Virtual wireless transmitter

• US 20040203434A1
• Filed: 10/23/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rosemount Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Rosemount Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Karschnia, Robert J., Peluso, Marcos
• Granted Patent: US 7,440,735 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/67.11
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0421 Multiprocessor system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25187 Transmission of signals, medium, ultrasonic, radio
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25192 Infrared
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25428 Field device
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2612 Data acquisition interface

Abstract

A distributed control system has a plurality of distributed field devices, each of which contains a transducer and a wireless transceiver. The distributed control system includes a base station transceiver, a database and a virtual transmitter application in communication with the database. Each field device transmits and receives data via wireless signals between the communications boards and the base station. The data is stored in the database for later retrieval and evaluation by the virtual transmitter application. The deployed field device senses information and transmits the sensed information wirelessly to a base station. The sensed information is stored in memory on a computer system, and programmatically groomed to provide a measurement value, upon request by a user.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring a distributed system having a plurality of deployed field devices, each field device containing a transducer and a wireless transceiver, the method comprising:

sensing information with the deployed field devices;

wirelessly transmitting without evaluation the sensed information from each field device to a base station;

receiving the transmitted information from each field device at the base station;

storing the received information in a database on a computer network; and

programmatically grooming the stored information to derive a measurement value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of programmatically grooming the stored information comprises:

retrieving the stored information for a sensor;

programmatically calculating a measurement value based on the stored information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating the measurement value against a predetermined parameter value;

generating an output signal; and

transmitting the output signal.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the output signal is a display code, and wherein the step of transmitting the output signal comprises:

transmitting a display code to a selected field device for display on a field device display.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the output signal is an adjustment signal, and wherein the step of transmitting the output signal comprises:

transmitting the adjustment signal to a selected field device for altering a parameter associated with the selected field device.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the output signal is an alarm signal.

7. A distributed monitoring system comprising:

a plurality of field devices, each field device comprising;

a transducer; and

a wireless transceiver for wirelessly transmitting raw data representing a physical measurement made by the transducer;

a base transceiver for receiving the transmitted raw data from each field device;

a file for storing the raw data for each field device and for storing the secondary information for each field device; and

a virtual transmitter application for retrieving the stored raw data and the secondary information and generating a measurement value for each field device.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the virtual transmitter application generates the measurement value using the raw data and the secondary information.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the measurement value is calculated by inserting the raw data and the secondary information into an equation.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the raw data is a raw A/D count derived from each device.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the wireless transceiver transmits the raw data over control channels of a wireless communications link.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the wireless communications link is a link on a packetized routing network.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the wireless communications link is a link on a circuit switched network.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the virtual transmitter application grooms the data according to the secondary information.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the wireless transceiver is selected from the group consisting of a cellular communications circuit, a digital communications circuit, an infrared communications circuit, and a IEEE 802.11b compatible wireless communications circuit.

16. The system of claim 7, wherein the virtual transmitter application comprises:

a plurality of software applications in communication with the database.

17. The distributed monitoring system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the plurality of software applications performs pattern recognition algorithms on the data stored in the database.

18. The system of claim 7, wherein the field devices are battery powered.

19. The system of claim 7, wherein the virtual transmitter application further comprises:

an alarm function for generating an alarm signal when the data and secondary information deviate from predetermined parameters.

20. The system of claim 7, wherein the base transceiver transmits display information to the wireless transceiver for display on a display of the field device according to a request from a user.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the virtual transmitter application calculates the display information using the secondary information to evaluate the stored data against one or more tables of values.

22. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

remote access systems for interacting with the virtual transmitter application to retrieve a measurement value representative of a sensed parameter.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the remote access systems comprise:

control applications for remotely interacting with the virtual transmitter application; and

one or more computers for operating the control applications and for displaying the measurement value.

24. The system of claim 7, wherein the virtual transmitter application comprises:

diagnostic applications for programmatically selecting and retrieving data and for comparing the data against predetermined values.

25. A method of monitoring a distributed system having a plurality of deployed field devices, each field device containing a transducer and a wireless transceiver, the method comprising:

sensing measurement information with the deployed field devices;

wirelessly transmitting the measurement information from each field device to a base station, the measurement information representing a physical measurement taken by the transducer;

receiving the measurement information from each field device at the base station;

storing the measurement information in memory on a computer network; and

programmatically grooming the stored measurement information to derive a measurement value.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of programmatically grooming the stored measurement information comprises:

retrieving the stored measurement information for a sensor from the memory;

programmatically calculating a measurement value from the stored measurement information according to a grooming equation.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

evaluating the derived measurement values against predetermined parameter values;

generating an output signal; and

transmitting the output signal.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the output signal is a display code, and wherein the step of transmitting the output signal comprises:

transmitting a display code to a selected field device for display on a field device display.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the output signal is an adjustment signal, and wherein the step of transmitting the output signal comprises:

transmitting the adjustment signal to a selected field device for altering a parameter associated with the selected field device.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the output signal is an alarm signal.

31. A distributed system comprising:

a distributed network of field devices, each field device having a transducer and an associated first wireless transceiver for transmitting wireless signals comprising data representing a physical measurement made by the transducer;

a second wireless transceiver for receiving the wireless signals;

a database for storing the data based on the wireless signals received by the second wireless transceiver and for storing secondary information associated with each field device; and

a transmitter application for retrieving from the database the stored data and secondary information associated with each field device and for generating a measurement value based on the data and secondary information.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the data comprises:

a raw A/D count derived from the transducer.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the transmitter application grooms the data according to the secondary information.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein the first wireless transceiver is selected from the group consisting of a cellular communications circuit, a digital communications circuit, an ultra-wideband communications circuit, and free space optics communications circuit.

35. The system of claim 31, wherein the wireless signals are transmitted using control channels of a wireless communications link.

36. The system of claim 31, wherein one or more of the field devices are powered using energy conversion devices.

37. The system of claim 31, the transmitter application further comprises:

an alarm function for generating an alarm signal when the measurement value deviates from predetermined parameters.

38. The system of claim 31, wherein the wireless signals are transmitted using a circuit switched network.

39. The system of claim 31, wherein the wireless signals are transmitted using a packetized routing network.

40. The system of claim 31, wherein the second wireless transceiver transmits display information to the first wireless transceiver for display on a display of the field device according to a request from a user.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the transmitter application calculates the display information using the secondary information.

42. The system of claim 31, wherein the transmitter application comprises:

diagnostic applications for programmatically selecting and retrieving data and for comparing the data against predetermined values.

43. The system of claim 31, wherein the transmitter application retrieves the data and the secondary information for a selected field device, and generates a measurement value based on the evaluated data.

44. The system of claim 31, wherein the transmitter application comprises:

a plurality of software applications in communication with the database.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein at least one of the plurality of software applications performs pattern recognition algorithms on the data stored in the database.