System for monitoring production operations
AssigneeSCADAware
InventorRick Caldwell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for monitoring production operations includes an operator box located at a workstation and having a plurality of manual input devices configured for manual activation by an operator, a corresponding plurality of status indicators, each status indicator being configured to provide an indication of the operational status of the workstation, and a communications port configured to facilitate communication between the operator box and a network. The system also includes a computing device coupled to network to receive data from a machine controller coupled to the network and data from the operator box, and to store that data in a database of records reflecting historical performance of the system.
Claims23
A system for monitoring the operation of equipment at a plurality of workstations in a facility, including:
- a network;
- an operator box located at a workstation and having a plurality of manual input devices configured for manual activation by an operator, a corresponding plurality of status indicators, each status indicator being configured to provide an indication having a predetermined meaning relating to the operational status of the workstation in response to activation of its corresponding manual input device, and a communications port configured to facilitate communication between the operator box and the network;
- and
- a facility computing device coupled to the network and configured to execute software including instructions for communicating with a machine controller and the operator box over the network, instructions for generating machine controller records including information about operation of equipment controlled by the machine controller, instructions for generating operator box records including information about activation of the manual input devices, and instructions for writing the machine controller records and operator box records to a database associated with the facility computing device.
A system for monitoring the operation of equipment at a plurality of workstations in a facility, including:
- a network;
- an operator box located at a workstation and having a plurality of manual input devices configured for manual activation by an operator, a corresponding plurality of status indicators, each status indicator being configured to provide an indication having a predetermined meaning relating to the operational status of the workstation in response to activation of its corresponding manual input device, and a communications port configured to facilitate communication between the operator box and the network;
- and
- a first computing device coupled to the operator box over the network, the first computing device receiving status data from a machine controller coupled to the network, and operator box data from the operator box, the status data representing operational characteristics of equipment controlled by the machine controller, the operator box data representing activation of the manual input devices;
- wherein the first computing device maintains a database of records including the status data and the operator box data and generates reports reflecting historical performance of the system.
An operator box for communicating the status of equipment at a workstation, including:
- a plurality of buttons, each button corresponding to a different status condition of the equipment;
- a plurality of lights, each light corresponding to one of the plurality of buttons;
- a controller configured to activate the lights in response to activation of the buttons, thereby communicating the status of the equipment;
- an internal power conditioning circuit configured to convert AC power to DC power;
- and
- a communications port configured to couple to a network;
- wherein the controller provides data to the network through the communications port describing the activation of the buttons.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.