TRANSFORMATION OF INDUSTRIAL DATA INTO USEFUL CLOUD INFORMATON

• US 20130211555A1
• Filed: 09/10/2012
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Reichard, Douglas J., Hessmer, Rainer, Chand, Sujeet, Farchmin, David W., Lawson, Douglas C., Harkulich, Joseph A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,565,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/28
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 11/01 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31326 Database to manage communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31334 Database with devices, configuration, of plant
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33139 Design of industrial communication system with expert system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/12 Synchronisation of different clock signals provided by a plurality of clock generators
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/14 Time supervision arrangements, e.g. real time clock
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/10 : Efficient use of energy, e.g. using compressed air or pressurized fluid as energy carrier
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 : Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A cloud-compatible industrial device is provided. The industrial device generates or collects raw industrial data in connection with monitoring and/or controlling an automation system, and includes a cloud interface that couples the industrial device to one or more cloud-based services running on a cloud platform. To reduce consumption of cloud-based resources such as bandwidth and storage utilization, the industrial device can transform the raw industrial data into refined data that is amenable for cloud-based storage, computing, or analysis. Exemplary transformations include filtering, pruning, re-formatting, compressing, summarizing. In one or more embodiments, the industrial device can also add contextual metadata to the raw data prior to delivery to the cloud.

Claims

1. An industrial automation device, comprising:

a component that generates or collects data relating to an industrial automation event, activity, or process;

a cloud interface component that couples the industrial automation device to a web-based cloud; and

a transformation component that transforms the data into a set of refined data for storage, analysis, or processing by the web-based cloud according to a determined requirement of the web-based cloud.

2. The industrial automation device of claim 1, wherein the transformation component at least one of compresses, aggregates, encrypts, filters, re-formats, or contextualizes the data to yield the set of refined data.

3. The industrial automation device of claim 1, further comprising a requirements component that determines at least one of the requirement of the web-based cloud or a locally defined requirement.

4. The industrial automation device of claim 1, wherein the transformation component further determines the requirement of the web-based cloud based on a specified requirement received in a data request from a cloud-based application.

5. The industrial automation device of claim 1, wherein the transformation component further adds contextual metadata to the set of refined data.

6. The industrial automation device of claim 5, wherein the contextual metadata includes at least one of a date, a time, a shift, a production area, a product, a machine state, an employee identifier, a lot number, an active alarm, or a hierarchical organizational tag.

7. The industrial automation device of claim 1, wherein the transformation component tags the subset of the data as actionable in response to determining that the subset of the data is actionable.

8. The industrial automation device of claim 7, wherein the transformation component tags the subset of the data with notification information specifying at least one of an employee to be notified, a destination device to which a notification is to be sent, a required action, a due date for the required action, or a format for the notification.

9. The industrial automation device of claim 1, wherein the cloud interface competent interfaces the industrial automation device to a cloud-based application running on a cloud platform, wherein the cloud-based application is at least one of a notification application, a business intelligence application, a visualization application, a reporting application, a storage application, or an enterprise resource planning (ERP) application.

10. A method for transforming industrial data for transfer to a cloud-based application, comprising:

at least one of generating or collecting industrial data relating to control of an industrial process;

transforming the industrial data into refined data in accordance with a determined requirement of a cloud-based application; and

transferring the refined data to the cloud-based application.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the transforming comprises at least one of compressing, aggregating, encrypting, filtering, re-formatting, or contextualizing the industrial data.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising adding contextual information to at least a subset of the industrial data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the adding contextual information includes adding at least one of a date, a time, a shift, a production area, a product, a machine state, an employee identifier, a lot number, an active alarm, or a hierarchical organizational tag.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

reading a transform profile to determine a locally defined transformation requirement; and

transforming the industrial data based on the locally defined transformation requirement.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the transforming comprises transforming the industrial data in accordance with a required data format specified in a request for at least a subset of the industrial data received from the cloud-based application.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising tagging a subset of the industrial data as actionable in response to determining that the subset of the industrial data indicates that an action is required.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising tagging the subset of the industrial data with notification information specifying at least one of personnel to be notified, a destination device for a notification, an indication of the action, a due date for completion of the action, or a format for the notification.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the transferring the refined data comprises sending the refined data to at least one of a cloud-based notification application, a cloud-based visualization application, a cloud-based reporting application, cloud-based storage, a business intelligence application, or a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) application.

19. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computing system to perform operations, including:

at least one of generating or receiving data relating to an industrial system;

transforming the data into refined data based on a determined requirement of a cloud-based application; and

sending the refined data to the cloud-based application.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the transforming comprises at least one of compressing, aggregating, encrypting, filtering, re-formatting, or contextualizing the data.