Hybrid on-premises and cloud-based industrial internet of things system and method for processing industrial machine data

Abstract

The present invention relates to industrial machines, in particular surface coating machines. The present invention relates to techniques for collecting, storing and processing data from surface coating machines. The techniques and the system according to the present invention allow a user to display and analyze data collected from several different surface coating machines independently from his or her location and independently from whether the individual surface coating machines, the data of which are displayed and analyzed, are transmitting data to external public internet hosted servers, so called cloud services, via public networks (online mode) or whether the individual coating machines are without public internet connectivity to cloud services to provide real time data, so called on-premises via private networks (offline mode) in a unified way in a single graphical user interface.

Description

[0001]Hybrid On-Premises and Cloud-Based Industrial Internet of Things System and Method for Processing Industrial Machine Data The present invention relates to industrial machines, in particular surface coating machines. The present invention relates to techniques for collecting, storing and processing data from surface coating machines. The techniques and the system according to the present invention allow a user to display and analyze data collected from several different surface coating machines independently from his or her location and independently from whether the individual surface coating machines, the data of which are displayed and analyzed, are transmitting data to external public internet hosted servers, so called cloud services, via public networks (online mode) or whether the individual coating machines are without public internet connectivity to cloud services to provide real time data, so called on-premises via private networks (offline mode) in a unified way in a single graphical user interface. Background In the context of connected industrial equipment, it is commonly found that software systems under the paradigm of industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are communicating with external public internet hosted servers – cloud services. Although centrally managed gateway devices and data collector / processor cloud services offer a multitude of advantages, in many cases the industrial equipment owners policies prohibit any public internet access. In such scenarios, the expectations are to deliver leading edge technology in software – data processing while completely isolating the equipment from the public internet. Connected industrial equipment in the surface coating industry, isolated within on-premises networks, without public internet connectivity (cloud), has traditionally transmitted data to local on-premises (offline) software systems. On these premises where connectivity of industrial equipment to the public internet is not allowed, Surface coating machines equipped with edge gateways and other industrial equipment equipped with edge gateways transmit data to an on-premises software system in a uni-directional or bi-directional way, using common network protocols such as TCP over Ethernet, UDP over Ethernet, HTTP / HTTPS, MQTT, ModBus, ProfiBus, OPC, OPC-UA or other industry or IoT standard protocols. In this approach without public internet connectivity, in the following called offline mode, it is also possible to allow computers not located on- premises to access data on the local area network by using a VPN-tunnel. The surface coating machine itself comprises several components such as but not limited to power supply, part handling devices, tool handling devices, media supply management devices, water cooling systems, ventilation systems that may be equipped with sensors and / or actuators transmitting data to the edge gateway of the surface coating machine. In another scenario, for premises where industrial equipment is allowed to be connected to the public internet, in the following called online mode, connected industrial equipment is transmitting data to public internet cloud services. In both of the above cases, user graphical interfaces, for visualization or interaction with the data collected have been separated and used either for offline or online purposes, pushing owners of industrial equipment to take a decision on one of the two solutions. So far it was not possible to visualize data gathered in an offline mode and data gathered in an online mode on the same graphical interface. To compare data gathered from industrial equipment, in particular surface coating machines, in an online mode with data gathered from industrial equipment, in particular surface coating machines, operated in an offline mode, both datasets would need to be exported to a database and then be merged. Thus, this approach of comparing data gathered in an online mode with data gathered in an offline mode requires a time-consuming and storage space intensive indermediate data processing step. Although it would be possible to display data gathered in an offline mode in one tab of a browser and to display data gathered in an online mode in another tab of a browser but not in the same browser tab, there is no unified way of displaying the data gathered in an offline and an online mode on the same graphical user interface. According to a prior art approach as disclosed in EP 3 425 873 A1, data traffic generated by one or more edge devices in the IoT environment is received by an IoT gateway device that classifies the received data traffic as normal data or critical data. If the data received is classified as critical data, an edge computing resource arranged locally to the IoT gateway is designated as network location for processing the received data traffic whereas in the case of normal data, a remote cloud computing resource is designated as network location for processing the received data traffic. A user not connected to a local area network representing several edge devices connected to an edge gateway could therefore read and process data traffic generated by all the edge devices locally connected to an individual edge gateway but only the portion of the data classified as normal data traffic. A user not connected to the local area network would therefore not see the data traffic generated by the edge devices within the local area network classified as critical data. The user would only have access to all data traffic generated by the edge devices if he would be connected to the local network connected to an edge gateway. The solution as disclosed in EP 3425873 A1 thus allows to segregate data classified as normal and critical and to access data traffic classified as non-critical or normal in terms of confindentiality, time-criticality and computing power requirements generated by all the edge devices within a local network through a remote cloud computing resource. . According to another prior art approach as disclosed in EP 3879 790 A1, a system is disclosed in which an IoT platform implemented as cloud platform stores device twin data and transmits device twin data to IoT devices over the internet. This information is then used to collect data from industrial devices. However, this system relies on transmitting information collected from industrial devices over public internet and thus does not propose a solution to collect data from industrial devices in environments without public internet connectivity in an offline mode. Taking the above said into account, it becomes clear that the prior art approaches fail to offer solutions for displaying and analyzing data collected from several different surface coating machines independently from whether the individual surface coating machines, the data of which are displayed and analyzed, are transmitting data to external public internet hosted servers, so called cloud services, via public networks in an online mode or whether the individual coating machines are without public internet connectivity to cloud services to provide real time data, so called on-premises via private networks in an offline mode in a unified way in a single graphical user interface. Objective of the invention The objective of the present invention therefore is to provide a system and a method to collect, display, process and analyze data in real time from different individual industrial equipment, in particular surface coating machines, part or all of which are transmitting data to cloud services in an online mode and part or all of which are without public internet connectivity (offline mode) while at the same time enabling to deliver all the data processing and data analytics of cloud computing technologies for all coating machines regardless whether data is transmitted in an online or offline mode. Summary of the invention According to the invention, this objective is met by performing a method for real-time data collection, processing, monitoring and analyzing data of industrial equipment, in particular surface coating machines located on one or more premises. The method comprises collecting data from at least one industrial equipment via an edge gateway, transmitting raw data via the edge gateway to a Backend software instance, transmitting data from the Backend software instance to a Frontend software deployed on computer of a user, enabling the Frontend software to connect to two or more Backend software instances, ensuring data segregation between the on-premises and cloud servers while maintaining a unified graphical experience for the user through the Frontend software. According to this method, the Backend software instances are configured to collect raw data, store raw data in a database, process raw data to generate actionable insights, including real-time monitoring metrics, audit logs and analytics reports. The Frontend software comprises a graphical user interface (GUI) configured to display the processed data in real-time to a user and to allow the user to interact with the data, including viewing, filtering and analyzing data through the GUI. The Backend software instances are deployed either on-premises for premises where no public internet connectivity is allowed to be established for the industrial equipment or on a cloud server for premises where public internet connectivity is allowed to be established for the industrial equipment. The method may further comprise transmitting raw data from the edge gateway to the Backend software instances and from the Backend to the Frontend software using common network protocols. For premises on which internet connectivity is not allowed to be established for the industrial equipment, the Backend software instances are deployed on premises on a dedicated edge device such as an industrial PC. For these premises the Frontend software establishes connection to the dedicated edge device. To ensure data security, data transmission may be encrypted during transmission between the Backend and Frontend software. For premises on which public internet connectivity can be established for the industrial equipment, the Backend software instances are deployed on a cloud service. Data processed between the Backend and Frontend software may further be synchronized, ensuring that the user receives the most up-to-date information regardless of the deployment environment. In some embodiments, alerts and notifications are generated on the GUI of the Frontend software when predefined thresholds or anomalies are detected in the industrial surface coating process. In some embodiments, users accessing the Frontend software are authenticated to ensure authorized access to the data. In some embodiments, processing of the raw data by the Backend software instances include applying machine learning algorithms to predict potential failures in the industrial surface coating equipment. In some embodiments, analytical reports are generated and exported from the processed data for further external analysis. The method described enables the Frontend software to connect to two or more Backend software instances, deployed either on- premises (offline mode) or in a cloud server (online mode). This architecture ensures data segregation between the on-premises (offline mode) and cloud environments (online mode), while providing the user of the software system a unified graphical experience. A computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the above said method is proposed. According to another aspect of the invention, a system for real- time data collection, processing, monitoring and analyzing data of industrial equipment, in particular surface coating machines located on one or more premises is proposed. The system comprises two or more Backend software instances, a Frontend software deployed on a computer of a user comprising a graphical user interface (GUI). The system is configured to enable the Frontend software to connect to two or more instances of the Backend software. The system ensures data segregation between the on- premises and cloud environments, while providing a unified graphical experience to the user through the Frontend software. The Backend software instances are configured to collect raw data transmitted from industrial surface coating equipment via an Edge Gateway, to store and analyze the collected raw data and to provide the processed data for generating actionable insights, including real-time monitoring metrics, audit logs and analytics reports. The Backend software instances are being deployed either on- premises, in an environment without public internet connectivity or on a cloud server, in an environment with public internet connectivity. In some embodiments the Backend software instances may further include a module for data encryption to secure data transmission between the Backend and Frontend software. In some embodiments, the Backend software instances include a real-time alerting module that notifies the user of anomalies in the industrial surface coating process based on the collected data. The Frontend software is configured to communicate with the Backend software instances via common network protocols over Ethernet and to present real-time data collected and processed by the Backend software instances to the user. In some embodiments, the Frontend software includes a user authentication module to control access to the processed data. In some embodiments, the Frontend software is configured to display historical data trends and generate reports based on the data processed by the Backend software instances. It is preferred that the inventive solutions are further improved by incorporating an additional software program, installed on- premises on the edge device or on a computer located on-premise, connected using LAN to the edge device and configured to run the additional software program, wherein the additional software program would act as a gateway and protocol exchanger to ensure compliance with a layered architecture, for example comprising operational technology (OT), demilitarized zone (DMZ) and IT network layer. These segregated and protected network layers reduce the risk inherent to direct connectivity of user PCs,laptops or mobile devices to surface coating machines by separating the surface coating machines from intranet servers and PCs, laptops or mobile devices. In this network setup with layered architecture, the backend program would then transmit data to this third program instead of listening as a server. As an example, this would be possible using OPC-UA Server reverse connection feature. This enables to overcome the issue that a direct network connection initiation from a user to a surface coating machine would be blocked due security risks. In embodiments, the two or more Backend software instances are configured to convert data transmitted by one or more edge gateways connected to one or more industrial equipment, in particular surface coating machines, into a unified data format and a unified data naming system. This allows to display data gathered in a unified format, independently of the hardware version and the sensor configuration installed on the industrial equipment, in particular on the surface coating machine. This approach allows to compare the operating conditions of more than two individual surface coating machines independently of the hard- and software installed on the individual surface coating machines and independently whether the individual surface coating machines, the data of which are displayed and analyzed, are transmitting data to external public internet hosted servers, so called cloud services, via public networks in an online mode or whether the individual coating machines are without public internet connectivity to cloud services to provide real time data, so called on-premises via private networks in an offline mode. In embodiments, the Frontend software, comprising a graphical user interface (GUI), is configured to allow the user to set warning thresholds for surface coating machine operating parameters, such as but not limited to thermal spray gun voltage, thermal spray gun current, cooling water flow, cooling water temperature at in- and outlet, cooling water conductivity, process gas flow, powderline carrier gas flow and pressure. The warning thresholds for the surface coating machine operating parameters include but are not limited to defining minimum or maximum values, average values, trending of minimum, maximum or average values, limits for deviations from the setpoint value over a defined period of time and / or abrupt changes of the respective operating parameter. The warning threshold configuration defined by the user on the Frontend software is then transmitted to the Backend software instances selected by the user. The Backend software instances are configured to receive warning threshold configurations for surface coating machine operating parameters from the Frontend software. After reception of the warning threshold configuration by the Backend software instances, the Backend software instance is configured to screen the data received from the individual edge gateways for breach of the thresholds. In addition to this, the Frontend software may be configured to send e-mails or text messages to mobile phones according to a defined distribution list if the surface coating machine produces an alarm and / or if the thresholds as set by the user are exceeded. In an alternative embodiment, the Frontend software may additionally be configured to produce a pop-up window on the device on which the Frontend software is run to inform the user about alarms occurring on one or more individual surface coating machines and / or about warning thresholds for operating parameters exceeded on one ore more surface coating machines. This approach allows to timely initiate maintenance activities such as but not limited to checking the integrity of components and / or replacement of wear parts. The invention shall now be further exemplified with the help of figures. Description of figures Figure 1 depicts a prior art approach for collecting, processing and displaying data where industrial equipment communicates with external public hosted servers. Figure 2 illustrates an alternative setup where industrial equipment are without public internet connectivity. Figure 3 shows an IIoT hybrid system according to an embodiment of the invention. Figure 4 illustrates that the data gathered from an industrial equipment operated in an offline mode can directly be compared with data gathered from an industrial equipment operated in an online mode. Detailed description The particulars shown herein are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the embodiments of the present invention only and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the present invention. In this regard, no attempt is made to show structural details of the present invention in more detail than is necessary for the fundamental understanding of the present invention, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the present invention may be embodied in practice. Fig. 1 illustrates a prior art approach for collecting, processing and displaying data collected from industrial equipment where industrial equipment communicates with external public hosted servers. In the exemplary configuration shown, two independent industrial machines (101) and (105) such as surface coating machines are located on the premises of a premise (103) such as a factory. Edge gateways (127) and (107) mounted within or to the industrial machines (101) and (105) have one or several first interfaces to communicatively couple the edge gateways (127) and (107) to one or more edge devices 1-n, not shown in Fig. 1, using a local area network (LAN), also not shown in Fig. 1 wherein the LAN connection may be wired or wireless or a combination of both in order to collect date from these edge devices. For the example of a thermal spray machine, the components of the media controller, the power supply and the junction box may be each equipped with an edge device coupled to the edge gateway of the corresponding surface coating equipment. The edge gateways (127) and (107) have a second interface which may be wired or adapted to communicate wirelessly with a wide the public internet (129). Data from the industrial devices (101) and (103) is collected by the edge gateways (127) and (107) and then sent to external cloud services (123) such as virtual machine, container or serverless function. The same configuration is shown for a second premise (113) where also two industrial devices (111) and (115) are connected to edge gateways (109) and (117) which transmit data to cloud servers (123). Data transmitted to the cloud server (123) can be accessed by users logged in to computers (125) and (121) regardless of their premise using for example a web browser. In the example shown, a user using a computer (125) is physically located within the premises of location (103) whereas another user is logged in to a computer (119) is physically located within the premises of another location (121). It is to be noted that there might be more than two individual industrial devices for each premise and that there might be more than two separate physical premises where industrial devices are located. In Fig. 2 an alternative system architecture is shown where data generated by the industrial machines (201) and (205) is not sent over the internet but is rather contained on the premises of premise (203). This architecture may be required if the data generated by the industrial machines (201) and (205) is not allowed to be sent outside of the premise (203) due to the sensitivity of the data. The same as in the system architecture shown in Fig. 1, data generated by sensors and actuators of the industrial machines (201) and (205) is collected by edge gateways (227) and (207) using a LAN connection. In contrast to the approach shown in Fig. 1, data gathered by the gateways (227) and (207) is transmitted using a LAN connection to an edge device (233). A user located on the premise (203) may access the data on the edge device (233) using a computer (225) located on the premise (203) using a LAN connection (231). The approach exemplarily shown in Fig. 2 is usually applied when the industrial machine owner’s policies prohibit any public internet access. The drawback of this approach is that users located outside of premise (203) cannot access data generated by industrial machines (201) and (205) located on this premise (203). The inventive IIoT hybrid system shown in Fig. 3 exemplarily shows three different premises (303), (315) and (323). The premises may be separate buildings such as individual factories each having its own on-premise network connection (LAN) located in different parts of the world. On an exemplary first premise (303), two individual industrial equipment, in particular surface coating machines (301) and (305), with each individual surface coating machine being equipped with an edge gateway (313) and (307). The edge gateways (313) and (307) are configured to collect data from one or more sensors or actuators located within the or connected to a surface coating machine. The edge gateways (313) and (307) of the two individual surface coating machines (301) and (305) are configured to transmit raw data via an internet network connection (339, solid lines) using coming communication protocols to a Backend software instance (341) installed and running on cloud services (309). In the case shown for a first premise (303) where the surface coating machines (301) and (305) are allowed to transmit real time data using the public internet (online mode), one Backend program is run on the cloud service (309) for each surface coating machine. Data connection between the edge gateways (313) and (307) and the Backend software instance (341) can be uni- directional or bi-directional, using common network protocols such as TCP over Ethernet, UDP over Ethernet, HTTP / HTTPS, MQTT, ModBus, ProfiBus, OPC, OPC-UA or other industry or IoT standard protocols. The Backend software instance (341) is collecting, storing, processing and providing equipment data such as but not limited to machine configuration data, event data, timeseries data of process parameters or machine conditions. The data can be collected either periodically or in real time. The backend software instance (341) can also be configured to collect additional equipment related data from other software systems located either on-premise or in the cloud to complement or enrich or clarify data gathered from the surface coating machines. The Backend software instance (341) can also collect non-equipment related data about the environment or user created data that is provide through edge gateways or other external software or hardware systems connected to the Backend software instance (341). Data acquired by the Backend software instance (341) can be stored in volatile memory as well as persistently on a data storage medium such as hard disk, SSD, SD Card, USB Stick or network protocol. The Backend software instances (341) communicate with a Frontend software (343) over a network in a uni-directional or bi- directional way using common network protocols such as TCP over ethernet, UDP over ethernet, HTTP / HTTPS, MQTT, OPC-UA or other industry or IoT standard protocols. In the case shown for premise (303) where the surface coating machines (301) and (305) are allowed to transmit real time data using the public internet, the Frontend software (343) is also installed and running on cloud services (309). The Frontend software (343) comprises a graphical user interface that allows to display and analyze data collected by the Backend software instance (341). The Frontend software (343) the digital representation (digital twin) and associated data of all equipment of which data is collected by the Backend software instance (341). In the example shown in Fig. 3, a first on-premises user or cloud user (311) located on a first premise (303) accesses the Frontend software (343) using a web browser on a PC, laptop or mobile device. This user can only display and analyze data gathered from surface coating machines (301) and (305) using internet connections (339, solid lines) to Backend software instance (341) running on cloud services (309). In the case shown for a second premise (323), where surface coating machines (321) and (325) are not allowed to transmit data over internet connections (offline mode), the Backend software instance (341) is installed and runs on dedicated industrial PCs (329) assigned to each surface coating machine (321) and (325) and acting as edge devices connected to the on- premise network connection. Data connection between the edge gateways (319) and (327) and the Backend software instance (341) running on dedicated industrial PCs (329) can be uni-directional or bi-directional over on-premises network connections (331, dashed lines), using common network protocols such as TCP over Ethernet, UDP over Ethernet, HTTP / HTTPS, MQTT, ModBus, ProfiBus, OPC, OPC-UA or other industry or IoT standard protocols. The Backend software instance (341) are collecting, storing, processing and providing equipment data such as but not limited to machine configuration data, event data, timeseries data of process parameters or machine conditions. The Backend software incstance (341) communicate with a Frontend software (343) over an on-premise network connection (331, dashed lines) in a uni- directional or bi-directional way using common network protocols such as TCP over ethernet, UDP over ethernet, HTTP / HTTPS, MQTT, OPC-UA or other industry or IoT standard protocols. In order to access data collected by the Backend software instance (341) from surface coating machines (321) and (325) operating in an offline mode on a second premise (323), a Frontend software (343) is installed on the PCs, laptops or mobile devices of a second user or on-premise user (335), a third user (333) and a fourth user (317). In the case of the second, on-premise user (335), the Frontend software (343) is connected to the on-premise Backend software instance (341) running on dedicated industrial PCs (329) via an on-premise network connection (331, dashed line). In the case of a third user (333) currently located on a second premise (323) the Frontend software (343) is connected to the Backend software instances (341) running on dedicated industrial PCs (329) acting as edge devices to collect data from the surface coating machines (321) and (325) via an on-premise network connection. At the same time, this third user (333) can display and analyze data collected from the surface coating machines (301) and (305) located on a first premise (303) via an internet connection (339, solid line) to cloud services (309). A fourth user (317) located on a third premise (315) can display and analyze data collected from the surface coating machines (301) and (305) located on a first premise (303) via an internet connection (339, solid line) to cloud services (309). At the same time this fourth user (317) can display data collected from the surface machines (319) and (325) located on a second premise (323) via a network connection (VPN, 337, dashed line) to the Backends (329) located on the second premise (323) with the pre- condition of having network access to the private network of the second premise (323), by using technologies such as VPN. The Frontend software (343) can be configured to connect simultaneously to one or more Backend software instances (341), either on-premises or in the cloud, optionally using authentication and / or encryption which can involve 3rd party software (e.g. authentication providers). It can display, using the graphical interface, the digital representation (also known as digital Twin) and associated data, of one or more industrial equipment. The Frontend software (343) allows users, via a graphical user interface(GUI) display any real-time and configuration data processed and stored by the Backend software instances (341). The Frontend software also allows the user to interact with the data including viewing, filtering and analyzing the data through the GUI. The Backend software instances (341) can also be connected to an external system, other than the Frontend software (343), to provide any stored data, for example for an on-premises MES (Manufacturing Enterprise System). The system setup in Fig. 3 can be extended by more than two surface coating machines or other equipment equipped with edge gateways for each premise and it may comprise more than one premise operating in online mode and it may as well comprise more than one premise operating in offline mode. It is preferred that the inventive solutions are further improved by incorporating an additional software program, installed on- premises on an industrial PC (329) acting as edge device or on a computer located on-premise, connected using on-premise network connection to the edge device (329) and configured to run the additional software program, wherein the additional software program would act as a gateway and protocol exchanger to ensure compliance with a layered architecture, for example comprising operational technology (OT), demilitarized zone (DMZ) and IT network layer. In Fig. 4, the values for the operating parameter of cooling water flow conductivity of one surface coating machine operated in an offline mode (401) and of one surface coating machine operated in an online mode (403) are shown. The surface coating equipment operated in an offline mode used an outdated hard- and software configuration whereas the surface coating equipment operated in an online mode used the most recent hard- and software configuration. To produce the data for the cooling water flow conductivity as shown in Fig. 4, following configuration was used: One surface coating machine was allowed to be connected to the public internet in an online mode, corresponding to the setup used for the surface coating machine (301) and one surface coating machine was not allowed to transmit data over internet connections, thus working in an offline mode according to the setup for the surface coating machine (312). For the surface coating machine operating in an offline mode (321), the Backend program instance processing data from the surface coating machine (312) was installed on a dedicated industrial PC (329) via an on-premise network connection (331, dashed line) and transmitted to the Frontend software on a computer of a fourth user (317) located on a third premise (315) using a VPN connection. For the surface coating machine operating in an online mode (301), the Backend program instance was run on a cloud service (309) and data was transmitted to the Frontend software on a computer of a fourth user (317) located on a third premise (315) using an internet connection. The Backend software instances were configured to convert data transmitted by the edge gateways connected to the surface coating machines into a unified data format and a unified data naming system. This allowed to display data gathered in a unified format, independently of the hardware version and the sensor configuration installed on the surface coating machine. This approach allowed to compare the operating conditions of the surface coating machines independently of the hard- and software installed on the individual surface coating machines and independently whether the individual surface coating machines, the data of which were displayed and analyzed, were transmitting data to external public internet hosted servers, so called cloud services, via public networks in an online mode or whether the individual coating machines are without public internet connectivity to cloud services to provide real time data, so called on-premises via private networks in an offline mode. In addition to this, the exemplary setup used allowed to offload data processing and data storage requirements from the operating systems of the surface coating machines. Especially for older surface coating machines running with lower data storage space and lower computing power, this approach of configuring the Backend software instances running on dedicated industrial PCs to convert, process and store the data gathered from edge gateways allows to reduce lag times of the operating systems of surface coating machines. Based on the comparison of the analysis of the cooling water conductivity data (401) and (403) as shown in Fig. 4 and further considering the analysis of the alarms (405) produced by one individual surface coating machine, the user configured warning thresholds for minimum and maximum cooling water conductivity levels as well as a warning threshold for a deviation of the cooling water conductivity from the average value for a defined period of time. The warning threshold configuration defined by the user on the Frontend software was then transmitted to the Backend software instances of the individual surface coating machines. The Backend software instances were configured to receive warning threshold configurations for surface coating machine operating parameters from the Frontend software. This configuration of the warning thresholds was then used on the Backend software instances to screen the data received from the individual edge gateways for breach of the thresholds. In addition to this, the Frontend software may further be configured to send e-mails or text messages to mobile phones according to a defined distribution list if the surface coating machine produces an alarm and / or if the thresholds as set by the user are exceeded. In an alternative embodiment, the Frontend software may additionally be configured to produce a pop-up window on the device on which the Frontend software is run to inform the user about alarms occurring on one or more individual surface coating machines and / or about warning thresholds for operating parameters exceeded on one or more surface coating machines. This approach allows to timely initiate maintenance activities such as but not limited to checking the integrity of components and / or replacement of wear parts. In addition to this, the timely provision of information about surface coating machine operating parameters reaching the warning threshold levels set allows the production and or maintenance personnel to stop production if the operating parameters indicate that non- conforming goods may be produced on the individual surface coating machine affected. It is noted that the foregoing examples have been provided merely for the purpose of explanation and are in no way to be construed as limiting of the present invention. While the present invention has been described with reference to an exemplary embodiment, it is understood that the words which have been used herein are words of description and illustration, rather than words of limitation. Changes may be made, within the purview of the appended claims, as presently stated and as amended, without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention in its aspects. Although the present invention has been described herein with reference to particular means, materials and embodiments, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the particulars disclosed herein; rather, the present invention extends to all functionally equivalent structures, methods and uses, such as are within the scope of the appended claims. List of reference signs IIoT Industrial Internet of Things HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure LAN Local Area Network MQTT Message Queuing Telemetry Transport OPC Open Platform Communications OPC-UA OPC Unified Architecture TCP Transmission Control Protocol UDP User Datagram Protocol

Claims

Claims 1. A method for real-time data collection, processing,monitoring and analyzing data of industrial equipment, in particular surface coating machines located on one or more premises, the method comprising: - collecting data from at least one industrial equipment via an edge gateway; - transmitting raw data via the edge gateway to two or more Backend software instances, wherein the software instances are configured to: ocollect raw data;o store raw data in a database;o process raw data to generate actionableinsights, including real-time monitoring metrics, audit logs and analytics reports; - transmitting data from the Backend software instances to a Frontend software deployed on computer or mobile device of a user, wherein the Frontend software comprises a graphical user interface (GUI) configured to: odisplay the processed data in real-time to auser; oallow the user to interact with the data,including viewing, filtering and analyzing data through the GUI; - enabling the Frontend software to connect to one or more Backend software instances, the Backend software instances being deployed either on-premises for premises where no public internet connectivity is allowed to be established for the industrial equipment or on a cloud server for premises where public internet connectivity is allowed to be established for the industrial equipment;- ensuring data segregation between the on-premises and cloud servers while maintaining a unified graphical experience for the user through the Frontend software.

2. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that rawdata is transmitted from the edge gateway to the Backend software instances using common network protocols.

3. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that thecommunication between the Frontend and the Backend software instances uses common network protocols.

4. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that in casepublic internet connectivity is not allowed to be established for the industrial equipment, the Backend software instances are deployed on premises on a dedicated edge device such as an industrial PC.

5. Method according to claim 4 characterized in that theFrontend software establishes connection to the dedicated edge device.

6. Method according to claim 4 characterized in that datatransmission is encrypted during transmission between the Backend and Frontend software to ensure data security.

7. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that in casethe industrial equipment is with public internet connectivity the Backend software instances are deployed on a cloud service.

8. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that theprocessed data between the Backend and Frontend software is synchronized, ensuring that the user receives the most up-to-date information regardless of the deployment environment;9. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that alertsand notifications are generated on the GUI of the Frontend software when predefined thresholds or anomalies are detected in the industrial surface coating process.

10. Method according to claim 1 characterized in thatusers accessing the Frontend software are authenticated to ensure authorized access to the data.

11. Method according to claim 1 characterized in thatprocessing of the raw data by the Backend software instances includes applying machine learning algorithms to predict potential failures in the industrial surface coating equipment.

12. Method according to claim 1 characterized in thatanalytical reports are generated and exported from the processed data for further external analysis.

13. Method according to claim 1, characterized in thatthe Backend software instances are configured to receive warning threshold configurations for surface coating machine operating parameters from the Frontend software.

14. A system for real-time data collection, processing,monitoring and analyzing data of industrial equipment, in particular surface coating machines located on one or more premises, comprising: - two or more Backend software instances configured to: o collecting raw data transmitted from industrial surface coating equipment via an Edge Gateway; o storing and processing the collected raw data;o providing the processed data for generating actionable insights, including real-time monitoring metrics, audit logs and analytics reports; - a Frontend software deployed on a computer or a mobile device of a user comprising a graphical user interface (GUI) configured to: o communicate with the Backend software instances via common network protocols over Ethernet; o present real-time data collected and processed by the Backend software instances to the user; - wherein the system is configured to enable the Frontend software to connect to two or more instances of the Backend software, the Backend software instances being deployed either: o On-premises, in an environment without public internet connectivity; or o On a cloud server, in an environment with public internet connectivity; - wherein the system ensures data segregation between the on-premises and cloud environments, while providing a unified graphical experience to the user through the Frontend software.

15. The system of claim 13 characterized in that theBackend software instances further include a module for data encryption to secure data transmission between the Backend and Frontend software.

16. The system of claim 13 characterized in that theFrontend software includes a user authentication module to control access to the processed data.

17. The system of claim 13 characterized in that theBackend software instances include a real-time alertingmodule that notifies the user of anomalies in the industrial surface coating process based on the collected data.

18. The system of claim 13 characterized in that theFrontend software is configured to display historical data trends and generate reports based on the data processed by the Backend software instances.

19. A computer program product comprising instructionsthat, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method according to claim 1.

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