US20150009013A1

US20150009013A1 - Mobile systems and methods for capturing and managing information pertaining to assets and inventory

Info

Publication number: US20150009013A1
Application number: US14/223,372
Authority: US
Inventors: Robert Cartwright; Kathryn Cartwright; Craig Kelly; Daniel Joyce; Todd Greenwood-Greer
Original assignee: Edifice Technologies Inc
Current assignee: Edifice Technologies Inc
Priority date: 2013-07-03
Filing date: 2014-03-24
Publication date: 2015-01-08
Also published as: US9824327B2; US20150012566A1

Abstract

The present disclosure describes mobile systems and methods for capturing, auditing, and transferring inventory information in contexts such as large data centers. In some cases, a mobile device is configured to manage inventory information in a data center. The mobile device may include a number of pre-configured workflows for capturing inventory information, receiving new inventory, auditing existing inventory, and/or transferring inventory from one place to another.

Description

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/842,883, filed Jul. 3, 2013.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the management of assets and inventories and, in particular, to mobile systems and methods for capturing, auditing, and transferring inventory information in contexts such as large data centers.

BACKGROUND

Organizations and businesses of all sizes and missions, buy a diverse array of assets. By way of example, large companies with data centers may contain computer related assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. A critical requirement for the wellbeing of the business is to maintain an accurate account of the inventory on hand, its disposition and location. In addition many organizations must comply with industry or government standards with respect to the maintenance of such assets which adds significantly to the “need to know” factors surrounding them but not limited to HIPPA, SOX or PCI compliance. Furthermore, external auditors undertake “spot audits” to test the validity of the inventories on hand to ensure the integrity and value of assets claimed by an organization or business. Yet the physical management and audit of these inventories, particularly in large corporate data centers, today is one of the fundamental challenges that has plagued organizations with data centers throughout history. To this point, capturing asset data has been an almost entirely manual process that consumes valuable people time and is fraught with potential errors. Going asset by asset, capturing at best barcode data, hostnames, model types, serial numbers and locations alone is a massive undertaking. Then trying to feed that information back into systems and databases supporting the datacenter is equally challenging. Often there are multiple systems involved that are used by different stakeholder with different information needs.
While recognized as a critical activity, datacenter managers and operators, in many instances with limited resources and human capital and knowing the chances of error are high, choose by necessity to avoid such tasks unless forced by circumstance to do so. The challenge is exacerbated by organizations being at breaking point in terms of budgetary, technology, physical space constraints and a shortage of staff. Due to a lack of transparency, accuracy and visibility, every asset has the potential of being used inefficiently, lost all together or even stolen. Today many organizations cannot find assets, tell you the value of them, their use or be able to account for changes in their status. When audits are attempted, countless hours are spent by employees trying to achieve them through basic applications, spreadsheets and in many cases, manual pen and paper processes. While technology has revolutionized almost every area of business life, technology has not advanced paradoxically to efficiently address and provide control over these inventory management challenges.
There are numerous point based methods and technologies that seek to address parts of the problem described, but there has not until now, been a total solution that addresses the automation of asset inventory management and audits thereof, that dramatically reduces the cost, time and resources required to undertake such tasks. The use of clipboards, pen and paper and spreadsheets is still typical of the tools used along with the manual scanning of barcodes asset by asset. And even when information is captured, there are no standard methods or mechanisms that can be used to integrate the data with other important systems and so doing is extremely difficult.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred and alternative examples of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile device according to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example mobile device configured to detect, locate, position, or track assets according to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 depicts an RFID Scanner/Reader used in one embodiment in association with a mobile device for capturing asset data from RFID tags associated with assets.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system for capturing and managing data center assets inventory information according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an inventory tagging workflow used for the initial enablement of RFID tags and the capture of primary asset information according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an inventory and location audit workflow process, provided by one embodiment and used to verify that an expected RFID tag and its associated asset exist within a given location.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a spot or snapshot inventory audit workflow process, provided by one embodiment and used to verify that specifically identified and selected assets and their associated RFID tags exist within a given location.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an asset receive workflow process, provided by one embodiment and used when a new asset is installed in a data center.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating a transfer asset workflow, provided by one embodiment and used when an asset is transferred from one asset enclosure in a data center to a different enclosure.

FIGS. 10-39 depict user interface screens provided by example embodiments.

FIG. 40 illustrates example ontologies supported by various embodiments.

FIG. 41 illustrates an ontology according to an embodiment of the invention as it specifically relates to the data center context.

FIG. 42 illustrates example semantic relationships according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, certain specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the invention. However, one skilled in the art will understand that the invention may be practiced without these details or with various combinations of these details. In other instances, well-known systems and methods associated with, but not necessarily limited to, asset management and methods for operating the same may not be shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring descriptions of the embodiments of the invention.
An embodiment of the invention is deployed on a mobile device such as a tablet computer and used in conjunction with, but is not limited to a wireless, Bluetooth and internet based services, or a browser. Other mobile devices may be employed, including smart phones, laptop computers, wearable computers, or the like. There are pluralities of components for the inventory management and audit of assets, integrating all the critical information pertaining to the asset and delivering this information in the needed form to operators of the system and data store(s) where the information ultimately resides. Inventory managers and auditors have the ability to spatially navigate assets locations, for example in a building, carrying the tablet computer together with the associated wireless scanner/reader, capturing RFID tag, asset location, attributes and disposition data. These components may include but are not limited to any particular tablet computer, mobile device applications, asset information repositories and API's; local or remote information synchronization and maintenance of information pertaining to assets and their interdependencies.
FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile device according to one embodiment. The illustrated mobile device is a tablet computer. Tablet computers can vary in design and capabilities depending on the manufacturer, but they have similar intrinsic uses and characteristics.
A conventional tablet computer, referred to herein as a mobile device 100, typically includes numerous buttons and switches from a usability standpoint including 103 a button for rotating the screen, 107 the power switch, 108 Programmable launch button and 112 a jog dial switch for cursor movement.
Coupled to device 100 are typical computer capabilities. Examples include I/O devices include including 102 internal wireless antennas, 105 VGA/USB/R345/RJ11 and 106 PC card/compact flash slots for attaching external devices. Furthermore device 100 also provides audio capabilities including 111 and 109 stereo speakers and 110 stereo/mono head set jack, or the like. The device 100 will at times be referred to in the singular herein, but this is not intended to limit the application of the invention to a single computer because, in typical embodiments, there will be more than one computer or other device involved
One or more display devices 101 may be configured as a touch or multi-touch screen display using resistive, capacitive, surface-acoustic wave (SAW) capacitive, infrared, strain gauge, optical imaging, dispersive signal technology, acoustic pulse recognition, frustrated total internal reflection or magneto-strictive technology, as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.
Some mobile devices provide an optional pen with barrel device 113 for point, click and write operator functions.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example mobile device configured to detect, locate, position, or track assets according to one embodiment. Shown here is a conventional tablet computer, referred to herein as a mobile device 200, includes a processing unit 202, a system memory 206, and a system bus that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit. The device 200 will at times be referred to in the singular herein, but this is not intended to limit the application of the invention to a single computer because, in typical embodiments, there will be more than one computer or other device involved. The processing unit 202 may be any logic processing unit, such as one or more central processing units (“CPUs”), digital signal processors (“DSPs”), application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), etc. Unless described otherwise, the construction and operation of the various blocks shown in FIG. 2 are of conventional design. As a result, such blocks need not be described in further detail herein, as they will be understood by those skilled in the relevant art.
Mobile device 200 comprises computer bus 240 that couples at least one or more processors 202, one or more interface controllers 204, memory 206 having software 208, storage device 210, power source 212, and/or one or more displays controller 220. One or more processors 202 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (“DSP”), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, single core processor, a multi-core processor, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (“ASICs”), Field Programmable Gate Array (“FPGAs”) circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (“IC”), or the like.
One or more display devices 222 may be configured as a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), light emitting diode (“LED”) display, field emission display (“FED”), organic light emitting diode (“OLED”) display, flexible OLED display, or the like. In the case of a flexible display device, the one or more electronic display devices 222 may be configured and assembled using organic light emitting diodes (“OLED”), liquid crystal displays using flexible substrate technology, flexible transistors, field emission displays (“FED”) using flexible substrate technology, or the like. One or more display devices 222 may be configured as a touch or multitouch screen display using resistive, capacitive, surface-acoustic wave (“SAW”) capacitive, infrared, strain gauge, optical imaging, dispersive signal technology, acoustic pulse recognition, frustrated total internal reflection or magneto-strictive technology, as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.
Coupled to computer bus 240 are one or more input/output (“I/O”) controller(s) 216, I/O devices 218, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (“GNSS”) device 214, one or more network adapters 228, and/or one or more antennas 230. Examples of I/O devices include a speaker, microphone, keyboard, keypad, touchpad, display, touchscreen, wireless gesture device, a digital camera, a digital video recorder, a vibration device, or the like.
Mobile device 200 may have one or more motion, proximity, light, optical, chemical, environmental, moisture, acoustic, heat, temperature, radio frequency identification (“RFID”), biometric, face recognition, image, photo, or voice recognition sensors 226 and touch detectors 224 for detecting any touch inputs, including multi-touch inputs, for one or more display devices 222. Sensors 226 may also be an accelerometer, an e-compass, gyroscope, a 3D gyroscope, or the like. One or more interface controllers 204 may communicate with touch detectors 224 and I/O controller 216 for determining operator inputs to mobile device 200. Coupled to one or more display devices 222 may be pressure sensors 223 for detecting presses on one or more display devices 222.
Still referring to mobile device 200, storage device 210 may be any disk based or solid state memory device for storing data. Power source 212 may be a plug-in, battery, fuel cells, solar panels for receiving and storing solar energy, or a device for receiving and storing wireless power as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,027,311 herein incorporated by reference as if fully set forth.
One or more network adapters 228 may be configured as a Frequency Division Multiple Access (“FDMA”), single carrier FDMA (“SC-FDMA”), Time Division Multiple Access (“TDMA”), Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (“OFDM”), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (“OFDMA”), Global System for Mobile (“GSM”) communications, Interim Standard 95 (“IS-95”), IS-856, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (“EDGE”), General Packet Radio Service (“GPRS”), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (“UMTS”), cdma2000, wideband CDMA (“W-CDMA”), High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (“HSDPA”), High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (“HSUPA”), High-Speed Packet Access (“HSPA”), Evolved HSPA (“HSPA+”), long term evolution (“LTE”), LTE Advanced (“LTE-A”), 802.11x, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Ultra-WideBand (“UWB”), 802.16x, 802.15, Wi-Max, mobile Wi-Max, Bluetooth, radio frequency identification, Infrared Data Association (“IrDA”), or any other wireless or wired transceiver for modulating and demodulating signals via one or more antennas 230.
Mobile device 200 may include ultrasound transducers and detectors/sensors 221 that emits or transmits one or more ultrasound signals and detects ultrasound signal reflections of emitted or transmitted ultrasound signals.
Ultrasound transducers and detectors 221 may also detect any ultrasound signals emitted or transmitted by other ultrasound transducers, such as in another mobile device. Ultrasound transducers and detectors 221 may comprise a single transducer and detector or a plurality of transducers and detectors, such as in an array. Ultrasound transducers and detectors 221 may be an add-on, attachment, accessory, or peripheral coupled to mobile device 200 using a wired or wireless communication link, such as universal serial bus (“USB”), Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi.
FIG. 3 depicts an RFID Scanner/Reader used in one embodiment in association with a mobile device for capturing asset data from RFID tags associated with assets. The described mobile device may detect RFID tags and in doing so locate, position, or track assets.
Currently existing technology allows devices to be identified by means of RFID tags. RFID technology uses electromagnetic energy (such as radio signals) a medium through which information is sent. Referring to FIG. 3, an RFID system 300 is illustrated. The RFID system 300 includes an RFID tag 308 for transmitting and/or receiving radio frequency signals and a scanner/reader 302 for transmitting and/or receiving radio frequency signals from the RFID tag 308 and transmitting radio frequency signals to the RFID tag 308. The system 300 also includes a tablet computer 301 which is coupled to the scanner/reader 302 by a Bluetooth wireless communications link 304. Through the communications link 304, the scanner/reader 302 can receive commands and data from the computer 301 and, thereafter, send data to the remote RFID tag 308. As was noted above, the scanner/reader 302 can also receive data from the remote RFID tag 308 and pass the data back to the computer 301.
RFID technology overcomes many limitations of other automatic identification approaches, such as those using bar codes and infrared technology, which use light to communicate. Since an RFID tag 308 does not require a visual scanner, or other vision system, to detect its presence, it may be hidden or invisible to the eye and may also be used in harsh or dirty environments. A scanner/reader 302 reads information transmitted by the RFID tag 308 via radio frequency wireless connectivity 310 even if the tag 308 is completely hidden from view.
An RFID tag 308 typically includes a receiver and some type of transmitter, an antenna, and memory. There are two categories of RFID tags—active and passive—that represent two different types of RF communication. Tags without batteries are known as passive tags because they derive their power from the RF energy transmitted from a reader. Passive RFID tags tend to be smaller and exhibit short range transmission characteristics (under six feet), whereas battery-powered, active tags, tend to be larger and exhibit long range transmission characteristics (up to and over one hundred feet).
Active tags send data back to the reader with radio signals generated from a battery within the tag. Passive tags, on the other hand, use modulated backscatter (“MBS”) to transmit reflected energy, dictated by the data stream from the tag, back to the reader. Passive tags using MBS are better suited for gate or lane applications where it is undesirable to wake up (see) any tags beyond a certain distance and where there are few obstructions in the energy path.
With the aid of RFID technology, assets which are brought within range of a scanner/reader, may be detected. Furthermore, assets movements, decommissions, changes in location, such as those in data centers, can be identified and their progress tracked using this technology.
However, there is currently no method or system which provides a mechanism by which automated inventory management and inventory audits of multiplicities of assets can be achieved rapidly and accurately. In addition, to accomplish this purpose and to be of value, such a system would not only have to identify the asset, but be able to determine its location, disposition, attributes, function, ownership and associated costs and thereafter, be available to appropriate stakeholder for whom this information is mission critical. Additionally, the RFID system 300, would best be strategically capable of undertaking rapid subsequent inventory audits.
Therefore, what is needed is a system for automating the asset inventory management and the audit process that replaces the current highly labor intensive, costly alternative, that due to the complexity of the process and manual human intervention, is fraught with error. In addition, the system for automating the asset inventory management and audit process needs the capability to provide captured asset information to a centralized database in a form that is valuable and consumable by key stakeholder(s).
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system for capturing and managing data center assets inventory information according to one embodiment. The illustrated system is configured for capturing and managing asset data on the mobile device. The system is accessed through a powerful touch screen graphical user interface (“GUI”) dashboard.
The system includes a mobile device, tablet computer 409, that includes a tool set of components that automates the download of existing asset data (if any is available) from a central database, data capture by reading and interrogation of asset based RFID tags, and information pertaining to that asset, the verification and validation of captured asset data and bi-directional data transfer and integration with a central database.
The illustrated system includes a central database 405 that resides on a remote server 406 and may contain asset information including but not limited to detailed asset attribute data 401, manufacturer and model data 402, financial and contractual data 403 and location data 404.
The system provides bi-directional wireless data management, transfer, synchronization used initially to download any existing, in-house asset data via wireless communications 406 through a wireless network 407 to the tablet computer 409 and normalized based on asset serial number or hostname.
Specific information concerning asset detailed data 401 and asset manufacturers' data 402, if available, are downloaded to the tablet computer to make required asset information available to the operator. These two downloads reduce the amount of information needing to be manually entered and allows the operator to immediately verify and validate existing customer data with that physically present.
The tablet computer 409 is configured to provide its operator a comprehensive tool set for carrying out inventory audits and management functions through an intuitive pre-built touch screen graphical user interface 414.
The table computer 409 further includes a Bluetooth device management and synchronization component 410, which provides integration and connectivity 415 with Bluetooth scanners/readers 416. The Bluetooth management and synchronization component operates in real-time, providing the operator to visually see the status and strength of the connection as well as the ability to turn the connection on and off.
The table computer 409 further includes a tool set for automated data capture of RFID and asset information component 411. The operator uses the Bluetooth scanner/reader 416 connected in real-time with the tablet computer based system, capturing data including RFID tag data 422, asset location 418, rack number, and position within the rack 419, make, model, physical size 420. The system also provides for the operation of wireless barcode scanner/readers 417 using Bluetooth connectivity in real-time with the tablet computer based system.
The system enables the capture, association and integration of barcode data 421 with all other captured data. All captured data is managed in a relational database resident on the mobile tablet computer.
The tablet computer 409 also includes a pre-built workflows component that guides the operator through numerous inventory management and audit processes 412. The tablet computer 409 further includes a relational database 411 that, collates, organizes and manages all asset and RFID tag information from any/all sources and assembles it into a unified intelligent infrastructure on the tablet computer. The tablet computer 409 also includes a wireless data synchronization component 413 that provides the system on a tablet computer bi-directional real-time integration with a central database 405 across a wireless network 407.
An integration component 423, resident on the tablet computer 409 and used subsequently to upload all captured asset data from the tablet computer that has been accurately verified/updated previously downloaded in-house asset data from the central database, if any was made available. This upload is sent to a staging database 424 for exception handling and further validation prior to committing asset data to a central database 405.
FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an inventory tagging workflow used for the initial enablement of RFID tags and the capture of primary asset information according to one embodiment. The tagging workflow is used in a new data center setting where assets are being tagged for the first time. FIGS. 12-20 depict user interface screens displayed by the mobile device in conjunction with this workflow.
In this “first pass” scenario, and within a room within the location, the operator moves from asset enclosure to asset enclosure or from rack to rack using the RFID and scanner/reader to capture asset enclosure or rack data and asset serial numbers and their unique RFID tag information and matches where available previously downloaded information pertaining to that rack enclosure, rack and asset.
Before tagging commences, 501 the operator downloads to the laptop computer hosting the application any material information (if any) about assets in the location to be tagged. In that assets are usually mounted in racks or asset enclosures, these are also tagged to associate the asset with a rack or asset enclosure. Operator scans the rack tag 502 and enters, changes or confirms rack attributes 504. This information is automatically stored in the application.
Then each asset within the rack or asset enclosure is scanned and inventoried starting with the lower asset and proceeding up the rack to subsequent assets 505. All asset attributes are captured 506 by the application together with the scanned RFID tag associated with the asset.
Certain asset types can exist within a larger asset, chassis or compartment. The system allows for the capture of such “child” assets and their association with the parent their parent if applicable 507, 508 and 509. The process of inventorying assets continues 510 until all assets in a rack have been audited.
Once a rack has been completely inventoried, the system displays a visual list of the rack containing all the assets associated in their correct location/position within the rack for review by the operator 503. Any errors or resubmissions can be made by operator by making comparison between the system view of the information captured and the actual physical view of rack and assets.
On completing a rack and its associated assets, the operator moves on to the next rack needing to be inventoried and the workflow continues from the beginning. Where asset information is absent or incorrect, operator can make corrections on the screen. Once the data center audit has been completed, errors and discrepancies that need further attention are identified. To factually address errors and omissions, the rack and asset data captured in the system is uploaded to a staging database where these exceptions are handled.
FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an inventory and location audit workflow process, provided by one embodiment and used to verify that an expected RFID tag and its associated asset exist within a given location. The illustrated audit workflow is used for subsequent inventory audits, after the initial tagging workflow process has been executed. FIGS. 24-29 depict user interface screens displayed by the mobile device in conjunction with this workflow.
In preparation for an inventory audit, all the data about assets, racks, model and tag information for a room within a particular location is downloaded from the central database to the tablet computer 601.
Going rack by rack and row by row the operator uses the system, connected in real-time to the Bluetooth RFID scanner/reader, in continuous mode, identifying assets, verifying that they are present and in their correct locations 602. The system draws a comparison between what was expected versus that found in terms of assets RFID tags attributes and their disposition 603.
Exceptions can occur such as an asset is missing, an asset has been relocated, a new asset has been found and has not been tagged. If an unexpected asset tag is identified the operator is notified by the system allowing the operator to capture the data concerning the asset, its attributes, disposition and location using the system 604, 605.
When an asset is deemed missing 606 the system triggers and alert for the operator 607, 608 who can then confirm and flags such instances visually 609. The system provides exact asset details and location to simplify this process. Should the asset be subsequently found present in its correct location, the system provides for updating the record from missing to found 610. The asset tag is re-scanned to ensure it is working correctly and if not then the tag is replaced.
In the circumstance where an asset is indeed missing 612, the system flags this instance for later exception handling and updates the rack and asset register accordingly. Using the system, the operator continues the missing assets process until all have been confirmed found or missing 611.
Once the inventory audit of a room within a location has been complete the system updates all the asset and rack records with the latest audit information and time stamps them as “when last seen” 607. The results of the inventory audit are then uploaded by the tablet into a staging database providing details by rack or asset enclosure and asset 613 from which pre-built status and exception reports are run 614 for further review and/or escalation by the operator. The last seen date is automatically associated with each asset.
Using the system, more than 1500 assets can be audited in ten minutes. The system provides accuracy and transparency to both the inventory audit process and the disposition and location of critical assets and do so in a fraction of the time and resources traditionally used to undertake this exercise.
FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a spot or snapshot inventory audit workflow process, provided by one embodiment and used to verify that specifically identified and selected assets and their associated RFID tags exist within a given location. This audit workflow is used to compare data downloaded from the centralized database with that which is found at a specific location. FIGS. 24-29 depict user interface screens displayed by the mobile device in conjunction with this workflow.
In preparation for a spot audit, all the data about assets, racks, vendor and tag information for a particular location is downloaded from the central database to the system on the tablet computer 701. Capturing local information is done by the operator using the system, connected in real-time to the Bluetooth RFID scanner/reader, in continuous mode, scanning the assets within the rack or enclosure 702.
Once complete the scanner is switched off and the system builds a list of the assets actually found as compared to those expected to be found as currently stored in the central database 703. As described further below, the workflow accounts for all possible exception scenarios from this point based on whether assets are correctly found, assets are missing or extra assets have been found 704.
When an asset is missing the system requires the operator to visually verify whether the asset is there (found) or is not found in the rack 705. The system displays the required data for the operator to make such a determination including the assets RFID Tag data, the asset's hostname, manufacturer model, the rack name of the enclosure in which the asset is being audited and the position of assets within the rack. If found, the tag is checked to see if it's operating correctly and the asset list is updated to confirm the assets presence 706. Should the asset not be found the system updates the asset status to missing and reported as such to the central database 707.
When an extra asset is found 704, the system requires the operator to visually verify that the asset is present or not in the rack 708. The system displays the required data for the operator to make such a determination including the assets RFID Tag data, the asset's hostname, manufacturer model, the rack name of the enclosure in which the asset is being audited and the position of assets within the rack.
Once this part of workflow process 702 to 710 has been complete and all assets have been accounted for based in their RFID Tags 711, the system displays for the operator the summation of the assets inventoried, updates their status as verified and the exact time and date when they were last seen 712.
The operator is then requested by the system to check for the existence of extra assets in the rack or enclosure which may not have an RFID tag associated with them and therefore have not been captured within the workflow to this point 713. If untagged assets are verified as present, the operator updates the system identifying the rack or enclosure contains untagged assets 714. Once stage 713 and 714 have been completed, the system determines if additional racks or enclosures require spot audits 715. If yes, the system reloads and the operator continues the workflow process on the next rack commencing at stage 702 and continues.
Once all racks and enclosures required under the spot audit have been complete, the system produces a report of tasks needing to be undertaken within other workflow process of the system 716. The report addresses the exceptions found in the current workflow where assets were found missing and extra assets were found and highlights the rack or enclosure where these exceptions occurred.
The system uploads the results of the spot audit to a staging database for all correctly verified and validated asset data including, date and time of tag last seen, asset state data, asset rack location and any assets that were found in a rack or enclosure but where their position 717. The staging database is used for final review before the results from the spot audit are loaded back into the central database.
FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an asset receive workflow process, provided by one embodiment and used when a new asset is installed in a data center. FIGS. 30-34 depict user interface screens displayed by the mobile device in conjunction with this workflow.
Information pertaining to assets, locations, rooms, enclosures and manufacturers (vendors) is initially downloaded to the tablet computer to start the asset receive process and to automate aspects of data entry and capture 801. Now on the tablet computer, a database lookup of rack data where the asset is to be house is made and the correct rack is selected 802.
If an RFID tag is not already attached to the asset by the manufacturer, one is now attached to the asset by the operator. Data pertaining to the asset is then entered into the system. If the manufacturer, make and model of the asset is previously known to the system, this information is auto-populated into the data entry screen 803.
Using the wirelessly connected Bluetooth barcode scanner, the operator scans the asset barcode for serial number information. Using the wirelessly connected RFID scanner, the assets RFID tag information is captured in the system 804. The tag information is associated with asset data including the physical attributes of the asset, serial number, hostname, make and manufacturer, enclosure (rack) and rack position. The system also provides for those asset types that have parent to child relationships, namely when an asset (the child) becomes a component part of a larger asset (the parent). If the asset model or manufacturer is new to the system 805, a screen is provided on the tablet computer to enter new manufacturer and model information 806.
Once all the asset data, its attributes and physical location is captured the receive workflow offers the opportunity to receive further assets into the system 807 and if more assets need to be received the workflow process restarts at 802. Once all assets have been received, the system provides a summary review of all assets that have been entered during the current workflow instance 808. This allows the operator to verify and confirm the data captured during this receive workflow instance.
The systems then allows the operator to wirelessly upload all the asset data captured during the receive workflow instance directly to the central database. The data transfer and integration into the central database is a fully automated process.
FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating a transfer asset workflow, provided by one embodiment and used when an asset is transferred from one asset enclosure in a data center to a different enclosure. The illustrated workflow is used to transfer assets, whether within or not the same room, data center or location according to an embodiment of the invention. FIGS. 35-39 depict user interface screens displayed by the mobile device in conjunction with this workflow.
Information pertaining to assets, locations, rooms, enclosures and manufacturers (vendors) is initially downloaded to the tablet computer to start the asset transfer process and to automate aspects of data entry and capture 901. Now on the tablet computer, a database lookup of rack data where the asset is currently located is made 902.
The system provides the operator optional ways to identify the asset needing to be transferred. These include but are not limited to the use of a wirelessly connected Bluetooth barcode scanner, that identifies the asset by serial number or using the wirelessly connected RFID scanner that identifies the assets by RFID tag number 903.
Using any of the methods described the system auto-populates and displays information about the asset to be transferred for verification and validation purposes. These attributes include the asset's hostname, current enclosure (rack) location and position within the rack, serial number, RFID tag identification, the date of first install, the asset manufacturer (vendor) and whether the asset has a parent to child association.
At this point the asset is physically removed from its current location 904. The transfer workflow next requires the operator to move to the new enclosure (rack) where the asset will now be located. This may be in a different position within the same rack, a different rack within the same room, a different room within the datacenter or another data center completely.
The RFID tag associated with the new enclosure or rack is scanned using the wireless Bluetooth RFID scanner attached to the tablet computer. From that data captured, the system looks up the rack details and displays them for verification and validation by the operator. The operator enters the position in the new rack when the asset is to be located 905. The system then automatically updates the date the asset was last seen to the current date and time, that the new asset state is verified, and summarizes the new attributes of the asset inventoried 906.
Once all the asset data, its attributes and physical location is captured the transfer workflow offers the opportunity to transfer further assets 907 and if more assets need to be transferred the workflow process restarts at 902. The systems then allows the operator to wirelessly upload all the asset data captured during the transfer workflow instance directly to the central database. Data uploaded includes asset and RFID tag data, tag (asset) last seen, asset state data and rack data of where the asset was moved from and to 908. The data transfer and integration into the central database is a fully automated process as is the updating of asset attributes and disposition;
Stakeholders from across an organization including asset owners, facility managers, administrators and finance can then access the critical information captured, verified and validated by the system that they need from the central database eliminating the cost and expense of having multiple sources and the errors that inevitably result.
A comprehensive asset and event management Application Program Interface (API) preferably includes a set of API's to support integration of information from disparate sources pertaining to and containing any relevant to assets. These API's provide data that the system aggregates and consumes as needed within the inventory management process.
The present invention has the ability to analyze and make decisions based on the integration of facts concerning every aspect of an asset and use of tools provided to support and validate such decisions.
An embodiment of the system provides capabilities for assessing and planning these types of scenarios and provides the mechanisms to properly account for them.
The system further provides alert capability that lets operators know when certain important or exceptional events take place.
Ontology and Semantic Relationships
FIG. 40 illustrates example ontologies supported by various embodiments. Depending on the particular industry or context, the system is capable of defining arbitrarily nestable and classifiable entities, which represent purely semantic relationships. By modeling different contexts in this manner, the described techniques can represent information in an industry-specific manner. There are three primary entity types:
1. Groups: Logical groupings of other groups/enclosures i.e. Division, Company, etc such as “Organization” e.g. a company, a farm, a freight liner or a casino
2. Enclosures: A Group with ‘extent’, and other attributes. A system capable of defining arbitrarily nestable and classifiable Enclosures, which include both a semantic label, and an extent, a position, and a physical orientation in space relative to its parent or some global coordinate system. Represent organizational units that have a physical presence of some kind. These can be classified arbitrarily, “Server Room”, “Datacenter”, “Container”. They can be associated with users, projects or contracts. They can have other Enclosures or Assets as children. By way of example Enclosures:

- Can be used to model a Datacenter, with an Enclosure root node labeled as “Building”, and given a extent modeling the building volume, and its position in latitude and longitude. This has sub-enclosures such as “Floor” and “Room”, each with its own size, and position relative to the parent using the Perimeter Mapping Module.
- Can be used to model any enclosures within any organization. In the case of a farm, enclosure examples include Field with sub-enclosure Barn with sub-enclosure Stall using the Perimeter Mapping Module.
- Can then be associated with any applicable Group that own(s) them.

3. Assets: Physical items with physical presence, physical traits and measurable attributes (Weight, Temperature, Size, Age, Value) and can be classified arbitrarily, such as “Computer Server”, “Horse”, “Painting”. All Assets can contain sub-asset classes.
FIG. 41 illustrates an ontology according to an embodiment of the invention as it specifically relates to the data center context. In this embodiment, the system is capable of defining arbitrarily nestable and classifiable entities such as locations, buildings, floors and machine rooms.
Furthermore, for each area of applicability, Application Specific Entities can be added with their own attributes, which are then associated with an enclosure that contains them. For example, computer equipment as Asset entities can be associated with the Enclosure modeling a datacenter room Enclosure on a particular floor Enclosure.
FIG. 42 illustrates example semantic relationships according to one embodiment. The illustrated embodiment allows other objects, groups and their separate trees/graphs to be further added to model other special purpose objects, semantic groupings and their interrelationships to existing objects to model and manage the inter-relationships between Groups.
These may be for example in a datacenter scenario: a “Contract” object that can be used to denote the support relationship between a separate Organization providing maintenance services; Groups and Assets/Enclosures encapsulating a cross-department or multi-company project; and a “Source” that is the originating organization of the asset facilitating the capture of specific information pertaining to an Asset.
All of the above-cited references, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/842,883, entitled “ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND DEVICES,” and filed Jul. 3, 2013, are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein governs and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
While example embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of any particular embodiment. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.

Claims

1. A system and method for the mobile capturing and auditing assets, their information, location and support entities according to an industry specific manner, the system comprising:

a relational database; and

a mobile device including a user interface device comprising a touch screen user input device and a display device, the mobile device further including a processor in data communication with the database and the user interface device, the processor configured to:

integrate location based information with physical asset component data and asset disposition data and rack data; and

permitting inventory management, displaying and analysis of asset information on a single user interface.

receive relationship and dependency information between asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities for an organization from the user interface device;

receive attributes with associated measurements for the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities for the organization from the user interface device, wherein the attributes with associated measurements are formatted according the specific industry of the organization; and

store the relationship and dependency information and the attributes with associated measurements into the relational database.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of data transmission devices, each of the plurality of data transmission devices configured to be associated with one of the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities for the organization, wherein the plurality of data transmission devices comprises data of the associated one of the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities; and

a plurality of data collection devices in signal communication with the processor and the plurality of data transmission devices, the plurality of data collection devices configured to retrieve the data from the plurality of data transmission devices,

wherein the data transmission devices and data collection devices comprise at least one of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, readers or scanners,

wherein the processor enters the data received from the data collection devices into the relational database,

wherein the processor is further configured to execute a plurality of data Application Program Interfaces (APIs), the executed APIs integrate data received from the data collection devices into a comprehensive summary view of the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities based on the relational database.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the mobile device communicates with the plurality of data transmission devices via either passive or active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), to capture and monitor asset information.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the mobile device is further configured to allow an operator to uniquely identify a location of an asset and physical orientation based on data received using a radio frequency identification system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device wirelessly connected to either a private or public network, to provide real-time, bi-directional transfer of asset data between the mobile device and a central asset management database.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to allow an operator to:

modify records of the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities;

display values of the attributes; and

edit the values of the attributes within the relational database.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device provides a series of pre-built, pre-configured workflows designed to optimize inventory and audit processes associated with assets and enclosures within rooms and their inter-relationships, wherein the workflows are provided by the mobile device via the user interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes an asset tagging workflow, pre-configured for a first pass tagging and inventory audit of assets and enclosures within rooms and their inter-relationships.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes an inventory location tagging workflow pre-configured for subsequent inventory audits and management of assets and enclosures within rooms and their inter-relationships.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes an inventory snapshot audit workflow pre-configured for subsequent inventory audits and management of specific assets and enclosures within rooms and their inter-relationships.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes a receive workflow pre-configured for receipt of assets into a location and the subsequent management of said assets to their ultimate rack and room location.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes a transfer workflow pre-configured for transfer of assets from one location to another and the subsequent management of said assets in their ultimate rack and room location.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes:

a tagging workflow for an initial inventory of assets;

an inventory location tagging workflow for subsequent inventory audits of the assets;

a snapshot audit workflow for subsequent inventory audits of a specific location at which a subset of the assets are present;

a receive workflow for receipt of assets into a location; and

a transfer workflow for transferring assets from one location to another.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the snapshot audit workflow is configured to:

wirelessly receive radio frequency identifiers associated with assets in a rack;

compare the received identifiers to asset information corresponding to the rack received from the relational database;

when the asset information includes identifiers that do not match the received identifiers, cause the operator of the mobile device to visually verify that assets are missing from the rack; and

when the received identifiers include identifiers are not present in the asset information, cause the operator of the mobile device to visually verify that extra assets are present in the rack.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to allow an operator to uniquely identify asset identifiers to associate, capture, monitor and timestamp, data with other data pertaining to the asset within the system.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to synchronize with the relational database information captured via Bluetooth RFID scanners for each asset, such that changes to the status or location of an asset is captured by the system and visible to an operator through the user interface.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to integrate and manage wireless Bluetooth RFID scanners/readers for synchronizing information for each asset tag, being captured by the system and visible to an operator through the user interface.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to provide pre-audit status of about at least one of the assets, rack and room and their inter-relationships.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface allows an operator to perform operations including browse, find, create, update and delete information associated with the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities, and the relationship information.