Industrial Data Platform With Gateway-Mediated Secure Asset Context
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation systems face challenges in securely accessing and processing industrial data due to the highly distributed and unstructured nature of data across various industrial devices, requiring developers to define the meaning of each data item for meaningful presentation.
Innovation Solution
A system is provided that includes a registration component to store industrial asset information, an application delivery component to select data service applications, a gateway interface to collect data, and an analytic component to process data in accordance with the selected applications, utilizing structured data types like BIDTs to facilitate secure and meaningful data presentation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If industrial data is accessed and processed from distributed industrial devices, then data availability and processing capability are improved, but security risks and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway device as an intermediary between industrial devices and the data service application. The gateway collects data from multiple industrial devices, performs preliminary processing and validation, and forwards standardized data to the cloud platform. This intermediary layer isolates the cloud platform from direct access to distributed industrial devices, enhancing security while maintaining data processing capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system architecture is segmented into distinct functional layers: industrial devices at the edge, gateway devices for local data collection and preprocessing, cloud platform for application delivery and analytics, and client devices for user interaction. This segmentation distributes functionality across multiple components, improving both security through isolation and productivity through specialized processing at each layer.
2Loss of information
If structured data types and hierarchical models are implemented, then data presentation quality and contextualization are improved, but device complexity and implementation difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements universal data models and structured data types (such as BIDTs - Basic Information Data Types) that can represent multiple industrial data concepts using a common framework. These standardized models serve multiple purposes: data representation, semantic definition, hierarchical organization, and presentation formatting. By using universal models, the system reduces implementation complexity compared to creating custom data structures for each application scenario.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transforms unstructured industrial device data into structured formats by applying parameter changes during data collection and processing. The gateway device converts raw device data into standardized structured data types with defined parameters, metadata, and hierarchical relationships. This parameter transformation enables meaningful data presentation while the standardization process manages complexity through consistent transformation rules.
Data Source
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AI summary
A cloud-based industrial data services (IDS) architecture leverage smart tags, asset models, and data service applications to facilitate secure transaction and exchange of contextualized factory data between different parties as part of a combined technology and commerce platform, or to perform provide asset owners with insights into operation of their industrial assets. The IDS platform supports a set of services that connect providers of smart industrial devices to plant floor and systems owned by the end users of these devices. The cloud-based platform allows asset providers to publish data service applications for purchase and use by end users of their assets, and allows equipment owners to control remote access to selected sets of their industrial data via the cloud platform.