CLOUD-BASED ANALYTICS FOR INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

• US 20160274558A1
• Filed: 03/16/2015
• Published: 09/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Fordenwalt, Matthew W., Hickox, Stephen L., Strohmenger, John, Korpela, Jessica L., Pingel, Jan, Weber, Douglas B.
• Granted Patent: US 11,243,505 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0428 Safety, monitoring G05B19/0423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23026 Recognise user input pattern and present possible intended program
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23068 Give instructions, messages to operator
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24015 Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32187 Correlation between controlling parameters for influence on quality parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0237 based on parallel systems, e.g. comparing signals produced at the same time by same type systems and detect faulty ones by noticing differences among their responses
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

A cloud-based analytics engine that analyzes data relating to an industrial automation system(s) to facilitate enhancing operation of the industrial automation system(s) is presented. The analytics engine can interface with the industrial automation system(s) via a cloud gateway(s) and can analyze industrial-related data obtained from the industrial automation system(s). The analytics engine can determine correlations between respective portions or aspects of the system(s), between a portion(s) or aspect(s) of the system(s) and extrinsic events or conditions, or between an employee(s) and the system(s). The analytics engine can determine and provide recommendations or instructions in connection with the industrial automation system(s) to enhance system performance based on the determined correlations. The analytics engine also can determine when there is a deviation or potential of deviation from desired system performance by an industrial asset or employee, and provide a notification, a recommendation, or an instruction to rectify or avoid the deviation.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a memory that stores computer-executable components;

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

a collection component collects a set of industrial data from a set of devices of an industrial automation system and store the set of industrial data in a data store; and

an analytics component that performs analytics on the set of industrial data to determine a correlation between respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system to facilitate improving operations or performance associated with the industrial automation system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the analytics component determines a change relating to the industrial automation system that is determined to result in improving the operations or the performance associated with the industrial automation system based at least in part on the correlation between the respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the analytics component generates a recommendation message comprising a recommendation to implement the change relating to the industrial automation system to facilitate improving the operations or the performance associated with the industrial automation system, and communicates the recommendation message to a communication device associated with the user to facilitate implementation of the change.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the analytics component generates an instruction message comprising a set of instructions to implement the change relating to the industrial automation system to facilitate improving the operations or the performance associated with the industrial automation system, and communicates the instruction message to an industrial device of the set of devices to facilitate implementation of the change.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the change relates to at least one of a modification of a parameter associated with the industrial device, or a modification of a configuration associated with the industrial device.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system comprise a first item of interest and a second item of interest.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first item of interest relates to at least one of an industrial device of the set of devices, a network-related device of the set of devices, an industrial process of the industrial automation system, a production output for a product produced by the industrial automation system, a production goal associated with the product, a product cost associated with producing the product, a material that is used for producing the product and stored in an industrial facility associated with the industrial automation system, or an interaction of an employee with the industrial automation system, a defined period of time associated with the industrial automation system

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the second item of interest relates to at least one of another industrial device of the set of devices, another network-related device of the set of devices, another industrial process of the industrial automation system, another production goal associated with the product, another material that is used for producing the product and stored in the industrial facility or at a location other than the industrial facility, another interaction of another employee with the industrial automation system, another defined period of time associated with the industrial automation system, a weather condition, a transportation cost relating to the product, an energy cost associated with the industrial automation system, a governmental policy, or a consumer demand for the product.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable components further comprise a visualization component that generates a visualized information display comprising information relating to at least one of a portion of the industrial data or a result of the analytics performed on the set of industrial data.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the visualized information display is a two-dimensional visualized information display or a three-dimensional visualized information display.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the analytics component receives input information from a communication device associated with a user, wherein the input information indicates a selection of a first item of interest associated with the industrial automation system and a second item of interest associated with the industrial automation system by the user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the correlation between the respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system is a correlation between the first item of interest and the second item of interest, and wherein, in response to the selection of the first item of interest and the second item of interest, the analytics component determines the correlation between the first item of interest and the second item of interest based at least in part on a result of the analytics performed on the set of industrial data.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the visualization component modifies the visualized information display to generate a modified visualized information display comprising a subset of visualized information that presents a visual representation relating to the correlation between the first item of interest and the second item of interest, and presents the modified visualized information display to the communication device associated with the user.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the analytics component analyzes a set of correlations between the respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system, determines respective priority levels of respective correlations of the set of correlations, and ranks the respective correlations based at least in part on the respective priority levels of the respective correlations, in accordance with a defined analytics criterion.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the visualization component generates the visualized information display comprising visualized information relating to the respective correlations, wherein the respective correlations are presented in the visualized information display in order of the respective priority levels of the respective correlations, and wherein the visualization component presents the visualized information display to a communication device associated with a user.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the analytics component and the collection component are associated with a set of industrial automation systems comprising the industrial automation system and a second industrial automation system, wherein the collection component collects a second set of industrial data from a second set of devices of the second industrial automation system and store the second set of industrial data in the data store, and wherein the analytics component performs analytics on the set of industrial data and the second set of industrial data to determine a second correlation between a first item of interest associated with the industrial automation system and a second item of interest associated with the second industrial automation system to facilitate improving operations or performance associated with the set of industrial automation systems.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the analytics component determines a performance baseline for a variable relating to the industrial automation system based at least in part on a result of the analytics performed on the set of industrial data, wherein the performance baseline relates to a defined production goal associated with the industrial automation system and indicates a defined acceptable performance level for the variable.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the analytics component determines a deviation from the performance baseline based at least in part on second analytics performed on a subset of the set of industrial data, wherein at least a portion of the subset of the industrial data relates to the variable.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the analytics component receives a set of video streams from a set of capture components associated with the industrial automation system, wherein respective capture components of the set of capture components capture video of respective portions of the industrial automation system.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the analytics component analyzes the set of video streams to facilitate determining the correlation between the respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the collection component, the analytics component, or the data store are part of a cloud platform, and wherein the computer-executable components further comprise an interface component configured to interface at least one of the collection component, the analytics component, or the data store of the cloud platform with the industrial automation system via a cloud gateway component of the industrial automation system to facilitate communication of the set of industrial data from the industrial automation system to at least one of the collection component, the analytics component, or the data store.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein an industrial device of the set of devices is integrated with or associated with the cloud gateway component to facilitate communication of a subset of the set of industrial data relating to the industrial device from the industrial device to at least one of the collection component, the analytics component, or the data store.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of industrial data comprises at least one of data relating to an industrial device of the set of devices, data relating to an industrial process associated with the set of devices, data relating to an industrial asset, data relating to a network-related device of the set of devices that facilitates data communications associated with the industrial automation system, data relating to at least one interrelationship between the at least one device and at least one other device of the set of devices, data relating to an operating system associated with the industrial automation system, data relating to software associated with the industrial automation system, or data relating to firmware associated with the industrial automation system.

24. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor, a set of industrial data from a set of devices of an industrial automation system for storage in a data store associated with the industrial automation system; and

performing, by the system, analytics on the set of industrial data to at least determine a correlation between respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system to facilitate enhancing performance with respect to the industrial automation system.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

based at least in part on the correlation between the respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system, determining, by the system, a modification relating to the industrial automation system that is determined to result in enhancing the performance with respect to the industrial automation system.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

generating, by the system, a recommendation to implement the modification relating to the industrial automation system to facilitate enhancing the performance with respect to the industrial automation system; and

transmitting, by the system, the recommendation to a communication device associated with the user to facilitate implementing the modification.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

generating, by the system, a set of instructions that instruct an industrial device of the set of devices to implement the modification relating to the industrial automation system to facilitate enhancing the performance with respect to the industrial automation system; and

transmitting the set of instructions to the industrial device to facilitate implementing the modification.

28. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

generating, by the system, a visualized information display comprising information that visually represents at least one of a portion of the industrial data or a result of the analytics performed on the set of industrial data.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the visualized information display is a two-dimensional visualized information display or a three-dimensional visualized information display.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

obtaining, by the system, selection information from a communication device associated with a user, wherein the selection information indicates a selection of a first item of interest associated with the industrial automation system and a second item of interest associated with the industrial automation system by the user; and

in response to the selecting of the first item of interest and the second item of interest, determining, by the system, a correlation between the first item of interest and the second item of interest based at least in part on a result of the analytics performed on the set of industrial data.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

modifying, by the system, the visualized information display to generate an augmented visualized information display comprising visualized information that presents a visual representation relating to the correlation between the first item of interest and the second item of interest; and

transmitting, by the system, the augmented visualized information display to the communication device associated with the user.

32. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

analyzing, by the system, a set of correlations between the respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system;

determining, by the system, respective priority levels of respective correlations of the set of correlations; and

arranging, by the system, the respective correlations in a priority ranking order based at least in part on the respective priority levels of the respective correlations, in accordance with a defined analytics criterion.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

generating, by the system, the visualized information display comprising visualized information relating to the respective correlations that presents the respective correlations in accordance with the priority ranking order; and

transmitting, by the system, the visualized information display to a communication device associated with a user.

34. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

identifying, by the system, a performance baseline for a variable relating to the industrial automation system based at least in part on a result of the analytics performed on the set of industrial data, wherein the performance baseline relates to a defined production goal associated with the industrial automation system and specifies a defined threshold acceptable performance level for the variable.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

determining, by the system, a deviation from the performance baseline based at least in part on a result of second analytics performed on a subset of the set of industrial data, wherein at least a portion of the subset of the industrial data relates to the variable.

36. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

receiving, by the system, a set of video streams from a set of capture devices associated with the industrial automation system, wherein respective capture devices of the set of capture devices capture video of respective portions of the industrial automation system; and

analyzing, by the system, the set of video streams, wherein the determining the correlation further comprises determining the correlation between the respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system based at least in part on a result of the analyzing of the set of video streams.

37. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, comprising:

collecting a set of industrial data from a set of devices of an industrial automation system for storage in a data store associated with the industrial automation system; and

performing analytics on the set of industrial data to at least determine a correlation between a first item of interest associated with the industrial automation system and a second item of interest associated with the industrial automation system to facilitate improving performance associated with the industrial automation system.

38. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 37, wherein the operations further comprise:

based at least in part on the correlation between the respective items of interest associated with the industrial automation system, determining a modification relating to the industrial automation system that is determined to result in improving the performance associated with the industrial automation system;

generating a recommendation or an instruction that recommends or instructs implementing the modification relating to the industrial automation system to facilitate the improving of the performance associated with the industrial automation system; and

transmitting the recommendation or the instruction to a communication device associated with the user or an industrial device of the set of devices to facilitate implementing the modification.