Device model to thing model mapping

{
  "publication_number": "US11025498B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Device model to thing model mapping",
  "abstract": "A system, method, and computer-readable medium, to define and represent real world physical devices and physical things and corresponding virtual representations thereof and to define relationships between the virtual representations of the physical devices and physical things. The defined relationships can be saved to a memory, retrieved from the memory, and used by one or more applications.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A system comprising: a memory storing processor-executable instructions; and a processor to execute the processor-executable instructions to cause the system to: obtain a device model, the device model being a virtual representation of a physical device having at least one sensor of at least one capability, expressed at least in part as metadata and the device model to act as a source of data including at least one of a measurement, an observation, and technical information related to a physical thing having at least one associated property; obtain a thing model, the thing model being a virtual representation of the physical thing having at least one associated property that accurately represents the physical thing and expressed at least in part as metadata, the device model and the thing model being separate and independent of each other and the physical device and the physical thing being independent of each other; assign, during a design time, at least one capability of the at least one sensor of the device model virtual representation of the physical device to at least one associated property of the thing model virtual representation of the physical thing to define a relationship between the at least one capability of the of the device model and the at least one associated property of the thing model; and save a record of the assignment of the at least one capability of the at least one sensor of the device model to the at least one associated property of the thing model in a memory.",
    "2. The system of claim 1, wherein the representation of the device is provided by a service.",
    "3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further enabled to execute processor-executable instructions to cause the system to: associate the saved assignment with a device type to thing type assignment, the device type representing a category of devices having a set of similar capabilities and the thing type representing a category of real world entities having similar associated properties.",
    "4. The system of claim 3, further comprising generating the device type to thing type assignment.",
    "5. The system of claim 3, wherein the device type to thing type assignment is retrieved from a memory.",
    "6. A system comprising: a memory storing processor-executable instructions; and a processor to execute the processor-executable instructions to cause the system to: receive an indication of a thing type, the thing type being a data structure of a category of physical things accurately representing physical entities having at least one associated property; receive an indication of a device type, the device type being a data structure of a category of devices representing one or more technical capabilities of physical devices and a source of data including at least one of a measurement, an observation, and technical information related to the physical thing, the device type and the thing type being separate and independent of each other and the physical device and the physical thing being independent of each other; assign, during a design time, the at least one associated property of the thing type to at least one of the capabilities of the device type to define a relationship between the one or more capabilities of the device type and the at least one associated property of the thing type; and save a record of the assignment of the at least one associated property of the thing type to the at least one of the capabilities of the device type in a memory.",
    "7. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one associated property of the thing type is one of a set of properties associated with the thing type.",
    "8. The system of claim 6, wherein the device type represents one or more sensors having a set of similar capabilities.",
    "9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further enabled to execute processor-executable instructions to cause the system to: assign each of the properties in the set of properties associated with the thing type to at least one of the capabilities of the device type; and save a record of the assignment of each of the properties in the set of properties associated with the thing type to at least one of the capabilities of the device type in a memory.",
    "10. The system of claim 6, wherein the thing type represents one or more things having a set of similar properties.",
    "11. A system comprising: a memory storing processor-executable instructions; and a processor to execute the processor-executable instructions to cause the system to: receive a set of data, the data relating to a physical thing having at least one associated thing property and accurately represents the physical thing; determine, from the received set of data, identifying information indicative of a device type sourcing the received set of data, the device type having at least one associated property of a physical device; determine, based on device type to thing type assignment constraints, a relationship between the physical thing related to the set of data and the physical device identified as sourcing the set of data, the physical thing and the physical device being independent of each other and the device type and the thing type being separate and distinct from each other; assign, during a design time and based on device type to thing type assignment constraints, at least one device property of the device type to at least at least one property of the thing type; and save a record of the assignment in a memory.",
    "12. The system of claim 11, wherein the thing type represents a category of physical entities having at least one similar associated property and the device type represents a category of sensors having one or more similar technical capabilities.",
    "13. The system of claim 11, wherein the set of data is received from a streaming pipeline of data.",
    "14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further enabled to execute processor-executable instructions to cause the system to: determine, from the set of received data, identifying information indicative of at least one of an identity the physical thing related to the set of data and a thing type of the thing related to the set of data.",
    "15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions executable by a processor of a computing system, the medium comprising: instructions to obtain a device model, the device model being a virtual representation of a physical device having at least one sensor of at least one capability and the device model to act as a source of data including at least one of a measurement, an observation, and technical information related to a physical thing having at least one associated property; instructions to obtain a thing model, the thing model being a virtual representation of the physical thing having at least one associated property that accurately represents the physical thing, the device model and the thing model being separate and independent of each other and the physical device and the physical thing being independent of each other; instructions to assign, during a design time, at least one capability of the at least one sensor of the device model virtual representation of the physical device to at least one associated property of the thing model virtual representation of the physical thing to define a relationship between the at least one capability of the of the device model and the at least one associated property of the thing model; and instructions to save a record of the assignment of the at least one capability of the at least one sensor of the device model to the at least one associated property of the thing model in a memory.",
    "16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the representation of the device is provided by a service.",
    "17. The medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions to associate the saved assignment with a device type to thing type assignment, the device type representing a category of devices having a set of similar capabilities and the thing type representing a category of real world entities having similar associated properties.",
    "18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions executable by a processor of a computing system, the medium comprising: instructions to receive a set of data, the data relating to a physical thing having at least one associated thing property and accurately represents the physical thing; instructions to determine, from the received set of data, identifying information indicative of a device type sourcing the received set of data, the device type having at least one associated property of a physical device; instructions to determine, based on device type to thing type assignment constraints, a relationship between the physical thing related to the set of data and the physical device identified as sourcing the set of data, the physical thing and the physical device being independent of each other and the device type and the thing type being separate and distinct from each other; instructions to assign, during a design time and based on device type to thing type assignment constraints, at least one device property of the device type to at least at least one thing property of the thing type; and instructions to save a record of the assignment in a memory.",
    "19. The medium of claim 18, wherein the thing type represents a category of physical entities having at least one similar associated property and the device type represents a category of sensors having one or more similar technical capabilities.",
    "20. The medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions to determine, from the set of received data, identifying information indicative of at least one of an identity the physical thing related to the set of data and a thing type of the thing related to the set of data."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "The Internet of Things (IoT) can be used to describe many aspects of the real world. Given the vastness and possibilities of real world entities (i.e., “things”) that might be include in an IoT context, describing the many different things can be a time consuming process. Each and every machine, system, and device in a representative IoT environment may have to be defined in order to be effectively represented in a corresponding digital world. Moreover, operating characteristics and measurables related to the things may be used in an effort to accurately model and represent the real world things in the digital world.\n\nAs such, there exists a need to relate real world things and their associated measurements in an efficient and integrated manner to create accurate and reliable representations and models of things in an IoT context.\n\nFIG. 1 is an illustrative diagram of an example logical framework herein;\n\nFIG. 2 is an illustrative block diagram of a device model, a thing model, and a relationship therebetween;\n\nFIG. 3 is an example flow diagram of a process herein;\n\nFIG. 4 is an example flow diagram of another process herein;\n\nFIG. 5 is an example flow diagram of a process herein;\n\nFIG. 6 is an illustrative depiction of an architecture overview herein; and\n\nFIG. 7 is an illustrative depiction of an architecture including example embodiment details.\n\nThe following description is provided to enable any person in the art to make and use the described embodiments. Various modifications, however, will remain readily apparent to those in the art.",
  "cpc": [
    "H04L 41/145",
    "B25J 9/1664",
    "B25J 9/1682",
    "B25J 9/1694",
    "H04L 67/12",
    "H04W 4/38",
    "H04W 4/70"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B25J 9/16",
    "H04L 12/24",
    "H04L 29/08",
    "H04W 4/38",
    "H04W 4/70"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "SAP SE"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Thilo Sieth",
    "Christian Holzwarth"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2017-08-23",
  "publication_date": "2021-06-01",
  "grant_date": "2021-06-01",
  "priority_date": "2017-08-23",
  "application_number": "US-201715684488-A",
  "family_id": "65436200",
  "cited_by_count": 0,
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}