SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF REMOTE COMMUNICATION

• US 20140258526A1
• Filed: 12/30/2011
• Published: 09/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Industries SAS (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Schneider Electric Industries SAS (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Le Sant, Aurelien, Crowley, Michael, Ferreira, Norman
• Application Number:
  US14/352,162
• Publication Number:
  US 20140258526A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0425 Safety, monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis
• 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 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

According to at least one embodiment, a system for monitoring cloud-enabled automatic control devices is provided. The system includes at least one automatic control device. The at least one cloud-enabled automatic control device includes an output configured to provide control information to controlled equipment, a data storage, a network interface, and a controller coupled to the output, the data storage and the network interface. The controller is configured to provide, according to a one-way communication protocol, transmitted information to a cloud service via the network interface, the transmitted information including an identifier of the at least one automatic control device and being descriptive of performance of the at least one automatic control device.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one automatic control device including;

an output configured to provide control information to controlled equipment;

a data storage;

a network interface; and

a controller coupled to the output, the data storage and the network interface and configured to provide, according to a one-way communication protocol, transmitted information to a cloud service via the network interface, the transmitted information including an identifier of the at least one automatic control device and being descriptive of performance of the at least one automatic control device.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the transmitted information includes information descriptive of an industrial process performed by the controlled equipment.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

provide a user interface via a web server; and

receive configuration information via the user interface.

4. The system according claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to disregard information transmitted from the cloud service.

5. The system according to claim 1, further comprising the cloud service, the cloud service including at least one computer system configured to:

receive the transmitted information from the at least one automatic control device; and

store the transmitted information in local data storage.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the at least one computer system is further configured to provide a dashboard via a user interface.

7. The system according to claim 5, wherein the at least one computer system is further configured to transmit an alert after detecting data indicating that a variable maintained by the at least one automatic control device has transgressed a threshold.

8. A method of transmitting data from an automatic control device to a cloud service, the method comprising:

establishing, by the automatic control device, communications with the cloud service; and

transmitting, by the automatic control device according to a one-way communication protocol, transmitted information to the cloud service, the transmitted information including an identifier of the at least one automatic control device and being descriptive of performance of the at least one automatic control device.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein transmitting the transmitted information includes transmitting information descriptive of an industrial process performed by equipment controlled by the at least one automatic control device.

10. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

providing, by the automatic control device, a user interface via a web server;

receiving configuration information via the user interface.

11. The method according to claim 8, further comprising disregarding, by the automatic control device, information transmitted from the cloud service.

12. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

receiving, the transmitted information from the at least one automatic control device; and

storing the transmitted information in local data storage.

13. The method according to claim 8, further comprising providing a dashboard via a user interface.

14. The method according to claim 8, further comprising transmitting an alert upon detection that a variable maintained by the at least one automatic control device has transgressed a threshold.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instruction for transmitting data from an automatic control device to a cloud service including instructions that will cause at least one processor to provide, according to a one-way communication protocol, transmitted information to the cloud service, the transmitted information including an identifier of the at least one automatic control device and being descriptive of performance of the at least one automatic control device.

16. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the instructions further instruct the at least one processor to provide transmitted information including information descriptive of an industrial process performed by equipment controlled by the at least one automatic control device.

17. The computer readable medium according claim 15, wherein the instructions further instruct the at least one processor to establish communications with the cloud service in response to detecting an event of importance.

18. The computer readable medium according claim 15, wherein the instructions further instruct the at least one processor to:

provide a user interface; and

receive configuration information via the user interface.

19. The compute readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the instructions further instruct the at least one processor to disregard information transmitted from the cloud service.

20. The compute readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the instructions further instruct at least one other processor executing within a cloud service to provide a dashboard via a user interface.