TIME-STAMPING OF INDUSTRIAL CLOUD DATA FOR SYNCHRONIZATION

• US 20130212420A1
• Filed: 12/21/2012
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lawson, Douglas C., Reichard, Douglas J., Harkulich, Joseph A., Hessmer, Rainer, Chand, Sujeet, Farchmin, David W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,413,852 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/400
• 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-capable industrial device that provides time-stamped industrial data to a cloud platform is provided. The industrial device collects or generates 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. The industrial device can apply time stamps to respective items of industrial data reflecting a time that the data was measured or generated prior to providing the data to the cloud platform. To accurately reflect temporal relationships between data sets provided to the cloud platform from different locations and time zones, the industrial device can synchronize its internal clock with a clock associated with the cloud platform.

Claims

1. An industrial device, comprising:

a memory that stores computer-executable components;

a processor operatively coupled to the memory that executes computer-executable components, including;

a cloud interface component configured to communicatively couple the industrial device to a cloud platform;

a synchronization component configured to synchronize an internal clock of the industrial device with a master clock; and

a time stamp component configured to associate a time stamp with industrial data measured or generated by the industrial device based on the internal clock to yield time-stamped data.

2. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the synchronization component is further configured to synchronize the internal clock in accordance with at least one of a synchronization signal received from an atomic clock signal receiver, a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, a network-based time service, or a synchronization signal received from the cloud platform that synchronizes the internal clock with a cloud clock or a synchronization service that runs locally on the industrial device.

3. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the cloud interface component is further configured to send the time-stamped data to the cloud platform.

4. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the industrial device is at least one of an industrial controller, an operator interface terminal, a meter, a sensor, a motor drive, a data historian, a firewall device, a cloud proxy device, a video camera, a barcode marker, a barcode reader, an industrial robot, or a vision system device.

5. The industrial device of claim 1, the computer-executable components further including a context component configured to add contextual metadata to at least a subset of the industrial data.

6. The industrial device of claim 5, wherein the contextual metadata includes at least one of a production 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 device of claim 1, the computer-executable components further including a filter component configured to filter the industrial data according to at least one filter criterion prior to sending the industrial data to the cloud platform.

8. The industrial device of claim 7, wherein the at least one filter criterion includes removal of data values that are outside a defined range, removal of redundant data values, or removal of data values to create a subset of the industrial data having a defined data frequency.

9. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the cloud interface component is configured to interface the industrial device with a cloud-based application running on the cloud platform, wherein the cloud-based application is at least one of a data analysis application, a notification application, a business intelligence application, a visualization application, a reporting application, a storage application, a manufacturing execution system (MES) application, or an enterprise resource planning (ERP) application.

10. The industrial device of claim 1, the computer-executable components further including an aggregation component configured to combine related data items of the industrial data into a single upload for delivery to the cloud platform.

11. The industrial device of claim 10, wherein the aggregation component is further configured to aggregate a first subset of the industrial data received from a first data source and a second subset of the industrial data received from a second source into a chronological data set based on time stamps associated with the first data set and the second data set by the time stamp component.

12. A method for time-stamping industrial data for cloud-based processing, comprising:

receiving, at an industrial device, a synchronization signal from a global system;

synchronizing an internal clock of the industrial device with a cloud clock associated with the cloud platform; and

applying a time stamp to industrial data received or generated by the industrial device based on the internal clock yielding time-stamped data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the synchronizing comprises synchronizing the internal clock with the global clock based on at least one of a synchronization signal received from the global system or a synchronization service that runs on the industrial device.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising sending the time-stamped data to the cloud platform.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the time stamp includes a coordinated universal time (UTC) stamp.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the time stamp includes time zone information indicating a local time zone of the industrial device.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising appending, by the industrial device, contextual metadata to the industrial data.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the appending comprises appending at least one of a production shift, a production area, a product, a machine state, an employee identifier, a lot number, an active alarm, or a hierarchical organizational tag.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising filtering the industrial data prior to the sending based on at least one filtering criterion.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the filtering comprises at least one of:

discarding data values that are outside a defined data range,

discarding redundant data values, or

discarding extra data values to yield a set of industrial data that conforms to a defined data frequency.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein the sending comprises sending the time-stamped data to a cloud-based application residing on the cloud platform, the cloud-based application comprising at least one of a data analysis application, a notification application, a business intelligence application, a visualization application, a reporting application, a storage application, a manufacturing execution system (MES), or an enterprise resource planning (ERP) application.

22. The method of claim 12, further comprising combining a first subset of the time-stamped data received from a first data source and a second subset of the time-stamped data received from a second data source into a chronological data set.

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

communicatively coupling an industrial device to a cloud platform;

synchronizing an internal clock of the industrial device with a master clock; and

time-stamping industrial data received or generated at the industrial device using a time provided by the internal clock to yield time-stamped data.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the synchronizing comprises at least one of synchronizing the internal clock with a global clock associated with the cloud platform based on a synchronization signal received from the cloud platform or synchronizing the internal clock using a synchronization service running on the industrial device.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, the operations further including sending the time-stamped data to a cloud-based application executing on the cloud platform.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the sending the time-stamped data includes sending the time-stamped data including a coordinated universal time (UTC) stamp.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, the operations further including appending context information to the industrial data specifying a context of the industrial data.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, the operations further including filtering the time-stamped data based on at least one filtering criterion.