Remote maintenance system
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsNobuaki Ogushi, Hirohisa Ohta, Yoshito Yoneyama, Masaya Ogura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Factories (102–104) have host computers (107) for monitoring industrial equipment (106). Each host computer (107) is connected to a management host computer (108) on a vendor (101) side through the internet (105). The host computer (107) on the factory side detects occurrence of a trouble of the industrial equipment (106) and notifies the vendor side of status information representing a trouble state. In response to this, the host computer (108) on the vendor side notifies the factory side of response information representing a countermeasure against the trouble state.
Claims13
A remote maintenance system for industrial equipment, said system comprising:
- a first computer connected to an intranet and configured to receive, through an internet, information on a trouble state of the industrial equipment from a monitor apparatus which monitors the industrial equipment, wherein the first computer includes a database configured to store the received information and information on a countermeasure against the trouble state, and configured to transmit, through the internet, information on the countermeasure stored in said database to the monitor apparatus in accordance with the received information;
- and
- a second computer connected to the intranet, configured to refer to information stored in said database, and configured to input information on a countermeasure against the trouble state shown in the information referred to into said database.
A remote maintenance method for industrial equipment, said method comprising steps of:
- receiving, through an internet, by a first computer connected to an intranet, information on a trouble state of the industrial equipment from a monitor apparatus which monitors the industrial equipment;
- storing the information received by the first computer in a database;
- storing information, which is input to a second computer connected to the intranet, on a countermeasure against the trouble state specified by the information received by the first computer and stored in the database, into the database;
- and
- transmitting, through the internet, information on the countermeasure stored in the database from the first computer to the monitor apparatus, in accordance with the information received by the first computer.
A monitor apparatus for monitoring a plurality of industrial equipment, said apparatus comprising:
- monitoring means for monitoring, through an intranet, a trouble state of the plurality of industrial equipment;
- selection means for selecting a remote maintenance system corresponding to a troubled one of the plurality of industrial equipment from a plurality of remote maintenance systems for the plurality of industrial equipment;
- and
- transmission means for transmitting, through an internet, information on the monitored trouble state of the troubled industrial equipment to the selected remote maintenance system.
A method applied to a monitor apparatus for monitoring a plurality of industrial equipment, said method comprising steps of:
- monitoring, through an intranet, a trouble state of the plurality of industrial equipment;
- selecting a remote maintenance system corresponding to a troubled one of the plurality of industrial equipment from a plurality of remote maintenance systems for the plurality of industrial equipment;
- and
- transmitting, through an internet, information on the monitored trouble state of the troubled industrial equipment to the selected remote maintenance system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.