DYNAMIC SEARCH ENGINE FOR AN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT

• US 20160132595A1
• Filed: 11/07/2014
• Published: 05/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sandler, Scott N., Cahalane, Ryan, Walter, Jonathan D., Korpela, Jessica L., Bliss, Ronald E., Reichard, Douglas J., Pantaleano, Michael J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,760,635 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23258 GUI graphical user interface, icon, function bloc editor, labview
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32234 Maintenance planning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/06 Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers , e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
• 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

Abstract

A multi-platform industrial search system facilitates indexing and searching of plant-wide data residing on multiple different data platforms. The industrial search system automatically inventories industrial devices and other data sources located throughout a plant, and identifies available data items on each data source. The search system indexes the discovered data items in a federated data model that can subsequently be searched to locate data items or tags of interest. The federated data model records references to data items found on different types of data sources, including but not limited to industrial controller programs, human-machine interface applications, data historians, device documentation stores, inventory tracking systems, and other such data sources. The search system can also initiate automated searches of the federated data model in response to detected performance issues and deliver notifications and contextual information to plant personnel.

Claims

1. A system for searching industrial data, comprising:

a memory that stores computer-executable components;

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

an indexing component configured to discover available data items distributed across multiple data sources of an industrial environment and to generate a federated data model that records respective locations of the data items, wherein the multiple data sources comprise at least a first data source corresponding to a first data platform and a second data source corresponding to a second data platform;

a search component configured to perform a search of the federated data model for a specified data item and to generate a set of search results identifying locations of the data item, wherein the set of search results comprises at least a first subset of results corresponding to the first data platform and a second subset of results corresponding to the second data platform; and

a device interface component configured to send the set of search results to a client device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first data source or the second data source comprises an industrial controller, and the indexing component is configured to discover, as one of the available data items, a reference to a data tag in a controller logic program executing on the industrial controller.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first data source or the second data source comprises a human-machine interface application, and the indexing component is configured to discover, as one of the available data items, a reference to a data tag on a display screen of the human-machine interface application.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first data source or the second data source comprises at least one of a data historian device, a work order management system, an inventory tracking system, or a documentation data store.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the device interface component is further configured to, in response to receipt of selection data from the client device indicating a selection of a search result of the set of search results, select an application that corresponds to a data platform of the search result, initiate a launching of the application on at least one of the client device or another client device, and instruct the application to display the search result on the client device or the other client device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the device interface component is configured to select, as the application, at least one of a controller logic development application or a human-machine interface viewing application.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the device interface component is further configured to establish a communicative link between the client device and a data source corresponding to the search result, and deliver near real-time values of a data item corresponding to the search result retrieved from the data source to the client device.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a monitoring component configured to, in response a determination that one or more near real-time values of the available data items satisfy a criterion defined in a monitoring rule indicative of a performance issue relating to an industrial asset, initiate an automated search of the federated data model based on a search criterion defined in the monitoring rule; and

a notification component configured to, in response to the determination that the one or more near real-time values satisfy the criterion, send notification information to one or more client devices, wherein the notification information comprises information about the performance issue and a set of results of the automated search

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the indexing component, the search component, and the device interface component are implemented on at least one of a stand-alone computing device, a web server device, or one or more cloud platform devices.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the device interface component is further configured to receive search query data specifying the data item, wherein the search query data comprises at least one of manually entered text data, translated barcode data, translated quick response (QR) code data, or information retrieved from an industrial device via near field communication.

11. A method for indexing and searching multi-platform industrial data, comprising:

identifying, by a system comprising a processor, available data items located on multiple data sources of an industrial environment, wherein the multiple data sources comprise at least a first data source corresponding to a first data platform and a second data source corresponding to a second data platform;

generating, by the system, a federated data model that indexes respective locations of the data items;

receiving, by the system, query information specifying a data item;

in response to the receiving, identifying, by the system, locations of the data item based on a search of the federated data model; and

sending, by the system, a set of search results to a client device, wherein the search results identify the locations of the data item.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifying comprises identifying at least a first data item referenced in an industrial control program executing on an industrial controller, and a second data item referenced on a human-machine interface screen of a human-machine interface application.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a first set of search results identifying the locations of the data item based on a first search of the federated data model;

identifying one or more related data items based on the first set of search results; and

determining a second set of search results based on at least a second search of the federated data model that uses the data item and the one or more related data items as search criteria,

wherein the sending comprises sending the second set of search results to the client device.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising

in response to the receiving,

performing a web search using one or more results of the set of search results as search criteria,

receiving at least one web search result based on the web search;

correlating the at least one web search result to the one or more results, and

presenting at least one link to the at least one web search result in association with the one or more search results.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to receiving selection data from the client device indicating a selection of a search result of the set of search results,

selecting an application corresponding to a data platform of the search result,

initiating a launching of the application on at least one of the client device or another client device, and

instructing the application to display the search result on the client device or the other client device.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

recording one or more interactions with the set of search results via the client device;

in response to receiving, from the client device or another client device, subsequent query information specifying the data item, performing another search of the federated data model using the data item and the one or more interactions as search criteria; and

sending another set of search results to the client device or the other client device based on the other search.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

creating a communicative link between a data source and at least one of the client device or the other client device;

retrieving values of a data item corresponding to the search result from the data source; and

sending the values to at least one of the client device or the other client device via the application.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining, based on a monitoring of one or more values of the available data items, that the one or more values satisfy a criterion defined by a monitoring rule indicative of an operational issue with one or more industrial assets within the industrial environment; and

in response to the determining;

initiating an automated search of the federate data model based on search criterion defined by the monitoring rule; and

sending notification information to one or more client devices, wherein the notification information comprises an identification of the operational issue and one or more search results generated based on the automated search.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

discovering available data items located on multiple data sources of an industrial environment, wherein the multiple data sources comprise at least a first data source corresponding to a first data platform and a second data source corresponding to a second data platform;

creating a federated data model that records respective locations of the data items;

in response to receiving query information specifying a data item, identifying locations of the data item based on a search of the federated data model; and

sending a set of search results to a client device, wherein the search results identify the locations of the data item.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the discovering comprises discovering at least a first data item referenced in an industrial control program executing on an industrial controller, and a second data item referenced on a human-machine interface screen of a human-machine interface application.