Cloud gateway for industrial automation information and control systems

Abstract

A cloud gateway for coupling an industrial system to a cloud platform is provided. The cloud gateway collects data from one or more industrial controllers, meters, sensors, or other devices comprising an industrial automation system. The cloud gateway optionally performs additional transformations on the data to add context, summarize, filter, reformat, and/or encrypt the data. The cloud gateway then sends data to a cloud platform for use by one or more cloud-based applications or services. The cloud gateway can facilitate cloud-based data collection from both fixed-location and mobile industrial systems. The cloud gateway can also support store-and-forward logic, allowing industrial data to be temporarily stored in local storage in the event that communication between the cloud gateway and the cloud platform is disrupted.

1 . A cloud gateway device, comprising:
 a device interface component that receives data from an industrial automation system; and   a cloud interface component that couples the cloud gateway device to a cloud platform and sends the data to the cloud platform.   
     
     
         2 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 1 , further comprising an encryption component that encrypts the data prior to sending the data to the cloud platform. 
     
     
         3 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 1 , wherein the device interface component retrieves the data from one or more controller tags of an industrial controller associated with the industrial automation system. 
     
     
         4 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 3 , wherein the one or more controller tags and a uniform resource locator (URL) of the cloud platform are defined in a configuration file associated with the cloud gateway device. 
     
     
         5 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 1 , further comprising a transformation component that at least one of compresses, aggregates, filters, re-formats, or contextualizes the data to yield a set of refined data. 
     
     
         6 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 5 , wherein the transformation component adds contextual metadata to the data prior to sending the data to the cloud platform, the contextual metadata including at least one of a date, a time, a shift, a production area, a product, a machine state, an employee identifier, a lot number, an active alarm, or a hierarchical organizational tag. 
     
     
         7 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 1 , wherein the cloud interface component sends the data to the cloud platform at an upload frequency controlled by a cloud-based application from the cloud platform. 
     
     
         8 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 1 , wherein the cloud interface component sends the data to the cloud platform via a wireless radio. 
     
     
         9 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 1 , wherein the cloud gateway device comprises a firewall device that controls routing of data packets between different networks. 
     
     
         10 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 1 , wherein the cloud gateway device comprises at least one of an industrial controller, a telemetry device, or a sensor. 
     
     
         11 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a communication diagnostic component that determines a status of a communication link between the cloud interface component and the cloud platform; and   a storage control component that stores the data in local storage in response to a determination by the communication diagnostic component that the communication link is not operational.   
     
     
         12 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 4 , wherein the configuration file further includes one or more communication parameters for the cloud gateway device. 
     
     
         13 . The cloud gateway device of  claim 12 , wherein the cloud interface component downloads an updated version of the configuration file in response to a determination that the configuration file stored locally at the cloud gateway device is out of date. 
     
     
         14 . A method for sending industrial data to a cloud platform, comprising:
 obtaining industrial data from one or more devices comprising an industrial system; and   sending the industrial data to at least one of a cloud-based service or cloud-based application residing on a cloud platform.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising encrypting the industrial data prior to the sending. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the obtaining comprises retrieving the data from one or more controller tags of one or more industrial controllers. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising at least one of compressing, aggregating, filtering, re-formatting, or contextualizing the industrial data prior to the sending. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising appending contextual metadata to the industrial data prior to the sending, wherein the contextual metadata includes at least one of a date, a time, a shift, a production area, a product, a machine state, an employee identifier, a lot number, an active alarm, or a hierarchical organizational tag. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the sending comprises sending the industrial data to at least one of the cloud-based service or the cloud-based application using a wireless radio link. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 detecting a loss of communication to the cloud platform;   storing at least a subset of the industrial data in local storage in response to the detecting; and   sending at least the subset of the industrial data to the cloud platform in response to detecting that communication to the cloud platform has been restored.   
     
     
         21 . A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computing system to perform operations, the operations including:
 collecting data from one or more industrial devices of an automation system; and   sending the data to a designated cloud-based application residing on a cloud platform.   
     
     
         22 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 21 , the operations further comprising:
 determining that a communication link to the cloud platform has been disrupted;   in response to the determining, storing at least a subset of the data in local storage; and   sending at least the subset of the data to the designated cloud-based application in response to determining that the communication link to the cloud platform has become operational.