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.

Various embodiments of the teachings herein include a control device for controlling one or more field devices connected to the control device by data technology in the form of a communication network. The control device includes a wireless service interface. The communication network connects the control device to one or more tools. The wireless service interface can be activated by first tool via the communication network.

Various embodiments of the teachings herein include a control device comprising: a wireless service interface; and a controller. The control device receives a radio signal generated by a device via a suitable radio connection using a further wireless interface and activates the wireless service interface once receiving the radio signal.

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.

An I/O server service interacts 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 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. The I/O server service may interact with other containerized services, such as containerized historian services or workstation services, to facilitate control in the plant.

Data acquired by numerous wireless sensors in a large industrial setting is communicated to the operations center via nodes in defined geographic cells where the signals from the sensors may be depowered to naturally attenuate below the perception of most other receiving nodes in the industrial system. It would be optimal that signals would attenuate sufficiently such that most signals in a cell are not discernible to receiving nodes in adjacent cells, but some sensors near the boundary of a cell will probably have to be set at sufficient power that the nearest adjacent receiving cell would necessarily perceive the signal. Data rejection protocols would exclude data from outside a cell and the advantage of the invention is that it minimizes the volume of errant signals leading to more reliable and robust data for operators.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium for communicating between an operational asset and a backend network that include the actions of receiving first data from an operational asset through a first communication interface that is configured to communicate with an operational asset, and where the first data is formatted according to a first data format that is specific to the operational asset. Processing the first data according to an asset template to generate second data, where the second data includes the first data and being formatted according to a second data format that is specific to the backend network. Causing the second data to be transmitted to the backend network by a second communication interface that is configured to communicate with a backend network.

An opt-in from at least one user of a plurality of users associated with at least one tool of a plurality of tools is received. An authentication associated with a first opted-in user of the plurality of users associated with an access of a first tool of the plurality of tools is determined. A set of credentials required to operate the first tool associated with the first opted-in user is verified. A request to an Internet of things (IoT) receiver device is transmitted. A response from an IoT transmitter device is received. In response to determining that the first user is utilizing required equipment to operate the first tool, power to the first tool is supplied.

A smart process control switch can implement a lockdown routine to lockdown its communication ports exclusively for use by devices having known physical addresses, enabling the smart process control switch to prevent new, potentially hostile, devices from communicating with other devices to which the smart process control switch is connected. Further, the smart process control switch can implement an address mapping routine to identify “known pairs” of physical and network addresses for each device communicating via a port of the smart process control switch. Thus, even if a new hostile device is able to spoof a known physical address in an attempt to bypass locked ports, the smart process control switch can detect the hostile device by checking the network address of the hostile device against the expected network address for the “known pair.”

We generally describe a method comprising: processing (S602) data relating to a path of movement of a robotic device (122) comprising or coupled to a sensor (124) in radio communication with a cloud platform (112); and updating (S604), based on the processed data, the path of movement to improve the radio communication.