Historians embedded in industrial units

• US 8,805,760 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2011
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baier, John J., Jasper, Taryl J., Campbell, John T., McGreevy, Robert J., Palmieri, Frank Anthony Jr., Herbst, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bharadwaj, Kalpana
• Application Number:
  US13/089,152
• Publication Number:
  US 20110196528A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,212 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45
• 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 memory that stores at least one computer-executable component; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the at least one computer-executable component, the at least one computer-executable component, comprising;

a historian configured to be physically integrated and uniquely associated with a manufactured product, wherein the historian is further configured to store data pertinent to manufacture of the product, and the historian further comprises a locator component configured to;

locate at least one other historian associated with the manufacture of the product, the at least one other historian storing data pertinent to the manufacture of the product; and

retrieve the data from the other historian for storage on the historian to facilitate a pooling of data pertinent to the manufacture of the product at the historian; and

a visualization component, associated with the historian, configured to present the data at a plurality of granularity levels.

2. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the locator component is configured to employ a directory and discover service to communicate with the at least one other historian.

3. The industrial automation system of claim 2, wherein the directory and discover service includes a network directory to facilitate at least one of determination of physical addresses from logical names or determination of logical names from physical addresses.

4. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the historian further comprises a publish and subscribe component configured to facilitate, in response to a change in the data, at least one of publication or generation of the data.

5. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the data is related to at least one of a process, a machine, or an aspect of machine control, pertaining to the manufacture of the product.

6. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of granularity levels are associated with at least one of fault detection or alert triggering, a multi-tiered representation of an industrial process associated with the product, a requirement of an enterprise resource planning application, to facilitate an allocation of a resource, or a distribution of a resource.

7. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the historian is further configured to communicate directly with at least one other historian.

8. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the integrated historian is further configured to associate a visualization attribute with the data.

16. The industrial system of claim 1, wherein the visualization component, in association with presentation of the data at a plurality of granularity levels, facilitates collection and viewing of the data in response to received requests for the collection or the viewing of the data.

19. The industrial system of claim 1, wherein the historian is further configured to determine an amount of the data to be stored by the historian from a control device associated with the manufacture of the product, wherein the volume is a function of a definition of the control device in a hierarchical data model.

20. The industrial system of claim 19, wherein the hierarchical data model facilitates determination of a location level of the control device in an industrial plant operation associated with the manufacture of the product, wherein a first criticality of the data at a first level is different than a second criticality of data at a second level of the hierarchical data model.

9. A method for utilizing a historian, integratable with a component manufactured in an industrial plant comprising:

storing, by a system including at least one processor, data on the historian, wherein the historian is mechanically attached to the component, the component is in a first state, the data pertaining to manufacture of the component, and the manufacture includes changing the state of the component from a first state of manufacture to a second state of manufacture; and

locating at least one other historian assciated with the manufacture of the product, the at least one other historian storing data pertinent to the manufacture of the product; and

retrieving the data from the other historian for storage on the historian to facilitate a pooling of data pertinent to the manufacture of the product at the historian

presenting the data, via a visualization component co-located with the historian, at a plurality of granularity levels.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

communicating, by the system, with the at least one other historian.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining, by the system, which data to present according to at least one of fault detection, alarms associated with the manufacture of the product, a multi-tiered representation of an industrial process associated with the product, a requirement of an enterprise resource planning application associated with the product, facilitating allocating of a resource, or distributing of a resource.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the presenting of the data at a plurality of granularity levels facilitates collection and viewing of the data in response to received requests for the collection or the viewing of the data.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause computing system to perform operations comprising:

identifying, from a plurality of historians, one historian uniquely associated with manufacture of a product, wherein the historian is embedded in the product and records data associated with the manufacture of the product;

locating at least one other historian associated with the manufacture of the product, the at least one other historian storing data pertinent to the manufacture of the product;

retrieving the data from the other historian for storage on the historian to facilitate a pooling of data pertinent to the manufacture of the product at the historian; and

displaying the data, via a visualization component co-located with the historian, in accordance with a plurality of granularity levels.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the identifying further comprises utilizing a directory.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising, utilizing the directory to facilitate determining at least one of physical addresses from logical names or logical names from physical addresses for the historian.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the displaying is a function of at least one of detecting a fault associated with the product, identifying an alarm associated with the product, a multi-tiered representation of an industrial process associated with the product, a requirement of an enterprise resource planning application associated with the product, facilitating allocating of a resource, or distributing of a resource.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the displaying of the data is performed in response to received requests for the storing or the displaying of the data.