Notification Server Context Aggregation for Industrial Automation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial process control and automation systems face challenges in providing timely and contextual notifications to users, especially when they are away from their normal work environment, as current methods often require users to access multiple systems and perform extensive searches for situational awareness, which can be time-consuming and disruptive.
Innovation Solution
The system includes a notification server that automatically transmits contextual information related to events in industrial process control and automation systems to end-user devices, such as mobile devices, providing details like event type, location, triggers, trends, and historical data, enabling quick situational awareness and allowing users to take appropriate actions directly from their mobile devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If users access multiple systems and perform extensive searches to obtain situational awareness, then complete information can be obtained, but time consumption and operational disruption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates contextual information from multiple industrial systems into a single notification message delivered to mobile devices. The notification includes event details, alarm information, process data, and historical context all in one unified communication, eliminating the need for users to access multiple separate systems and perform extensive searches across different interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a notification server as an intermediary component that receives data from multiple industrial systems, processes and contextualizes the information, then delivers it to users via mobile devices. This intermediary consolidates and pre-processes information from various sources before presentation to the user, reducing the time and effort required to obtain situational awareness.
2Loss of information
If users access multiple systems to obtain complete event context, then comprehensive information is available, but operational efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges contextual information from multiple industrial systems into a single notification message delivered to mobile devices. The notification includes event details, alarm information, process data, and historical context all in one unified communication, eliminating the need for users to access multiple separate systems and perform extensive searches across different interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The notification system automatically gathers, processes, and delivers contextual information without requiring user initiation or interaction with multiple systems. The system self-services by proactively pushing relevant event context to users' mobile devices, freeing them from the need to manually search across multiple systems and improving operational efficiency.
3Ease of operation
If notifications are sent to mobile devices with contextual information, then user availability improves, but communication system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a notification server as an intermediary component that receives data from multiple industrial systems, processes and contextualizes the information, then delivers it to users via mobile devices. This intermediary consolidates and pre-processes information from various sources before presentation to the user, reducing the time and effort required to obtain situational awareness.
Solution Approach 2:
The notification system is designed to work with multiple types of industrial systems and events through a universal interface. The notification server can handle various event types (alarms, warnings, process deviations) from different sources and deliver them through a common mobile notification platform, reducing overall system complexity despite the multi-functional capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes transmitting a notification to an end-user device, where the notification identifies an event in an industrial process control and automation system. The method also includes obtaining contextual information associated with the event, where the contextual information includes one or more types of additional information associated with the event. The method further includes transmitting the contextual information to the end-user device. In addition, the method could include receiving a request for the contextual information from the end-user device, where the contextual information is transmitted to the end-user device in response to the request. The contextual information could be obtained from multiple devices or systems automatically in response to the request.