Distributed data management systems for embedded controllers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10484476-B2
Application number	US-201515551792-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 23, 2015
Priority date	Feb 23, 2015
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

A system for managing data in an industrial production environment includes a distributed database system stored on a plurality of embedded controller devices. Each respective embedded controller device comprises: a distributed database instance and a database management application. The distributed database instance is configured to store data collected from the industrial production environment by the respective embedded controller device. The database management application is configured to facilitate distributed queries and transactions on the plurality of embedded controller devices.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system for managing data in an industrial production environment, the system comprising:
a distributed database system stored on a plurality of embedded controller devices, wherein each respective embedded controller device comprises:
a distributed database instance configured to store data collected from the industrial production environment by the respective embedded controller device, and
a database management application configured to facilitate distributed queries and transactions on the plurality of embedded controller devices; and

a sharding key definition providing a mapping between data stored in the distributed database system and the plurality of embedded controller devices.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein each respective embedded controller device further comprises:
a data monitoring module having one or more applications executable to continuously read the collected data, and to insert the collected data into the distributed database instance associated with the respective embedded controller device.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein each of the plurality of embedded controller devices has an identical data monitoring module.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sharding key definition is stored on each of the plurality of embedded controller devices.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a centralized server accessible to each of the plurality of embedded controller devices and configured to store the sharding key definition.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein each respective embedded controller device comprises:
a networking interface that facilitates network communication between the respective embedded controller device and each additional embedded controller device included in the plurality of embedded controller devices, wherein the network communication uses a standard networking protocol.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the distributed database system is configured to perform a distributed processing job on a dataset stored in the distributed database system by:
splitting the distributed processing job into a plurality of distributed processing tasks, each distributed processing task processing a portion of the dataset;
determining storage location information for each portion of the dataset;
distributing the plurality of distributed processing tasks among the plurality of embedded controller devices based on the storage location information.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein each respective embedded controller device is configured to respond to queries for data stored on any of the plurality of embedded controller devices.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a storage server configured to provide long-term storage of data previously stored on one or more of the plurality of embedded controller devices.

10. A method for managing data in an industrial production environment, the method comprising:
executing, by a first embedded controller, programming logic to generate process data based on sensor data collected from one or more production devices in the industrial production environment;
performing, by the first embedded controller, a data monitoring process comprising:
reading, by the first embedded controller, the process data and the sensor data during execution of the programming logic, and
inserting the process data and the sensor data into a controller database in the first embedded controller, wherein the controller database is part of a distributed database stored on the first embedded controller and a plurality of second embedded controllers;

receiving, by the first embedded controller, a database processing request;
determining, by the first embedded controller, one or more of the second embedded controllers storing portions of the distributed database needed to respond to the database processing request;
transmitting, by the first embedded controller, a processing instruction to each of the one or more of the plurality of second embedded controllers;
receiving, by the first embedded controller, processed sensor data from the one or more of the plurality of second embedded controllers in response to the processing instruction;
creating, by the first embedded controller, a response to the database processing request by aggregating the processed sensor data; and
responding, by the first embedded controller, to the database processing request.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the controller database comprises a no-SQL database which has a table equivalent structure.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein reading of the process data and the sensor data during execution of the programming logic is triggered based on changes to the process data or the sensor data.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein reading of the process data and the sensor data during execution of the programming logic is triggered based on a change to one or more monitored I/O flags.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
detecting, by the first embedded controller, an error condition corresponding to an inoperative second embedded controller included in the plurality of second embedded controllers;
determining, by the first embedded controller, one or more processed data items which were processed by the inoperative second embedded controller to cause the inoperative second embedded controller; and
generating, by the first embedded controller, a data model for identifying the one or more processed data items.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving, by the first embedded controller, a new data item;
identifying, by the first embedded controller, the new data item as identical to the one or more processed data items based on the data model;
discarding, by the first embedded controller, the new data item without processing the new data item.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
sending, by the first embedded controller, the data model to an operative second embedded controller;
receiving, by the operative second embedded controller, a new data item;
identifying, by the operative second embedded controller, the new data item as identical to the one or more processed data items based on the data model;
discarding, by the operative second embedded controller, the new data item without processing the new data item.

17. A method for managing data in an industrial production environment comprising a plurality of embedded controllers, the method comprising:
for each embedded controller in the industrial production environment, inserting sensor data into a controller database in the embedded controller, wherein the controller database is part of a distributed database stored across the plurality of embedded controller;
receiving a database processing request by a first embedded controller included in the plurality of embedded controllers;
determining, by the first embedded controller, one or more of the second embedded controllers storing portions of the distributed database needed to respond to the database processing request;
transmitting, by the first embedded controller, a processing instruction to each of the one or more of the plurality of second embedded controllers;
receiving, by the first embedded controller, processed sensor data from the one or more of the plurality of second embedded controllers in response to the processing instruction;
creating, by the first embedded controller, a response to the database processing request by aggregating the processed sensor data; and
responding, by the first embedded controller, to the database proce

Assignees

• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Rosca Bogdan
• Hermont Bernardo
• Suresh Sindhu

Classifications

• G06F16/24532

  of parallel queries · CPC title

• H04W4/38

  for collecting sensor information · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• G05B19/4185

  characterised by the network communication · CPC title

• G05B2219/1137

  Peer to peer communication · CPC title