Conditional download of data from embedded historians

• US 8,078,294 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2010
• Issued: 12/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Baier, John J., McGreevy, Robert J., Jasper, Taryl J, Herbst, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Decady, Albert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rapp, Chad
• Application Number:
  US12/691,302
• Publication Number:
  US 20100121664A1
• Time in Patent Office: 691 Days
• Field of Search: 700/11, 700/17, 700/19, 700/32, 700/48, 700/108, 700/169, 700/173, 702/3, 702/102
• US Class Current: 700/32
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Systems and methods that provide for event driven downloading, via defining storage thresholds in an embedded historian (e.g. micro historian). Upon reaching predetermined thresholds (e.g., low/high water marks), stored data in the embedded historians can automatically down load to a central plant historian. An automatic download engine is provided that down loads historian data based on satisfaction of such conditions defined for the download. The download engine can further include a detector component, which detects whether a predetermined condition (e.g., associated with the storage capacity of the micro-historians have been met. Moreover, a notification component can notify the embedded historians that the data have been permanently persisted in the central historian.

Claims

1. A industrial data collection system, comprising:

a download engine configured to initiate download of data, collected by at least one embedded historian, to a central repository in response to satisfaction of at least one predetermined criterion related to collection of the data by the at least one embedded historian.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one predetermined criterion comprises a specified percentage of storage capacity utilization associated with the at least one embedded historian.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the download engine further comprises a detector component configured to detect that the at least one predetermined criterion has been satisfied.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one embedded historian is configured to identify itself to the download engine in response to the satisfaction of the at least one predetermined criterion.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one embedded historian is configured to reside on a rack level of an organization, and the central repository is configured to aggregate the data from the at least one embedded historian at a plant tier or an enterprise tier of the organization.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising an organizational data model configured to represent a common model of the organization, wherein the organizational data model is capable of distribution among at least one industrial controller within the organization.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the download engine is configured to establish a connection instance between the at least one embedded historian and the central repository to facilitate the download, and to assign a connection identifier to the connection instance.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the download engine is configured to populate the connection instance with information regarding at least one of an identity of the at least one embedded historian or a type of data being downloaded via the connection instance.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the download engine is configured to generate a transmission history for the download and associate the transmission history with the connection instance.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the transmission history is configured to include at least one of an identification of a portion of the data that has been downloaded to the central repository, a record of a download pause or a download resume, or an identification of a communication activity error.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the download engine further comprises a notification component configured to transmit a notification to the at least one embedded historian in response to completion of the download.

12. A method for collecting data within an organization, comprising:

collecting data associated with an industrial process using at least one embedded historian associated with an industrial controller;

storing the data in a memory associated with the at least one embedded historian;

determining that a predetermined criterion related to the collecting has been satisfied; and

initiating a download of the data from the at least one embedded historian to a central repository in response to the determining.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining includes determining that the memory has exceeded a predetermined percentage of utilization.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

representing the organization as an organizational data model; and

distributing the organizational data model to at least the industrial controller.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the initiating includes:

establishing a connection instance between the at least one embedded historian and the central repository to facilitate downloading the data; and

assigning a connection identifier to the connection instance.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising populating the connection instance with information regarding at least one of an identity of the at least one embedded historian or a type of data to be downloaded via the connection instance.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

generating a transmission history for the download; and

associating the transmission history with the connection instance.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the generating includes generating at least one of an identification of a subset of the data that has been downloaded to the central repository, a record of download pauses and download resumes, or an identification of at least one communication activity error.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing a notification to the at least one embedded historian in response to determining that the data has been downloaded to the central repository.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computer to perform operations including:

collecting data associated with an industrial process;

storing the data in a memory;

determining that a predetermined criterion related to collection of the data has been satisfied; and

initiating a download of the data from the memory to a central plant historian in response to the determining.