Interface Gateway for Multi-Vendor Industrial Equipment Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Integrating and managing various equipment from different manufacturers at a hydrocarbon well site is challenging due to the use of different software platforms, making it time-consuming, cumbersome, and expensive to achieve system-level integration.
Innovation Solution
An interface gateway system generates a unique signature for each piece of equipment based on identification data, creating an interface that allows a common computing system to communicate and monitor assets from different origins, enabling integration and control through a central platform.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If different software platforms are used for equipment from different manufacturers, then each equipment can operate with its native functionality, but system-level integration becomes time-consuming, cumbersome, and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a common interface platform as an intermediary layer between equipment from different manufacturers and the central control system. This platform provides standardized communication protocols and data exchange formats, enabling seamless integration without requiring custom software development for each equipment type, thereby reducing integration time and costs while maintaining equipment compatibility
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a universal interface standard that can accommodate multiple equipment types and manufacturers through a single standardized platform. This universal interface supports various communication protocols and data formats, allowing the system to integrate diverse equipment without requiring separate integration solutions for each manufacturer, thus reducing both time and resource expenditure
2Reliability
If custom interfaces are built for each piece of equipment, then complete control and monitoring is achieved, but redundant operations increase complexity and cost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal interface standard that can accommodate multiple equipment types and manufacturers through a single standardized platform. This universal interface supports various communication protocols and data formats, allowing the system to integrate diverse equipment without requiring separate integration solutions for each manufacturer, thus reducing both time and resource expenditure
Solution Approach 2:
The patent consolidates multiple equipment-specific interfaces into a single common interface platform that handles communication with all equipment types. By merging redundant interface functions into unified modules, the system maintains complete control and monitoring capabilities while significantly reducing overall interface complexity and development costs
Data Source
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AI summary
A system includes a database, a computing system that controls operations of industrial equipment, a skid computing system that is directly coupled to the industrial equipment and controls the operations of the industrial equipment, and an interface gateway system communicates with the computing system and the skid computing system. The interface gateway system retrieves identification data associated with the industrial equipment from the skid computing system, generates a signature associated with the industrial equipment based on the identification data, generates an interface that interprets data related to the industrial equipment based on the signature, stores the interface and an association with a respective signature in the database, and transmits the data and the interface to the computing system. The interface enables the computing system to display the data via a display of the computing system and adjust the operations of the industrial equipment via the skid computing system.