Tracking and tracing across process boundaries in an industrial automation environment

• US 7,650,405 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2005
• Issued: 01/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hood, Gavan W., Hall, Kenwood H., Kappelhoff, Ralph
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG, LIANG CHE A
• Application Number:
  US11/238,606
• Publication Number:
  US 20060259634A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,573 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/056 Programming the PLC
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32126 Hyperlink, access to program modules and to hardware modules in www, web server, browser
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A system that facilitates tracking and tracing products in an industrial environment comprises a reception component that receives data indicative of location of entities within an industrial environment, wherein the data conforms to a hierarchically structured data model. A monitoring component facilitates tracking and tracing the entities across process boundaries. Tracking refers to a process of uniformly building a track of objects that are forwarded to, processed for, applied in, or disposed of usage. Similarly, tracing is the process of uniformly generating a sample of traces of objects that are forwarded to, processed for, applied in, or disposed of usage.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates tracking and tracing products in an industrial environment comprising:

a processor configured to support the operation of coputer-executable compnents stored on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer-executable components including;

a reception component that receives data indicative of location of entities within an industrial environment, the data converted to a standardized form consistent with a hierarchically structured data model which integrates equipment hierarchy with procedure hierarchies such that data objects corresponding to the received data are associates with metadata inidicating types of process associates therewtih;

a monitoring componnt that outputs tracking and tracing parameters of the entities across process boundaries, wherein tracking parameters include real-time reckoning of a location for the entities and tracing parametners include retrospective reckoning of occurance of events for the entities; and

a view generation component that provides a view indicating current tracking and tracing parameters.

2. The system of claim 1, the boundaries comprise boundaries between batch, continuous, discrete, or inventory processes.

3. The system of claim 1, the received data is generated by one or more programmable logic controllers.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an appending component that appends metadata to the received data, wherein the view created is dependent upon the metadata.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a genealogy component that facilitates creation of genealogy records across process boundaries over time.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a proxy component that facilitates utilization of data from a legacy programmable logic controller in connection with the tracking and tracing of the entities.

7. The system of claim 6, the proxy component comprises a mapping component that maps data from a flat data structure to data that conforms to the hierarchically structured data model.

8. The system of claim 6, the proxy component comprises a bridging component that converts data that conforms to a first network protocol to data that conforms to a second network protocol.

9. The system of claim 8, the second network protocol is Common Industrial protocol(CIP).

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a security component that ensures that an operator is authorized to review tracking and tracing data prior to providing the operator with such data.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a filtering component that filters data relating to tracking and tracing of the entities based at least in part upon user identity.

12. The system of claim 1, the hierarchically structured data model is based at least in part upon one or more of:

ISA S88, ISA S95, or OMAC.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface component that facilitates provision of tracking and tracing data to a remote client.

14. The system of claim 13, the provision of the tracking and tracing data is accomplished by way of one of the Internet or an intranet.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a view generation component that creates a view of at least a portion of a factory as well as positions of the entities within the factory.

16. A method for tracking and tracing a product across process boundaries comprising:

receiving data relating to a product from multiple controllers of an industrial control environment as implemented with the support of a processor operatively coupled to memory, the controllers control related processes, conversion of the data to a standardized form consistent with a hierarchically structured data model which integrates equipment hierarchy with procedure hierarchy suct that data objects are associated with metadata indicating a type of process associated therewith;

utilizing the data to output tracking and tracing parameter data of the product across process boundaries for one or more procedures with which the porduct is associated, wherein tracking paramenter data includes real-time reckoning of a location for the product and tracing parameter data includes tetrospective reckoning of occurrence of events for the product; and

generating a high-level view of the industrial control environment and overlaying the high-level view with current tracking and tracing parameter data..

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating a view that illustrates tracking and tracing parameters in terminology particular to an operator.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising ensuring that an operator is authorized to receive tracking and tracing data prior to providing the operator with such data.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising mapping data from at least one of the multiple controllers that does not support the hierarchically structured data model to data that conforms to the hierarchically structured data model.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising converting data from at least one of the multiple controllers from data that conforms to a first network protocol to data that conforms to a second network protocol.

21. The method of claim 20, the second network protocol is Common Industrial Protocol(CIP).

22. The method of claim 16, at least a portion of the data is obtained by way of Radio-frequency identification(RFID) tags on entities associated with the product.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising providing access to the tracking and tracing data to a remote entity by way of one or more of the Internet or an intranet.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the high-level view is a representation of an industrial plant and includes boundaries between at least two of the following:

a batch process, a transportation process, a packaging process, or a storage process.

25. A system that facilitates performing tracking and tracing across process boundaries within an industrial automation environment, comprising:

a processor operatively coupled to memory configured to;

receive data relating to multiple processes within the industrial automation environment, the received data is converted to a standardized form consistent with a hierarchically structured data model that integrates equipment hierarchy with procedure hierarchy such that data objects are associated with metadata indicating types of processes associated therewith;

convert data that does not conform to hierarchically structured data model to data that conforms to the hierarchically sturectured data model;

analyze the received data to generate tracking and tracing data across process boundaries, wherein tracking data includes real-time location data and tracing data includes retrospective occurrence of events; and

create an overlaid view of current tracking and tracing data over the multiple processes of industrial automation environment from the received data.

26. The system of claim 25, the view further comprising a view of at least a portion of a factory illustrating tracking and tracing data.