Industrial data analytics in a cloud platform

• US 10,726,428 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2019
• Issued: 07/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Asenjo, Juan L., Strohmenger, John, Nawalaniec, Stephen Thomas, Hegrat, Bradford Henry, Harkulich, Joseph A., Korpela, Jessica Lin, Wright, Jenifer Rydberg, Hessmer, Rainer, Dyck, John, Hill, Edward Alan, Conti, Salvatore T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Whipple, Brian
• Application Number:
  US16/262,153
• Publication Number:
  US 20190188737A1
• Time in Patent Office: 545 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

Cloud-aware industrial devices feed robust sets of data to a cloud-based data analyzer that executes as a service in a cloud platform. In addition to industrial data generated or collected by the industrial devices, the devices can provide device profile information to the cloud-based analyzer that identifies the device and relevant configuration information. The industrial devices can also provide customer data identifying an owner of the industrial devices, contact information for the owner, active service contracts, etc. The cloud-based data analyzer leverages this information to perform a variety of custom analytics on the data and generate reports or notifications catered to the particular industrial assets'"'"' optimal performance and business goals of the owner'"'"'s industrial enterprise, as well as perform real-time decision making and control.

Claims

1. An industrial device, comprising:

a memory that stores executable components;

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

a transformation component configured to transform raw data generated by an industrial control program executed by the industrial device in accordance with at least one requirement of an industrial analytics application executing on a cloud platform to yield transformed data;

a customer profile component configured to append customer-specific information to the transformed data to yield profiled data, wherein the customer-specific information comprises at least a plant site identifier identifying a plant site at which the industrial device is located, a production line identifier identifying a production line associated with the industrial device, and device identification data identifying the industrial device; and

a cloud gateway component configured to send the profiled data to the industrial analytics application,

wherein

the industrial analytics application performs a collective analysis on the transformed data in view of other data stored on the cloud platform, and

the other data is selected by the industrial analytics application as a subset of stored data corresponding to a type of industry identified by a customer model associated with the industrial device and stored on the cloud platform.

2. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the customer profile component is configured to retrieve the customer-specific information from a customer profile stored on the memory of the industrial device.

3. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the device information data comprises at least one of a model number of the industrial device, a device type of the industrial device, a current firmware version installed on the industrial device, an identifier of an operating system installed on the industrial device, one or more configuration parameters set for the industrial device, a status indicator for the industrial device, or a role identifier that identifies a role of the industrial device in an industrial process.

4. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the type of industry is at least one of an automotive industry, an oil and gas industry, a food and drug industry, a marine industry, or a textiles industry.

5. The industrial device of claim, 1 wherein customer profile component is further configured to append, to the transformed data, at least one of a time-stamp, a product identifier, status data indicating a state of a machine associated with the industrial device, a product lot number, an alarm identifier, or an actionable data flag.

6. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the transformation component is further configured to determine a context of the industrial device within a topology of devices within the industrial enterprise, and to append contextual data to the raw data describing the context.

7. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the transformation component is configured to transform the raw data from a first format native to the industrial device to a second format that facilitates the collective analysis by the industrial analytics application.

8. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the cloud gateway component is further configured to send second profiled data received from another industrial device to the industrial analytics application.

9. The industrial device of claim 1, wherein the industrial device is at least one of an industrial controller, a variable frequency drive, a human-machine interface terminal, a telemetry device, or an industrial robot.

10. A method, comprising:

modifying, by an industrial device comprising a processor, raw data generated by an industrial control program that is executed by the industrial device to yield transformed data, wherein the modifying comprises modifying the raw data to conform to a requirement of an industrial analytics system executing on a cloud platform;

adding, by the industrial device, customer-specific data to the transformed data to yield profiled data, wherein the customer-specific data comprises at least a plant site identifier identifying a plant site at which the industrial device is located, a production line identifier identifying a production line controlled by the industrial device, and device identification data identifying the industrial device; and

sending, by the industrial device, the profiled data to the industrial analytics system via the cloud platform, wherein the industrial analytics system performs a collective analysis on the transformed data in view of other data stored on the cloud platform, and wherein the other data is selected by the industrial analytics system as a subset of stored data corresponding to a type of industry identified by a customer model associated with the industrial device and stored on the cloud platform.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the adding comprises retrieving the customer-specific data from a customer profile stored on a memory of the industrial device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the modifying comprises modifying the raw data from a first format associated with the industrial device to a second format that facilitates the collective analysis by the industrial analytics system.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the adding the device identification data comprises adding at least one of a model number of the industrial device, a device type of the industrial device, a current firmware version installed on the industrial device, an identifier of an operating system installed on the industrial device, one or more configuration parameters set for the industrial device, a status indicator for the industrial device, or a role identifier that identifies a role of the industrial device in an industrial process.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the adding the customer-specific information comprises adding at least one of a time-stamp, a product identifier, status data indicating a state of a machine associated with the industrial device, a product lot number, an alarm identifier, or an actionable data flag.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining, by the industrial device, a context of the industrial device within a topology of devices within the industrial enterprise; and

adding, by the industrial device, contextual data to the raw data, the contextual data describing the context in terms of two or more hierarchical levels of the industrial enterprise.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the two or more hierarchical levels comprise at least one of a workcell level, a line level, an area level, a site level, or an enterprise level.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, by the industrial device, second profiled data from another industrial device; and

sending, by the industrial device, the second profiled data to the industrial analytics system via the cloud platform.

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

transforming raw data generated by an industrial control program that is executed by an industrial device to yield transformed data, wherein the transforming comprises modifying the raw data to conform to a requirement of an industrial analytics application executing on a cloud platform;

appending customer-specific data to the transformed data to yield profiled data, the customer-specific data comprising at least a plant site identifier identifying a plant site at which the industrial device is located, a production line identifier identifying a production line associated with the industrial device, and device identification data identifying the industrial device; and

sending the profiled data to the industrial analytics application via the cloud platform, wherein

the industrial analytics system performs a collective analysis on the transformed data in view of other data stored on the cloud platform, and

the other data is selected by the industrial analytics system as a subset of stored data corresponding to a type of industry identified by customer model data associated with the industrial device and stored on the cloud platform.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the appending comprises determining the customer-specific data based on information recorded in a customer profile stored on the industrial device.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a context of the industrial device within a topology of devices within the industrial enterprise; and

appending contextual data to the raw data, the contextual data describing the context in terms of two or more hierarchical levels of the industrial enterprise.