Asset management and IOT device for refrigerated appliances
An asset management system includes an asset management network that connects various types of refrigeration appliances to an asset manager. At the device layer, IOT devices are connected to the refrigeration appliances and have edge compute capability, including a backup power management function, and a modem for network communication. IOT device ports directly integrate with sensors, switches, and/or serial data controllers of refrigeration appliances. Push notification alarms are initiated on the edge of the network by IOT devices. The network tags operating data by appliance serial, and the asset manager stores the data using serial numbers as primary keys. The asset manager streams data from numerous appliances and uses event driven processing to promptly respond to edge alarms. The operating data keyed by serial number is enriched with proprietary data organized by appliance type and is used to develop new predictive models by appliance type.
1 . A processor-executable method of connecting a subject refrigeration appliance to an asset manager in an asset management system for a plurality of refrigeration appliances, the method comprising:
receiving a web page request including a device identifier (“ID”) for an internet of things (“IOT”) device;
determining based on the device ID that the IOT device has not been bound to any refrigeration appliance;
in response to receiving the web page request for the IOT device and determining that the IOT device has not been bound to any refrigeration appliance, returning a web form including a field for input of a serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance;
after returning the web form, receiving input of the serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance to the web form; and
in response to receiving input of the serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance to the web form, binding the IOT device to the subject refrigeration appliance in the asset management system.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein binding the IOT device to the subject refrigeration appliance comprises configuring the asset manager to parse operating data transmitted by the IOT device based on the serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein binding the IOT device to the subject refrigeration appliance comprises configuring the asset manager to store the operating data in a time series database with the serial number as primary key for the operating data.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the subject refrigeration appliance is of a refrigeration appliance type and wherein binding the IOT device to the subject refrigeration appliance comprises loading an appliance control profile for the subject refrigeration appliance type into memory of the IOT device.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein in response to receiving input of the serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance to the web form, the asset manager is configured to query an original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) database for the appliance control profile based on the serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the asset management system comprises a data broker between the plurality of refrigeration appliances and the asset manager.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein binding the IOT device to the subject refrigeration appliance comprises configuring the data broker to receive data packets from the IOT device containing operating data for the subject refrigeration appliance and tagged by a device ID for the IOT device and to transmit structured data objects to the asset manager containing the operating data for the subject refrigeration appliance and tagged by the serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance.
8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein said receiving the web page request comprises receiving the web page request at the data broker and said determining that the IOT device has not been bound to any refrigeration appliance comprises determining by the data broker that the device ID is not linked to any refrigeration appliance serial number.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein in response to said determining by the data broker that the device ID is not linked to any refrigeration appliance serial number, the data broker redirects the web page request to a web address SS for a front end asset management application, the web address for the front end asset management application including the device ID and a placeholder keyword indicating that the device ID is not linked to any refrigeration appliance.
10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising, after binding the IOT device to the subject refrigeration appliance in the asset management system, receiving a subsequent web page request at the data broker containing a device ID for the IOT device, wherein in response to receiving the subsequent web page request, the data broker determines that the device ID is linked to the serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance, and wherein in response to the data broker determining that the device ID is linked to the serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance, the data broker redirects the web page request to another web address for the front end asset management application, said another web address for the front end asset management application including the device ID and the serial number of the subject refrigeration appliance.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein in response to the data broker redirecting the web page request to said another web address, the front end asset management application receives a corresponding web request and returns a public web page displaying operating data for the subject refrigeration appliance.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the IOT device is emblazoned with a machine readable code encoding a web address containing the device ID for the IOT device for making the web page request to the data broker containing the device ID for the IOT device.
13 . An asset management system for a plurality of refrigeration appliances, each refrigeration appliance having a serial number, the asset management system comprising:
a plurality of internet of things (“IOT”) devices, each IOT device comprising a modem having a device identifier (“ID”) and being emblazoned with a machine readable code encoding a web address including the respective device ID, each IOT device configured to be bound to a respective one of the refrigeration appliances and configured to use the modem to transmit operating data from the respective refrigeration appliance;
a data broker configured to receive the operating data from the plurality of IOT devices and transmit structured data objects containing the operating data, each structured data object being tagged by the serial number of a source refrigeration appliance, the data broker being further configured to receive web page requests from one or more client devices entering said web addresses including the respective device IDs into web browsers, wherein in response to each web page request, the data broker is configured to determine based on the included device ID whether the IOT device has been bound to any refrigeration appliance, wherein in response to receiving a web page request and determining based on the included device ID that the IOT device has not been bound to any refrigeration appliance, the data broker is further configured to redirect the web page request to another web address for a web form including a field for inputting a serial number of a subject refrigeration appliance to bind the IOT device to the subject refrigeration appliance with the serial number input into said field, and wherein in response to receiving a web page request and determining based on the included device ID that the IOT device has been bound to any refrigeration appliance, the data broker is further configured to redirect the web page request to another web address for a public web page for displaying operating data for the respective refrigeration appliance to which the IOT has already been bound; and
an asset manager configured to stream the structured data objects from the data broker, parse the streamed structured data objects by serial number of the source refrigeration appliance, and store the operating data contained in the structured data objects in a time series database using the serial numbers of the source refrigeration appliances as primary keys.
14 . The asset management system as set forth in claim 13 , wherein each structured data object contains a key-value pair for the serial number of the source refrigeration appliance.
15 . The asset management system as set forth in claim 14 , wherein the asset manager is configured to stream the structured data objects from an asset management network connected to the asset manager and parse the structured data objects in real-time to determine, for each structured data object, the key-value pair for the serial number of the source refrigeration appliance.
16 . The asset management system as set forth in claim 13 , wherein the time series database is agnostic to the modem device IDs of the IOT devices.
17 . The asset management system as set forth in claim 15 , wherein the asset manager is configured to parse the structured data objects according to parsing logic agnostic to modem device ID.
18 . The asset management system as set forth in claim 13 , further comprising an original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) database containing appliance control profiles containing data corresponding to refrigeration appliance types.
19 . The asset management system as set forth in claim 18 , wherein the asset manager is configured to query the OEM database for the appliance control profile based on the serial number of the refrigeration appliance.