Patent ID: 8649909

Claim:
A system for remotely controlling a fluid-handling device of an oil well, a petro water disposal or re-injection facility, or a petroleum pumping station, the system comprising: a command-center server having a data store storing multiple user accounts, each user account corresponding to a set of one or more oil wells, petro water disposal or re-injection facilities, or petroleum pumping stations, or a combination thereof, each set being operated by a different entity corresponding to the respective user account; and a plurality of geographically distributed site master controllers, each site master controller corresponding to a respective one of the oil wells, petro water disposal or re-injection facilities, or petroleum pumping stations, each site master controller comprising: a communication module operable to communicate with a plurality of fluid-handling devices; a network interface; memory; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the communication module, the network interface, and the memory, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by the processors cause the processors to effectuate steps comprising: receiving, via the network interface, from the command-center server, a plurality of commands encoded in a first protocol to control the fluid-handling devices from a user corresponding to one of the user accounts, different commands among the plurality of commands being directed to different fluid handling devices among the plurality of fluid-handling devices; for at least some of the plurality of commands, determining a plurality of different target states of a given one of the fluid-handling devices over time, wherein the respective site-master controller is operative to maintain control of the fluid handling devices in the absence of a network connection to the command-center server; translating the plurality of commands into translated commands encoded in a plurality of protocols different from the first protocol, each translated command being translated into a protocol among the plurality of protocols suitable for a fluid-handling device to which the respective command is directed, the at least some of the translated command being operative to cause a local controller of the given fluid-handling device to drive the given fluid-handling device to the plurality of different target states, the local controller being responsive to the translated commands and feedback from the given fluid-handling device indicative of whether the given fluid-handling device is in a targeted state; and sending the translated commands to respective local controllers of the respective fluid-handling devices to which the respective commands are directed.