SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONITORING INDUSTRIAL SETTINGS WITH SENSOR KITS
Systems and associated methods for monitoring an industrial setting using sensor kits in communication with a backend system via a communication gateway are disclosed. Each sensor kit can have a set of sensors that are registered to respective industrial settings and configured to monitor physical characteristics of the industrial settings. The communication gateway can communicate instances of sensor values from the sensor kits to a backend system. The backend system can process the instances of sensor values to monitor the industrial setting, wherein upon receiving registration data for a sensor kit to an industrial setting, the backend system automatically configures and populates a dashboard for an owner or operator of the industrial setting, wherein the dashboard provides monitoring information that is based on the instances of sensor values for the industrial setting.
1 . A system for monitoring an industrial setting, comprising:
a set of sensor kits each having a set of sensors that are registered to respective industrial settings and configured to monitor physical characteristics of the industrial settings;
a set of communication gateways for communicating instances of sensor values from the sensor kits to a backend system; and
said backend system for processing the instances of sensor values to monitor the industrial setting, wherein upon receiving registration data for a sensor kit to an industrial setting, the backend system automatically configures and populates a dashboard for an owner or operator of the industrial setting, wherein the dashboard provides monitoring information that is based on the instances of sensor values for the industrial setting.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the registration of the sensor kit includes an interface for specifying a type of entity or industrial setting to be monitored.
3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the backend system configures the dashboard based on the registered type of entity or industrial setting.
4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the backend system includes an analytics facility that is configured based on the type of entity or industrial setting.
5 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the backend system includes a machine learning facility that is configured based on the type of entity or industrial setting.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the communication gateway is configured to provide a virtual container for instances of sensor values such that only a registered owner or operator of the industrial setting can access the sensor values.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein upon registration of a sensor kit to an industrial setting, a user may select a set of parameters for monitoring and wherein a set of services and capabilities of the backend system is automatically provisioned based on the selected parameters.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the sensor kit, the communication gateway and the backend system includes an edge computation system for automatically calculating a metric for an industrial setting based on a plurality of instances of sensor values from a set of sensor kits.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor kit is a self-configuring sensor kit network.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the sensor kit network is a star network such that each sensor of the plurality of sensors transmits respective instances of sensor data with the communication gateway directly using a short-range communication protocol.
11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein computer-executable instructions cause one or more processors of the communication gateway device to initiate configuration of the self-configuring sensor kit network.
12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the self-configuring sensor kit network is a mesh network such that:
a communication device of each sensor of the plurality of sensors is configured to establish a communication channel with at least one other sensor of the plurality of sensors; and
at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors is configured to receive instances of sensor data from one or more other sensors of the plurality of sensors and to route the received instances of the sensor data towards the communication gateway.
13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the one or more processors of the communication gateway to initiate configuration of the self-configuring sensor kit network, wherein the plurality of sensors form the mesh network in response to the communication gateway initiating configuration of the self-configuring sensor kit network.
14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the self-configuring sensor kit network is a hierarchical network.
15 . A method of monitoring a plurality of industrial settings using a set of sensors kits, a set of communication gateways, and a backend system, the method comprising:
registering each sensor kit of the plurality of sensor kits to a respective industrial setting of the plurality of industrial settings;
configuring each sensor kit of the plurality of sensor kits to monitor physical characteristics of the respective industrial setting to which the sensor kit is registered;
transmitting, by each communication gateway of the set of communication gateways, instances of sensor data from a respective sensor kit of the plurality of sensor kits to the backend system;
processing, by the backend system, the instances of sensor data received from each sensor kit of the plurality of sensor kits;
automatically configuring and populating, by the backend system, a dashboard for an owner or operator of the respective industrial setting upon receiving registration data for a sensor kit of the plurality of sensor kits; and
providing, by the dashboard, monitoring information that is based on the instances of sensor data for the respective industrial setting.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein registering each sensor kit includes providing an interface for specifying a type of entity or industrial setting to be monitored.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein configuring each sensor kit to monitor physical characteristics of the respective industrial setting includes configuring, by the backend system, the dashboard based on the registered type of entity or industrial setting.
18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the backend system includes an analytics facility that is configured based on the type of entity of an industrial setting.
19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the backend system includes a machine learning facility that is configured based on the type of entity or industrial setting.
20 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising providing, by each communication gateway of the plurality of communication gateways, a virtual container for instances of sensor data such that only a registered owner or operator of the respective industrial setting can access the sensor data.
21 . The method of claim 15 , wherein upon registration of a sensor kit to an industrial setting, a user may select a set of parameters for monitoring.
22 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising automatically provisioning, by the backend system, a set of services and capabilities of the backend system based on the selected parameters.
23 . The method of claim 15 , wherein at least one of a sensor kit of the plurality of sensor kits, a communication gateway of the plurality of communication gateways, and the backend system includes an edge computation system for automatically calculating a metric for an industrial setting based on a plurality of instances of sensor data from a set of sensor kits.
24 . The method of claim 15 , wherein at least one sensor kit of the plurality of sensor kits is a self-configuring sensor kit network including a plurality of sensors.
25 . The method of claim 24 , further comprising:
capturing, by the plurality of sensors, sensor data; and
transmitting, by the plurality of sensors, the sensor data to and edge device via the self-configuring sensor kit network.
26 . The method of claim 25 , 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.
27 . The method of claim 24 , further comprising initiating, by the edge processing system, configuration of the self-configuring sensor kit network.
28 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the self-configuring sensor kit network is a mesh network and each sensor of the plurality of sensors includes a communication device.
29 . The method of claim 28 , 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.
30 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the self-configuring sensor kit network is a hierarchical network and the sensor kit includes one or more collection devices.
31 . The method of claim 24 , 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.