A multifunctional gateway unit may connect at least one apparatus, which is in particular used for machining, handling or storing workpieces that preferably consist of, at least in portions, of wood, wooden materials, or plastic. The multifunctional gateway unit may include, at least one data interface for connecting the gateway unit to a data server; at least one computing unit which comprises a CPU and is designed to interchange data with the data interface; at least one sensor interface which is designed to receive data from a sensor, which is associated with the apparatus, and to forward the data to the computing unit; and/or at least one output interface which is designed to receive data from the computing unit and to forward the data to at least one unit of the apparatus.

A software defined (SD) process control system (SDCS) includes a method executed by a discovery service for inferring information regarding a physical or logical asset of a process plant. The method includes obtaining an announcement indicative of a presence of a physical or logical asset of the process plant. The method also includes obtaining, from a context dictionary, one or more parameters retrievable from the physical or logical asset or one or more services associated with the physical or logical asset that were not indicated in the announcement. Furthermore, the method includes storing a record of the discovered physical or logical asset in a discovered item data store. The record includes an indication of the identity of the physical or logical asset and the one or more parameters or one or more services associated with the physical or logical asset that were not indicated in the announcement.

A software defined distributed control system (SDCS) in a process plant includes an application layer that includes a plurality of containers instantiated in a data cluster. Each of the containers is an isolated execution environment executing within the local operating system of a respective computing node. The containers cooperate to facilitate execution of a control strategy in the SDCS, and includes a hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) operating across the data cluster, which HCI is configured to communicate with the application layer via an adapter service. The HCI includes software-defined (SD) compute resources, SD storage resources, SD networking resources, and an orchestrator service. The orchestrator service is programmed to configure a first container to include a service executing within the first container. It also assigns the first container to execute on an available hardware resource to control a plurality of field devices operating in the process plant.

A process control system includes a plurality of field devices operating to control a process. A communication infrastructure couples the field devices to a software-defined control system (SDCS) that receives data from the field devices and transmits instructions to the field devices. A data cluster, executing the SDCS, includes a plurality of computing nodes, each of which includes a processor executing an operating system, a memory, and a communication resource coupled to one or more other computing nodes in the data cluster. First and second containers, each of which is an isolated execution environment, are instantiated on a first computing node within the operating system of the first computing node. The second container is instantiated within the first container. The first and second containers correspond to levels of a hierarchical structure of the SDCS.

An I/O server service interfaces with multiple containerized controller services each implementing the same control routine to control the same portion of the same plant. The I/O server service may provide the same controller inputs to each of the containerized controller services (e.g., representing measurements obtained by field devices and transmitted by the field devices to the I/O server service). Each containerized controller service executes the same control routine to generate a set of controller outputs. The I/O server service receives each set of controller outputs and forwards an “active” set to the appropriate field devices. The I/O server service may utilize a quality-of-service metric to determine which controller outputs and/or I/O channel is “active.” The I/O server service and other services, such as an orchestrator service, may continuously evaluate performance and resource utilization in the control system, and may dynamically activate and deactivate controller services as appropriate.

A wireless field device for use in an industrial process includes input/output terminals to couple to a process interface element and a discrete input/output channel configured to receive a discrete input signal from the process interface element through the input/output terminals when configured as a discrete input channel, the discrete input/output channel further configured to provide a discrete output to the process interface element through the input/output terminals when configured as discrete output channel. Wireless communication circuitry transmits and receives information. A controller transmits information through the communication circuitry based upon a sensed process variable, provides a discrete output signal when the discrete input/output channel is configured as a discrete output channel and receives a discrete input signal when configured as a discrete input channel. An external power supply input is couples to an external power supply and a battery power supply input couples a battery. Power supply circuitry powers the controller from at most one of the external power supply or the battery.

According to an aspect, there is provided method for analyzing movement. Initially, information on one or more desired movement properties for a moving element of a mechanical system powered by an electrical machine which is controlled by a drive is maintained in a memory of a wireless sensing device. The wireless sensing device including one or more sensors is detachably fixed to the moving element of the mechanical system. The one or more sensors include one or more kinematic sensors. The wireless sensing device acquire results of a plurality of measurements performed by the wireless sensing device while the moving element is in motion. During the acquiring, the wireless sensing device compares results of the plurality of measurements with the one or more desired movement properties and communicates with the drive to adjust one or more drive parameters based on the comparing.

A signal processing device including an acquisition unit configured to acquire signal waveform data corresponding to a frequency signal, a generation unit configured to generate a sine wave and a cosine wave of demodulation waveform data having a demodulation frequency between the first frequency and the second frequency, a first phase calculation unit configured to calculate a first phase based on a multiplication result of the sine wave and the signal waveform data at a first time and a multiplication result of the cosine wave and the signal waveform data at the first time, a second phase calculation unit configured to calculate a second phase based on a multiplication result of the sine wave and the signal waveform data at a second time advanced from the first time by a specified time interval less than one cycle of the demodulation frequency.

The invention includes a method for monitoring an automated plant having at least one field device, wherein a first cloud-capable database, having a first data configuration and containing field device related data including measured values, parameter values, identification data, and diagnostic status of the field device, wherein a second cloud-capable database having a second data configuration incompatible with the first data configuration, and wherein the first and the second data configurations define file formats of the data, the method comprises: retrieving at least a part of the data contained in the first database by means of a data conversion unit, especially an edge device or a gateway; converting the retrieved data into a format conforming to the second data configuration; and storing the converted data in the second database. The invention further includes a data conversion unit, which is embodied for executing the method of the invention.

A self-testing automation system includes a decentralized distributed ledger-type database comprising a plurality of subscriber nodes, wherein the subscriber nodes exchange data with one another per transaction, and the database stores the transactions in data blocks which are linked together; a regulating mechanism which is implemented into each of the subscriber nodes, said regulating mechanism comprising information on the number and identity of all of the subscriber nodes as well as rules relating to actions, properties, and states of each of the subscriber nodes; and a plurality of automation components which are subscriber nodes of the decentralized database. Each of the subscriber nodes is designed to test or validate transactions between the subscriber nodes at all times using the regulating mechanism, and each of the subscriber nodes is designed to carry out at least one measure if a violation of the regulating mechanism is detected.