Industrial data analytics in a cloud platform

• US 9,954,972 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2016
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• 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:
  US15/214,583
• Publication Number:
  US 20160330291A1
• Time in Patent Office: 643 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 controller, 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 modify raw data generated by an industrial control program executed by the industrial controller 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 customer identifier of an industrial enterprise associated with the industrial controller, device data identifying the industrial controller, and industry data identifying a type of industry that is a focus of the industrial enterprise; 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 the type of industry identified by the industry data.

2. The industrial controller 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 controller.

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

4. The industrial controller 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 controller of claim, 1 wherein the customer-specific information comprises at least one of contact information for plant personnel to be notified in the event that the industrial analytics application identifies a notifiable issue based on analysis of the transformed data, schedule data indicating a schedule for receipt or delivery of parts or ingredients involved in an industrial process controlled by the industrial controller, ingredient identification data indicating one or more ingredients used in the industrial process, or service contract data defining a service agreement between a service provider and the industrial enterprise.

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

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

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

9. A method, comprising:

modifying, by an industrial controller comprising a processor, raw data generated by an industrial control program that is executed by the industrial controller 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 controller, customer-specific data to the transformed data to yield profiled data, wherein the customer-specific data comprises at least a customer identifier of an industrial enterprise associated with the industrial controller, device data identifying the industrial controller, and industry data identifying a type of industry of the industrial enterprise; and

sending, by the industrial controller, 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 the type of industry identified by the industry data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the adding comprises retrieving the customer-specific data from a customer profile stored on a memory of the industrial controller.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the modifying comprises modifying the raw data from a first format associated with the industrial controller to a second format that facilitates the collective analysis by the industrial analytics system.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the adding the device data comprises adding at least one of a model number of the industrial controller, a device type of the industrial controller, a current firmware version installed on the industrial controller, an identifier of an operating system installed on the industrial controller, one or more configuration parameters set for the industrial controller, a status indicator for the industrial controller, or a role identifier that identifies a role of an industrial device in an industrial process controlled by the industrial controller.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the adding the customer-specific information comprises adding at least one of contact information for plant personnel to be notified in the event that the industrial analytics system identifies a notifiable issue based on analysis of the transformed data, schedule data indicating a schedule for receipt or delivery of parts or ingredients involved in an industrial process controlled by the industrial controller, ingredient identification data indicating one or more ingredients used in the industrial process, or service contract data defining a service agreement between a service provider and the industrial enterprise.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

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

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

15. The method of claim 14, 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.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

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

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

17. 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 customer identifier of an industrial enterprise associated with the industrial device, device information identifying the industrial device, and industry information identifying a type of industry that is a focus of the industrial enterprise; 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 the type of industry identified by the industry information.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the appending comprises determining the customer-specific data based on information recorded in a customer profile stored on the industrial device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the customer-specific data further comprises at least one of 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, a role identifier that identifies a role of the industrial device in an industrial process, contact information for plant personnel to be notified in the event that the industrial analytics system identifies a notifiable issue based on analysis of the transformed data, schedule data indicating a schedule for receipt or delivery of parts or ingredients involved in the industrial process controlled by the industrial device, ingredient identification data indicating one or more ingredients used in the industrial process, or service contract data defining a service agreement between a service provider and the industrial enterprise.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, 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.