interface of claim 12, further comprising an object that displays a graphical analysis of time-series data, where visual characteristics of the graph can be altered per user request.

14. The user interface of claim 13, further comprising a plurality of time series tools that include a start and stop time-stamping component.

15. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a component to display collection data relating to an entirety of a plant or to a particular type of process.

16. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a configuration component for a historian application.

17. The user interface of claim 16, the historian application includes a connection summary, a duration of a connection, a number of tags or data points associated with the historian application, or data values collected over time.

18. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising graphical depictions of alarm sequences, mean time between failures, faults associated with particular shifts, or an alarm summary.

19. A graphical user interface for a historian component, comprising:

at least one input field to configure at least one historian component;

at least one output field to display data associated with the historian component; and

at least one communications object to link the historian component to a common data model for an enterprise.

20. The graphical user interface of claim 19, further comprising an object to interact with at least one of an enterprise field, a plant field, and an embedded field.

21. The graphical user interface of claim 20, the embedded field is associated with a programmable logic controller and the enterprise field is associated with a client or a server component.

22. The graphical user interface of claim 19, further comprising a data collection plan, an equipment model, administrative settings, chassis configurations, diagnostics, or report features.

23. The graphical user interface of claim 22, further comprising selections for a control module or a data collection point and controls to add or delete a data point.

24. The graphical user interface of claim 19, further comprising a data collection and configuration screen.

25. The graphical user interface of claim 24, further comprising fields to identify machine or equipment names, a slot address identifying where historian data is received from, data tag names, data collection rates, and data collection durations which identifies how long to capture data.

26. The graphical user interface of claim 19, further comprising a diagnostics component that monitors statistics on various data categories that includes collection status, system utilization, and alerts.

27. The graphical user interface of claim 26, further comprising a component to display collection statistics that include a number of tags in a collection plan, a maximum rate, a maximum collection time, an indication of earliest data collected, memory available, memory consumed, a collection plan storage size, file system space available, or file system space consumed.

28. The graphical user interface of claim 26, further comprising diagnostics for a number of tag reads, a number of data packets read, a number of missed reads, a number of missed packets, or time-stamped events relating to data audits and alerts.

29. The graphical user interface of claim 26, further comprising a times series data plot or a graphic of alarm counts that have occurred over a period of time.

30. The graphical user interface of claim 29, further comprising a display to provide an overview of two or more operating layers of a plant or enterprise.

31. The graphical user interface of claim 29, further comprising a component that shows trend data for a longer period of time including mean time between failure data (MTBF) for one or more components.

32. The graphical user interface of claim 29, further comprising a component that shows batch comparison data between at least two processes.

33. The graphical user interface of claim 19, further comprising a component that displays data collected at an enterprise level of an organization.

34. The graphical user interface of claim 33, further comprising a component to display an asset utilization, a product quality, a production plan, or plant-to-plant data comparisons between different geographical locations.

35. The graphical user interface of claim 19, further comprising one or components to configure publish and subscribe features of the historian component.

36. A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereon, comprising:

at least one field to display components of a data historian across one or more levels of an organization;

at least a second field to configure the data historian; and

at least a third field to link the data historian to a common data model.