Historians embedded in industrial units

• US 7,930,261 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2007
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Palmieri, Frank Anthony Jr., Baier, John J., Campbell, John T., McGreevy, Robert J., Herbst, Robert J., Jasper, Taryl J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sparks; Donald
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bharadwaj; Kalpana
• Application Number:
  US11/862,180
• Publication Number:
  US 20090083204A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,301 Days
• Field of Search: 700/19, 700/20, 702/187
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3072 where the reporting involves data filtering, e.g. pattern matching, time or event triggered, adaptive or policy-based reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• 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

Abstract

Systems and methods that provide a historian integrated as part of an industrial unit and/or product manufactured by the industrial process. A historian integrated as part of the industrial unit itself, can increase data resolution and supply immediate and real time data regarding the industrial unit'"'"'s operation—while mitigating short comings of conventional PC historians. Moreover, a locator component can detect embedded historians that are distributed on the back plane of an industrial network, and integrated as part thereof.

Claims

1. An industrial automation system, comprising:

a historian that is integrated as part of an industrial unit configured for collection of data associated with the industrial automation system, wherein the historian is configured to poll, record, and process data with a resolution of an order of one millisecond and the industrial unit controls an industrial process; and

a locator component configured to locate the historian integrated as part of the industrial unit.

2. The industrial automation system of claim 1, further comprising an organizational hierarchy data model with nodes that represent units associated with the industrial automation system.

3. The industrial automation system of claim 2, wherein the locator component is operatively connected to a directory service to facilitate discovery service.

4. The industrial automation system of claim 2, wherein the organizational hierarch data model is marked with metadata to facilitate identification of historians to the locator component.

5. The industrial automation system of claim 1, further comprising an artificial intelligence component configured to allocate resources for the historian.

6. The industrial automation system of claim 5, further comprising a publish and subscribe component configured to identify the historian to the locator component.

7. The industrial automation system of claim 5, further comprising a data base configured to service the historian.

8. The industrial automation system of claim 1, further comprising a Human Machine Interface (HMI) configured to graphically display a view of the industrial automation system.

9. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the historian is associated with at least one of a controller, a module in a chassis, a server, a sensor, or a factory component.

10. A method of collecting data via historians within an industrial plant comprising:

integrating a historian as part of an industrial unit, wherein the historian performing polling, recording, and processing of data with a resolution of an order of one millisecond and the industrial unit controls an industrial process being performed in the industrial plant; and

collecting data via the historian integrated in the industrial unit.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising employing metadata to facilitate a trail to the historian.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising defining a common organizational data model for the industrial plant.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising employing a polling mechanism for historian detection and identification.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising incorporating a locator component to identify historians.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising defining a common organizational data model for the industrial plant.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising employing a directory to track a data source.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining functional blocks associated with a process performed by the industrial plant.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising employing a directory to track a data source.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising collecting historian data across various levels of the industrial plant.

20. An industrial controller system comprising:

means for collecting data related to an industrial unit, the collecting means integrated as part of the industrial unit, wherein the historian performing polling, recording, and processing of data with a resolution of an order of one millisecond and the industrial unit controls an industrial process; and

means for locating the collecting means.