Abstract:
A method for monitoring a remotely located industrial process from a central service location generally comprises transmitting, through existing two-way digital paging networks, a monitoring instruction to the remote location, executing an operational command contained in the monitoring instruction on the industrial process, logging the effect of the execution of the command in a history file and transmitting content from the history file back to the central service location. The monitoring instruction may comprise the identification of an operational event for execution by the remotely located industrial process or be adapted for the on demand execution of one or more scripts of operational events. The content of the history files is transmitted, also through the existing two-way digital paging networks, back to the central service location where the data contained therein may be utilized to simulate the remotely operated industrial process according to date and time stamp information transmitted therewith as a computer generated animation of the remotely operated process.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to automated process monitoring and control. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for utilizing an existing commercial two-way digital paging network for pseudo real-time monitoring, control and/or failure diagnosis of various automated processes such as, for example, ice bagging machines, fountain or citrus drink dispensers, water treatment systems and the like.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Many industrial processes involve highly automated apparatus for the generation and/or dispensation of end product. For example, in the beverage service industry fully automated machinery is extensively relied upon for the production of massive quantities of ice. A typical ice machine is adapted to grow, harvest and bag ice and, thereafter, to stack the bagged ice with little or no human intervention. Such a complex machine is necessarily crowded with motors, levers, conveyors and other moving parts as well as fluid handling hoses, valves and nozzles—each highly prone to failure. Because a typical machine is generally continuously operated in an unattended mode, the failure of just one component may completely disrupt operation. Such a disruption could potentially result in the costly loss of many hours of production. As a result, automated production monitoring and remote failure mode analysis capabilities are of paramount importance for the reliably sustained production of end product.  
           [0003]    One solution, as has been implemented by and is commercially available from the present Applicant, Lancer Corporation of San Antonio, Tex., involves real-time monitoring of the industrial process through the commercial telephone system. According to this implementation, a MODEM-to-MODEM dial up link is utilized to connect a remotely operated automated process with a service technician&#39;s computer located at a central service location. The technician&#39;s computer is provided with a software interface program that allows the service technician to generate operational commands, which are then executed on the remotely located automated process, and to receive and analyze a telemetry stream, which indicates the changing status of the various components of the remotely located automated process. The telemetry stream is stored in a database located on the service technician&#39;s computer and is used to analyze the operation of the remotely located automated process, either statistically or through an animation of the process located on the service technician&#39;s computer&#39;s monitor. Unfortunately, such an implementation requires a MODEM-to-MODEM link for every process to be monitored. On the central service location side, this necessitates at minimum a large MODEM bank as well as multiple phone line capabilities. On the remote process side, this implementation requires the provision of a MODEM and telephone line and most often requires modification of the remote location&#39;s inside cable plant every time the automated equipment is moved.  
           [0004]    It is therefore an overriding object of the present invention to improve over the prior art by providing a method and apparatus for monitoring of remotely located automated process whereby the many sensors, switches and/or other indicators of the process may be monitored as necessary without requirement for dedicated, full-time communication with the central service location. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a system whereby the service technician is also provided with the ability to efficiently perform repeated operations without resort to unnecessary duplication of effort. Finally, it is an object of the present invention to minimize the cost associated with the monitoring and diagnosis of remotely located automated processes without sacrifice of the service technician&#39;s ability to receive desired status data on an at will basis.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    In accordance with the foregoing objects, the present invention—a method and apparatus for monitoring a remotely located industrial process from a central service location—generally comprises transmitting, through existing two-way digital paging networks, a monitoring instruction to the remote location, executing an operational command contained in the monitoring instruction on the industrial process, logging the effect of the execution of the command in a history file and transmitting content from the history file back to the central service location. Although in a minimal system, the monitoring instruction may simply comprise the identification of an operational event for execution by the remotely located industrial process, it is preferred that the system be adapted for the on demand execution of one or more scripts of operational events. In this preferred case, a special monitoring instruction may be utilized to transmit a new script to the remotely located process, where it can then be stored for execution as necessary in the continued monitoring and diagnosis of the industrial process.  
           [0006]    The content of the history files is transmitted, also through the existing two-way digital paging networks, back to the central service location where the data contained therein may be utilized to simulate the remotely operated industrial process according to date and time stamp information transmitted therewith. In this implementation of the present invention, the simulation generally comprises the creation of an animated representation of the industrial process, giving the service technician much the same information as would an on site diagnostic examination of the industrial process. Because only a sampling of the actual system status is necessary to accurately recreate the operation of the remote system, the two-way digital paging network is found to be a robust medium for the efficient transmission of diagnostic commands and the system status resultant their respective execution. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]    Although the scope of the present invention is much broader than any particular embodiment, a detailed description of the preferred embodiment follows together with illustrative figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to like components, and wherein:  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 1 shows, in schematic block diagram, the preferred implementation of the virtual process monitoring and telemetry system of the present invention;  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 shows the communication structure of a typical monitoring instruction for the system of FIG. 1;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 3 shows the communication structure of a typical event history transmission for the system of FIG. 1; and  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 4 shows a typical archived set of event history files for the system of FIG. 1. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0012]    Although those of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize many alternative embodiments, especially in light of the illustrations provided herein, this detailed description is exemplary of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the scope of which is limited only by the claims appended hereto.  
         [0013]    Referring now to FIG. 1, the pseudo real-time diagnostic and process monitoring system  10  of the present invention is shown to generally comprise an interface  15  with a two-way communication channel  16  connecting a central service location  17  with a remotely located, automated industrial process  18 . As shown in the Figure, this interface  15  generally comprises a virtual process telemetry software system  19  implemented at the central service location  17  for remote interface with the industrial process  18  as will be better understood herein. Likewise, the industrial process  18  is specially adapted for interface with the virtual process telemetry software system  19  through the two-way communication channel  16 . In particular, such adaptation may comprise the provision of a radio frequency (“RF”) transceiver  20 , a microprocessor interface  21  to the industrial process&#39; automation controller  22  and/or the provision of additional static random access memory (“SRAM”)  23  for storage at the remote location  12  of monitoring instructions  11  from the central service location  17  and event history data  24  to be transmitted to the central service location  17 . According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, some of the additional SRAM  23  is also allocated to overhead processing associated with the process monitoring system  10 . For example, additional memory is required in order to implement a serial communication interface compatible with the existing two-way digital paging network  13 . In any case, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize the many considerations necessary for implementation of the present invention, especially in light of the exemplary description herein.  
         [0014]    In operation, the virtual process telemetry software system  19 , preferably resident upon a standard desktop computer  25  at the central service location  17 , is used to generate a monitoring instruction  11  for transmission through the two-way paging network  13 , whereafter it may be executed upon the industrial process  18 . As shown in FIG. 1, any presently implemented two-way digital paging network  13  may be utilized for transmission of the monitoring instruction  11  from the central service location  17  to the remote location  12 . Once received at the remote location  12 , the microprocessor interface  21  of the present invention communicates the monitoring instruction  11  from the RF transceiver  20  into non-volatile storage in the SRAM  23 . As will be better understood further herein, the monitoring instruction  11  may then be executed upon the industrial process  18  via the process&#39;s automation controller  22 . As also will be better understood further herein, the monitoring instruction  11  preferably also comprises an event logging component  26 . This event logging component will generally dictate how diagnostic and process monitoring information is gathered at the industrial process  18  for transmission back through the two-way paging network  13  to the central service location  17 . Once the gathered event history data  24  is transmitted from the remote location  12  to the central service location  17 , the virtual process telemetry software system  19  is then utilized to animate the industrial process  18  for a service technician. As will be apparent from the exemplary description herein, this implementation allows the service technician to gather nearly as much information about the remotely located industrial process  18  as would be possible if he or she was to be operating the system on location  12 .  
         [0015]    As shown particularly in FIG. 2, the serially generated monitoring instruction  11  may generally be regarded as an operational command sequence  14  comprising a functional component  27  and an event logging component  26 . The functional component  27  preferably comprises a functional command  28  as well as a functional parameter  29 . Likewise, the event logging component  26  preferably comprises an event logging command  30  as well as an event logging parameter  31 . In the most simple implementation, the functional command  28  may comprise an instruction recognized by the remotely located industrial process  18  as a command to perform some operation. In this case the functional parameter  29  would be the name or other identification for the operation or event to be performed. Similarly, the event logging command  30  may comprise an instruction recognized by the remotely located industrial process  18  as indicating that it should start or stop the gathering of event history data  32  at some time or that it should begin gathering event history data  32  immediately and stop gathering event history data  32  upon the occurrence of some event. In this case, the event logging parameter  31  may comprise the provision of either a time certain or the name or other identification of the operation or event intended to indicate the termination of history data logging.  
         [0016]    As shown in FIG. 3, a typical event history transmission  24  may comprise a remote process identification component  33 , a command identification component  34  and one or more history file components  32 . The process identification component  33  preferably comprises a unique identifier for use by the virtual process telemetry software system  19  at the central service location  17  in determining the origin of the event history transmission  24 . Likewise the command identification component  34  may be utilized by the virtual process telemetry software system  19  to determine what type of analysis is appropriate for event history data  32  to be transmitted in the remaining portion of the message  24 . For example, if the command  14  that generated the event history transmission  24  was a request for the status of a particular set of valves implemented in the industrial process  18 , the identification of that command  14  would eliminate the necessity for transmission of each valve&#39;s identification with the status information. In other words, the virtual process telemetry software system  19  would then be able to associate the status information with the valves of interest based solely upon the order of transmission of the status information  32 . As also shown in FIG. 3, the history data component  32  of the transmission also preferably comprises a date and time stamp  35  indicating the time certain that the history data  32  was obtained. Such date and time information  35  may be utilized to animated the changing status of various systems implemented in the industrial process  18 . Preferably, such an animation is implemented graphically at the technician&#39;s computer monitor  36  in order to realistically simulate the remotely located industrial process  18 . In this manner, Applicant has found that diagnosis of system faults may be readily performed notwithstanding the technician&#39;s possible great physical distance away from the industrial process  18 .  
         [0017]    Referring again to FIG. 2, it is noted that the functional command  28  may also comprise an instruction to perform a predeterminable script of events at the industrial process  18 . In this case, the functional parameter  29  would be the name or other identification for the script to be performed. Upon the conduct of a script, it is likely that multiple event history transmissions  24  would be required in order to utilize the existing commercial two-way paging networks  13  for transmission of history data  32 . For such an implementation, the present invention is preferably adapted to gather the multiple transmissions  24  within the virtual process telemetry software system  19 , sort them according to date and time stamp information  35  and then animate them in whole or in part at the technician&#39;s computer  25 . The data for such an animation may be stored as a multiple file set  36 , as shown in FIG. 4, for immediate analysis or retrieval and analysis at a later time.  
         [0018]    In at least one implementation of the present invention, a special monitoring instruction  11  may be generated for the provision of a new script to be stored in the SRAM  23  of the remotely located industrial process  18 . In this case the functional command  28  may be an indication to the microprocessor interface  21  that it is to accept a new script and to store it for later use in the SRAM  23 . The functional parameter  29  would then be the name or other identification that is to be used for the new script. The event logging component portion  26  of the operational command  14  for this special monitoring instruction  11  would then be substituted out in favor of a list of names or other identifications for various operations or events to be conducted of the industrial process upon execution of the new script. In this manner, the pseudo real-time diagnostic and process monitoring system  10  of the present invention is made extremely robust even within the message size limitations of the existing commercial two-way digital paging networks  13 . For example, once a service technician identifies that a certain remotely located industrial process  18  often suffers same malfunctions, he or she can prepare a script designed to confirm this malfunction and transmit it to the industrial process  18  for storage and recall as necessary. According to this implementation, a simple monitoring instruction  11  to invoke the script is then efficiently followed by a data transmission  24  comprising sufficient information to confirm or rule out the recurring malfunction.  
         [0019]    While the foregoing description is exemplary of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, those of ordinary skill in the relevant arts will recognize the many variations, alterations, modifications, substitutions and the like as are readily possible, especially in light of this description, the accompanying drawings and claims drawn thereto. For example, the event logging command  30  and parameter  31  may be adapted to allow the service technician to specify the logging resolution. In this manner, more or less data  32  may be gathered for transmission back through the paging network  13  depending upon the rate of change of the monitored systems of the industrial process  18 . Likewise, a special monitoring instruction  11  may be devised to allow the service technician the ability to remotely set performance adjustment switches for the remote industrial process  18  or to send flash updates for system firmware. These and many other extensions of the present invention will be readily apparent, however, to those of ordinary skill in the art upon having had the opportunity to review the exemplary embodiments described herein. In any case, because the scope of the present invention is much broader than any particular embodiment, the foregoing detailed description should not be construed as a limitation of the scope of the present invention, which is limited only by the claims appended hereto.