阅读说明：本技术 自动发现并归类工厂电力与能量智能设备以供分析的方法 (Method for automatically discovering and classifying plant power and energy intelligent devices for analysis ) 是由 米通·莫汉·纳加巴伊拉瓦 亚历克斯·L·尼科尔 于 2020-01-10 设计创作，主要内容包括：一种电力设备发现与可视化系统,其识别并归类部署在工业企业内的智能电力与能量设备,并且基于从被发现设备检索到的数据来生成呈现工厂的电力与能量使用的自定义表示的接口。该系统还经由与提供对所有被发现电力与能量设备的访问的单个联合的接口的交互来促进对被发现智能设备的远程配置。该系统基于从设备检索到的信息构造每个被发现智能设备的设备简档,并且根据设备类型(例如,电表、IED、VFD、控制器等)将每个被发现设备归类。该系统从每个被发现智能设备检索可用的历史数据、实时数据和/或配置数据,并且使该数据可用于经由系统接口查看或修改,从而将全厂电力与能量数据统一为公共表示。(A power equipment discovery and visualization system that identifies and categorizes intelligent power and energy equipment deployed within an industrial enterprise and generates an interface presenting a custom representation of power and energy usage of the plant based on data retrieved from the discovered equipment. The system also facilitates remote configuration of the discovered smart devices via interaction with an interface that provides a single joint of access to all discovered power and energy devices. The system constructs a device profile for each discovered smart device based on the information retrieved from the devices and classifies each discovered device according to device type (e.g., meter, IED, VFD, controller, etc.). The system retrieves available historical data, real-time data, and/or configuration data from each discovered smart device and makes the data available for viewing or modification via a system interface, thereby unifying the plant wide power and energy data into a common representation.)

1. A system for categorizing smart power and energy devices, comprising:

a memory storing computer-executable components;

a processor operatively coupled to the memory, the processor executing the computer-executable components, the computer-executable components comprising:

a discovery component configured to discover smart power and energy devices deployed on a network and retrieve device information for each of the smart power and energy devices, the device information including an identification of the device and an identification of data tags available on the device;

a classification component configured to identify, for each of the smart power and energy devices, a type of the device, generate a device profile for the device, and classify the device profile according to the type of the device to produce classified power or energy data; and

a client interface component configured to generate an interface display presenting the selected set of categorized power or energy data consistent with search input submitted via the interface display.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the classification component is configured to classify the device profile according to at least one of: an electricity meter, a variable frequency drive, an intelligent electronic device, an industrial controller with power monitoring capability, a motor control center device, or an overload relay.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the search input comprises a selection of a type of smart power and energy device, and the client interface component is configured to present a subset of categorized power or energy data corresponding to a subset of smart power and energy devices that conform to the type as the selected set of categorized power or energy data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the categorized power or energy data comprises real-time data and historical data retrieved from the smart power and energy device, and the client interface component is configured to present a selected subset of the real-time data and the historical data on the interface display.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein,

the subset of categorized power or energy data comprises values of respective configuration parameters of the smart power and energy device,

the client interface component is configured to receive configuration data via interaction with the interface display, the configuration data modifying one or more values of the configuration parameters to produce updated configuration data, and

the system also includes a device interface component configured to write the updated configuration data to the selected subset of the smart power and energy devices.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the profile data for each of the smart power and energy devices comprises at least one of: device name, device type, device description, device network address, firmware version currently installed on the device, and update status of the firmware.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the client interface component is configured to present a selected set of categorized power or energy data screened or categorized according to a plant facility or production area.

8. The system of claim 4, further comprising a power analysis component configured to perform an analysis on at least one of the real-time data or the historical data, and the client interface component is configured to present results of the analysis.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the power analysis component is configured to perform a sequence of events analysis on historical values of the data tag and identify a root cause of a power-related event based on a result of the sequence of events analysis.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the client interface component is configured to present the selected set of categorized power or energy data as a heat map representation.

11. A method for collecting and presenting smart power and energy device information, comprising:

identifying, by a system comprising a processor, a source of power and energy data on a network, wherein the source comprises at least one of: an intelligent power and energy device or power and energy data repository;

for each of the power and energy data sources, retrieving, by the system, device information including an identification of the source and an identification of data items available on the source;

determining, by the system, for each of the power and energy data sources, a type of the source;

generating, by the system, a device profile for the source;

classifying, by the system, the device profile according to the type of the source to produce classified power or energy data; and

generating, by the system, an interface display presenting the selected set of categorized power or energy data in conformance with search input submitted via the interface display.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the classifying comprises classifying the device profile as at least one of: an electricity meter, a variable frequency drive, an intelligent electronic device, an industrial controller with power monitoring capability or data, an overload relay, or a motor control center device.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving, by the system, a selection of a type of smart power and energy device as the search input; and

in response to receiving the selection, presenting, by the system, a categorized subset of power or energy data corresponding to the subset of power and energy data sources that are eligible for the type.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein,

the categorized power or energy data includes real-time and historical values retrieved from the data items, and

generating the interface display includes presenting the real-time value and the selected subset of historical values on the interface display.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the subset of data items includes values of respective configuration parameters of the smart power and energy device, and

the method further comprises the following steps:

receiving, by the system via interaction with the interface display, configuration data that changes a value of a configuration parameter in the configuration parameter to produce a modified value; and

downloading, by the system, the modified value to a smart power and energy device of the smart power and energy devices corresponding to the configuration parameter.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the device profile comprises generating the device profile to include at least one of: a source name, a source type, a source description, a source network address, a version of firmware currently installed on the source, and an update status of the firmware.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the interface display comprises presenting a selected set of categorized power or energy data screened or categorized according to an industrial facility or production area.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

performing, by the system, an analysis of at least one of the real-time data values or the historical data values, an

Presenting, by the system, results of the analysis.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations comprising:

detecting and identifying smart power and energy devices present on the network;

retrieving device information from the smart power and energy devices, the device information including, for each of the smart power and energy devices, an identification of the device and an identification of data items available on the device;

for each of the smart power and energy devices:

the type of the device is determined and,

generating a device profile for the device, an

Classifying the device profile according to the type of the device to produce classified power or energy data; and

presenting an interface display that displays a selected set of the categorized power or energy data that conforms to search inputs submitted via interactions with the interface display.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the classifying includes classifying the device profile as at least one of: a power monitor, a variable frequency drive, an intelligent electronic device, an industrial controller with power monitoring capabilities, or a motor control center device.

Technical Field

The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to industrial data management, and more particularly to discovery and management of smart power and energy devices.

Disclosure of Invention

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects described herein. This summary is not an extensive overview nor is intended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope of the various aspects described herein. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In one or more embodiments, there is provided a system for categorizing smart power and energy devices, comprising: a discovery component configured to discover smart power and energy devices deployed on a network and retrieve device information for each of the smart power and energy devices, the device information including an identification of the device and an identification of data tags available on the device; a classification component configured to identify, for each of the smart power and energy devices, a type of the device, generate a device profile for the device, and classify the device profile according to the type of the device to produce classified power data; and a client interface component configured to generate an interface display presenting a selected set of categorized power data consistent with search input submitted via the interface display.

Additionally, one or more embodiments provide a method for collecting and presenting smart power and energy device information, comprising: identifying, by a system comprising a processor, intelligent power and energy devices residing on a network; for each device of the smart power and energy devices, retrieving, by the system, device information, the device information including an identification of the device and an identification of a data tag available on the device; determining, by the system, for each of the smart power and energy devices, a type of the device; generating, by a system, a device profile for a device; classifying, by the system, the device profile according to the type of the device to produce classified power data; and generating, by the system, an interface display presenting the selected set of categorized power data consistent with search input submitted via the interface display.

Further, according to one or more embodiments, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause a system to perform operations comprising: detecting and identifying smart power and energy devices present on the network; retrieving device information from the smart power and energy devices, the device information including, for each of the smart power and energy devices, a device identification and an identification of data tags available on the device; determining, for each of the smart power and energy devices, a type of device, generating a device profile for the device, and classifying the device profile according to the type of device to produce classified power data; and presenting an interface display that displays the selected set of categorized power data that conforms to search inputs submitted via interaction with the interface display.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative of various ways which may be practiced, all of which are intended to be covered herein. Other advantages and novel features may become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the drawings.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example industrial control environment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example power device discovery and visualization system.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a generalized example architecture of a power device discovery and visualization system including discovery and categorization of smart power and energy devices throughout an industrial environment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the use of a discovery agent to discover smart devices on a plant network.

FIG. 5A is a flow diagram illustrating a first portion of an example discovery and index routine.

FIG. 5B is a flow diagram illustrating a second portion of an example discovery and index routine.

FIG. 5C is a flow diagram illustrating a third portion of an example discovery and index routine.

Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example set of smart power and energy device profiles that make up categorized power data.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example grouping of smart device profiles according to the production facility and production area in which each profile is located.

FIG. 8 is an example auto discovery interface display that may be generated by a client interface component and presented on a client device.

Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating searching and retrieving desired power and energy data.

FIG. 10 is an example device profile interface display listing power monitors that have been discovered by the power device discovery and visualization system.

FIG. 11 is an example device profile interface display that may be presented when a variable frequency drive device selection button is selected.

Fig. 12 is a diagram illustrating a remote configuration of smart power and energy devices.

FIG. 13 is an example device configuration interface display that may be presented through a client interface component.

Fig. 14 is a diagram illustrating generation of power analysis results by a power device discovery and visualization system.

FIG. 15 is an example daily demand profile display that may be generated by the client interface component and populated with data values generated by the power analysis component.

Fig. 16 is a conceptual diagram of a generic cloud-based implementation of a power device and a visualization system.

Fig. 17 is a flow diagram of an example method for discovering and categorizing smart power and energy devices deployed within an industrial facility.

Fig. 18 is a flow diagram of an example method for remotely configuring smart power and energy devices.

FIG. 19 is an example computing environment.

FIG. 20 is an example networked environment.

Detailed Description

The present disclosure is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the description. It may be evident, however, that the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing them.

As used in this application, the terms "component," "system," "platform," "layer," "controller," "terminal," "station," "node," "interface" are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, or an entity associated with or part of an operating device having one or more specific functions, where such entity may be hardware, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to: a process running on a processor, a hard disk drive, a plurality of storage drives (of optical or magnetic storage media), including an attached (e.g., screwed or bolted) or removably attached solid state storage drive; an object; an executable; executing the thread; a computer executable program and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, the components described herein can execute from various computer readable storage media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate via local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the internet with other systems via the signal). As another example, a component may be an apparatus having a particular functionality provided by mechanical components operated by electrical or electronic circuitry operated by a software or firmware application executed by a processor, where the processor may be internal or external to the apparatus and execute at least a portion of the software or firmware application. As yet another example, a component may be an apparatus that provides specific functionality through electronic components without mechanical components, where a processor may be included to execute software or firmware that provides, at least in part, the functionality of the electronic components. As yet another example, the interface(s) may include input/output (I/O) components and associated processor, application, or Application Program Interface (API) components. While the foregoing examples relate to aspects of components, the illustrated aspects or features also apply to systems, platforms, interfaces, layers, controllers, terminals, and the like.

As used herein, the terms to "infer" and "inference" refer generally to the process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system, environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured via events and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action, or can generate a probability distribution over states, for example. The inference can be probabilistic-that is, the computation of a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set of events and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether the events and data come from one or several event and data sources.

In addition, the term "or" means an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or". That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, the phrase "X employs A or B" means any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, any of the following examples satisfies the phrase "X employs a or B": x is A; x is B; or X employs both A and B. In addition, the articles "a" and "an" as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean "one or more" unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form.

Further, the term "set" as used herein excludes empty sets, e.g., sets in which there are no elements. Thus, a "collection" in this disclosure includes one or more elements or entities. Illustratively, a set of controllers includes one or more controllers; the set of data resources includes one or more data resources, and the like. Also, as used herein, the term "group" refers to a collection of one or more entities, e.g., a group of nodes refers to one or more nodes.

Various aspects or features will be presented in terms of systems that may include a number of devices, components, modules, and the like. It is to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include all of the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection with the figures. Combinations of these methods may also be used.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example industrial control environment 100. In a typical industrial facility, a plurality of industrial controllers 118 are deployed throughout the facility to monitor and control respective industrial systems or processes related to product manufacturing, processing, motion control, batch processing, material handling, or other such industrial functions. The industrial controller 118 typically executes a corresponding control program to facilitate monitoring and control of the industrial equipment 120 that makes up the controlled industrial system. Some industrial controllers 118 may also include software controllers executing on a personal computer or other hardware platform or on a cloud platform. Some hybrid devices may also combine controller functionality with other functionality (e.g., visualization). The control program executed by the industrial controller 118 can include any conceivable type of code for processing input signals read from the industrial device 120 and controlling output signals generated by the industrial controller, including but not limited to ladder logic, sequential function charts, function block diagrams, or structured text.

The industrial device 120 can include both input devices that provide data related to the industrial system being controlled to the industrial controller 118 and output devices that control aspects of the industrial system in response to control signals generated by the industrial controller 118. Example input devices may include telemetry devices (e.g., temperature sensors, flow meters, level sensors, pressure sensors, etc.), manual operator control devices (e.g., buttons, selector switches, etc.), safety monitoring devices (e.g., safety pads, safety pull cords, light curtains, etc.), and other such devices. Output devices may include motor drives, pneumatic actuators, signaling devices, robotic control inputs, valves, and the like.

The industrial controller 118 can communicatively interface with the industrial device 120 via a hardwired connection or a network connection. For example, the industrial controller 118 may be equipped with an industrial device 120₂To 120_NCommunications are conducted to enable local hardwired inputs and outputs for control of the device. The local controller I/O may include a digital I/O that transmits and receives discrete voltage signals to and from the field devices or an analog I/O that transmits and receives analog voltage or current signals to and from the devices. The controller I/O may communicate with the processor of the controller through the backplane so that digital and analog signals may be read into and controlled by the control program. Some industrial controllers 118 may also communicate with industrial devices 120 (e.g., networked industrial devices 120) over the network 108 using, for example, a communication module or integrated networking port₁) Communication is performed. Example networks can include the Internet, intranets, Ethernet, DeviceNet, controlNet, data Highway and data highway plus (DH/DH +), remote I/O, Fieldbus, Modbus, Process Fieldbus (Profibus), wireless networks, serial protocols, and so forth. The industrial controller 118 can also store persistent data values that can be referenced by the control program and used for control decisions, including but not limited to: measured or calculated values representing an operating state of the controlled machine or process (e.g., tank level, location, warnings, etc.), or captured time series data collected during operation of the automated system (e.g., status information at multiple points in time, diagnostic occurrences, etc.). Similarly, some smart devices, including but not limited to motor drives, instruments, power monitors, or condition monitoring modules, may store data values for controlling and/or visualizing operational states. Such devices may also capture time series data or events on a log for later retrieval and viewing.

Industrial automation systems typically include one or more Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) 114, the HMIs 114 allowing plant personnel to view telemetry and status data related to the automation system and to control some aspects of system operation. The HMI114 can communicate with one or more of the industrial controllers 118 via the plant network 108 and exchange data with the industrial controllers 118 to facilitate visualization of information related to a controlled industrial process on one or more pre-developed operator interface screens. The HMI114 can also be configured to allow an operator to submit data to a memory address or designated data tag of the industrial controller 118, thereby providing the operator with a means to issue commands (e.g., cycle start commands, equipment actuation commands, etc.) to the controlled system to modify set point values, etc. The HMI114 can generate one or more displays through which an operator interacts with the industrial controller 118 and thereby with the controlled process and/or system. The example display can visualize the current state of the industrial system or its associated equipment using graphical representations of the process that display metering or calculated values, animate in color or position based on state, present alarm notifications, or employ other such techniques for presenting relevant data to an operator. The data presented in this manner is read by the HMI114 from the industrial controller 118 and presented on one or more display screens according to a display format selected by the HMI developer. The HMI may include a fixed location device or a mobile device with a user-installed or pre-installed operating system and user-installed or pre-installed graphics application software.

The industrial enterprise may also include an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or manufacturing execution system 102 that provides a high level of performance and business tracking.

In addition to the devices and systems discussed above, many industrial facilities employ various intelligent devices that monitor and record power and energy utilization throughout the facility, including, for example, power monitors 110 that measure and record power consumed by industrial machines or areas of the plant facility intelligent power devices may also include Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) 122 that distribute power to industrial devices in a protected manner, IEDs 122 (which may be, for example, intelligently controlled circuit breakers, overload relays, capacitor bank switches, load tap changer controllers, or other such devices) may record their own monitored power statistics and device status information (e.g., voltage and/or current over time, power system event records such as circuit breakers, etc.) and thus may serve as another power and energy data source for the plant.

Typically, smart power and energy devices must be individually manually configured using an energy management software application. Thus, while the breadth and versatility of these smart devices can provide a useful view of the power and energy usage of industrial facilities at various levels of an industrial enterprise, configuring these smart devices to provide the required view can be a time consuming and error prone process, particularly in plants that use a large number of energy meters or other smart power devices.

To address these and other problems, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide a power device discovery and visualization system that identifies and categorizes intelligent power and energy devices deployed within an industrial enterprise, and generates an interface presenting a custom representation of power and energy usage of the plant based on data retrieved from the discovered devices. The discovery and visualization system also facilitates remote configuration of discovered smart devices via interaction with a single federated interface that provides access to all discovered power and energy devices.

In some embodiments, the discovery and visualization system may accept as input network parameters that define a range of network addresses to search for. In response, the system identifies smart power and energy devices within the indicated network address range, constructs a device profile for each discovered smart device based on information retrieved from the devices, and classifies each discovered device according to device type (e.g., electric meter, IED, VFD, controller, etc.). The system retrieves available historical data, real-time data, and/or configuration data from each discovered smart device and makes that data available for viewing or modification via the system interface, thereby unifying the plant wide power and energy data into a common representation. The system provides a means for a user to discover and interact with smart power and energy device parameters and tags in less time than traditional smart device configuration techniques.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an example power device discovery and visualization system 202 in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. Aspects of the systems, apparatus, or processes described in this disclosure may constitute machine-executable components implemented within machine(s) (e.g., in one or more computer-readable media (or media) associated with the machine (s)). These components, when executed by one or more machines (e.g., computer(s), computing device(s), automation device(s), virtual machine(s), etc.), enable the machine(s) to perform the operations described.

The power device discovery and visualization system 202 may include a client interface component 204, a discovery component 206, a classification component 208, a power analysis component 210, a search component 212, a device interface component 214, one or more processors 226, and a memory 228. In various implementations, one or more of the client interface component 204, the discovery component 206, the classification component 208, the power analysis component 210, the search component 212, the device interface component 214, the one or more processors 226, and the memory 228 may be electrically and/or communicatively coupled to each other to perform one or more of the functions of the power device discovery and visualization system 202. In some implementations, the components 204, 206, 208, 210, 212, and 214 may include software instructions stored on the memory 228 and executed by the processor(s) 226. The power device discovery and visualization system 202 may also interact with other hardware and/or software components not depicted in fig. 2. For example, the processor(s) 226 may interact with one or more external user interface devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, a display monitor, a touch screen, or other such interface devices.

The client interface component 204 may be configured to exchange data with client devices that interface with the system 202, such as: a desktop, laptop, or tablet computer; mobile devices such as smart phones; or other such client devices. The client interface component 204 can generate graphical interface displays and render these displays on the client device. These interface displays may present power and energy data representations and receive user input for custom representations. The client interface component 204 may also receive smart device configuration data to be downloaded or distributed to the selected smart power and energy devices via user interaction with the graphical interface display.

The discovery component 206 may be configured to: the method may include discovering and identifying intelligent power and energy devices on a given plant network or a specified set of plant networks, and retrieving device information, available data tag information, and available data tag values stored on discovered devices. In some implementations, the discovery component 206 may also be configured to discover (e.g., using pulse tracking or by other means) interdependencies between two or more discovered devices. The classification component 208 may be configured to assign a classification or categorization to each discovered smart device and store a device profile for that device according to the assigned classification. The set of stored device profiles and their associated data tag values produce categorized power data 230 stored on memory 228. Example smart device classifications may include, but are not limited to, electricity meters, IEDs, VFDs, controllers (e.g., controllers with integrated power metering functionality), motor control centers or their associated motor control devices, or other such classifications of smart power and energy devices. The categorized power data 230 includes identification of the smart power device, information about the smart device, classification of the smart device, and its associated data items.

The power analysis component 210 may be configured to perform analysis on the categorized power data 230 obtained and indexed by the discovery component 206 and classification component 208. The search component 212 may be configured to submit a search query for the categorized power data 230 and retrieve search results representing a selected subset of the available power equipment information specified by the search query. The device interface component 214 may be configured to communicatively connect to and exchange data with selected smart power and energy devices. The data exchange may include, for example, retrieval of historical data tag values or substantially real-time data tag values or download of user-defined configuration settings to the selected device.

The one or more processors 226 may perform one or more of the functions described herein with reference to the disclosed systems and/or methods. Memory 228 may be a computer-readable storage medium that stores computer-executable instructions and/or information for performing the functions described herein with reference to the disclosed systems and/or methods.

The example industrial environment depicted in FIG. 3 includes, in addition to machines and associated control systems (not shown in FIG. 3) for performing industrial processes, a plurality of smart power and energy devices, the smart devices 312 may include, for example, a power monitor 110, various types of smart electronic devices 122 (e.g., overload relays, circuit breakers, etc.), variable frequency drives 104 that monitor and record statistics related to regulated power delivered to their respective motors, a motor control center 112 and associated motor control devices or other such devices.

These various power and energy data sources reside on the plant network 108. In some scenarios, the smart power and energy devices may be distributed across multiple networks within the plant facility; for example, a factory network and an office network are communicatively connected through a firewall device or other network infrastructure device. The network 108 may also have access (e.g., via a firewall 308) to an external network 310, such as the internet or a plant network at other facilities within an industrial enterprise.

The power device discovery and visualization system 202 (which also resides on the network 108 in the illustrated example architecture) is capable of discovering, categorizing, and indexing smart power and energy devices on the network 108 as well as data items or data tags stored on each smart device. For each discovered smart power and energy device, the system 202 creates device profile data that includes an identification of the smart device, a classification or classification of the smart device, and an identification of data items or data tags available on the smart device (including both read-only measurement and diagnostic data and configuration parameters with both read and write permissions). The system 202 is also capable of: retrieving historical data, real-time data, and/or configuration data from available data tags on the smart device, normalizing the power and energy data to a common searchable format, and aggregating the data with smart device profile data to produce categorized power data 230.

The discovery component 206 of the system may employ any suitable technique to discover the smart power and energy device 312 and its associated data tags. For example, some embodiments of system 202 may deploy discovery agents to facilitate discovery and indexing of smart power and energy devices. Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating discovery of smart devices 312 on a factory network 108 using a discovery agent 406. The discovery agent 406 may include, for example, a software script that crawls the network 108 to discover smart power and energy devices or other power and energy data sources. This may include data sources internal to the plant as well as external data sources located outside of the plant (e.g., at other relevant plant facilities) and accessible via the external network 310. The discovery agent 406 may report the discovered smart devices 312 and their associated data items to the system 202, which the system 202 normalizes to a common searchable format, categorizes each discovered smart device 312, and indexes the smart device information as the categorized power data 230. Although the present example utilizes the discovery agent 406 to facilitate discovery of smart power and energy devices and other energy data sources, some embodiments of the system 202 may employ other techniques to discover and identify the smart devices 312 on the network 108. For example, in some implementations, the discovery component 206 can ping each device within a specified search range of its identification information indicating whether the device is a smart power device or a smart energy device and create a device profile for each device.

In some scenarios, smart power and energy devices 404 may include multiple heterogeneous sets of devices provided by different device vendors. Thus, the information available on various smart devices may vary from device vendor to device vendor, even for devices of the same device class. Generally, discovery component 206 and/or classification component 208 will generate a device profile for a given device based on a vendor-specific set of information available on the smart device. The discovery component 206 and classification component 208 will also normalize data collected from different sets of devices 404 according to a common format and data schema to facilitate collective search and analysis of the resulting categorized power data 230.

FIG. 5A is a flow diagram illustrating a first portion of an example discovery and indexing routine that may be implemented by system 202. Some embodiments of the system 202 may allow a user to enter a network address range within which to search for the smart power and energy device 404 prior to initiating a discovery sequence. Alternatively, the system 202 may automatically discover network address ranges residing on the plant network and check whether there is an intelligent power device or an intelligent energy device in each of these devices. Upon initiating the discovery sequence, the discovery component 206 may ping an address for each network address within range (step 502) and attempt to identify the smart power or energy device having that address (step 504). Some smart power and energy devices may be configured with identification objects that can be read by the discoverable component 206 and include identification information of the device. The identification information read from the smart device may include, for example, a name assigned to the device, vendor and model information for the device, or other such information.

If the attempt to read the identification object (or another form of device identification information) is unsuccessful ("no" at step 506), the next address in the range is selected (step 508), and the discovery component 206 attempts to read the device identification information for that address. If the attempt to read the identification object is successful ("yes" at step 506), then the discovery component 206 determines the type of device based on the identification information read from the device.

In some implementations, the classification component 208 may be configured to examine each discovered device to determine whether the device corresponds to a type in the defined set of smart power and energy device types. For example, if classification component 208 determines that the device is a power monitor based on the identification contained in the identification object ("yes" at step 510), classification component 208 creates a power monitor device profile for the device based on the information contained in the identification object of the device and the available data items stored on the device and adds the power monitor profile to classified power data 230. Similarly, if the classification component 208 determines that the device is a VFD ("yes" at step 512) or a smart relay ("yes" at step 514), a VFD device profile or a smart relay profile is created for the device and added to the categorized energy data. Although fig. 5A depicts only three defined device types (power monitor, VFD, and intelligent relay), it should be appreciated that other intelligent device types (e.g., controllers with power monitoring capabilities, motor control center power devices, other types of IEDs, etc.) may be included in this classification step.

The classification component 208 examines the identification object of the device and each defined smart power and energy device type until a correspondence is found between the identification object and one of the device type definitions, or until it is determined that the device does not correspond to any of the defined smart device types. In some implementations, if the device does not correspond to any of the defined smart power and energy device types ("no" at step 514), the system 202 will still add the network device profile to the categorized power data 230 based on the identification object of the device. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the system 202 will only add the profile of the discovered device corresponding to one of the defined classifications. Thus, if classification component 208 determines that a device does not correspond to any of the defined classifications of smart device classifications, system 202 pings the next address in the defined range of network addresses without adding a profile for the device.

If the device is found to correspond to one of the smart device classifications, but the classification power data 230 already includes the profile for the device, the classification component 208 will update the profile based on the newly obtained identification and/or data tag for the device, if necessary.

The discovery and classification process continues with the second portion of the flow chart shown in fig. 5B. The classification component 208 determines whether the device has a backplane with other modular devices attached thereto at step 524. If the device has a backplane with one or more modular devices attached thereto ("yes" at step 524), the sorting component 208 inspects each modular device on the backplane to determine if the modular device is an industrial controller. For each modular device that is an industrial controller ("yes" at step 526), the classification component 208 specifies a parent identifier to the controller that associates the controller with the parent device (step 528), and adds a device profile of the controller (including the parent identifier) to the categorized power data (step 530).

The method continues with the third part shown in fig. 5C. For each remaining address that has not been classified (e.g., a device whose identifying object cannot be found or read at step 506, or a device that cannot otherwise be classified), classification component 208 attempts to read a computer identifier from the unclassified device (step 532). If the read is successful ("yes" at step 534), the general computer profile for the unclassified device is added to the classified power data 230 (step 536). If the read attempt is unsuccessful ("no" at step 534), the profile of the device is not added.

Finally, for each network discovered by the system 202, a network identifier for the network is obtained (step 538), and a profile for the network is added to the categorized power data 230. Classification component 208 may also create an association between each discovered network and each device discovered on that network.

Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example set of smart power and energy device profiles 602 that make up the categorized power data 203. When the above discovery sequence is complete, the categorized power data 230 will include a set of device profiles 602 corresponding to respective different types of intelligent devices (e.g., power monitors, IEDs, etc.). Each profile 602 includes information about its corresponding smart device (e.g., network address, device name, device model, current firmware version, etc.), as well as the identification and values of data tags that may be used to view and/or modify on the device. These data tags may include configuration parameters that may be modified by a user to facilitate device configuration, as well as read-only parameters that indicate power and/or energy measurements obtained by the device, status or diagnostic information of the device, or other such read-only parameters.

In some embodiments, system 202 may also record the location of each discovered device within a given multi-tier industrial enterprise. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example grouping of smart device profiles 602 according to the production facility and production area in which each corresponding device is located. In the example shown, the industrial enterprise comprises two industrial facilities (facility 1 and facility 2), each facility comprising a plurality of production areas. Categorizing the power data 230 assigns each device profile 602 to the facility and production area in which the device is located. In some scenarios, the discovery component 206 may determine a facility and/or production area based on user-defined location information included in the identification object of the smart device. In other scenarios, the user may specify the location of the selected device via interaction with the interface display generated by the client interface component 204. Although fig. 7 depicts a location hierarchy that locates only two levels of smart devices according to facility and production areas, embodiments of the system 202 may define a location hierarchy having any number of levels or levels, where each smart device is assigned to a certain one of the levels. The system 202 uses the location hierarchy to generate a location-based representation or report of the power and energy statistics of the industrial enterprise.

In some implementations, the discovery component 206 can also identify physical and/or functional relationships between discovered smart devices as part of a network scan sequence and update the categorized power data 230 to reflect the discovered relationships. For example, in addition to interfacing with the plant network 108, some embodiments of the power device discovery and visualization system 202 may be configured to interface with the power distribution system itself and perform pulse trace analysis to discover or infer relationships between some or all discovered smart devices. In this manner, the discovery component 206 can inject electrical pulses or other types of signal patterns onto the power distribution system and identify relationships between devices based on subsequent measurements of the pulses. For example, the discovery component 206 can measure an elapsed time between injecting the pulse onto the power distribution network and receiving the pulse at one or more smart devices on the network. The relative time at which each device detects a pulse may indicate the distance between the devices. Thus, the system 202 may convert these times into distances between pairs of devices and record this information as part of the categorized power data. Some such embodiments may also measure the amplitude of the pulses measured by the respective devices, which may indicate the presence of a power transformer on the power distribution network. For example, if a pulse with a known amplitude is measured at a first device as having a desired amplitude and at a second device as having a smaller amplitude, this may indicate that a transformer is present between the first and second devices. Thus, the system 202 may insert a record of the transformer between the two devices in the categorized power data 230.

Fig. 8 is an example auto discovery interface display 802 that may be generated by the client interface component 204 and presented on the client device 402. In this example, auto discovery interface display 802 can be accessed by selecting auto discovery navigation control 804. The interface display 802 includes a network address bar 806 (e.g., in terms of a start address and an end address) that the user specifies a range of network addresses to search for the presence of the smart power and energy device 312. After entering the network address range, the device discovery and classification sequence described above may be initiated by selecting auto discovery button 814. Auto discovery status window 808 presents status information for the device discovery and classification process. Parameter retrieval status bar 810 may indicate the status of parameters uploaded from the discovered smart device. The device aggregation area 812 may provide statistics regarding the number of each type of smart device (e.g., power monitor, VFD, controller, etc.) discovered by the system 202.

Using the discovery techniques described above, the power device discovery and visualization system automatically inventories and categorizes intelligent power and energy devices of an industrial enterprise by discovering intelligent devices in use and their associated available data items. The system 202 records device profile information (power and energy device identifiers, information, and data tags), location information, and any functional relationships between discovered devices as categorized power data 230, which categorized power data 230 may be remotely accessed and searched by the client device 402 to facilitate viewing of a selected set of historical data, real-time data, or configuration data obtained from smart power and energy devices. Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating the search and retrieval of desired power and energy data based on the categorized power data 230 generated by the discovery component 206 and classification component 208. The client device 402 may be any mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone, laptop, tablet, wearable computer, etc.) or fixed location computer (e.g., desktop computer, server, operator interface, etc.) capable of remote or direct access to the system 202 via the client interface component 204. In some implementations, the system 202 may be implemented on a web server, allowing the client device 402 to access the categorized power data 230 via an internet connection. System 420 may also be implemented on a networked local server accessible by client device 402 via a wireless network connection. In another scenario, system 420 may be implemented on a cloud platform, in which case system 202 executes as a cloud-based service.

In the event that the intelligent power and energy devices of the industrial enterprise are inventoried and recorded as categorized power data 230, the client interface component 204 can generate and present graphical interface displays on the client device 402 that facilitate interaction with available power and energy data generated by the intelligent device 312 and/or stored on the intelligent device 312. For example, an interface display may be generated and presented on the client device 402 that allows a user to submit search query data 902 requesting a selected subset of the available power and energy data. The search query data 902 may include, for example, queries for information regarding the identity and status of intelligent power and energy devices distributed throughout the enterprise or deployed at particular locations within the industrial enterprise (e.g., production areas, plant facilities, etc.). The search query data 902 may also include requests for a specified set of historical or real-time power and energy data available on the selected set of smart devices. The search component 212 parses the submitted search query data 902 to determine parameters of the search and retrieves the requested subset of the categorized power data 230 for representation by the client interface component 204 as search result data 904. If the search query requires real-time data tag values to be retrieved from one or more smart devices 312, the device interface component 214 polls the appropriate smart devices via the network 108 and retrieves real-time power data 906 from these devices for presentation by the client interface component 204. The device interface component 214 can utilize information (e.g., network address, available data tag name, etc.) in the device profile to communicatively connect to the associated smart device 312 over the network 108 and obtain the requested data value from the device 312.

The graphical interface generated by the client interface component 204 can include a plurality of interactive controls that can be used to submit search queries to the system 202. Fig. 10 is an example device profile interface display 1002 listing power monitors that have been discovered by the power device discovery and visualization system 202. After the system 202 performs the above-described smart device discovery and classification sequence, the various types of smart power and energy devices 312 that have been discovered and recorded in the categorized power data 230 are represented by the device type selection button 1020. Selection of a button of the buttons 1020 corresponding to the selected device type (e.g., the power monitor button 1004) causes the client interface component 204 to retrieve device profile data for the power monitor found within the industrial enterprise from the categorized power data 230 and present the device profile information on the interface display 1002. The device profile information that each smart device corresponding to the selected device type may present may include, but is not limited to, a description 1006 (e.g., model and serial number) of the smart device, a type 1008 of the smart device (the type may be a particular product line of the device), a user-defined device name 1010 of the smart device, a network address 1012 of the smart device, a version 1014 of firmware currently installed on the smart device, and a firmware status indicator 1016 indicating whether the firmware of the smart device is up-to-date.

The system 202 may allow a user to define the name of each smart device via the interface display 1002. Thus, each listed smart device is associated with a device name entry field 1018 that allows a user to enter a device name, which is then saved to the categorized power data 230. In some implementations, the device interface component 214 can also write the user-defined device name to memory on the associated device.

In some implementations, the firmware status indicator 1016 may be color coded to express a recommended urgency related to a firmware update. For example, green indicator 1016 may express that the currently installed firmware is up-to-date (i.e., the currently installed firmware corresponds to the most recently released version). Yellow indicator 1016 may indicate that the corresponding device is using an out-of-date firmware version, but is not expeditious with an upgrade to the latest firmware. The red indicator 1016 may indicate that the corresponding device is using an out-of-date firmware version that is known to cause performance problems, and therefore, is urgently needed to be updated to the latest firmware.

The user may select any of the other device type selection buttons 1020 to switch the device profile view to a different device type. FIG. 11 is an example device profile interface display 1102 presented when the variable frequency drive device select button 1104 is selected. As shown in this figure, selecting another device type selection button changes the view to list device profile information for a subset of discovered smart devices corresponding to the selected device type. In some embodiments, the system 202 may also allow a user to select (e.g., from a list of production areas defined in the categorized power data 230) a production area of interest, causing the client interface component 204 to filter the displayed list of equipment and its associated data according to the selected production area. In such an embodiment, the search component 212 would select the subset of equipment profile data categorized under the selected production area as the data to be presented (as shown in FIG. 7). In some implementations, the system 202 can also allow a user to select a view of device data to group smart devices according to production areas of a plant facility.

The source of device profile information presented on the device profile interface display may include device profile data generated by the classification component 208 for each discovered smart device, as well as data tag values retrieved from the smart device's own data tags.

The power device discovery and visualization system may also allow a user to remotely configure selected smart power and energy devices using a common configuration interface for all devices. Fig. 12 is a diagram illustrating a remote configuration of smart power and energy devices using the system 202. The client interface component 204 can present an interactive configuration display 1206 on the client device 402, the client device 402 allowing a user to input configuration data 1202 for a selected smart device recorded in the categorized power data 230. For a given smart device, the client interface component 204 may determine the configuration parameters available on the device to modify based on the available configuration data tags of the device discovered by the discovered component and recorded in the categorized power data 230.

FIG. 13 is an example device configuration interface display 1302 that may be presented by a client interface component. The example display 1302 includes a device profile search area 1306 that allows a user to select a device 312 to configure using a device selection control 1308 (e.g., a drop-down device selection bar or another type of selection control). Selection of a device using selection control 1308 causes a listing of data tags available for viewing and/or modification to be displayed in list box 1314. These data tags may include, for example, tags containing real-time or historical electrical data (e.g., voltage, current, power statistics, consumed energy, generated energy, net energy consumption, peak demand, power factor, line-to-line voltage and current, etc.) measured by and stored on the device, device status data (e.g., diagnostic or fault data, operating mode information, etc.), configuration parameters that the user may change (e.g., scale factors, operating modes, engineering units, baud rates, etc.), or other such tags. The user may select one or more of the available data tags from list box 1314 to be included in monitoring and configuration area 1304 of interface display 1302.

Selection of a data tag adds a list entry corresponding to the selected data tag to the monitoring and configuration area 1304. Each tag entry may include: a name 1316 of the selected tag, an alphanumeric or graphical real-time preview 1318 of the data values contained in the tag, a sampling rate 1320 for updating the tag values, an update type 1322 (e.g., polling, pending change, etc.), a monitoring action 1324, and a remove button 1326 that allows the user to remove the selected tag from the monitoring list.

The real-time preview 1318 of a given data tag may include an alphanumeric representation of the tag value (i.e., the value retrieved from the device by device interface component 214, as shown in fig. 9). Alternatively, the live preview 1318 may be presented as a graphical object, such as a meter, a bar graph, or another type of graphical object that provides an indication of a data tag value. If the data tag corresponds to a read-only value, such as an electrical measurement or a device status, the live preview 1318 will be presented as a read-only value. Alternatively, if the data tag corresponds to a configuration parameter of the device, the live preview 1318 may replace the read-only value with a read-write data bar that allows the user to modify the value as desired. Changing the values of the configuration parameters via the interface display 1302 causes the device interface component 214 to write the modified values as power device configuration data 1204 to the appropriate tags on the device via the network 108 (see fig. 12).

For each data tag having a value that is updated in real-time, configuration interface display 1302 may include settings that control how the data tag value is updated on the display. For example, sampling rate 1320 may be modified as needed to allow the user to set the frequency with which device interface component 214 polls for data tag values. Similarly, the monitoring type 1324 may be changed to allow the user to choose whether to periodically poll the data tag value at the sampling rate specified by the sampling rate field, or alternatively, whether to update the data value each time the value changes. The control of monitoring action 1324 allows the user to start or stop real-time monitoring of data tag values.

In some implementations, a start record button 1328 can be provided that allows the user to instruct the system 202 to record the value of the selected data tag over time. In response to selection of button 1328, the values of all data tags listed in device monitoring and configuration area 1304 will be stored as time series data according to a user-specified recording frequency.

While fig. 13 depicts a scenario in which data tags from a single smart power and energy device are displayed in the device monitoring and configuration area 1304, some embodiments of the system 202 may allow a user to add data tags from multiple different smart devices to the representation, allowing the user to create a custom aggregated view of real-time or historical power and energy statistics from different devices or production areas, or to configure multiple smart power and energy devices via a single graphical interface display.

In addition to the monitoring and configuration aspects discussed above, some embodiments of the power device discovery and visualization system 202 may also perform power analysis on a selected subset of the categorized power data 230. Fig. 14 is a diagram showing generation of power analysis results 1402 by system 202. Embodiments of system 202 may include power analysis component 210 that may perform various types of analysis or selective data aggregation on categorized power data 230.

In an example analysis type, the power analysis component 210 can aggregate a selected set of power data retrieved from the smart devices 312 to generate an hourly demand profile for a plant facility, for a selected area within a plant, or for a plurality of plant facilities within an industrial enterprise. FIG. 15 is an example daily demand profile display 1502 that may be generated by the client interface component 204 and populated with data values generated by the power analysis component 210. In this example, the power analysis component 210 has been configured to determine the hourly energy demand of the selected production region based on an analysis of the categorized power data 230. Determining this hourly demand may involve, for example, aggregating measured demands measured by a plurality of smart meters or other smart power and energy devices within a specified production area. The client interface component 204 then generates a demand profile display 1502, the demand profile display 1502 presenting historical hourly aggregate demands for each day of the week in respective cells 1504 of a grid, wherein each column of the grid represents a day of the week and each row represents an hour of the day. In some embodiments, each cell 1504 may be color coded to correspond to the range within which the corresponding demand value is located, thereby providing a means to quickly find peak demand times and low demand times. Some embodiments of the client interface component 204 may also be configured to present the energy requirements in the form of an energy heatmap or other suitable visualization format.

Some embodiments of the system 202 may present a view of the daily demand profile of a selected facility or a selected area within a plant facility. For example, in response to selection of a particular production area of interest (e.g., from a list of available production areas defined in the categorized power data 230 based on the data organization shown in FIG. 7), the system 202 may present a view of the demand profile for that production area based on a subset of the categorized power data 230 corresponding to the selected area. Each item of demand data (e.g., a value in each cell 1504) may be an aggregation of power data from multiple power monitoring devices collecting power and energy usage of an area. The system 202 may also present aggregated needs of an entire facility or industrial enterprise, providing a higher level view of hourly and daily needs of the enterprise.

Some embodiments of the power analysis component 210 may also be configured to perform sequence of events (SOE) analysis on the categorized power data 230. According to this type of analysis, the power analysis component 210 analyzes a selected subset of the categorized power data 230 to identify a root case of a power distribution fault (e.g., trip). To track the root cause of the power distribution fault, the power analysis component 210 can analyze historical device status information (e.g., status of overload relays, circuit breakers, or other IEDs) of the selected intelligent devices and time series voltage or current values measured by the respective devices. Power analysis component 210 may identify associations between these states and measurements to infer a possible root cause of a power distribution failure. The client interface component 204 may then present a graphical or alphanumeric indication of the root cause; for example, by presenting a plant facility map that includes a graphical indication of the location of the root case and a message that explains the likely cause of the failure event. To facilitate accurate event correlation related to SOE analysis or other types of analysis performed by the power analysis component 210, the device interface component 214 can be configured to synchronize 906 the real-time power data retrieved from the data tags of the power devices according to a common time standard (e.g., a master clock maintained by the system 202 or an external system).

Some embodiments of the power analysis component 210 may also perform a preventative analysis on the time series power and energy data recorded in the categorized power data 230. This may include, for example, identifying power distribution trends based on analysis of time series voltage, current, power, and/or energy data recorded in data 230. Trends that may be identified based on the time series analysis may include, for example, hours of peak demand for days of the week, power usage estimates for a given production region when the given production region is operating in a given operating mode (e.g., during production of a particular product or during a particular phase of a manufacturing process), or other such information. The results of the time series analysis may be presented by the client interface component 204.

Some embodiments of the power device discovery and visualization system 202 may also be configured to normalize the categorized power data 230 into a common data standard that allows the categorized power data 230 to be exchanged with external applications and systems. For example, the system 202 may be configured to convert the categorized power data 230 into a Power Quality Data Interchange Format (PQDIF) or another shared power data format, thereby allowing the categorized power data 230 (e.g., voltage, current, power, and energy measurements) to be read by external applications that support the shared format.

As described above, one or more embodiments of the power device discovery and visualization system 202 may be implemented on a cloud platform. Fig. 16 is a conceptual diagram of a generic cloud-based implementation of system 202 described herein. In this embodiment, the power device discovery and visualization system 202 executes as a cloud-based service on the cloud platform 1602, allowing for multiple industrial facilities (e.g., industrial facility 1606) from geographically disparate locations₁To 1606_N) The power and energy data of (a) are aggregated in the cloud platform 1602 for viewing. The cloud-based implementation also allows a user to access the system 202 and its associated categorized power data 230 from substantially any location.

Cloud platform 1602 may be any infrastructure that allows cloud-enabled devices to access and utilize system 202. Cloud platform 1602 may be a public cloud accessible via the internet by devices having internet connectivity and appropriate authorization to discover and visualize system 202 with electrical devices. In some scenarios, cloud platform 1602 may be provided as a platform as a service (PaaS) by a cloud provider, and system 202 may reside as a cloud-based service on cloud platform 1602 and execute on cloud platform 502. In some such configurations, access to cloud platform 1602 and system 202 may be provided to customers as a subscription service by the owner of system 202. Alternatively, cloud platform 1602 may be a private or semi-private cloud operated by the enterprise internally, or a shared or common cloud environment. An example private cloud may include a set of servers hosting system 202 and residing on a corporate network protected by a firewall.

If the cloud platform 1602 is a network-based cloud, the cloud proxy device 1608 at the respective factory facility 1606 can interact with the visualization system 202 directly or via the internet with electrical device discovery. In an example configuration, the smart power and energy device 312 is connected to the provisioning cloud proxy device 1608 through a physical or wireless local area network or radio link. In another example configuration, the smart device 312 may access the cloud platform 1602 directly using an integrated cloud agent.

By providing a single interface for discovering, categorizing, viewing, and configuring smart devices of an industrial facility, embodiments of the power device discovery and visualization system 202 described herein can significantly reduce the time and labor involved in configuring these smart power and energy devices. The system 202 allows a user to discover and interact with configuration parameters and data tags of intelligent power and energy devices distributed across one or more plant facilities. Some embodiments of the system 202 can also generate a custom view of the power and energy utilization of the industrial enterprise by aggregating selected sets of power and energy data from intelligent power and energy devices of the plant, and can perform diagnostics and performance analysis to produce an understanding of the power and energy utilization of the industrial enterprise.

Fig. 17-18 illustrate various methods according to one or more embodiments of the present application. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the one or more methodologies shown herein are shown and described as a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciated that the subject innovation is not limited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance therewith, occur in a different order and/or concurrently with other acts from that shown and described herein. For example, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement a methodology in accordance with the present invention. Further, the interaction graph(s) may represent a methodology or method in accordance with the present disclosure when different entities demonstrate different portions of the method. Furthermore, two or more of the disclosed example methods may be implemented in combination with each other to achieve one or more of the features or advantages described herein.

Fig. 17 illustrates an example method 1700 for discovering and categorizing smart power and energy devices deployed within an industrial facility. Initially, at 1702, network range information specifying a range of network addresses to search is received. For example, the network-wide information may be received via interaction with a graphical interface display that prompts the user to provide the desired network range. Alternatively, the network range may be automatically selected based on a determination of the network address range being used on the industrial plant network being inspected.

At 1704, unchecked network addresses within the network range defined at step 1702 are selected. At 1706, it is determined whether the smart power device or the smart energy device is found at the network address selected at step 1704. If a smart power or energy device is discovered ("yes" at step 1706), the method proceeds to step 1708, at step 1708, information is retrieved from the device about the discovered device and the available data items on the discovered smart device. The retrieved information may include, for example, the name and model number of the smart device, the network address of the device, the type of smart device (e.g., meter, IED, etc.), the firmware version installed on the network device, the data tags available on the device (e.g., measurement data tags, device diagnostic tags, etc.), configuration parameters of the smart device, or other such information. At 1710, a device profile for the device is generated based on the information retrieved at step 1708. At 1712, the device profiles are classified and indexed according to device type (e.g., electric meter, IED, controller with integrated power monitoring capability, VFD, etc.) to produce categorized power data. After classification and indexing of the device profiles, or if no smart power devices or smart energy devices are found at the network address ("no" at step 1706), the method proceeds to step 1714.

Steps 1706 to 1714 may also include searching for modular smart power devices and smart energy devices installed on the controller backplane, as discussed above in connection with fig. 5A to 5C.

At 1714, it is determined whether there are additional unchecked network addresses. If there are additional unchecked network addresses ("yes" at step 1714), the method returns to step 1704, selects another unchecked network address at step 1704, and repeats steps 1706 through 1712 for the selected address. Steps 1704 through 1714 are repeated until there are no unchecked network addresses remaining ("no" at step 1714). Having checked all network addresses within the specified range, the categorized power data of the discovered device is presented for collective viewing at step 1716, or to facilitate configuration of one or more smart device configuration parameters.

Fig. 18 illustrates an example method 1800 for remotely configuring smart power and energy devices. Initially, at 1802, smart power and energy devices installed on one or more industrial networks are discovered (e.g., discovered using method 1700 or the discovery sequence discussed above in connection with fig. 5A-5C). At 1804, categorized power data is generated including the device profile of the smart power and energy device and its available data tags (e.g., measurement data tags, configuration parameter data tags, device diagnostic tags, etc.).

At 1806, a selection of one or more smart power and energy devices or types of smart power/energy devices is received via interaction with the graphical interface. At 1808, the available configuration parameters for the subset of smart power and energy devices corresponding to the device or device type selected at step 1806 are presented on the graphical interface. At 1810, a modification to one or more of the configuration parameters presented at step 1808 is received, the modification resulting in modified smart device configuration data. At 1812, the modified smart device configuration data received at step 1810 is sent to the relevant smart power and energy devices to facilitate configuring these devices.

The embodiments, systems, components, and industrial control systems and industrial automation environments that may perform various aspects set forth herein may include computers or network components capable of interacting across a network, such as servers, clients, programmable logic controllers (P L C), automation controllers, communication modules, mobile computers, wireless components, control components, and the like.

As an example, one or more P L C or automation controllers may communicate and cooperate with various network devices over a network, which may include substantially any type of control, communication module, computer, input/output (I/O) device, sensor, actuator, instrument, and Human Machine Interface (HMI) that communicates via a network.

Other networks include Ethernet, DH/DH +, remote I/O, Fieldbus, Modbus, Process Fieldbus (Profibus), CAN, wireless networks, serial protocols, Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth, etc. additionally, network devices may include various possibilities (hardware and/or software components) including, for example, switches with virtual local area network (V L AN) capability, L AN, WANs, agents, gateways, routers, firewalls, Virtual Private Network (VPN) devices, servers, clients, computers, configuration tools, monitoring tools, and/or other devices.

In order to provide a context for providing various aspects of the disclosed subject matter, fig. 19 and 20 as well as the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable environment in which the various aspects of the disclosed subject matter may be implemented.

With reference to FIG. 19, an example environment 1910 for implementing various aspects of the foregoing subject matter includes a computer 1912. The computer 1912 includes a processing unit 1914, a system memory 1916, and a system bus 1918. The system bus 1918 couples system components including, but not limited to, the system memory 1916 to the processing unit 1914. The processing unit 1914 can be any of various available processors. Multi-core microprocessors and other multiprocessor architectures also can be employed as the processing unit 1914.

The system bus 1918 can be any of several types of bus structure(s) including the memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus or external bus, and/or a local bus using any variety of available bus architectures including, but not limited to, 8-bit bus, Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), micro-channel architecture (MSA), extended ISA (eisa), Intelligent Drive Electronics (IDE), VESA local bus (V L B), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Universal Serial Bus (USB), Advanced Graphics Port (AGP), personal computer memory card international association bus (PCMCIA), and Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI).

The system memory 1916 includes volatile memory 2320 and non-volatile memory 1922 in non-volatile memory 1922 stored basic input/output system (BIOS) containing the basic routines that transfer information between elements within the computer 1912, such as during start-up, by way of example and not limitation, non-volatile memory 1922 may include read-only memory (ROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Electrically Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or flash memory volatile memory includes Random Access Memory (RAM) which acts as external buffer memory, by way of illustration and not limitation, and RAM may take a variety of forms, such as Synchronous RAM (SRAM), (1920), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), (DDR SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), SDRAM enhanced DRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous link DRAM (S L), and direct Rambus RAM (SRAM RAM).

Computer 1912 also includes removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer storage media.A disk storage 1924 is illustrated in FIG. 19. disk storage 1924 includes, but is not limited to, devices such as a magnetic disk drive, floppy disk drive, tape drive, Jaz drive, Zip drive, L S-100 drive, flash memory card, or memory stick in addition, disk storage 1924 may include storage media alone or in combination with other storage media including, but not limited to, an optical disk drive such as a compact disk ROM device (CD-ROM), CD recordable drive (CD-R drive), CD rewritable drive (CD-RW drive) or a digital versatile disk ROM drive (DVD-ROM). to facilitate connection of the disk storage 1924 to the system bus 1918, a removable or non-removable interface is typically used such as interface 1926.

It is to be appreciated that fig. 19 describes software that acts as an intermediary between users and the basic computer resources described in suitable operating environment 1910. Such software includes an operating system 1928. An operating system 1928 (which may be stored on disk storage 1924) acts to control and allocate resources of the computer 1912. System applications 1930 take advantage of the management of resources by operating system 1928 through program modules 1932 and program data 1934 stored either in system memory 1916 or on disk storage 1924. It is to be appreciated that various operating systems or combinations of operating systems can be utilized to implement one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

A user enters commands or information into the computer 1912 through input device(s) 1936. Input devices 1936 include, but are not limited to, a pointing device (e.g., mouse, trackball, stylus), touch pad, keyboard, microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, TV tuner card, digital camera, digital video camera, web camera, and the like. These and other input devices are connected to the processing unit 1914 through the system bus 1918 via interface port(s) 1938. Interface port(s) 1938 include, for example, a serial port, a parallel port, a game port, and a Universal Serial Bus (USB). Output device(s) 1940 use some of the same types of ports as input device(s) 1936. Thus, for example, a USB port may be used to provide input to computer 1912, and to output information from computer 1912 to an output device 1940. Output adapter 1942 is provided to illustrate that there are some output devices 1940 in addition to output device 1940 that require special adapters, such as monitors, speakers, and printers. By way of illustration and not limitation, output adapters 1942 include video and sound cards that provide a means of connection between the output device 1940 and the system bus 1918. It should be noted that other devices and/or systems of devices provide both input capability and output capability, such as remote computer(s) 1944.

The computer 1912 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers (e.g., remote computer(s) 1944.) the remote computer(s) 1944 may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a workstation, a microprocessor-based appliance, a peer device or other common network node and the like, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer 1912 for purposes of brevity, only a memory storage device 1946 is illustrated with the remote computer(s) 1944. the remote computer(s) 1944 is logically connected to the computer 1912 through a network interface 1948 and then physically connected via communication connection 1950. network interface 1948 includes communication networks such as a local area network (L AN) and a Wide Area Network (WAN). L technologies include distributed fiber optic distributed data interfaces (FDDI), Copper Distributed Data Interfaces (CDDI), Ethernet/IEEE 802.3, token ring/802.5 and the like. including wide area network communication network variants such as Internet L, Internet, and the like.

Communication connection(s) 1950 refers to the hardware/software employed to connect the network interface 1948 to the system bus 1918. although communication connection 1950 is shown for illustrative clarity inside the computer 1912, communication connection 1950 could also be external to the computer 1912.

FIG. 20 is a schematic block diagram of a sample-computing environment 2000 with which the disclosed subject matter can interact. The sample computing environment 2000 includes one or more clients 2002. The client(s) 2002 can be hardware and/or software (e.g., threads, processes, computing devices). The sample computing environment 2000 also includes one or more servers 2004. The server(s) 2004 can also be hardware and/or software (e.g., threads, processes, computing devices). For example, the servers 2004 can house threads to perform transformations by employing one or more embodiments as described herein. One possible communication between a client 2002 and a server 2004 can be in the form of a data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or more computer processes. The sample computing environment 2000 includes a communication framework 2006 that can be employed to facilitate communications between the client 2002 and the server 2004. The client 2002 is operably connected to one or more client data stores 2008 that can be employed to store information local to the client 2002. Similarly, the server(s) 2004 are operably connected to one or more server data store 2010 that can be employed to store information local to the servers 2004.

What has been described above includes examples of the present invention. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the disclosed subject matter, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the subject innovation are possible. Accordingly, the disclosed subject matter is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

In particular and in regard to the various functions performed by the above described components, devices, circuits, systems and the like, the terms (including a reference to a "means") used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component which performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., a functional equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure, which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary aspects of the disclosed subject matter. In this regard, it will also be recognized that the disclosed subject matter includes a system as well as a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the acts and/or events of the various methods of the disclosed subject matter.

In addition, while a particular feature of the disclosed subject matter may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms "includes" and "including" and variations thereof are used in either the detailed description or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term "comprising".

In this application, the word "exemplary" is used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.

Various aspects or features described herein may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., Compact Disks (CDs), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., cards, strips, key drives, etc.).