Industrial Printer Remote Services With Offline Edge Analytics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing remote servicing solutions for industrial printers face inefficiencies due to network-dependent cloud computing, leading to delayed responses and increased load on printers, especially in time-critical environments, and lack effective offline data handling capabilities.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a hybrid edge-cloud analytics system where edge computing nodes perform rapid reactive analytics and proactive monitoring, with edge gateways providing secure, offline data storage and communication, while cloud computing handles large-scale historical data analysis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If cloud computing is used for data analytics, then computing scale can be expanded, but network cost and delay increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the computing architecture into two parts: edge computing devices deployed locally at customer sites for immediate data processing, and cloud computing infrastructure for historical data analysis. This segmentation allows time-critical analytics to occur locally without network delay, while still utilizing cloud resources for non-time-critical historical analysis, thus resolving the contradiction between expanded computing scale and reduced network delay.
2Power
If cloud computing is used for data analytics, then computing scale can be expanded, but network cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the computing architecture into two parts: edge computing devices deployed locally at customer sites for immediate data processing, and cloud computing infrastructure for historical data analysis. This segmentation allows time-critical analytics to occur locally without network delay, while still utilizing cloud resources for non-time-critical historical analysis, thus resolving the contradiction between expanded computing scale and reduced network delay.
3Productivity
If direct cloud connection is implemented, then data processing capability is improved, but security barriers are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces edge computing devices as intermediary components between industrial devices and the cloud. These edge devices process data locally and only transmit anonymized or aggregated results to the cloud, rather than allowing direct connections. This intermediary approach maintains security by preventing direct access to industrial devices while still enabling cloud-based analytics capabilities.
4Speed
If printer processes all analytics locally, then response time is improved, but printer load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the analytics processing function from the printer device and places it in dedicated edge computing devices. The printer's role is reduced to generating events and transmitting them to the edge device, while the computationally intensive analytics processing is performed by the edge device. This extraction reduces printer load while maintaining fast local response times through the edge device's proximity to the printer.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for providing remote services includes: at least one printer used in a production site; a detecting device for detecting a functional parameter of the printer; an edge computing device; and a cloud computing device. The edge computing device receives real-time data from the printer and/or detecting device; processed and analyzes the data and compares with internally stored data to generate a response to the received data; transmits the response to the one printer; transmits the response and received real-time data to the cloud device. The cloud device processes and analyzes the real-time data from the printer and the response from the edge computing device by comparing them with historical data and generates a response with respect to the historical data; and provides the response to a user and/or the edge node.