DISTRIBUTED HISTORIAN ARCHITECTURE

• US 20110087702A1
• Filed: 10/11/2010
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hartman, Justin R., Sadowski, Deborah A., McGreevy, Robert J., Herbst, Robert J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,965,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/792
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing

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 method for implementing data collection in an industrial organization, comprising:

providing one or more embedded historian components at a low level tier of the organization; and

providing a middle tier historian component at a higher level than the embedded historian component; and

sharing data and functionality between the middle tier historian component and the one or more embedded historian components using a common data structure.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an enterprise historian component that shares data and functionality with the middle tier historian component and the one or more embedded historian components.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a historian interface from a web server component.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising blending time series data and event data in an interface component.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising exposing functionality of the one or more embedded historian components and the middle tier historian component using the common data structure.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising aggregating data collected by one or more embedded historian components at the middle tier historian.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising employing a directory service in conjunction with the common data structure to locate data within the organization.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising employing the common data structure and the directory service to distribute security services to the one or more embedded historians and the middle tier historian.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing the one or more embedded historian components at the low level tier of the organization comprises providing the one or more embedded historians in at least one of a controller, a module of a chassis, a client, a server, a sensor, or a factory component.

10. A computer-readable medium having a data structure stored thereon to facilitate data collection, comprising:

a first data field to specify data structures within an organization; and

a second data field to mark the data structures for historical collection by at least one historian component.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the second data field is stored as metadata.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising at least one of an enterprise field, a site field, an area field, a work field, an equipment field, a batch field, a continuous field, a discrete field, or an inventory field.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising at least one of a data collection field, a plant field, or an embedded field.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising at least one of a field for collecting process or discrete data or a field for collecting alarms or events data.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising at least one of an analysis component, a mathematical calculator, a component for interaction with report elements, an embeddable presentation component, a reporting component, a replication of configuration component, a storage component, an archiving component, a data compression component, a filtering component, a security component, or a scalability component.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising a field specifying one or more security services to be distributed to the at least one historian component.

17. A distributed historian communications method, comprising:

defining a common data structure over multiple tiers of an organization;

employing a security framework within the common data structure; and

applying the security framework to at least one historian data collection component residing on at least one of the multiple tiers of the organization.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the applying the security framework comprises propagating the security framework to two or more of the at least one historian data collection component residing on respective at least two of the multiple tiers of the organization.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising employing a directory service in conjunction with the common data structure to distribute the security framework to the at least one historian data collection component.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising exposing functionality of the at least one historian data collection component using the common data structure.