Generation of timestamps within field devices

• US 7,675,406 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 03/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Sapach, Dale, Dorgelo, Eric G., Baier, John J., Johnson, David K., Hall, Kenwood H., Rischar, Charles M.
• Primary Examiner(s): TWEEL JR, JOHN ALEXANDER
• Application Number:
  US11/537,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20080079595A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,257 Days
• Field of Search: 340/506, 340/679, 375/295, 370/389, 370/412, 370/465, 707/100, 700/180, 709/218
• US Class Current: 340/506
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31437 Monitoring, global and local alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31462 Add time stamp to alarm message
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34413 Add time stamp to command message
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0235 based on a comparison with predetermined threshold or range, e.g. "classical methods", carried out during normal operation; threshold adaptation or choice; when or how to compare with the threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

A field device in an industrial environment comprises a clock that is synchronized with a clock of at least one other field device. A timestamp generator component creates a timestamp for at least one of an alarm and an event created within the field device, the timestamp accords to the synchronized time. An alarm generator component analyzes data produced and/or consumed by the field device and generates an alarm and/or event based at least in part upon the analysis.

Claims

1. A field device in an industrial environment, comprising:

a clock that is synchronized with a clock of at least one other field device; and

a timestamp generator component that creates a timestamp for at least one of an alarm or an event created within the field device, the timestamp accords to the synchronized time.

2. The field device of claim 1, further comprising a synchronization component that synchronizes the clock with a master clock.

3. The field device of claim 1, further comprising a synchronization component that synchronizes the clock with the clock of the at least one other field device.

4. The field device of claim 1 being communicatively coupled to a data repository that retains alarms and events from a plurality of field devices.

5. The field device of claim 4, the data repository is associated with an indexing component that enables the alarms and events to be chronologically sequenced.

6. The field device of claim 1, further comprising an alarm generator component that analyzes data that is one or more of produced and consumed by the field device to determine if the data is within an expected range.

7. The field device of claim 6, the alarm generator component creates an alarm if the data lies outside the expected range and associates the alarm with a timestamp created by the timestamp generator component.

8. The field device of claim 7, the alarm generator component indicates a severity of the created alarm.

9. The field device of claim 7, further comprising a context analyzer component that monitors contextual data associated with the field device, the alarm generator component packages contextual data monitored by the context analyzer component with the created alarm.

10. The field device of claim 9, the contextual data is associated with an Enterprise Resource Planning system.

11. The field device of claim 1, further comprising an event logger component that packages a logged event with a timestamp created by the timestamp generator component.

12. The field device of claim 1, further comprising a rollback component that rolls back a state of the field device to a known good state upon the field device generating an alarm.

13. The field device of claim 1, the synchronized time accords to Greenwich Mean Time.

14. The field device of claim 1 being a controller.

15. A system that facilitates analyzing alarms and/or events, comprising:

a data repository that retains alarms and events created by a plurality of field devices, the plurality of field devices include clocks that are synchronized according to time and the alarms and events are associated with timestamps generated by the field devices; and

an indexing component that chronologically orders the alarms and events in time.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a master clock that is utilized in connection with synchronizing the clocks of the plurality of field devices.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising a routing component that routes data intended for a field device that generated an alarm to a similar field device upon occurrence of the alarm.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising an update component that automatically updates one or more of a workflow application and a calendar application based upon an analysis of the contents of the data repository.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising an update component that automatically updates at least one of a workflow application or a calendar application upon receipt of an alarm from one of the plurality of field devices.

20. The system of claim 15, the plurality of field devices includes at least one controller.

21. A method for generating an alarm/event, comprising:

synchronizing a clock of a first field device with a clock of at least one other field device;

generating one of an alarm and an event within the first field device; and

generating a timestamp according to the synchronized time within the first field device upon generating the one of the alarm and the event; and

associating the one of the alarm and the event with the timestamp.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising utilizing a master clock to synchronize the clock of the first field device with the clock of the at least one other field device.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

relaying the at least one of the alarm and the event or the associated time stamp to a data repository; and

indexing the at least one of the alarm or the event according to time amongst a plurality of other alarms.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising universally synchronizing clocks of field devices within an industrial environment.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising associating the at least one of the alarm or the event with metadata that describes contextual data existent when the at least one of the alarm or the event was created.

26. An industrial controller, comprising:

means for synchronizing a clock of the industrial controller with a system-wide time;

means for generating an alarm within the industrial controller; and

means for associating a timestamp that conforms to the system-wide time with the generated alarm.