Distributed software-defined industrial systems

{
  "publication_number": "US11330087B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Distributed software-defined industrial systems",
  "abstract": "Various systems and methods for implementing a software defined industrial system are described herein. For example, an orchestrated system of distributed nodes may run an application, including modules implemented on the distributed nodes. In response to a node failing, a module may be redeployed to a replacement node. In an example, self-descriptive control applications and software modules are provided in the context of orchestratable distributed systems. The self-descriptive control applications may be executed by an orchestrator or like control device and use a module manifest to generate a control system application. For example, an edge control node of the industrial system may include a system on a chip including a microcontroller (MCU) to convert IO data. The system on a chip includes a central processing unit (CPU) in an initial inactive state, which may be changed to an activated state in response an activation signal.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A method for operation of a software defined industrial system, comprising: establishing respective functional definitions of a software defined industrial system, the software defined industrial system to interface with a plurality of devices, wherein the plurality of devices include respective sensors and respective actuators; and establishing a dynamic data model to define properties of a plurality of components of the software defined industrial system; operating the software defined industrial system using the respective functional definitions; monitoring data from the plurality of components, to identify operational metadata; detecting one or more patterns from the operational metadata; identifying changes to the dynamic data model based on the detected one or more patterns; and updating the dynamic data model based on the identified changes.",
    "2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of components includes respective applications, devices, sensors, or architecture definitions.",
    "3. The method of claim 1, wherein plurality of components includes a device, wherein the device represents an ensemble of sensors.",
    "4. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamic data model is updated to indicate changes to the dynamic data model in a subset of components of the plurality of components, and wherein the dynamic data model is updated based on a resource availability change or an error condition occurring with the subset of components.",
    "5. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the dynamic data model includes defining mandatory fields and restrictions for changes to the dynamic data model.",
    "6. The method of claim 1, wherein the operational metadata represents a probabilistic estimate of a value associated with a component of the plurality of components.",
    "7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: querying a component of the plurality of components for metadata expansion rules; receiving a response from the component in response to the querying; wherein the updating of the dynamic data model is further based on the metadata expansion rules, and a confidence or relevancy score associated with updating respective data fields.",
    "8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: performing system operations in an edge, fog, or cloud network, based on the updated dynamic data model.",
    "9. The method of claim 1, comprising: defining at least one condition in the software defined industrial system for data model evaluation; obtaining data from a plurality of sensors in the software defined industrial system; identifying at least one pattern, rule, or threshold, for data model modification; evaluating data from the plurality of sensors using at least one identified pattern, rule, or identified threshold; defining a modification to the data model, based on the at least one identified pattern, rule, or identified threshold; and incorporating the modification to the data model for the plurality of sensors and a data flow associated with the plurality of sensors.",
    "10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: requesting approval for the data model modification from a data model administrator; and receiving approval for the data model modification from the data model administrator; wherein the incorporating of the modification to the data model is performed in response to receiving the approval for the data model modification.",
    "11. The method of claim 9, further comprising: implementing changes to data processing operations in the software defined industrial system based on the data model modification.",
    "12. At least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processing circuitry of a device, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising: establishing respective functional definitions of a software defined industrial system, the software defined industrial system to interface with a plurality of devices, wherein the plurality of devices include respective sensors and respective actuators; and establishing a dynamic data model to define properties of a plurality of components of the software defined industrial system; operating the software defined industrial system using the respective functional definitions; monitoring data from the plurality of components, to identify operational metadata; detecting one or more patterns from the operational metadata; identifying changes to the dynamic data model based on the detected one or more patterns; and updating the dynamic data model based on the identified changes.",
    "13. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the plurality of components includes respective applications, devices, sensors, or architecture definitions.",
    "14. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein plurality of components includes a device, wherein the device represents an ensemble of sensors.",
    "15. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the dynamic data model is updated to indicate changes to the dynamic data model in a subset of components of the plurality of components, and wherein the dynamic data model is updated based on a resource availability change or an error condition occurring with the subset of components.",
    "16. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein establishing the dynamic data model includes defining mandatory fields and restrictions for changes to the dynamic data model.",
    "17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the operational metadata represents a probabilistic estimate of a value associated with a component of the plurality of components.",
    "18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, the operations further comprising: querying a component of the plurality of components for metadata expansion rules; receiving a response from the component in response to the querying; wherein the updating of the dynamic data model is further based on the metadata expansion rules, and a confidence or relevancy score associated with updating respective data fields.",
    "19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, the operations further comprising: performing system operations in an edge, fog, or cloud network, based on the updated dynamic data model.",
    "20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, the operations further comprising: defining at least one condition in the software defined industrial system for data model evaluation; obtaining data from a plurality of sensors in the software defined industrial system; identifying at least one pattern, rule, or threshold, for data model modification; evaluating data from the plurality of sensors using at least one identified pattern, rule, or identified threshold; defining a modification to the data model, based on the at least one identified pattern, rule, or identified threshold; and incorporating the modification to the data model for the plurality of sensors and a data flow associated with the plurality of sensors.",
    "21. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 20, the operations further comprising: requesting approval for the data model modification from a data model administrator; and receiving approval for the data model modification from the data model administrator; wherein the incorporating of the modification to the data model is performed in response to receiving the approval for the data model modification.",
    "22. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 20, the operations further comprising: implementing changes to data processing operations in the software defined industrial system based on the data model modification."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "Embodiments described herein generally relate to data processing and communications within distributed and interconnected device networks, and in particular, to techniques for defining operations of a software defined industrial system (SDIS) provided from configurable Internet Of Things devices and device networks.\n\nIndustrial systems are designed to capture real-world instrumentation (e.g., sensor) data and actuate responses in real time, while operating reliably and safely. The physical environment for use of such industrial systems may be harsh, and encounter wide variations in temperature, vibration, and moisture.\n\nSmall changes to system design may be difficult to implement, as many statically configured I/O and subsystems lack the flexibility to be updated within an industrial system without a full unit shutdown. Over time, the incremental changes required to properly operate an industrial system may become overly complex and result in significant management complexity. Additionally, many industrial control systems encounter costly operational and capital expenses, and many control systems are not architecturally structured to take advantage of the latest information technology advancements.\n\nThe development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology along with software-defined technologies (such as virtualization) has led to technical advances in many forms of telecom, enterprise and cloud systems. Technical advances in real-time virtualization, high availability, security, software-defined systems, and networking have provided improvements in such systems.",
  "cpc": [
    "H04L 69/40",
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  "ipc": [
    "G05B 19/418",
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    "H04L 69/40",
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  ],
  "assignees": [
    "Intel Corp"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Rita H. Wouhaybi",
    "John Vicente",
    "Kirk Smith",
    "Robert Chavez",
    "Mark Yarvis",
    "Steven M. Brown",
    "Jeremy Ouillette",
    "Roderick E. Kronschnabel",
    "Matthew J. Schneider",
    "Chris D. Lucero",
    "Atul N. Hatalkar",
    "Sharad Garg",
    "Casey Rathbone",
    "Aaron R. Berck",
    "Xubo Zhang",
    "Ron Kuruvilla Thomas",
    "Mandeep Shetty",
    "Ansuya Negi"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2018-09-28",
  "publication_date": "2022-05-10",
  "grant_date": "2022-05-10",
  "priority_date": "2017-11-16",
  "application_number": "US-201816650454-A",
  "family_id": "64051668",
  "cited_by_count": 11,
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