Abstract: An Industrial Virtual Assistant (IVA) platform with Robotic Process Automation that operates like a Digital Knowledge Companion and allows operational staff at industrial facilities to have natural language conversations with the IVA to obtain information about, and to control operations of, industrial facilities, and which automates certain processes based in part on those natural language conversations. In an embodiment, the platform uses a Robotic Process Automater (RPA) to ingest information from documentation, human inputs, and operational data from the facility, organize that information into a knowledge graph containing comprehensive facility information, and apply machine learning algorithms to the knowledge graph to provide natural language responses to human queries and to automate certain processes of the facility.

Abstract: An Industrial Virtual Assistant (IVA) platform with Robotic Process Automation that operates like a Digital Knowledge Companion and allows operational staff at industrial facilities to have natural language conversations with the IVA to obtain information about, and to control operations of, industrial facilities, and which automates certain processes based in part on those natural language conversations. In an embodiment, the platform uses a Robotic Process Automater (RPA) to ingest information from documentation, human inputs, and operational data from the facility, organize that information into a knowledge graph containing comprehensive facility information, and apply machine learning algorithms to the knowledge graph to provide natural language responses to human queries and to automate certain processes of the facility.

Abstract: A distributed Industrial Virtual Assistant (IVA) platform and method that that allows operational staff at industrial facilities to have natural language conversations with an IVA to obtain information about, and to control operations of, industrial facilities. For each facility, the IVA platform contains a facilities asset database, one or more domain-specific knowledge databases, a natural language processing engine, and machine learning algorithms for both knowledge domains and context which update the domain-specific knowledge databases based on continuing interactions with operational staff over time. The IVA platform is capable of generating user-specific and device-specific IVA instances that can be queried by voice or text independently of the platform but can connect to the platform to update the databases based on new knowledge, exceptions, and incidents.

Abstract: According to an embodiment, a sensor device is provided comprising a sensor; a transceiver; a processor configured to run an application; and a virtualization layer which comprises an application programming interface encapsulating application layer features of the sensor device and which is configured to provide to the application, via at least one service access point, a service to communicate with another sensor device by means of the transceiver, a service to control the sensor and a service to discover a sensor device network, have the sensor device leave a sensor device network and/or have the sensor device join a sensor device network.

Abstract: An apparatus for interconnecting multiple computer networks, each computer network using a different protocol suite and comprising multiple nodes, the apparatus being a node of each computer network, the apparatus comprising: a transceiver configured to receive data from any node of any one of the multiple computer networks, the received data being for transmission to a node of a different one of the multiple computer networks; and a processor configured to identify the node of the different one of the multiple computer networks based on the received data, to determine a protocol suite of the different one of the multiple computer networks using the memory, to process the received data so that the received data appears to have been transmitted according to the determined protocol suite, and to cause the transceiver to transmit the processed received data to the node of the different one of the multiple computer networks.

Abstract: An apparatus for interconnecting multiple computer networks, each computer network using a different protocol suite and comprising multiple nodes, the apparatus being a node of each computer network, the apparatus comprising: a transceiver configured to receive data from any node of any one of the multiple computer networks, the received data being for transmission to a node of a different one of the multiple computer networks; and a processor configured to identify the node of the different one of the multiple computer networks based on the received data, to determine a protocol suite of the different one of the multiple computer networks using the memory, to process the received data so that the received data appears to have been transmitted according to the determined protocol suite, and to cause the transceiver to transmit the processed received data to the node of the different one of the multiple computer networks.

Abstract: According to an embodiment, a sensor device is provided comprising a sensor; a transceiver; a processor configured to run an application; and a virtualization layer which comprises an application programming interface encapsulating application layer features of the sensor device and which is configured to provide to the application, via at least one service access point, a service to communicate with another sensor device by means of the transceiver, a service to control the sensor and a service to discover a sensor device network, have the sensor device leave a sensor device network and/or have the sensor device join a sensor device net work.