US 10,313,281 B2Granted

Delivery of automated notifications by an industrial asset

AssigneeRockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.

InventorsSharon M. Billi, Christopher W. Como, Edward A. Gray, Kyle K. Reissner, Jonathan D. Walter, Mohit Singhai, Douglas J. Reichard, Scott N. Sandler, Ronald E. Bliss, Michael J. Pantaleano, Ryan Cahalane, Jessica Korpela, Bruce T. McCleave

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Abstract

An automated industrial notification platform creates a link between a given industrial asset and one or more people or support entities qualified to provide support for the asset. An industrial device or machine stores electronic expert tag information that records and catalogs one or more support people or entities to be notified in response to detection of various types of performance or maintenance issues. The tag can include the experts' identities, contact information, roles relative to the industrial asset, event priorities, and other relevant information. Since the tag is stored in a memory location of the industrial asset, the tag travels with the asset so that experts are globally associated with the asset regardless of the asset's location. Notification components integrated with the industrial asset detect conditions that may require expert assistance, and send an automated notification to one or more experts identified by the tag information.

Claims20

Dependent claims

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:
an event identification component configured to detect an event of the industrial device for which a notification is to be generated and to identify an event category of the event;
a notification component configured to determine a recipient for the notification based on expert tag information stored on the memory, and to generate notification information based on the event, wherein the expert tag information defines:
a first current location of the industrial device,
event categories, and
sets of one or more recipients respectively associated with the event type, categories, and
the notification component is configured to select, as the recipient, one of the defined recipients defined by the expert tag information as corresponding to the event category of the event, and having a second current location that is within a defined distance from the first current location defined by the expert tag;
a communication component configured to initiate a sending of the notification information to a client device associated with the recipient via an external network:
and
a tag update component configured to add, as part of the expert tag information, a record of a software update performed on the industrial device in response to detection of the software update,
wherein the communication component is configured to include the record of the software update in the notification information, and
the tag update component is further configured to update the expert tag information based on at least one of manual input received via an interface component of the industrial device or an automatically detected status of the industrial device.

10 more elements

A method for generating automated notifications, comprising:

in response to detecting a software update performed on an industrial device, recording, by a system comprising a processor, a record of the software update in expert tag information stored on the industrial device;
detecting, by the system, occurrence of an event associated with the industrial device;
determining, by the system, an event type corresponding to the event;
determining, by the system, a recipient to be notified of the event based on the expert tag information stored on the industrial device, wherein the determining comprises:
determining a first location of the industrial device based on location data stored as part of the expert tag information, and
selecting the recipient in response to determining that the event type of the event is defined in the expert tag information as being associated with the recipient and that a second location of the recipient is within a defined distance of the first location of the industrial device;
generating, by the system, notification information based on the event;
initiating, by the system, a sending of the notification information to a client device associated with the recipient via an external network, wherein the notification information includes the record of the software update;
and
updating, by the system, the expert tag information based on at least one of manual input or an automatically detected status of the industrial device.

7 more elements

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:

in response to detecting a software update performed on an industrial device, adding a record of the software update in expert tag information stored on the industrial device;
determining that an event associated with the industrial device has occurred for which a notification is to be generated;
determining an event type of the event;
referencing the expert tag information stored on the industrial device based on an identification of the event, wherein the expert tag information identifies a first location of the industrial device and assigns recipients to respective event types;
selecting one or more recipients for the notification based on the referencing, wherein the selecting comprises selecting, as the one or more recipients, a subset of the recipients that are assigned to the event type of the event and that are currently located at respective one or more second locations that are less than a defined distance from the first location of the industrial device;
generating the notification based on the event and device information included in the expert tag information;
initiating a sending of the notification to one or more client devices respectively associated with the one or more recipients, wherein the notification includes the record of the software update;
and
updating the expert tag information based on at least one of manual input or an automatically detected status of the industrial device.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/987,399Filed 4 Jan 2016
Published: US 2017/0195265 A16 Jul 2017
Granted: 4 Jun 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

H04L 51/046
Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]: interoperability with other network applications or services
G05B 23/0267
Characterized by the response to fault detection: fault communication, e.g. human machine interface [HMI]
G06Q 10/0631
Operations research, analysis or management: resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
G05B 2219/24086
Pc safety: expert system, guidance operator, locate fault and indicate how to repair

Family

US 2017/0195265 A1Pre-grant publication · published 6 Jul 2017
US 10,313,281 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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