Patents by Inventor Marc ZELLER

Marc ZELLER 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: 12265363
    Abstract: Provided is a computer-implemented method for controlling an operation of a technical system automatically, including at least the steps of: acquiring information about a modified configuration of at least one sub-system included in the technical system; generating a virtual model of the technical system including the at least one sub-system with the modified configuration for an evaluation of the operation; adjusting the virtual model to provide a control instruction for the operation of the technical system, wherein the adjusted virtual model is configured to compare an evaluation value acquired from the evaluation with a target requirement in a cryptographic and to derive the control instruction based on the comparison; and controlling the operation of the technical system based on the control instruction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2025
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Christof Kaukewitsch, Marc Zeller
  • Patent number: 12238228
    Abstract: Provided is a device for ensuring safe operation of a technical system configured to generate a smart contract including a condition to be fulfilled for safe operation of a technical system, to store smart contract data of the smart contract in a distributed ledger, and to determine if the technical system fulfills the condition using the smart contract.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Koo Chee Hung, Kai Höfig, Stefan Rothbauer, Sebastian Schröck, Marian Marcel Vorderer, Marc Zeller
  • Patent number: 12216448
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method and an apparatus for determining an optimal system configuration out of a plurality of candidate system configurations j is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2025
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Zhensheng Guo, Christof Kaukewitsch, Marc Zeller
  • Patent number: 12210333
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for determining automatically a machine safety and/or a product quality of a flexible cyber-physical production system with a configuration adaptable during a production process including production steps executed by machines forming equipment of a physical factory of the cyber-physical production system to produce a product according to a product recipe, wherein the machine safety and/or product quality are calculated during runtime of the flexible cyber-physical production system by processing a meta-model of the flexible cyber-physical production system stored in a computer readable storage medium, is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2025
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Kai Höfig, Chee-Hung Koo, Stefan Rothbauer, Marian Marcel Vorderer, Marc Zeller
  • Patent number: 12184748
    Abstract: A method for transmitting data from a first sub-system to a second sub-system includes the steps of providing a dataset by the first sub-system, the dataset having a data structure identifier and a data value; sending the dataset to the second sub-system; receiving the dataset by the second sub-system; checking whether complete assignment information regarding the data structure assigned to the data structure identifier is present in the second sub-system; recovering any missing assignment information from a communication broker in the event that the second sub-system does not contain complete assignment information; and determining the data structure on the basis of the data structure identifier and the assignment information. A corresponding system, a corresponding first sub-system, a corresponding second sub-system and a communication broker are also proposed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Kai Höfig, Chee-Hung Koo, Stefan Rothbauer, Sebastian Schröck, Marian Marcel Vorderer, Marc Zeller
  • Patent number: 12073316
    Abstract: Provided is a method for determining at least one indication of at least one change, having the steps of receiving at least one input data record having the at least one change and associated data, and determining the at least one indication of the at least one change by applying a learning-based approach to the at least one received input data record. The invention is also directed to a determination unit and a computer program product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2024
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Francesco Montrone, Jan Wieghardt, Marc Zeller, Bernhard Kempter
  • Patent number: 12066817
    Abstract: Provided is an application of the described (or similar) decision-theoretic approaches to ensure the quality, output and timeliness of manufactured products for flexible and adaptable production systems, by determining and integrating suitable quality assurance measures which are integrated into the production process in an optimal manner. Thereby, a pareto-optimal sequence of production steps and quality assurance mechanisms are determined that provides an optimal trade-off between target product quality, production time and production costs. Since the approach is performed in an automated way, it can even be performed for flexible production scenarios down to a production of lot size I.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2024
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Kai Höfig, Andreas Joanni, Marc Zeller
  • Publication number: 20240249197
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for updating a model parameter for a model, wherein the model parameter to be updated includes a model parameter value and a confidence score; including: a. providing the model parameter to be updated, a first input data set with data accumulated since a first or previous update, a second input data set with data accumulated and used for the first or previous update; b. determining a statistical significance of the first input data set and/or the second input data set; c. determining an updated model parameter using an estimation approach based on the model parameter to be updated and the first input data set; d. determining an updated model parameter using an estimation approach based on the model parameter to be updated; e. providing the determined updated model parameter as output. Further, a computing unit and a computer program product are provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2022
    Publication date: July 25, 2024
    Inventors: Stefan Rothbauer, Zhensheng Guo, Marc Zeller
  • Publication number: 20240118686
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for resolving closed loops in automatic fault tree analysis of a multi-component system includes: a. modeling the multi-component system using a fault tree; b. back-tracing failure propagation paths from an output element of the fault tree; c. checking if the respective failure propagation path contains a closed loop by identifying a downstream element of the respective failure propagation path having a dependency of its output value on an output value of an upstream element; d. setting the input value corresponding to a loop interconnection of each such downstream element to Boolean TRUE; e. identifying any Boolean AND-gate having no Boolean TRUE as output value; cutting off any Boolean TRUE input to any identified Boolean AND-gate between the respective downstream element and the respective upstream element; and f. setting the input value of each respective downstream element corresponding to the loop interconnection to Boolean FALSE.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Publication date: April 11, 2024
    Inventors: Marc Zeller, Francesco Montrone, Jonathan Menu, Amr Hany Saleh
  • Patent number: 11900034
    Abstract: Various embodiments include modeling a component fault tree for a circuit with an input-side and an output-side component. These include using a fault tree corresponding to a hazard for each respective component, obtaining information about the components of the circuit and a connection between components, and connecting the respective fault trees based on the circuit description. Each fault tree includes an input fault mode or a basic event and an output fault mode. The output fault mode and the input fault mode are each assigned to a component terminal. An output fault mode of the input-side component tree is connected to an input fault mode of the output-side component tree if: there is a connection between the assigned terminal of the input-side component and the output-side component and the output fault mode of the input-side component correlates to an input fault mode of the output-side component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Marc Zeller, Jean-Pascal Schwinn, Thomas Waschulzik
  • Patent number: 11899556
    Abstract: Provided is a computer-implemented method for generating a Component Fault and Deficiency Tree of a multi-component system the method including: a. modeling the multi-component system using a Component Fault and Deficiency Tree, b. the Component Fault and Deficiency Tree includes a plurality of component fault and deficiency tree elements associated with the respective components; c. each component fault and deficiency tree element includes at least one inport and at least one outport; d. each component fault and deficiency tree element includes at least two events as internal fault tree logic; e. at least one gate, f. each component fault and deficiency tree element includes at least one mitigation logic; g. at least one Boolean AND-Gate, configured to connect the internal fault tree logic and the at least one mitigation logic; and h. providing the generated Component Fault and Deficiency Tree of the multi-component system as output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Marc Zeller, Lennart Kilian
  • Patent number: 11853048
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method and device for resolving closed loops in automatic fault tree analysis of a multi-component system is provided. Also provided is a method for resolving closed loops in automatic fault tree analysis of a multi-component system, the closed loops corresponding, for example, to closed-loop control circuitry of a multi-component device. The closed loops are first identified in a top-down approach within failure propagation paths. Next, the loops are resolved by setting each loop interconnection to Boolean TRUE, adjusting the fault tree in a specific way and finally setting each loop interconnection to Boolean FALSE. Embodiments of the invention are relevant for analyzing safety-critical systems. However, the present concepts are not limited to these applications and may be applied to general use cases where fault tree analysis is applicable. The proposed solution advantageously provides a method that features linear complexity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Francesco Montrone, Kai Höfig, Marc Zeller
  • Patent number: 11755401
    Abstract: A method for providing an analytical artifact used for development and/or analysis of an investigated technical system of interest comprised of components having associated machine readable functional descriptions including port definitions and component failure modes processed to generate automatically the analytical artifact in response to at least one applied system evaluation criterion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Ulrich Hipp, Christof Kaukewitsch, Marc Zeller
  • Publication number: 20230076990
    Abstract: A method for transmitting data from a first sub-system to a second sub-system includes the steps of: providing a dataset by the first sub-system, the dataset having a data structure identifier and a data value; sending the dataset to the second sub-system; receiving the dataset by the second sub-system; checking whether complete assignment information regarding the data structure assigned to the data structure identifier is present in the second sub-system; recovering any missing assignment information from a communication broker in the event that the second sub-system does not contain complete assignment information; and determining the data structure on the basis of the data structure identifier and the assignment information. A corresponding system, a corresponding first sub-system, a corresponding second sub-system and a communication broker are also proposed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2021
    Publication date: March 9, 2023
    Inventors: Kai Höfig, Chee-Hung Koo, Stefan Rothbauer, Sebastian Schröck, Marian Marcel Vorderer, Marc Zeller
  • Patent number: 11567823
    Abstract: Provided is a method and system for identifying and evaluating common cause failures of system components, wherein at least one analytical artifact and machine readable system related to at least one of spatial, topological data and machine readable system related lifecycle data are processed to analyze automatically a susceptibility of system components to common cause failure based on common cause failure influencing factors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Inventors: Reiner Heilmann, Christof Kaukewitsch, Marc Zeller
  • Publication number: 20220413479
    Abstract: One or more ring closures of a fault tree are provided. For each one of the one or more ring closures: at least one respective edge the respective ring closure is replaced in the fault tree by a respective variable to obtain a placeholder fault tree and a normalized representation of the placeholder fault tree is determined.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2020
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Kai Höfig, Francesco Montrone, Stefan Rothbauer, Marc Zeller
  • Patent number: 11507483
    Abstract: Provided is a method for analyzing and designing a physical system architecture of a safety-critical system, wherein a physical system analysis model representing the physical system architecture of the safety-critical system is modified incrementally until calculated failure rates of failure modes of the physical system analysis model are less or equal to failure rates of corresponding failure modes of a functional system analysis model representing a functional system architecture of the safety-critical system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Inventors: Christof Kaukewitsch, Jean-Pascal Schwinn, Marc Zeller, Sebastian Klabes
  • Publication number: 20220358612
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method is provided for safety analysis of a technical system including a human object. The method includes: determining a system model of the technical system including the human object; determining for at least one use case of the technical system in accordance with a human interaction of the human object with the technical system; and simulating the technical system in accordance with the system model and the at least one use case. The simulating of the technical system includes tracking of safety hazard events in relation to the human interaction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2020
    Publication date: November 10, 2022
    Inventors: Reiner Heilmann, Christof Kaukewitsch, Marc Zeller
  • Publication number: 20220292009
    Abstract: Provided is a computer-implemented method for generating a Component Fault and Deficiency Tree of a multi-component system the method including: a. modeling the multi-component system using a Component Fault and Deficiency Tree, b. the Component Fault and Deficiency Tree includes a plurality of component fault and deficiency tree elements associated with the respective components; c. each component fault and deficiency tree element includes at least one inport and at least one outport; d. each component fault and deficiency tree element includes at least two events as internal fault tree logic; e. at least one gate, f. each component fault and deficiency tree element includes at least one mitigation logic; g. at least one Boolean AND-Gate, configured to connect the internal fault tree logic and the at least one mitigation logic; and h. providing the generated Component Fault and Deficiency Tree of the multi-component system as output.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2022
    Publication date: September 15, 2022
    Inventors: Marc Zeller, Lennart Kilian
  • Publication number: 20220271956
    Abstract: Provided is a device for ensuring safe operation of a technical system configured to generate a smart contract including a condition to be fulfilled for safe operation of a technical system, to store smart contract data of the smart contract in a distributed ledger, and to determine if the technical system fulfills the condition using the smart contract.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2020
    Publication date: August 25, 2022
    Applicant: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Koo Chee Hung, Kai Höfig, Stefan Rothbauer, Sebastian Schröck, Marian Marcel Vorderer, Marc Zeller