Sensor kits at edge devices for monitoring and managing industrial settings

Abstract

A variety of kits are provided that are configured with components, systems and methods for monitoring various industrial settings, including kits with self-configuring sensor networks, communication gateways, and automatically configured back end systems.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for monitoring an industrial setting using a sensor kit having a plurality of sensors and an edge device including a processing system, comprising:
 receiving, by the processing system, reporting packets from one or more respective sensors of the plurality of sensors, wherein each reporting packet includes routing data and one or more instances of sensor data;   generating, by the processing system, a block of media content frames, wherein each media content frame includes a plurality of frame values, each frame value being indicative of a respective instance of sensor data;   compressing, by the processing system, the block of media content frames using a media codec to obtain a compressed block;   generating, by the processing system, one or more server kit packets based on the compressed block; and   transmitting, by the processing system, the one or more server kit packets to a backend system via a public network.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the sensor kit includes a gateway device configured to receive sensor kit packets from the edge device via a wired communication link and transmit the sensor kit packets to the backend system via the public network on behalf of the edge device. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the gateway device includes a satellite terminal device that is configured to transmit the sensor kit packets to a satellite that routes the sensor kits to the public network. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the gateway device includes a cellular chipset that is pre-configured to transmit sensor kit packets to a cellphone tower of a preselected cellular provider. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the reporting packets from the one or more respective sensors is performed using a first communication device that receives reporting packets from the plurality of sensors via a self-configuring sensor kit network and transmitting the sensor kit packets to the backend system is performed using a second communication device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the second communication device of the edge device is a satellite terminal device that is configured to transmit the sensor kit packets to a satellite that routes the sensor kits to the public network. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 capturing, by the plurality of sensors, sensor data; and   transmitting, by the plurality of sensors, the sensor data to the edge device via the self-configuring sensor kit network.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein transmitting the sensor data via the self-configuring sensor kit network includes directly transmitting, by each sensor of the plurality of sensors, instances of sensor data with the edge device using a short-range communication protocol, wherein the self-configuring sensor kit network is a star network. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising initiating, by the processing system, configuration of the self-configuring sensor kit network. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the self-configuring sensor kit network is a mesh network and each sensor of the plurality of sensors includes a communication device. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 establishing, by the communication device of each sensor of the plurality of sensors, a communication channel with at least one other sensor of the plurality of sensors;   receiving, by at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors, instances of sensor data from one or more other sensors of the plurality of sensors; and   routing, by the at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors, the received instances of the sensor data towards the edge device.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the self-configuring sensor kit network is a hierarchical network and the sensor kit includes one or more collection devices. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 receiving, by at least one collection device of the plurality of collection devices, reporting packets from one or more sensors of the plurality of sensors; and   routing, by the at least one collection device of the plurality of collection devices, the reporting packets to the edge device.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising storing, by one or more storage devices of the edge device, instances of sensor data captured by the plurality of sensors of the sensor kit. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the edge device further comprises one or more storage devices that store a model data store that stores one or more machine-learned models that are each trained to predict or classify a condition of an industrial component of the industrial setting and/or the industrial setting based on a set of features that are derived from instances of sensor data captured by one or more of the plurality of sensors. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 generating, by the processing system, a feature vector based on one or more instances of sensor data received from one or more sensors of the plurality of sensors;   inputting, by the processing system, the feature vector to the machine-learned model to obtain a prediction or classification relating to a condition of a particular industrial component of the industrial setting or the industrial setting and a degree of confidence corresponding to the prediction or classification; and   selecting the media codec used to compress the block of media content frames based on the classification or prediction.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein selecting the media codec includes:
 selecting a lossy codec in response to obtaining one or more predictions or classifications relating to conditions of respective industrial components of the industrial setting and the industrial setting that collectively indicate that there are likely no issues relating to any industrial component of the industrial setting and the industrial setting.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein selecting the media codec includes:
 selecting a lossless codec in response to obtaining a prediction or classification relating to a condition of a particular industrial component or the industrial setting that indicates that there is likely an issue relating to the particular industrial component or the industrial setting.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 generating, by the processing system, a feature vector based on one or more instances of sensor data received from one or more sensors of the plurality of sensors;   inputting, by the processing system, the feature vector to the machine-learned model to obtain a prediction or classification relating to a condition of a particular industrial component of the industrial setting or the industrial setting and a degree of confidence corresponding to the prediction or classification; and   selectively storing, by the processing system, the one or more instances of sensor data in the storage device of the edge device based on the prediction or classification.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein selectively storing the one or more instances of sensor data in the storage device includes:
 storing the one or more instances of sensor data in the storage device with an expiry such that the one or more instances of sensor data are purged from the storage device in accordance with the expiry, wherein storing the one or more instances of sensor data in the storage device with an expiry is performed in response to obtaining one or more predictions or classifications relating to conditions of respective industrial components of the industrial setting and the industrial setting that collectively indicate that there are likely no issues relating to any industrial component of the industrial setting and the industrial setting.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein selectively storing the one or more instances of sensor data in the storage device includes:
 storing the one or more instances of sensor data in the storage device indefinitely in response to obtaining a prediction or classification relating to a condition of a particular industrial component or the industrial setting that indicates that there is likely an issue relating to the particular industrial component or the industrial setting.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the block of media content frames includes:
 normalizing, by the processing system, for each instance of sensor data that is to be included in a media content frame, the instance of sensor data into a respective normalized media content frame value that is within of range of media content frame values that are permitted by an encoding standard corresponding to the media content frame; and   embedding, by the processing system, each respective normalized media content frame value into the media content frame.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein each media content frame is a video frame comprising a plurality of pixels and the respective normalized media frame values are pixel values. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein embedding each respective normalized media content frame value into the media content frame includes:
 determining, by the processing system, a pixel of the plurality of pixels corresponding to the respective normalized media content frame based on a mapping that maps respective sensors of the plurality of sensors to respective pixels of the plurality of pixels; and   setting a value of the determined pixel equal to the respective normalized media content frame value.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the codec is an H.264/MPEG-4 codec. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the codec is an H.265/MPEG-H codec. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the codec is an H.263/MPEG-4 codec. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sensors includes a first set of sensors of a first sensor type and a second set of sensors of a second sensor type.