Managing multiple assets in industrial plant
By obtaining asset attributes and locations, and using rules to automatically allocate assets to groups, the complexity and consistency problems caused by manual allocation in the asset management system are solved, and the automation and simplification of asset management is achieved.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202510095094.3
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Priority Date
- 2024-01-25
- Filing Date
- 2025-01-21
- Publication Date
- 2025-07-25
AI Technical Summary
In industrial factories, asset management systems need to manually allocate assets to groups, resulting in complex management and difficulty in maintaining the consistency of asset-to-group allocation status with factory requirements, especially when asset landscape changes.
By obtaining the attributes and locations of assets, using rules to automatically allocate assets to the group, and performing collective actuation and configuration actions to form self-organized groups to ensure the consistency and flexibility of asset management operations.
It realizes automation and simplification of asset management, reduces manual workload, ensures that asset management operations can still achieve the expected goals when the asset pattern changes, and improves the readability and comprehensibility of management.
Smart Images
Figure CN120373688A_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The present invention relates to the management of industrial assets that physically interact with industrial processes performed on industrial plants. Background Art
[0002] A typical industrial plant consists of thousands of assets, such as field devices and other devices that interact with industrial processes performed on the industrial plant. All these assets are typically managed by an asset management system, such as a field information manager. The asset management system is responsible for making the configuration of the field devices conform to the process and the needs of the entire plant, etc.
[0003] When a change in asset configuration is needed, this typically affects multiple assets, rather than just a single asset. Therefore, assets are manually assigned to groups so that management operations can be directed to a group of assets at once, rather than to each individual asset. This provides a net simplification of asset management, provided that the assignment of assets to groups remains up-to-date and always meets the needs of the industrial plant and its execution processes. Summary of the Invention
[0004] The object of the present invention is to further simplify asset management and reduce the manual effort required for asset management.
[0005] This object is achieved by a method according to the independent claims. Other advantageous embodiments are described in detail in the dependent claims.
[0006] The present invention provides a computer-implemented method for managing a plurality of assets in an industrial plant. The assets are configured to interact with an industrial process performed on the industrial plant. Examples of assets include field devices, such as sensors for measuring any type of quantity, actuators for physically influencing the execution of the industrial process, and controllers configured to maintain a desired quantity at or near a predetermined setpoint.
[0007] During the process of this method, for each asset, a set of attributes of the asset and / or the location where the asset is installed in the industrial plant is acquired. In this way, the topology of the assets and properties in the industrial plant is acquired.
[0008] A set of rules is provided. Each rule specifies that, in response to a condition regarding at least one attribute of the asset and / or regarding the location of the asset being satisfied, the asset is assigned to a group. That is, if the condition of the rule is satisfied, the asset belongs to the group indicated by the rule. Multiple such rules may result in the same asset belonging to multiple groups.
[0009] For each asset, one or more rules in a rule set are determined, the conditions of which are satisfied by that particular asset. That is, for each rule, it is checked whether the asset meets the conditions of the corresponding rule. Based on the rules so determined, the asset is assigned to one or more groups. A rule can be positive, i.e., if the asset meets the condition, the asset is included in the group specified by the rule. A rule can also be negative, i.e., if the asset meets the condition, the asset will be excluded from the group specified by the rule. That is, each time the condition of a rule is met, it can obtain the membership of the asset in the corresponding group specified by the rule, or cause the asset to lose its membership in that group. The effects of different rules on the same asset can be aggregated in any suitable way. For example, the rules can be processed in the order in which they appear in the rule set. In particular, a user interface can be provided for defining rules. As an alternative or combination to this, a rule language can be provided for defining more complex rules.
[0010] Collective actuation and / or configuration actions are applied to all assets belonging to at least one particular group. The operation is not limited to changes occurring to the assets themselves. Instead, the action can also apply to processing assets within an industrial plant while the assets themselves remain unchanged. For example, the collective actuation and / or configuration actions can define the update rate of an OPC UA subscription, as well as the OPC UA publish / subscribe propagation of information for assets belonging to different groups. In addition, any type of bulk operation can be performed on all members of a particular group, such as uploading and downloading data sets, printing device data sets, or observing device status information in a dashboard.
[0011] In particular, the groups created in this way can serve as flexible filters through which those assets that should be subject to any collective and / or bulk operations can be selected from a large number of assets in a factory. In particular, the bulk operation can mean that, regardless of where individual assets were previously processed, now the entire group is processed. For example, anywhere where the identifier of an individual asset was previously used, the identifier of the group can now be used.
[0012] In this way, a pre - existing system based on preset group membership is extended to groups whose members are automatically determined. If these groups are used as the target of actuation and / or configuration operations, the operations will always achieve their intended goals even if the asset landscape and / or rule landscape change. That is, changes in the known set of devices, device properties, group definitions, and the abstractions used in the rules will automatically affect all group settings. In particular, this set of rules can be so complex that it is difficult, if not impossible, to manually track group membership and keep group membership up - to - date according to any changes in the asset landscape. In a typical industrial plant, the asset landscape can include approximately 60,000 assets.
[0013] For example, when operating a factory, the asset landscape may change, e.g., because assets are replaced, added, or removed during maintenance. Manually adjusting group membership to accommodate these changes is error-prone and easily omitted.
[0014] In addition, this set of rules is more readable and understandable than the collection of these groups and their memberships. Without a self-evident name or description stored in association with the group, it is not possible to directly discern why a particular asset belongs to a particular group. In particular, this applies if, for expediency, a group includes devices that are members for different reasons. For example, multiple assets related to tracking the emissions of different pollutants in an industrial plant can be grouped into an "emissions-related" group. But considering only the group "emissions-related" and its members, it is not possible to discern which specific pollutant earned membership for each member of the group. In contrast, in a rule-based system, one rule can correspond to each reason why an asset is a group member.
[0015] More importantly, it is easier to establish a hierarchy of nested groups, where members of a lower-level group also automatically become members of a higher-level group. In a simple example, each of a stirrer, a motor, a valve, a pressure gauge, and a thermometer can have subordinate groups, and actuators and sensors can have higher-level groups. Each asset in the "stirrer", "motor", or "valve" group also belongs to the "actuator" group, while each asset in the "pressure gauge" or "thermometer" group also belongs to the "sensor" group. If a new device is manually added to one of the subordinate groups, it is easy to omit adding it to the corresponding higher-level group. Similarly, a device can be manually added to a higher-level group, but the operation of adding it to one of the lower-level groups can also be omitted. The automatic determination of rule-based group membership ensures the consistency and better functionality of asset management operations triggered by group membership. In particular, performing only one of the two required operations on an asset is avoided because the asset erroneously belongs to only one of the two groups to which it should belong.
[0016] As mentioned above, the asset landscape of an industrial plant may change. Any suitable condition can be used to trigger a recalculation of group membership. For example, whenever a new asset appears in an industrial plant, or an existing asset is found to be no longer available, group membership can be recalculated.
[0017] In a particularly advantageous embodiment, the attributes of at least one asset include one or more of the following:
[0018] · The device type of the asset;
[0019] · The function provided by the asset;
[0020] · The preconditions for the operation of the asset;
[0021] · Support for at least one specific common name or semantic ID; and
[0022] · Availability of at least one specific parameter for reading and / or writing.
[0023] Examples of device types include sensors such as temperature sensors, pressure gauges, voltage sensors, current sensors, proximity sensors, and cameras, and actuators such as motors, valves, agitators, or controllers. In particular, the same asset can be a combination of multiple assets and can therefore have multiple device types.
[0024] Examples of the functions provided by an asset include reading measured values, performing any type of action on the process being executed on an industrial plant, and the possibility of controlling the process in such a way as to keep certain quantities (such as measured values) at or near a set value.
[0025] Examples of the prerequisites for an asset to operate include the availability of electricity, fuel, water, network connection, emissions from the process, and the availability of any other commodities, and the possibility of taking away any products generated by the asset, such as process products, exhaust gases, or sewage. The prerequisites for an asset to operate can also include environmental conditions such as temperature or humidity, or the possibility of taking away the heat generated by the asset.
[0026] In particular, support for at least one specific common name or semantic ID can mean that the asset can be called by that common name or meaning ID in order to query information, read or set internal variables, instruct it to perform an operation, or otherwise change its state or behavior. In particular, in an industrial plant, the job of a distributed control system (DCS) can be to call assets to run the plant and the processes being executed on it from time to time, and the job of an asset management system can be to configure the assets so that they operate properly in their designated roles in the plant.
[0027] Similarly, the availability of at least one specific parameter for reading and / or writing can in particular mean that there are some commands, method calls, or other means available for reading or writing the parameter, and that when using that command, method call, or other means, the reading or writing actually takes place.
[0028] When operating and / or maintaining a factory, it is highly advantageous to be able to create self-organizing groups to perform operations on many assets at once. For example, if a commodity such as energy or water, or any other resource that can be a prerequisite for the operation of an asset, is temporarily unavailable, it can be advantageous to require all assets that depend on this prerequisite to go dormant or shut down in an orderly manner. In another example, if problems in the factory are to be tracked, it can be advantageous to query all sensors of a particular type (such as vibration sensors) in a specific area to obtain measurements. Since such requirements arise unexpectedly, even if there is a manually created group system, the system will not include groups specifically linked to the above prerequisites. The likelihood is too great to manually create such groups in advance.
[0029] The parameters can particularly relate to quantities associated with the industrial process being performed, but can also relate to the operating state of the asset. In another particularly advantageous embodiment, at least one specific parameter includes one or more of the following:
[0030] · Running time and / or other usage metrics;
[0031] · Maintenance metrics; and
[0032] · Operating temperature.
[0033] In this way, the operation of the asset can be customized according to its corresponding state to improve the reliability of the industrial process performed on the industrial factory. For example, if an asset is at a high operating temperature or very close to the maintenance due date, the asset management system can reconfigure the asset to reduce its load, thereby increasing the chance that the asset actually enters the next scheduled maintenance. In addition, self-test or self-cleaning routines can be performed on assets with high usage rates or that have already had problems, and / or these assets can be monitored more closely in the future to detect any signs of deterioration in the asset state.
[0034] In another particularly advantageous embodiment, the location of the asset in the industrial factory designates one or more of the following:
[0035] · The building in which the asset is installed;
[0036] · The part of the factory in which the asset is installed;
[0037] · The coordinates of the location where the asset is installed; and
[0038] · One or more superior parent assets to which the asset is connected.
[0039] These location indications correspond to a frequently occurring need to perform actuation and / or configuration operations on all assets in a specific location. For example, a remote I / O device can be the parent asset of multiple (e.g., 5) field devices that are subordinate assets, while a controller master device can be the parent asset of a certain number (e.g., 200) of subordinate assets. For example, if a superior parent asset is to go offline for maintenance, this will cause all subordinate assets to be temporarily inaccessible, and it may be necessary to prepare for this by correspondingly indicating the subordinate assets. Thus, in a particularly advantageous embodiment, at least one parent asset is a controller master device and / or a remote I / O device for an asset that is addressed via a data-driven I / O port.
[0040] The above location indications can also correspond to the maintenance arrangement of the assets. For example, the location can be related to certain individuals to whom the corresponding asset maintenance is assigned. The maintenance rounds performed by specific individuals are another reason why self-organizing actuation and / or configuration actions may be required for a specific group of assets (e.g., all assets affected by that maintenance round).
[0041] Thus, in another particularly advantageous embodiment, the designation of the location of the assets in an industrial plant (e.g., a part of the plant) also designates
[0042] · Functional units within the plant; and / or
[0043] · The scope of responsibility for asset maintenance.
[0044] To automatically obtain the attributes of the assets and then assign these assets to groups, any suitable source can be utilized. Thus, in a particularly advantageous embodiment, at least a subset of the attributes of at least one asset is obtained from one or more of the following related to the asset:
[0045] · Electronic device description, EDD;
[0046] · Field device integration, FDI, software package; and
[0047] · Any other device driver.
[0048] These are commonly used machine-readable forms for communicating information about the asset type and function and how to interact with the asset.
[0049] By incorporating the above - mentioned properties and / or location of the asset into the rule conditions, new assets can even be configured completely automatically to replace previous assets. That is, after the asset is connected to the network and discovered by the asset management system, it can be automatically discovered that the asset should perform the functions of the previously installed asset, and the asset management system can configure it accordingly. There is no need for manual transfer of the previous configuration. A typical industrial plant can operate as a whole for 15 years or longer, and considering that it can include 60,000 or more assets, the likelihood that some assets must be replaced at some point is very high. When this happens, the exact model of the old asset is usually no longer available, so new assets of different models or even different manufacturers need to be used. Therefore, a 1:1 copy of the old configuration backed up somewhere cannot be used. But according to the method proposed here, the new asset can be configured like the previous asset by moving it to the correct group according to the rules in the rule set.
[0050] In another particularly advantageous embodiment, the collective actuation and / or configuration actions include:
[0051] · Reading the value of at least one parameter indicating the operating state of the asset and / or the state of the industrial process from the asset; and / or
[0052] · Writing the value of at least one parameter to the asset, with the aim of modifying the behavior of the asset and / or the behavior of the industrial process.
[0053] This reading and / or writing can be performed in any suitable way, depending on how the interface is configured to interact with it. For example, if the asset is a "data - driven" asset, the reading and writing of parameters are performed by accessing the I / O ports. In contrast, if the asset is OPC UA - aware, the reading and writing of parameters are performed by function calls and method calls.
[0054] In another particularly advantageous embodiment, for different - identified groups of assets, the collective actuation and / or configuration actions are repeated at different intervals. In this way, the limited resources used to perform these actions can be concentrated on those assets for which the benefits of performing the actions more frequently are most obvious for the industrial process being executed and / or for the entire industrial plant.
[0055] In one example, the intensity of asset monitoring can be adjusted according to the tendency for such monitoring to actually reveal asset problems. If an asset is used frequently and / or is approaching the required maintenance, it is more worthy of closer monitoring than an asset that has just completed maintenance. That is, if the monitoring capacity is limited in any way (e.g., in terms of processing power or network bandwidth), it may focus on the assets that need it most.
[0056] In another example, depending on the group to which an asset belongs, shock requests for certain values from other entities may be rate-limited. For example, if an asset management system receives thousands of requests for the attributes of different assets per millisecond, it may request the corresponding attributes from the relevant assets at intervals commensurate with the rate at which the attributes could originally change, and return the most recently retrieved value to each requester. For example, if there are requests for the number of operating hours per millisecond, it would not make sense to forward each such request to the asset. Instead, in terms of resources, it is much more economical to retrieve the value from the asset once a day and respond to all requests with that value until the next value is retrieved from the asset. In a similar way, the measured electronic temperature of an asset does not change on a millisecond timescale because the thermal mass has inertia with respect to temperature changes. Instead, it makes sense to retrieve the temperature value, for example, once an hour. On the other hand, there are other quantities that require closer monitoring. For example, if the current consumption pattern of a valve or motor changes, this can indicate that something is mechanically jammed.
[0057] In another example, the frequency at which values are read from an asset can be commensurate with the importance of the corresponding asset's function to the process being executed. If the failure of a particularly critical asset would stop the entire process, it is more important to monitor this asset more closely than, for example, a pump in a parallel pump configuration where the failure of one pump can be easily compensated for by increasing the output of the other pumps.
[0058] Thus, the asset management entity can prioritize responses to requests for asset values based on the membership of these assets in groups. That is, the method can also include:
[0059] · Reading the value of at least one parameter from assets belonging to different groups at different regular intervals between the groups;
[0060] · Storing the read values in a buffer memory;
[0061] · Receiving requests for the value of at least one parameter from at least one client; and
[0062] · Responding to each such request with the corresponding value stored in the buffer memory.
[0063] In particular, this can reduce the load on the operational technology (OT) networks in an industrial plant, which are typically the only way to reach these assets. The bandwidth of these networks is usually less than that of information technology (IT) networks. In addition, these assets typically do not have sufficient on-board processing capacity to handle hundreds of thousands of requests per second. Instead, the hardware resources of most field devices are only a little more than what is necessary to perform their primary function.
[0064] In another particularly advantageous embodiment, depending on whether the conditions of the rules are met, the allocation of assets to groups is performed by the asset management server of the industrial plant. The asset management server publishes the membership of the assets in the groups to a plurality of asset management clients within the industrial plant. In this way, many tasks accumulated in the asset management process can be delegated to a plurality of asset management clients (and thus load balancing is achieved). Each such client can utilize all the groups that have been automatically populated and the automatically determined composition of each group. That is, the individual asset management clients using these groups do not have to trigger the automatic determination of group membership again and again.
[0065] In another particularly advantageous embodiment, at least one asset management client instructs the asset management server to add a new group and associates at least one rule with the new group. In this way, the groups created by all asset management clients can be merged and reused by other asset management clients.
[0066] Since it is computer-implemented, the method can be embodied in the form of software. Accordingly, the present invention also relates to a computer program having machine-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more computers and / or computing instances, cause the one or more computers and / or computing instances to execute the above method. Examples of computing instances include virtual machines, containers, or serverless execution environments in the cloud. The present invention also relates to a machine-readable data carrier and / or download product having the computer program. The download product is a digital product having the computer program, for example, the computer program can be sold in an online store for immediate completion and download to one or more computers. The present invention also relates to one or more computing instances having the computer program and / or having the machine-readable data carrier and / or download product. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0067] In the following, the present invention is illustrated with the aid of the drawings, without intending to limit the scope of the present invention.
[0068] The figures show:
[0069] Figure 1 : An exemplary embodiment of a method 100 for managing a plurality of assets 2 in an industrial plant 1;
[0070] Figure 2 : An exemplary application of the method 100 in the industrial plant 1; and
[0071] Figure 3 : A diagram of an exemplary possibility of forming self-organizing groups 41-47 of devices 2, 21-29 in an industrial plant 1 having three parts 11-13. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0072] Figure 1 Schematic flowchart of an exemplary embodiment of a method 100 for managing multiple assets 2 in an industrial plant 1. The assets 2 are configured to interact with an industrial process executed on the industrial plant 1.
[0073] In step 110, for each asset 2, a set of attributes 2a of the asset 2 and / or the location 2b where the asset 2 is installed in the industrial plant 1 is acquired.
[0074] According to block 111, the attributes 2a of at least one asset 2 may include one or more of the following:
[0075] · The equipment type of the asset 2;
[0076] · The function provided by the asset 2;
[0077] · Prerequisites for the operation of the asset 2;
[0078] · Support for at least one specific common name or semantic ID; and
[0079] · Availability of at least one specific parameter for reading and / or writing.
[0080] According to block 111a, at least one specific parameter may include one or more of the following:
[0081] · Runtime and / or other usage metrics;
[0082] · Maintenance metrics; and
[0083] · Operating temperature.
[0084] According to block 112, the location 2b of the asset 2 in the industrial plant 1 may specify one or more of the following:
[0085] · The building in which the asset 2 is installed;
[0086] · Parts 11 - 13 of the plant 1 where the asset 2 is installed;
[0087] · Coordinates of the location where the asset 2 is installed; and
[0088] · One or more superior parent assets to which the asset 2 is connected.
[0089] According to block 112a, at least one parent asset may be a controller master device and / or a remote I / O device of an asset addressed via a data-driven I / O port.
[0090] According to block 112b, the specification of the location 2b of the asset 2 in the industrial plant 1 may also specify:
[0091] · Functional units within the plant 1; and / or
[0092] · Scope of responsibility for the maintenance of Asset 2.
[0093] According to block 113, at least a subset of at least one Attribute 2a of Asset 2 can be obtained from one or more of the following related to Asset 2:
[0094] · Electronic Device Description, EDD;
[0095] · Field Device Integration, FDI, software package; and
[0096] · Any other device driver.
[0097] In step 120, a set of Rules 3 is provided. Each Rule 3 specifies that in response to a condition 3a regarding at least one Attribute 2a of Asset 2 and / or regarding its Location 2b being satisfied, Asset 2 is assigned to Group 4.
[0098] In step 130, for each Asset 2, one or more Rules 3* are determined from the set of Rules 3, where the specific Asset 2 satisfies the condition 3a of the set of rules.
[0099] In step 140, based on the so - determined Rule 3*, Asset 2 is assigned to one or more Groups 4.
[0100] According to block 141, the assignment of Asset 2 to Group 4 can be performed by the Asset Management Server 1a of the industrial plant 1 based on whether the condition 3a of Rule 3 is satisfied. According to block 142, the membership of Asset 2 in Group 4 can then be published by the Asset Management Server 1a to multiple Asset Management Clients 1b within the industrial plant 1.
[0101] According to block 143, at least one Asset Management Client 1b can instruct the Asset Management Server 1a to add a new Group 4* and associate at least one Rule 3 with the new Group 4*.
[0102] In step 150, a collective actuation and / or configuration action 5 is performed on all Assets 2 belonging to at least one specific Group 4.
[0103] According to block 151, the collective actuation and / or configuration action 5 can include:
[0104] · Reading 151a from Asset 2 the value of at least one parameter indicating the operating state of Asset 2 and / or the state of the industrial process; and / or
[0105] · Writing 151b to Asset 2 the value of at least one parameter, with the aim of modifying the behavior of the asset and / or the industrial process.
[0106] According to block 152, for different identified groups 4 of asset 2, the collective actuation and / or configuration actions 5 can be repeated at different intervals.
[0107] According to block 153, as a collective action 5, the values 6 of at least one parameter can be read from assets 2 belonging to different groups 4 at different regular intervals between the groups 4. In step 160, the read values can then be stored in a buffer memory 7. In step 170, a request 9 for the above-mentioned values 6 of at least one parameter is received from at least one client 8. Then, each such request 9 can be responded to with the corresponding value 6 stored in the buffer memory 7.
[0108] Figure 2 An exemplary application of the method in an industrial plant 1 is illustrated. In Figure 2 the example shown, two asset management clients 1b (operated by user U1) and 1b' (operated by user U2) communicate with an asset management server 1a to manage the assets 2 of the industrial plant 1. Figure 2 An exemplary dialogue between the asset management clients 1b and 1b' and the asset management server 1a is shown.
[0109] The dialogue starts with the asset management client 1b on behalf of user U1 sending a request to the asset management server 1a for the creation of a new group 4*. The asset manager 1a publishes information about the new group 4* to all asset management clients, where Figure 2 only the clients 1b and 1b' are shown among them.
[0110] After learning about the existence of the new group 4*, user U2 opens a new device list view on the asset management client 1b' and filters based on the new group 4*. Since no rule 3 is associated with the new group 4* yet, the new group 4* has no members, so the view is temporarily empty.
[0111] Next, the asset management client 1b on behalf of user U1 requests the asset management server 1a to create a new rule that states that all assets 2 that are children 2(D1) of device D1 should be members of the new group 4*. The asset management server 1a then checks the sub-devices 2(D1) of device D1 and adds them to the new group 4*. Then, the new members 2(4*) of group 4* are published to all asset management clients 1b, 1b'. This causes the previously created device list view and filter on the asset management client 1b' to be populated, etc.
[0112] Next, user U1 opens a new topology tree view, and the filter T(4*) is filtered based on the new group 4*. The view will be populated immediately after creation because the new group 4* already has some members.
[0113] Next, the asset management client 1b requests on behalf of the user U1 that the asset management server 1a scan the industrial plant 1 to find added devices 2+ and removed devices 2-. The asset management server 1a performs the scan and re-evaluates all memberships 2(4) of all groups 4 based on the results of the scan. In particular, this results in device 2+(4*) being added to a new group 4*, and device 2-(4*) being removed from the new group 4*. The updated membership 2(4*) of the new group 4* is published to all asset management clients 1b, 1b'.
[0114] This update will propagate to the device list views and filters previously created on the asset management client 1b', and to the topology tree view T(4*) just created on the asset management client 1b.
[0115] Figure 3 A simple example illustrates different ways of automatically creating and populating self-organizing groups 41-47 of devices 2, 21-29 in an industrial plant 1 having three sections 11-13.
[0116] In Figure 3 the example shown, section 11 contains pumps 21, valves 22, and agitators 23 as assets 2. Section 12 contains pumps 24, valves 25, and agitators 26 as assets 2. Section 13 contains pumps 27, valves 28, and agitators 29 as assets 2.
[0117] A first exemplary way of defining the self-organizing group 4 is to group assets 2 of the same type. This results in a group 41 that includes all pumps 21, 24, and 27, a group 42 that includes all valves 22, 25, and 28, and a group 43 that includes all agitators 23, 26, and 29.
[0118] A second exemplary way of defining the self-organizing group 4 is to group assets 2 into the same sections 11-13. This results in a group 44 having devices 21-23 in section 11, a group 45 having devices 24-26 in section 12, and a group 46 having devices 27-29 in section 13.
[0119] But as previously mentioned, groups 4 can also be formed according to other criteria, such as assets 2 being due for maintenance. In Figure 3 the example shown, this creates another group 47 that includes pump 21 of section 11, and valve 25 and agitator 26 of section 12.
[0120] A high likelihood of creating groups 4 based on rule 3 can eliminate the need for manual creation and maintenance of these groups 4.
[0121] List of reference numerals:
[0122] 1: Industrial plant
[0123] 1a: Asset management server in industrial plant 1
[0124] 1b, 1b': Asset management clients in industrial plant 1
[0125] 11 - 13: Parts of industrial plant 1
[0126] 2: Assets of industrial plant 1
[0127] 2a: Attributes of asset 2
[0128] 2b: Location of asset 2
[0129] 2+: Asset 2 added after hardware scan in industrial plant 1 2-: Asset 2 deleted after hardware scan in industrial plant 1 21 - 29: Individual assets 2
[0130] 3: Rules
[0131] 3*: Rules matching specific asset 2
[0132] 3a: Conditions of rule 3
[0133] 4: A group of assets 2
[0134] 4*: New group 4 to be created
[0135] 41 - 47: Individual groups 4
[0136] 5: Collective actuation and / or configuration actions
[0137] 6: Values of parameters
[0138] 7: Buffer memory
[0139] 8: Clients
[0140] 9: Request for value 6 from client 8
[0141] 100: Method for managing assets 2 in industrial plant 1 110: Obtain attributes 2a and location 2b of asset 2 111: Specific selection of assets
[0142] 111a: Specific selection of parameters
[0143] 112: Specific selection of location indicator 2b 112a: Use parent asset as location indicator 2b 112b: Use organizational boundary as location indicator 2b 113: Obtain attributes 2a using machine-readable resources
[0144] 120: Provide a set of rules 3
[0145] 130: Determine rule 3* for which asset 2 satisfies its condition 3a
[0146] 140: Allocate Asset 2 to Group 4 based on Matching Rule 3*
[0147] 141: Execution of Allocation 140 by Asset Management Server 1a
[0148] 142: Publish the membership of Asset 2 in Group 4
[0149] 143: Instruct Asset Management Server 1a to create a new Group 4*
[0150] 150: Execute a collective actuation and / or configuration action 5
[0151] 151: Specific selection of collective action 5 151a: Read parameter value as collective action 5
[0152] 151b: Write parameter value as collective action 5
[0153] 152: Repeat collective action 5 at different intervals
[0154] 153: Read value 6 at different intervals as collective action 5
[0155] 160: Store the read value in buffer memory 7
[0156] 170: Receive a request 9 for parameter value 6 from Client 8
[0157] 180: Respond to Client 8 with value 6 from buffer memory 7 D1: Parent device
[0158] T: Topology View
Claims
1. A computer-implemented method (100) for managing a plurality of assets (2) in an industrial plant (1), the assets (2) being configured to interact with an industrial process executed on the industrial plant (1), the method comprising the steps of: · For each asset (2), obtaining (110) a set of attributes (2a) of the asset (2) and / or the location (2b) where the asset (2) is installed in the industrial plant (1); · Providing (120) a set of rules (3), each rule (3) specifying that, in response to a condition (3a) regarding at least one attribute (2a) of the asset and / or regarding the location (2b) of the asset, the asset (2) is assigned to a group (4); · For each asset (2), determining (130) from the set of rules (3) one or more rules (3*) whose conditions (3a) are satisfied by the particular asset (2); · Based on the rules (3*) thus determined, assigning (140) the asset (2) to one or more groups (4); and · Applying (150) collective actuation and / or configuration actions (5) to all assets (2) belonging to at least one particular group (4).
2. The method (100) according to claim 1, wherein the attributes (2a) of at least one asset (2) include (111) one or more of the following: · The equipment type of the asset (2); · The function provided by the asset (2); · The prerequisites for the operation of the asset (2); · Support for at least one particular common name or semantic ID; and · The availability of at least one particular parameter for reading and / or writing.
3. The method (100) according to claim 2, wherein the at least one particular parameter includes (111a) one or more of the following: · Runtime and / or other usage metrics; · Maintenance metrics; and · Operating temperature.
4. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the location (2b) of the asset (2) in the industrial plant (1) specifies (112) one or more of the following: · The building in which the asset (2) is installed; · The part (11 - 13) of the plant (1) in which the asset (2) is installed; · The coordinates of the location where the asset (2) is installed; and · One or more superior parent assets to which the asset (2) is connected.
5. The method (100) according to claim 4, wherein at least one parent asset is (112a) a controller master device and / or a remote I / O device for an asset addressed via a data-driven I / O port.
6. The method (100) according to any one of claims 4 to 5, wherein the specification of the location (2b) of the asset (2) in the industrial plant (1) further specifies (112b): · The functional unit within the plant (1); and / or · The scope of responsibility for asset (2) maintenance.
7. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein at least a subset of the attributes (2a) of at least one asset (2) is obtained (113) from one or more of the following related to the asset (2): · Electronic device description EDD; · Field device integration FDI package; and · Any other device driver.
8. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the collective actuation and / or configuration action (5) comprises (151): · Reading (151a) a value of at least one parameter indicating an operating state of the asset (2) and / or a state of the industrial process from the asset (2); and / or · Writing (151b) a value of at least one parameter to the asset (2) for the purpose of modifying the behavior of the asset and / or the behavior of the industrial process.
9. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the collective actuation and / or configuration action (5) is repeated (152) at different intervals for different identified groups (4) of assets (2).
10. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising: · Reading (153) a value of at least one parameter (6) from assets (2) belonging to different groups (4) at regular intervals different between the groups (4); · Storing (160) the read values (6) in a buffer memory (7); · Receiving (170) a request (9) for the value (6) of at least one parameter from at least one client (8); and · Responding (180) to each such request (9) with the corresponding value (6) stored in the buffer memory (7).
11. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein · The allocation of the asset (2) to the group (4) is performed (141) by the asset management server (1a) of the industrial plant (1) according to whether the condition (3a) of the rule (3) is satisfied; and · The asset management server (1a) publishes (142) the membership of the assets (2) in the group (4) to a plurality of asset management clients (1b) within the industrial plant (1).
12. The method (100) according to claim 11, wherein at least one asset management client (1b) instructs (143) the asset management server (1a) to add a new group (4*) and associate at least one rule (3) with the new group (4*).
13. A computer program comprising machine-readable instructions which, when executed by one or more computers and / or computing instances, cause the one or more computers and / or computing instances to perform the method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 12.
14. A non-transitory machine-readable data carrier and / or download product having the computer program according to claim 13.
15. One or more computers and / or computing instances, having the computer program according to claim 13 and / or the data carrier according to claim 14 and / or the download product.