WO2008129410A2

WO2008129410A2 - Remote-control system for animal-housing units or the like

Info

Publication number: WO2008129410A2
Application number: PCT/IB2008/000993
Authority: WO
Inventors: Massimo Bianchi; Luca Boscolo
Original assignee: Tecniplast S.P.A.
Priority date: 2007-04-24
Filing date: 2008-04-23
Publication date: 2008-10-30
Also published as: WO2008129410A8; ITMI20070856A1; WO2008129410A3

Abstract

The subject of the present invention is a remote-control system for units for animal housing or the like, designed to establish a dialogue-of a bi-directional type with the controllers of said housing unit, for monitoring, managing, historicizing, controlling and modifying data from and to said controllers of the housing unit.

Description

REMOTE-CONTROL SYSTEM FOR ANIMAL-HOUSING UNITS OR THE LIKE

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a remote-control system for animal-housing units or the like. The present- invention is dedicated to the field of animal housing, research laboratories and any other facilities that envisage the arrangement of equipment dedicated to animal housing and research. Description of the known art Within the building dedicated to research or breeding or any other activities that imply the housing and care of animals that must be kept in pre-set conditions, one of the activities that absorbs most resources is gathering of environmental parameters and parameters of operation of the individual equipment, entry thereof into a computer, and their handling. This activity is prevalently manual and this fact implies long times, low reliability, high likelihood of errors and, obviously, high costs.

In the case where the parameters of operation are to be modified, it is necessary for a person responsible to enter the housing area physically and proceed to the modification of the parameter. Obviously, he must possess the necessary knowledge, as well as the necessary authorizations. This operation may prove problematical on account of the inconvenient access to the various units, as well as dangerous on account of possible risks of contamination. Summary of the invention

Consequently, the purpose of the present invention is to indicate a remote- control system for animal-housing units or the like designed to overcome all of the aforesaid drawbacks.

A subject of the present invention is a remote-control system for animal- housing units or the like, such as; ventilation units, in the case of housing of rodents; water-treatment units, in the case of housing of aquatic/amphibian animals such as frogs/fish; units designed for carrying out cage change; units designed for implementing laboratory procedures; and units designed for washing of the cages.

The subject of the present invention is hence a remote-control system for one or more animal-housing units or the like, each of said housing units comprising a controller designed to handle operation of the respective housing units, said system being characterized in that it comprises:

- physical-position markers fixed in given points of the building or buildings in which they are located;

- one or more first data-processing units, preferably installed within the corresponding units to be monitored and controlled, said first data-processing units being connected to the housing unit to be monitored directly, or else through a converter device; there being connected to said first data-processing units said physical-position markers, said first data-processing units being able to connect up to a local network either directly in wired connection or via a wireless network;

- one or more second external user/operator data-processing units designed to handle a dialogue, via the -Internet, with said one or more first data-processing units, either directly or via a processor in server configuration, with a dialogue of a bi-directional type, designed to monitor, manage, historicize, control, and modify data from and to said controllers of the housing units.

Yet a further subject of the present invention is a remote-control method for animal-housing units or the likeior said system.

A particular subject of the present invention is a remote-control system and a corresponding remote-control method for animal-housing units or the like, as described more fully in the claims, which form an integral part of the present description. Brief description of the figures

Further purposes and advantages of the present invention will emerge clearly from the ensuing detailed description of an example of embodiment thereof (and of its variants) and by the annexed drawings, which are provided purely by way of explanatory and non-limiting example and in which:

Figures 1.1 and 1.2 illustrate a schematic circuit diagram of the system forming the subject of the present invention and of one of its variants; Figure 2 illustrates a flowchart of the operations performed by the module

RUI (REMOTE UNIT INTERFACE) residing in block 4 of Figures 1.1 and 1.2;

Figure 3 illustrates a flowchart of the operations performed by the module RUM (REMOTE UNIT MONITORING) residing in block 4 of Figures 1.1 and 1.2; and

Figures 4.1 and 4.2 illustrate a flowchart of the operations performed by the module TCC residing in block 7 of Figures 1.1 and 1.2. The same reference numbers and letters-used in- the figures identify the same elements or components. Detailed description

The invention consists of a combined hardware/software system designed for remote management of animal-housing units and the like. In the following, by "animal-housing units" are understood one or more units of the following types:

- ventilated systems for containing and managing cages for laboratory animals (IVC caging systems), whether they are of a fixed type or a mobile type;

- centralized and not centralized systems designed to contain and manage baths for aquatic/amphibian animals;

- isolators for caging systems;

- cabins for cage change, cabins of laboratory procedures;

- laminar-flow machines; and

- cage-washing machines. The system enables interfacing with the above units even if they are set in different physical locations, and gather in an automatic way all the parameters of operation and setting of each of them. Furthermore, the interaction between the system and the different units is not of a unidirectional type (monitoring) but of a bi-directional type (monitoring and control). This means that, not only is it possible to monitor, manage, and historicize the data coming from the equipment, but also to control and modify them remotely.

With reference to Figures 1.1 and 1.2, from the hardware standpoint the main components of the system are described in the following.

First of all, the system interfaces with the various controllers equipment 1 of the different units (hereinafter "controllers"), designed to handle operation of the respective unit.

The system comprises various physical-position markers 2 (referred to as BOA (buoy) in the following), rigidly constrained in precise and definite locations of the building or buildings in which they are located. The BOA 2 can be a simple numeric code, or else a bar code, an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentifier), or else a storage support (USB pendrive, SD memory card, MMC memory card, etc.). One or more possible converters 3 may be present, which- are designed for conversion of data-transmission standards, for example, RS485, RS 232, or else Profibus, according to the standard of data output from the controller 1 , and which supply at output the data in the normal serial data-input standard RS232. If the data output of a controller 1 is already in the RS232 format, the corresponding converter 3 is not necessary.

Data-processing units 4 are present, for example a micro-PC, preferably installed within the corresponding unit to be monitored and controlled. These data- processing units are connected to the unit to be monitored in a direct way, or else through the corresponding converter 3. The micro-PC 4 can be of the type known by the code PC/104, equipped with RJ45 Ethernet input-output ports that can connect up to a LAN 5 either directly or via wireless access-points 6, for example via WI-FI, or with any method that enables introduction of any PC into the network, and-hence connect up to the computer network of the LAN type of the system. When the unit to be monitored is located in the place destined thereto, the operator connects the BOA 2 to the micro-PC 4, which is consequently "located" within the system.

Optionally, there can be provided a server 7 (Figure 1.1), connected to the network of the system, which directly sees to monitoring, storing, managing, controlling and sharing the data coming from the various micro-PCs. The server 7 gathers and historicizes the data of all the units, and carries out checks and verifies alarms.

The system envisages connection, via HTTP/HTTPS protocol, of external user/operator data-processing units 8 (e.g., PCs), designed to handle the dialogue with the system, in particular with the various micro-PCs 4. The external unit can for example be PCs or palmtops equipped with browser.

In the variant of Figure 1.1 , the external units 8 interact with the server via network, and through the server with the micro-PCs 4.

In the variant of Figure 1.2, the server is not present. In this case, the micro- PCs 4 interface directly with the external data-processing units 8.

From the software standpoint, there exist modules installed in the micro-PC and in the server.

The software installed in the- micro-PC interfaces directly with the controller of the unit, acquires the data, stores them inside it and makes them available in the network in web format (any browser is sufficient to gain access thereto, and it is not necessary for a specific program to be installed). In the case where a central server is present, the software sends the data to the latter, which storages the data in a data base and shares the data in the web.

The software installed in the micro-PC comprises two modules: RUI (Remote Unit Interface) and RUM (Remote Unit Monitoring).

The Module RUI is present in both of the variants of Figures 1.1. and 1.2, whilst the Module R-UMonly in the second variant.

The Module RUI stimulates and queries the controller for detecting data, parameters and alarms. The Module RUI is the same in the two variants of Figures 1.1 and 1.2.

Presented in Figure 2 is an operative flowchart of the module RUI. There is a central module (LOGIC MODULE) that performs the series of functions listed below.

It queries the controller to stimulate sending of data, and then receives data, parameters and alarms therefrom, via a logic of interpretation of the datum and collection thereof with customized conversion packets of a PLUG-IN type (DATA CONVERSION PACKET).

It reads the presence of the buoy (BOA READING).

Then the data are sent to the server or else to the Module RUM via TCP/IP (TCP/IP CONVERSION).

The Module RUI performs reading cycles via the controller at longer intervals for the data and shorter intervals for alarms, and sending of differentiated data (ALARM/DATA DIFFERENTIATED QUERY) to optimize network traffic with respect to the alarm signals that are to be sent in the network more rapidly. The data thus gathered can be sent either to the RUM or to the Module TCC described hereinafter.

The Module RUI performs a check on the presence of the network for data transmission (CHECK FOR NETWORK PRESENCE). If the network is present, it transmits the data and alarm packet.

If the network is not present, for example on account of a failure, if continues to gather the data for keeping history of these, storing them in an internal memory of its own (MEMORY BUFFERIZ.). Upon restoring of the network, it resumes sending of data in the network. If the internal memory is going to be full on account of the protraction of the network failure, it starts a procedure of progressive erasure of the data.

On the basis of this procedure, the frequency of data collection is halved, doubling the time of the collection cycle, and erasing one datum out of two. For example, the normal cycle is 2 min, but passes from 2 to 4 if the network is not present.

The language in which the Module RUI can be written is for example the one known as PYTHON.

Presented in Figure 3 is an operative flowchart of the RUM module.

The Module RUM recovers the data from the Module RUI and puts them in the network via web servers, which are available to the external data-processing units 8.

The Module RUM recovers and reads the data and the alarms from the buffer of the module RUI. With the data and alarms it creates WEB pages in HTML format; i.e., it organizes the information on WEB pages that the user can see by querying the external units 8.

Graphic-interface display plug-ins are used, which are formatted following different logics required by the system to be displayed, also for specific requirements of customization on a case by case basis.

In the first variant of Figure 1.1 , the Module RUM is replaced by the Module TCC residing in the server 7.

Presented in Figures 4.1 and 4.2 is an operative flowchart of the module TCC. In the module TCC, at input, there are still data and alarms that are managed, however, in a way different from that of the module RUM.

For the data, these are taken and stored in the internal data-base, with transmission of return receipt. There are data and parameters of operation of the units: the data express values of the variables involved, whilst the parameters are used by trre unit for self-regulation in operation.

The Module TCC makes cross checks between predefined configurations and parameters of operation, and manages the configurations.

It is possible for the user to enter his parameters and thus manage the configuration of the unit. The configuration can be retransmitted to the unit, which is thus reconfigured.

Hence the connection between the user and the controller of the unit is bidirectional.

Furthermore, the Module TCC manages the users; namely, it manages the user input data and saves them, with entry of the- corresponding authorizations of access to the system.

In addition, the Module TCC manages the buoys, i.e., it carries out aan assessment thereon, stores the various serial numbers of the buoys and creates the unique links between the physical position and the buoy and between the buoy and the configuration.

The Module TCC also manages the physical locations, in the sense of supplying the data of these, and structuring the links between them, for example in the tree-type configuration.

Consequently, it is able to manage the physical allocation of the various units within a building of any dimension and physical sharing of the spaces.

Furthermore, the Module TCC manages the alarms; namely, it acquires an alarm and reacts according to the setting of the user, returning the alarm to the users authorized to intervene to cause the alarm condition to cease, via for example SMS, e-mail, voice mail, etc. The system can execute automatic procedures of self-diagnosis, without any need for manual intervention, and take the temporary countermeasures, preventing situations of stress or, worse still, of loss of the animals, for example, in particularly critical cases, where a timely intervention is necessary, such as the systems of housing for aquatic or amphibian species.

The system is thus able to take autonomous initiatives based upon the data coming from each active component (e.g., pumps, electric fans, heaters, etc.) and/or passive component (probes, sensors, etc.) of the various units controlled, with the purpose of correcting malfunctioning and failures, or preventing ^"them.

With regular cadence the system can determine actuation of some components (fans, pumps, dispensers, solenoid valves, etc.) and verify correct reaction of these via the existing network of sensors, in order to identify the faults previously. For example, in a plant for housing aquatic animals, equipped with water-supply pumps and backup pumps with corresponding solenoid valves, the system "recognizes" malfunctioning or failures of one of the pumps via the existing network of pressure sensors and, consequently, reacts to the alarm by actuating the by-pass solenoid valves and switching on the backup pump for restoring the correct supply of water to the tanks and preventing the mortality of animals.

In particular, in the case of critical faults, such as a value of pH value outside the limits for systems for aquatic animals, the system will seek to "understand" what is the particular defect or malfunctioning and will consequently act to bring back the values within the "vital" limits. Alarms management is linked to management of users, for example, in the case of management of alarms of the type: "out of position" and "out of configuration".

For an alarm of the "out of position" type, following upon the erroneous connection of a unit to a wrong buoy, the system identifies the lack of correspondence between the data identifying the unit just connected and the data of the BOA (buoy) and signals an alarm. This is in fact a condition of danger both for the operators and for the unit and the animals housed therein. For instance, a unit that has to work in conditions of pressure higher than room pressure cannot be connected to a buoy of a location in which, instead, the room pressure must be higher, in so far as the risk would be to reverse the flows of air between the inside and the outside of cages.

For an alarm of the "out of configuration" type, the operator can reconfigure the unit properly, entering the correct parameters and sending them to the unit.

Thus in both of the variants, there is the possibility of reconfiguration return: the user, appropriately authenticated, for example through a double numeric key, enters configuration data and sends them via a web page to the units. The different types of data/parameters forming part of the configurations can be the ones listed below.

For ventilated systems (IVC) for containing and managing cages for laboratory animals:

1) set values of ACH supply; 2) set values of ACH exhaust;

3) min/MAX alarm threshold values for ACH supply, ACH exhaust, pressure, temperature, and humidity;

4) alarm threshold values for the filters;

5) type and quantity of cages installed and connected to the unit; 6) time set on board the machine.

For systems for aquatic animals:

1) alarm limits for min/MAX pressure, pH, temperature, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen;

2) setting of pressure, pH, temperature, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen; 3) alarm limits for service times of filters, pumps, and UV lamps;

4) time set on board the machine;

5) quantity of baths present and connected to the unit.

To sum up, the Module TCC residing in the server makes available to the user a series of functions, amongst which the following may be listed. - Collection of the environmental data and of the parameters of operation coming from the different equipment, and storage within a data base.

- Remote monitoring in real time of the parameters and data.

- Remote control of all the work parameters with the possibility of varying them. - Management of the buoys in groups of buoys and creating a link between the buoy and configuration and between the buoy and physical location within the animal room. - Remote verification of possible states of alarms and direct forwarding of the alarms (or the warnings) to staff predefined through different modalities (e- mail, SMS, voice mail, etc.).

- Reaction with pre-set countermeasures to critical alarm situations (in the case where the user were so to desire).

- Management of the configurations of the different equipment and control of the compatibility of the configurations envisaged in the various positions with the parameters used by the machine.

- Management of individual user profiles in groups and granting of different authorizations for access to them; monitoring and control of the module

TCC and of the various equipment.

- Enabling of the person responsible for the animal room or anyone else who is authorized therefor (such as maintenance and assistance staff) to operate on the server from any PC in the world that is able to navigate in the Internet through a browser.

- Control of the correspondence between the buoy and the equipment authorized to operate in that position (prevention of human error).

- Production of graphs and statistics using the amount of data stored.

- Exportation to other applications of the data through a wide range of formats (XML, Excel, Access, etc.).

The present invention can be advantageously implemented via a computer program that implements the part of the software modules according to the invention, and comprises coding means for implementation of one or more steps of the method, when said program is run on a computer. Consequently, it is understood that the field of protection extends to said computer program and moreover to computer-readable means that comprise a recorded message, said computer -readable means comprising program-coding means for implementation of one or more steps of the method, when said program is run on a computer.

Variant embodiments with respect to the non-limiting example described are possible, without thereby departing from the sphere of protection of the present invention, which comprise all the embodiments that are equivalent for a person skilled in the branch. There clearly emerge the advantages that derive from the application of the present invention.

The system is able to interface with multiple types of units as defined above, and automatically gather all the parameters of operation and setting of each of them. This enables elimination of any manual activities dedicated for this purpose, with evident benefits in terms of time-saving, reliability of the collection and of the management of the data and lower costs. The interaction between the invention and the different equipment is not of a unidirectional type (monitoring) but of a bidirectional type. This means that, not only is it possible to monitor, manage, and historicize the data coming from the equipment, but also to modify them and check them.

From the foregoing description, a person skilled in the branch will be able to reproduce the subject of the invention without introducing further constructional or explanatory details of the method. This applies also to the computer program that produces the software modules that can be written in the aforementioned PYTHON language of a known type.

Claims

1. A remote-control system for one or more animal-housing units or the like, each of said housing units comprising a controller (1) designed to manage operation of the respective housing unit, said system-being characterized in that it comprises:

- physical-position markers (2) fixed in given locations of the building or buildings in which they are located;

- one or more first data-processing units (4), preferably installed within the corresponding units to be monitored and controlled, said first data-processing units (4) being connected to the housing unit to be monitored either directly, or through a converter device (3); said physical-position markers (2) being connected to said first data-processing units (4); said first data-processing units (4) being able to connect to a local network (5) either directly in a wired mode or via a wireless network: (6); - one or more second-external user/operator data-processing units (8) designed to handle a -dialogue, via the Internet, with said one or more first data-processing units (4), either directly or via a processor in server configuration (7), with a dialogue, of.a bi-directional type, designed to monitor, manage, historicize, control and modify data from and to said controllers (1) of the housing units.

2. A remote-control method for one or more animal-housing units or the like, for a system as described in Claim 1 , each of said housing units comprising a controller (1) designed to handle operation of the respective housing unit, said remote-control method being characterized in that, in the case of absence of said processor in server configuration (7), it comprises the following functional modules:

- a first module (RUI), residing in each of said one or more first data-processing units (4), designed to stimulate and query the corresponding controller (1) for collecting data, parameters and alarms;

- a second module (RUM), residing in each of said one or more first data- processing units (4), designed to recover said data, parameters and alarms from said first module (RUI) and make them available in the network to said one or more second data-processing units (8) for implementing said dialogue of a bi- directional type.

3. The remote-control method as described in Claim 2, characterized in that said first module (RUI) executes the following operations:

- it queries the controller to stimulate sending of data, and then receives data, parameters, and alarms therefrom, -via a logic of interpretation of the data and collection thereof with customized conversion packets of a-PLUG-IN type;

- it reads the presence of said physical-position markers (2);

- it performs cycles of reading from the controller at longer intervals for the data and shorter ones for alarms and sending of differentiated data, sending the data thus gathered in the network.

4. The remote-control method as described in Claim 3, characterized in that said first module (RUI) executes the following further operations:

- it performs a check on the presence of the network for data transmission;

- if there the network is present: ittransmits data and alarms;. - if not, it continues to gather data, storing them in an internal memory of its own;

- upon restoring of the network, it resumes sending of data in the network;

- if the internal memory is too full, it starts a procedure of progressive erasure of the data, halving the frequency of data collection and doubling the time of the collection cycle, erasing one datum out of two.

5. The remote-control method as described in Claim 2, characterized in that said second module (RUM) recovers and reads said data and alarms from said first module (RU), and creates web pages in HTML format, using graphic-interface display plug-ins.

6. A remote-control method for one or more animal-housing units or the like, for a system as described in Claim 1 , each of said housing units comprising a controller (1) designed to handle operation of the respective housing unit, said method being characterized in that, in the case of presence of said processor in server configuration (7), it comprises the following functional modules:

- said first module (RUI); - a third module (TCC), residing in said processor in server configuration (7), which performs the following operations:

- it receives data and alarms from said first module (RUI) and stores them internally;

- it makes cross checks between predefined configurations and parameters of operation, and manages user configurations in such a way that the user can enter his parameters and thus manage the configuration of the housing unit, said configuration being retransmitted to the controller of the housing unit, establishing a bi-directional connection between user and controller of the unit;

- it manages said physical-position markers (2), carries out a census on them, and creates unique links between the physical position of the housing unit and the buoy and between the buoy and the configuration; - it manages the physical locations of the various housing units;

- it manages the alarms; namely it acquires an alarm, and reacts according to the setting of the user, returning the alarm to the users authorized to intervene to cause the alarm condition to cease;

- it is designed to -recover said data, parameters and alarms from said first module (RUI) and make them available in .the network to said one or more second data-processing units (8) for implementing said dialogue of a bi-directional type.

7. The remote-control method as described in Claim 6, characterized in that said third module (TCC) manages alarms_αf the following types:

- "out of position" alarm: following upon the erroneous connection of a housing unit to a marker of the physical position (2) that does not correspond, it identifies the lack of correspondence between the data identifying the housing unit and the data of the physical-position marker (2) and signals an alarm;

- "out of configuration" alarm, in such a way that it will be possible to reconfigure the housing unit properly, entering the correct parameters.

8. A computer program that comprises program-coding means designed to execute the steps of Claims 2 to 7, when said program is run on a computer.

9. Computer-readable means comprising a recorded program, said computer- readable means comprising program-coding means designed to execute the steps of Claims 2 to 7, when said program is run on a computer.