System and methods for cloud-based monitoring and control of physical environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11290299-B2
Application number	US-202017037875-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2020
Priority date	Apr 21, 2016
Publication date	Mar 29, 2022
Grant date	Mar 29, 2022

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods for cloud-based monitoring and control of physical environments. A system comprises a computing cloud with at least one processor configured to execute one or more application modules and a data analytics module for analyzing diagnostic and environmental metric data. The system further comprises a building server communicatively coupled with the computing cloud, at least one gateway communicatively coupled with the building server, and at least one system device communicatively coupled with the at least one gateway. The at least one system device generates environmental metric data for further analysis and display, and the data is communicated to the computing cloud by way of the at least one gateway and the at least one building server.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for monitoring physical environments comprising:
a computing cloud comprising at least one processor configured to execute one or more application modules for interactively displaying project data, and a data analytics module for analyzing diagnostic data and environmental metric data;
at least one building server communicatively coupled with the computing cloud, the building server configured to receive at least environmental metric data from at least one gateway, and to communicate the received data to the computing cloud;
the at least one gateway communicatively coupled with the building server, the gateway configured to receive at least environmental metric data from at least one system device, and to communicate the received data to the at least one building server; and
the at least one system device communicatively coupled with the at least one gateway, and comprising at least a sensor configured to generate the environmental metric data, and configured to communicate the generated environmental metric data to the at least one gateway,
wherein the at least one building server further comprises an proxy module, and the at least one gateway comprises a client module, the client module being configured to route communications based on the protocol arising from the gateway or any device in communication with the gateway to the building server via the proxy module of the building server.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the gateway is a wireless gateway.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the environmental metric data comprises data indicating usage of system devices, the system devices comprising gateways, sensor devices, and building servers, and the device data comprises data identifying devices associated with the system, and the user data comprises data identifying users associated the system.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the project data comprises at least one project hierarchy, the at least one project hierarchy being associated with at least one site, the at least one site being associated with at least one building, the at least one building being associated at least one floor, the at least one floor being associated with at least one system device.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the building comprises a virtual model of a physical building, and the floor comprises a virtual model of a physical floor of a building.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the one or more application modules comprise at least one of:
a user management application module configured to create user accounts for at least one user, and to assign one or more credentials to the user account, the credentials comprising at least a role and login information comprising a username and a password;
a system users application module configured to manage a user's access rights to the project data based at least on the user's credentials;
a system project application module configured to manage a user's access to other application modules based at least on the user's credentials, and to allow a user to graphically explore the at least one project hierarchy, the exploration being limited at least by the user's credentials;
a system intake application module configured to graphically facilitate, for an appropriately credentialed user, the manipulation of a virtual model of a building that is associated with the at least one project hierarchy;
a system map application module configured to enable an appropriately credentialed user to commission, localize and/or deploy one or more system devices;
a system energy application module configured to graphically depict, to an appropriately credentialed user, analyzed data produced by the data analytics module, the analysis being conducted using at least one of the sensor diagnostic data, the building server diagnostic data, the gateway diagnostic data and the environmental metric data; or a system operations application module configured to remotely manage indications of system errors, the system errors comprising errors in system device operation, errors in environmental metric data collection or analysis, and errors in commissioning, localization or deployment.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the manipulation of the virtual model of the building comprises one or more of:
graphically associating floorplan data with a floor,
graphically associating one or more regions within a floor with one or more types of functional spaces,
graphically depicting system devices at one or more locations within a floor, and
associating configuration data with one or more regions within a floor or one or more system devices.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system device further comprises a third diagnostics module configured to generate sensor diagnostic data, and the metric reporting module is further configured to communicate the sensor diagnostic data to the at least one gateway.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the gateway is configured to further receive the sensor diagnostic data from the at least one system device, and to communicate the received sensor diagnostic data and the gateway diagnostic data to the building server.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the building server further comprises at least a first diagnostics module configured to generate building server diagnostic data, and the gateway further comprises a second diagnostics module configured to generate gateway diagnostic data.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the building server is configured to further receive the gateway diagnostic data from the gateway, and to communicate the received gateway diagnostic data and building server diagnostic data to the computing cloud.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing cloud further comprises at least one of:
a cloud connectivity service module configured to enable exchange of at least device data between the computing cloud and the at least one building server, and
a project service module configured to enable exchange of data between the one or more data storage units and the one or more application modules.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the exchange of device data between the computing cloud and the at least one building server is configured to be performed in accordance with a communications protocol, the communications protocol comprising the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the building server further comprises a network provider module configured to perform at least one of:
propagate configuration data received from the computing cloud to the at least one system device via the at least one gateway;
receive at least one indication of a sign-on representing a sign-on of the at least one gateway or the at least one system device, and notify the computing cloud of the indication of the sign-on; and
propagate commands from the computing cloud to the gateway, the commands comprising a command to open at least one wireless network.

Assignees

• Signify Holding Bv

Inventors

• Bhat Sanjay
• Brown Lee
• Gramza Marcin
• Klecha Marcin
• Raj Urs Lokesh Narayan
• Subramanian Natarajan Ganapathy
• Rietman Wijnand Johannes
• Vangeel Jurgen Mario
• Verberkt Mark Henricus
• Van Twist Robert Adrianus Hendrik

Classifications

• G06Q10/06 Primary

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• G06F8/60

  Software deployment · CPC title

• G05B2219/2642

  Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house · CPC title

• G06F8/65

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title