Cloud manifest configuration management system

• US 9,843,617 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2014
• Issued: 12/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Maturana, Francisco P., Asenjo, Juan L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Keller, Michael A
• Application Number:
  US14/525,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20150281319A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,142 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/18 Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of programme data in numerical form G05B19/418 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

Cloud-based data processing services facilitate collection and processing of industrial data in a cloud platform. On-premise data collection agents collect and pre-process industrial data from one or more data sources, including industrial devices, historians, etc. The agents apply a header to the data defining a hierarchical, customer-specific data model that can be leveraged in the cloud platform to suitably process the data. Cloud-side data process services receive the resulting data packets, assign the data to one or more priority queues, and invoke a manifest assembly corresponding to the data model defined by the header. The manifest assembly defines one or more operations to be performed on the received data, including specifying a final storage destination for the data, determining one or more metrics for an industrial system or process based on the received data, or other such operations.

Claims

1. A system for processing industrial data in a cloud platform, comprising:

a memory that stores executable components;

a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the executable components, the executable components comprising;

a manifest assembly repository configured to maintain manifest data that defines, for respective priority queues configured in the cloud platform, customer-specific preferences relating to processing of data received at the cloud platform and assigned to the priority queues, wherein the manifest data is uploaded to the cloud platform via a cloud agent device at a plant facility, and wherein the customer-specific preferences define, for respective priority queues of the priority queues, at least a processing priority for the data, an upload frequency for the data, and an indication of a storage location within the cloud storage for the data;

a queue management component configured to receive, at the cloud platform, a data packet from the cloud agent device and assign industrial data contained in the data packet to one of the priority queues selected based on header information contained in the data packet;

a worker role component configured to identify a subset of the manifest data corresponding to the one of the priority queues and defining at least one operation to be performed on the industrial data based on the header information contained in the data packet, and to process the industrial data in the one of the priority queues in accordance with the operation to yield processed data; and

a reporting services component configured to deliver the processed data to a client device in a defined format.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the header information comprises at least one of a customer identifier field, a site identifier field, a virtual support engineer (VSE) identifier field, a data priority field, a message type field, or a process identifier field.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the manifest data comprises system manifest data associated with a customer identifier, a site identifier, and a VSE identifier, and wherein the worker role component is configured to identify the subset of the manifest data based on respective values of the customer identifier field, the site identifier field, and the VSE field.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the system manifest data identifies one or more procedures to be performed on the industrial data, and wherein the worker role component is further configured retrieve the one or more procedures from cloud storage for processing of the industrial data based on information in the system manifest data.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the system manifest data is linked to one or more sets of tag manifest data that respectively define tag names corresponding to data items to be processed by the one or more procedures, and wherein the worker role component is configured to select a set of tag manifest data, of the one or more sets of tag manifest data, corresponding to the header information of the data packet.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the worker role component is further configured to extract the data items corresponding to the tag names from at least one of cloud storage or the data packet, and to pass the data items to the one or more procedures for processing.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the wherein the system manifest data is linked to one or more sets of metrics manifest data that respectively define one or more of a coefficient, a range, or a threshold to be used as a parameter for the one or more procedures.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more procedures at least one of define a storage destination for the industrial data or define a process for determining a metric based on the industrial data.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the storage destination is a remote cloud platform, and the one or more procedures cause the worker role to retrieve the industrial data from transient blob storage on the cloud platform and send the industrial data to a remote storage location on a different cloud platform.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the subset of the manifest data and the header information conform to a common hierarchical architecture.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein the queue management component is further configured to select the one of the priority queues for assignment of the industrial data based on values contained in one or more of the customer identifier field, the site identifier field, the VSE identifier field, the data priority field, the message type field, or the process identifier field.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the priority queues are associated with respective different processing priority levels.

13. A method for collecting and managing data in a cloud platform, comprising:

receiving, at a cloud platform by a system comprising at least one processor, manifest data from a cloud agent device at a plant facility, the manifest data defining, for respective priority queues configured in the cloud platform, customer-specific preferences relating to processing of data received at the cloud platform and assigned to the respective priority queues, wherein the customer-specific preferences comprise at least a processing priority for the data, an upload frequency for the data, and an indication of a storage location within the cloud storage for the data;

receiving, at the cloud platform by the system, a data packet from the cloud agent device, wherein the data packet comprises a data file containing industrial data and a header;

assigning, by the system, the industrial data to a priority queue of the priority queues selected based on information read from the header;

identifying, by the system, a subset of the manifest data corresponding to the priority queue based on the information read from the header;

processing, by the system, the industrial data in the priority queue in accordance with an operation defined by the subset of the manifest data to yield processed data; and

sending, by the system, the processed data to a client device in accordance with a defined reporting format.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the identifying the subset of the manifest data comprises identifying the subset of the manifest data based on values of one or more data fields of the header, and wherein the data fields comprise at least one of a customer identifier field, a site identifier field, a virtual support engineer (VSE) identifier field, a data priority field, a message type field, or a process identifier field.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the processing comprises:

retrieving, from a procedure data store of the cloud platform, one or more stored procedures identified by the header of the data packet; and

processing the industrial data in accordance with the one or more stored procedures.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifying the subset of the manifest data comprises:

identifying tag manifest data that defines one or more data tags corresponding to data items to be provided to the one or more stored procedures; and

identifying metrics manifest data that defines at least one of a coefficient, a range, or a threshold to be used as a parameter of the one or more stored procedures.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the processing comprises sending the industrial data to a storage destination defined by the set of manifest data, and wherein the destination comprises at least one of a define cloud storage partition, a remote data store, or a remote cloud platform.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the processing comprises generating a metric relating to an industrial system based on the industrial data.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving, at a cloud platform, manifest data from a cloud agent device at a plant facility, wherein the manifest data defines, for respective priority queues configured in the cloud platform, customer-specific preferences relating to processing of data received at the cloud platform and assigned to the priority queues, and wherein the customer-specific preferences comprise at least a processing priority for the data, an upload frequency for the data, and an indication of a storage location within the cloud storage for the data;

receiving, at the cloud platform, a data packet from the cloud agent device, wherein the data packet comprises a data file containing industrial data and header information;

selecting a priority queue, of a the priority queues, based on the header information;

assigning the industrial data to the priority queue;

selecting, based on the header information, a subset of the manifest data corresponding to the priority queue;

processing the industrial data in the priority queue according to processing instructions specified by the subset of the manifest data to yield processed data; and

sending the processed data to a client device in a defined reporting format.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the selecting the subset of the manifest data comprises:

selecting system manifest data based on one or more of a customer identifier, a site identifier, or a virtual support engineer (VSE) identifier contained in the header information, wherein the system manifest data defines one or more procedures to be applied to the industrial data;

navigating a hierarchical structure of the system manifest data based on the header information to identify tag manifest data that defines one or more data tags to be processed by the one or more procedures; and

navigating the hierarchical structure based on the header information to identify metrics manifest data that defines one or more parameters for execution of the one or more procedures, wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least one of a coefficient, a threshold, or a range.