Patents by Inventor Benjamin Lutz

Benjamin Lutz has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11010508
    Abstract: A method for operating an automation facility, wherein and to an the automation facility includes a simulation server, which has a simulation framework for simulation of the process behavior of sensors and/or actuators in accordance with a simulation model, where a large number of simulation models is stored in the simulation server, which can be loaded into the simulation framework, includes a simulation interface for simulating the communication behavior of the sensors and/or actuators and for connecting the modelled process behavior to a controller, and includes an operator system for process control and process operation such that it becomes possible to verify, in a simplified manner within the context of what is known as a “Factory Acceptance Test” (FAT) during the test or during the verification of functionality, whether testing was performed with the simulation models provided for this purpose.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Benjamin Lutz, Anna Palmin
  • Publication number: 20210141367
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for representing operator control information in the context of a technical installation which includes at least one operator station server and one operator station client, wherein the method includes receiving measurement values of at least one technical object of the technical installation via the operator station server, continuously generating an actual trend progression of the measurement value, in the event that no measurement value can be received from the at least one technical object, an interpolation of the measurement value being undertaken to generate an interpolated trend progression, until a measurement value can be received once again, transferring the actual and the interpolated trend progression from the operator station server to the operator station client, and visually presenting the actual and the interpolated trend progression to an operator of the technical installation, preferably in a common trend progression diagram.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2020
    Publication date: May 13, 2021
    Inventor: Benjamin LUTZ
  • Publication number: 20210109504
    Abstract: A control system of a technical installation includes an operator station client and an operator station server that has a visualization service and stored object models of technical objects of the technical installation and generates an XY trend diagram with an operating point visualized in the XY trend diagram from a first measurement value associated with the first technical object and a second measurement value associated with the second technical object, and transmits the XY trend diagram with the operating point to the operator station client via the visualization service, wherein the XY trend diagram and/or the operating point has a reference to an object model, the operating point is influenceable by the technical object underlying the referenced object model, and an operator of the operator station client is visually presented with the referenced object model via the visualization service when selecting the operating point in the XY trend diagram.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2020
    Publication date: April 15, 2021
    Inventor: Benjamin LUTZ
  • Publication number: 20200410080
    Abstract: A method for project-oriented authentication of a device in a control system for a technical installation as part of an engineering project, wherein the control system includes at least one local registration service, at least one software inventory and a certification center, where information by the at least one local registration service with respect to what communication protocols and/or applications are supported by the device and/or are active is ascertained during authentication of the device within the control system, a project-oriented device certificate is requested from the first hierarchy of the certification center by the local registration service, and the project-oriented device certificate is deposited in an inventory element, associated with the engineering project, of the software inventory of the control system, the device certificates being issuable by the first hierarchy of the certification center have a unique project identifier.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2019
    Publication date: December 31, 2020
    Inventors: Benjamin LUTZ, Anna PALMIN
  • Patent number: 10845790
    Abstract: A method for operating and observing a technical plant to be controlled, wherein block symbols for plant schematics can be generated which are structured, personalized, and assembled dynamically at runtime which, for example, enable an efficiently guided and assisted handling of alarm messages by an operator, where the dynamically updated display of alarm-producing process objects based on an equipment hierarchy enables an evaluation of items causing floods of alarms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Benjamin Lutz
  • Patent number: 10761521
    Abstract: An engineering system for planning an automation entity, wherein the engineering system is configured to store and display first objects for at least one automation device and second objects for at least one operator system in a structured manner in accordance with a technological hierarchy, and to generate from the first objects first runtime data for loading into the automation device and from the second objects second runtime data for loading into the operator system, and wherein components of the first runtime data are operatively connected to components of the second runtime data such that it is possible to distinguish between a planning error and the consequences of a delta loading of runtime data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Benjamin Lutz
  • Publication number: 20200241488
    Abstract: A method for generating closed-loop control parameters of a closed-loop control for a control system of a technical system includes continuous determination of trend data of the closed-loop control during runtime of the technical system by means of the control system, continuous checking of the trend data to determine whether at least one specific trigger criterion has been met, transmitting the trend data of the closed-loop control to a controller optimization module in the event the specific trigger criterion is met, generating revised closed-loop control parameters by the controller optimization module, and transmitting the closed-loop control parameters generated by the controller optimization module to the control system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2020
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Inventors: Benjamin Lutz, Gerrit Wolf
  • Publication number: 20200241515
    Abstract: A method for visualizing process data in which a process control system controls and monitors an industrial technology plant, wherein the process control system automatically triggers a process alarm if the process data fulfills a trigger condition such a corresponding alarm message is transferred to an alarm system for output to an operator, triggered process data alarms are archived as a history, such that by selecting a process data item and specify a display period by the operator the alarm system simultaneously requests the history of the selected process data item process alarms assigned to a process object for the display period, where the alarm system outputs a time sequence of the process data item as a graphic and presents process data points in the graphic in an encoding that specifies for each process data point the highest priority with which process alarms have occurred during the acquisition period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2020
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Applicant: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Benjamin LUTZ
  • Patent number: 10671040
    Abstract: A process control system includes an engineering system for planning automation components into the project for a technical plant, a simulation framework for modeling the process behavior of field devices, a simulation unit for virtualizing the communication behavior of the real field devices and also includes a plant planning tool for planning the process engineering components of the plant into the project by which the commissioning of field-related components and a secure commissioning of a process engineering plant are made possible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Oliver Drumm, Benjamin Lutz, Gerrit Wolf
  • Publication number: 20200166914
    Abstract: A method and technical module in a technical installation, which includes at least one technical function and which is configured for integration into a higher-level control level of the technical installation, wherein functional rights relating to the at least one technical function are stored in the technical module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2019
    Publication date: May 28, 2020
    Inventors: Benjamin Lutz, Anna Palmin
  • Publication number: 20200117179
    Abstract: A method for operating a plant apparatus having at least one first plant device and at least one second plant device separate from the first plant device, in which a first error message is generated by the first plant device and a second error message is generated by the second plant device, and the first error message and the second error message are transmitted to an electronic computing device of the plant apparatus for monitoring the plant apparatus, wherein at least one first procedural relevance is assigned to the first plant device and one second procedural relevance is assigned to the second plant device by the electronic computing device depending on a decision-making criterion and, depending on the respective assigned procedural relevance, a prioritization of the respective error messages is generated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2019
    Publication date: April 16, 2020
    Inventor: Benjamin Lutz
  • Publication number: 20200092115
    Abstract: A service function of a control system of a technical installation, which is established to function as an intermediary between at least one registration authority of the technical installation and at least one installation component during certificate requests by the at least one installation component, wherein the at least one installation component is already part of the technical installation or is provided for integration into the technical installation, where the service function acting as an intermediary at least involves identifying a registration authority of the technical installation responsible for the at least one installation component and forwarding a certificate request of the at least one installation component to the corresponding registration authority, and where the registration authority forwards the certificate request to a certification authority of the technical installation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2019
    Publication date: March 19, 2020
    Inventors: Anna Palmin, Benjamin Lutz
  • Patent number: 10586443
    Abstract: A method for checking the relationship between a process alarm of a process object displayed visually on an operator client of a process control system and output acoustically, wherein an operator server of the process control system is provided with an alarm message component for preparing process alarms to be output acoustically and for transmitting these process alarms to an alarm output, and is provided with an alarm display component for preparing process alarms to be output visually and for transmitting these process alarms to the operator client, on which the process alarms can be displayed, where the output of the respective acoustic process alarms can be deactivated via an operator input on the operator client such that an operator can determine at any time whether an inconsistency is present between an alarm output acoustically and visually.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2020
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Benjamin Lutz
  • Publication number: 20200073777
    Abstract: A method for identifying an output alarm message of an alarm message cluster in a management system of a technical installation is proposed, wherein alarm messages arriving in the management system of the technical installation are detected and stored in a storage device, a specific time range is defined for further processing the alarm messages contained in the time range, at least one time instant within the time range, at which an output alarm message arrives in the technical installation is determined, and the at least one specific time instant is transmitted to a control device, which is embodied to display the alarm messages.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2019
    Publication date: March 5, 2020
    Inventor: Benjamin Lutz
  • Publication number: 20200044869
    Abstract: An operator station server of a technical installation upon which a certification service is implemented, wherein the certification service is configured to receive configuration information, which depends on a role of the operator station server in the technical installation, from at least one of (i) an engineering station server and (ii) a registration service of the technical installation, where the configuration information comprises information identifying which certificates of the certification service of the operator station server must be requested from a certification authority of the technical installation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2019
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventors: Benjamin Lutz, Anna PALMIN
  • Publication number: 20200028751
    Abstract: An arrangement with operator servers and operator clients, wherein process image modules associated with process objects and having tags are stored in the operator servers, where the operator server functions as a local server and the other operator server functions as a remote server, the local server receives the tags stored in the remote servers, where each operator client registers with one of the operator servers to establish a client-server connection, and is also configured to display a system image with block symbols associated with the process objects, and where the local server transmits the process data of the local and the process data of the remote server to the registered operator client via the client-server connection in order to update the block symbols of the system image such that, within the scope of updating a system image, an operator is referred to the communication load between the operator servers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 15, 2019
    Publication date: January 23, 2020
    Inventors: Benjamin Lutz, Ralf Engert, Markus Hoffmann
  • Patent number: 10521550
    Abstract: In planning and engineering an automation solution which comprises an automation system and a process engineering plant, objects that represent the components of the configured automation solution are imported by means of a simulation tool to simulate the automation solution on the basis of simulation models associated with the imported objects. Attributes contained in objects which represent the hardware components of the automation system and which describe IT security events that may be generated by the components are entered into the associated simulation models for simulatively generating security events in a simulation of the automation solution, for transferring the simulatively generated security events to a Security Information Event Management (SIEM) system for evaluation, and for using the results of the evaluation generated by the SIEM system to simulate the automation solution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Oliver Drumm, Benjamin Lutz, Anna Palmin, Gerrit Wolf
  • Patent number: 10509382
    Abstract: A decentralized peripheral having process input and process output modules which, in a process control mode of operation, interact with field devices connected to these modules, and having an interface module in which a process image is stored, wherein in the process control mode of operation the process input modules write process input values for processing via an automation device connected to the decentralized peripheral into the process image, and the automation device writes process output values for processing via the process output modules into the process image such that as real a behavior as possible of this decentralized peripheral can be simulated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2019
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Benjamin Lutz, Gerrit Wolf
  • Publication number: 20190339674
    Abstract: A process control system includes an engineering system for a project configuration of hardware and software components of a process control system, an operator system having a runtime component for operator control and monitoring of a technical process, and an archive system for archiving project configuration inputs of the engineering system and for archiving operator inputs in the operator system, via which a project engineer and/or an operator may be provided with the relationships between engineering-relevant actions or events and runtime-relevant actions or events.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 6, 2019
    Publication date: November 7, 2019
    Inventors: Benjamin Lutz, Anna Palmin
  • Publication number: 20190324419
    Abstract: A method for initially allocating and/or renewing certificates for devices and/or applications in a control system for a technical installation on the basis of certificates, wherein the devices and/or applications, within a framework of the initial allocation and/or renewal of the certificates, use a certificate management protocol to post a certificate request at at least one certification authority of the technical installation, where the devices and/or applications, in addition to the certificate management protocol, implement a certification service that generates a stateless alarm message and provides this generated stateless alarm message in the control system, when a certificate request previously posted by the device and/or the application is unanswered by the certification authority after expiration of a previously determined period of time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2019
    Publication date: October 24, 2019
    Inventors: Benjamin Lutz, Anna Palmin