Embedded Historian Locator for Industrial Controller Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional industrial control system architectures are inefficient in seamlessly exchanging data between various components of an enterprise, leading to loose integration and inefficiencies in data collection and storage, particularly in meeting compliance requirements and optimizing productivity.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of a locator component that detects and interacts with embedded historians on an industrial network, providing a direct interface to controllers without a transitional layer, enabling efficient data exchange and collection across an organizational hierarchy through a distributed and scalable framework.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional PC-historians are applied on the back-end of system design with a transitional layer, then data storage and retrieval capabilities are provided, but data exchange rates and integration efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the historian functionality from the back-end transitional layer and embeds it directly into the controller module. This eliminates the intermediate communication layer, allowing the embedded historian to access process data directly from the controller's memory and registers, thereby achieving high-speed data collection while maintaining reliable storage capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements the historian component as an embedded module within the controller architecture. The embedded historian is nested inside the controller, sharing the same hardware resources and memory space, which enables direct access to process data without external communication overhead, thus improving data exchange rates while preserving storage reliability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If conventional PC-historians are loosely coupled within the control architecture, then system flexibility is maintained, but integration efficiency and data collection effectiveness deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the historian functionality with the controller by embedding it as an integrated component. This combination allows the historian to directly access the controller's internal memory, registers, and process data structures, eliminating the need for complex configuration and mapping procedures required by loose coupling architectures, thereby significantly improving data collection efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The embedded historian is designed to work with multiple data types and communication protocols natively, as it shares the controller's universal interface. This multi-functionality allows it to efficiently collect various types of process data (analog, digital, alarm, event) without requiring separate configuration for each data type, enhancing both productivity and flexibility.
3Reliability
If manual configuration is used to map controller tags to data historian files, then data collection can be established, but system complexity and configuration time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The embedded historian automatically discovers and collects process data from the controller's internal memory structures without requiring manual tag mapping configuration. It self-configures by accessing the controller's data dictionary and memory maps, eliminating the need for complex graphical user interface-based configuration procedures, thereby reducing system complexity while maintaining reliable data collection.
Solution Approach 2:
The embedded historian is pre-configured with knowledge of the controller's memory structure and data organization during the controller design phase. This preliminary configuration allows the historian to immediately begin data collection upon activation without requiring post-installation setup, significantly reducing configuration time and complexity while ensuring reliable data collection from the outset.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods that facilitate discovery of history data via a locator component associated with a plant embedded historian(s) of an industrial programmer (e.g., a controller device.) Such locator component can further detect micro historians that are distributed on the back plane of an industrial network. The locator component can be part of applications running on a control unit, which can function as a management control center for the industrial network system. A common data model can be employed to expose functionality and data of the organization to the embedded historian component.