TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a method for recording operational condition of devices. The present disclosure also relates to a system for recording operational condition of devices.

BACKGROUND

Distributed Energy Storage (DES) and other virtual power plant solutions control thousands of equipment or devices, for example battery units (or batteries). Such equipment or devices are heterogenous and may vary in terms of their models, compositions, cell-chemistry, manufacturing techniques, vendors, and so on. Typically, such equipment or devices manufacturers define allowed operating conditions (AOC) and/or ideal operating conditions (IOC) for best longevity thereof. Based on whether the IOC and/or AOC has been followed, the manufacturer may be willing to give a much better warranty for the equipment or device. However, this requires data (proof) that the equipment or device have been handled properly over a long-term usage thereof. Such data (proof) helps the customer of the equipment or devices to prove without a reasonable doubt that usage and conditions thereof have been such that the warranty (including the long-term warranties) should be valid.

As an example of a battery system a batteries of electric cars are relatively expensive to other parts of the car. Therefore many car manufactures provide warranty only based on condition that charging is done based on given instructions. Additional example is a battery- operated base stations (for example such as telecom infrastructure). The base stations can be subject to harsh operational conditions such as extreme heats or cold weather impacting lifetime of batteries of the base stations. Indeed it is important for the suppliers of the batteries to ensure, by means of special measures, that the battery was not handled improperly or by an unauthorized person. Improper handling can refer for example to incorrectly charging/discharging the battery and/or to replacing a proper-functioning battery by a defective or an old battery.

Additionally, in accordance with the prior art it is possible to recognize that the battery was improperly handled as a result of being incorrectly charged/discharged, in that a battery data recording device is used that indicates the current being supplied to the battery and/or being drawn off from the battery during the charging and/or discharging procedure and said battery data recording device stores the charged state in a storage medium, for example in an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) or a flash EEPROM. These recordings may be evaluated at a later point in time outside the battery (off board) for analysis purposes or to check the validity of the warranty claims.

Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with conventional system and methods for recoding operational conditions of devices.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure seeks to provide a method for recording operational condition of devices. The present disclosure also relates to a system for recording operational condition of devices. An aim of the present disclosure is to provide a solution that overcomes at least partially the problems encountered in prior art.

In one aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for recording operational condition of devices, the method comprising: providing a set of rules for one or more operating conditions for the devices in a network, wherein each of the one or more operating conditions include acceptable ranges related to at least one of a usage data and an ambient data of the devices, wherein the usage data comprises information pertaining to the at least one or more operating condition selected from a list of a temperature of a device, a charge and a discharge current, a depth of discharge (DOD), a state of charge (SOC), and a cycle life; assigning an operating condition, to the device, from the one or more operating conditions, wherein the device is a distributed energy storage (DES) unit; receiving usage data and ambient data of the device; comparing the received usage data and the ambient data of the device with the provided acceptable ranges related to the usage data and the ambient data based on the assigned operating condition; verifying if the assigned operating condition is followed by the device or not based on the comparison..

In yet another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a system for recording operational condition of devices, the system comprising a processor, and a memory including a computer-executable program code, the memory and the computer-executable program code configured to, with the processor, cause the system to: provide a set of rules for one or more operating conditions for the devices in a network, wherein each of the one or more operating conditions include acceptable ranges related to at least one of a usage data and an ambient data of the devices, wherein the usage data comprises information pertaining to the at least one operating conditions such as temperature of a device, charge and discharge current, depth of discharge (DOD), state of charge (SOC), and cycle life; assign an operating condition, to the device, from the one or more operating conditions, wherein the device is a distributed energy storage (DES) unit; receive usage data and ambient data of the device; compare the received usage data and the ambient data of the device with provided usage data and ambient data based on the assigned operating condition; verify if the assigned operating condition is followed by the device or not based on the comparison, and

Furthermore the system is configured to provide data management collected from a plurality of users for warranty arrangements of the plurality of heterogeneous battery units, wherein the user controls the plurality of heterogeneous battery units.

In yet another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer program product comprising a non-transitory machine- readable data storage medium having stored thereon computerexecutable program code that, when executed by a processor, causes the system to carry out the aforementioned method.

Embodiments of the present disclosure substantially eliminate or at least partially address the aforementioned problems in the prior art and provides an improved method and an efficient system for recording operational condition of devices. The method may also be applied to different applications such as in the area of warranty systems for batteries. Beneficially, the method allows for better data management for long term warranties so that the customer may prove without reasonable doubt that usage and conditions have been such that warranty should be valid.

Additional aspects, advantages, features and objects of the present disclosure would be made apparent from the drawings and the detailed description of the illustrative embodiments construed in conjunction with the appended claims that follow.

It will be appreciated that features of the present disclosure are susceptible to being combined in various combinations without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The summary above, as well as the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the present disclosure, exemplary constructions of the disclosure are shown in the drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to specific methods and instrumentalities disclosed herein. Moreover, those skilled in the art will understand that the drawings are not to scale. Wherever possible, like elements have been indicated by identical numbers.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the following diagrams wherein:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart depicting steps of a method for recording operational condition of devices, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system for recording operational condition of devices, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In the accompanying drawings, an underlined number is employed to represent an item over which the underlined number is positioned or an item to which the underlined number is adjacent. A non-underlined number relates to an item identified by a line linking the non-underlined number to the item. When a number is non-underlined and accompanied by an associated arrow, the non-underlined number is used to identify a general item at which the arrow is pointing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description illustrates embodiments of the present disclosure and ways in which they can be implemented. Although some modes of carrying out the present disclosure have been disclosed, those skilled in the art would recognize that other embodiments for carrying out or practising the present disclosure are also possible.

In one aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for recording (or in other words storing) operational condition of devices, the method comprising: providing a set of rules for one or more operating conditions for the devices in a network, wherein each of the one or more operating conditions include acceptable ranges related to at least one of a usage data and an ambient data of the devices, wherein the usage data comprises information pertaining to the at least one or more operating conditions selected from a list of: a temperature of a device, a charge and a discharge current, a depth of discharge (DOD), a state of charge (SOC), and a cycle life; assigning an operating condition, to a device, from the one or more operating conditions, wherein the device is a distributed energy storage (DES) unit; receiving usage data and ambient data of the device; comparing the received usage data and the ambient data of the device with the provided usage data and ambient data based on the assigned operating condition; verifying if the assigned operating condition is followed by the device or not based on the comparison. Method further provides data management collected from a plurality of users for warranty arrangements of the plurality of heterogeneous battery units, wherein the user controls the plurality of heterogeneous battery units.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a system for recording (and storing to database or other storage media) operational condition of devices, the system comprising a processor, and a memory including a computer-executable program code, the memory and the computer-executable program code configured to, with the processor, cause the system to: provide a set of rules for one or more operating conditions for the devices in a network, wherein each of the one or more operating conditions include acceptable ranges related to at least one of a usage data and an ambient data of the devices, wherein the usage data comprises information pertaining to the at least one operating condition selected from a list of: a temperature of a device, a charge and a discharge current, a depth of discharge (DOD), a state of charge (SOC), and a cycle life; assign an operating condition, to a device, from the one or more operating conditions, wherein the device is a distributed energy storage (DES) unit; receive usage data and ambient data of the device; compare the received usage data and the ambient data of the device with provided usage data and ambient data based on the assigned operating condition; and verify if the assigned operating condition is followed by the device or not based on the comparison.

The system might be further configured to provide data management collected from one or more users for a warranty arrangements of the plurality of heterogeneous battery units, wherein the user controls the plurality of heterogeneous battery units.

In yet another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer program product comprising a non-transitory machine- readable data storage medium having stored thereon computerexecutable program code that, when executed by a processor, causes the system to carry out the aforementioned method.

The present disclosure provides an efficient method and system for recording (and thus storing) operational condition of devices. Advantageously, the method provides data management collected from the different users for the warranty arrangements of batteries or DES (distributed energy storage) or other virtual power plant solution that controls thousands of heterogeneous battery units. Such devices or equipment are provided with manufacturer's defined allowed operating conditions (AOC) and/or ideal operating conditions (IOC) for usage thereof. Moreover, in addition to warranty reasons, the method allows, for example, to provide data (proof) of historical usage if asset ownership is changed, or when device or equipment replacement/maintenance responsibilities needs to be agreed among multiple stakeholders, for example in case of "battery-as-a-service" models. Moreover, the disclosed method provides a cost-efficient, accurate, and fast performance of the system as compared to the conventional systems. Furthermore, a fleet of devices can be monitored. Devices can be full devices such as a base station or those can be part of a full device such as a battery unit of a device. Optionally the method further provides data management, for data collected from a one or more users, for warranty arrangements of the plurality of heterogeneous battery units, wherein the one or more users controls their respective heterogeneous battery units of the plurality of heterogenous battery units. Term data management may refer to process of storing, organizing, maintaining, archiving, and ensuring accuracy and security of data in the context of the disclosure. In this sense the method provides a data management for collected data/information from a one or more of users for warranty arrangements of a plurality of heterogeneous battery units. Each of the one or more users can control their own battery units among the plurality of heterogeneous battery units. Indeed when the received data is compared and it is verified that the assigned operation condition is followed based on the comparison one can map the managed data for checking if one or more warranty related rules are followed or not. In general this can be done for one or more users of one or more different battery units. This way it is possible to find which of the one or more users have not followed warranty arrangement for which of the devices (such as one or more of the heterogenous battery units). Heterogeneous battery unit refers to situation that there is more than one type of battery unit on the field to be monitored. I.e. in a device in the distributed energy storage system can be a battery unit. Technical effect of this is that setup enables to collect effectively data related to multiple stake owners at once. For example the accepted ranges can be same for many different devices and also ambient data can be same for many different devices (such as those in same physical location or room).

Generally, the manufacturer of the device provides the set of rules for one or more operating conditions for the devices in a network, wherein each of the one or more operating conditions include acceptable ranges related to at least one of a usage data and an ambient data of the devices. Typically, the set of rules for one or more operating conditions for the devices may include allowed operating conditions (AOC), ideal operating conditions (IOC) and harsh operating conditions (HOC). The term "allowed operating conditions" as used herein refers to the basic background, and the variables used to characterize device operating conditions, and describes the manufacturer specifications used to characterize the device's (such as a battery's) nominal and maximum usage characteristics. It will be appreciated that the best and worst device operating conditions, as compared to the AOC are referred to as IOC and HOC, respectively. The term "ideal operating conditions" as used herein refers to the standards or conditions that are set by assuming best-case working conditions of the battery units. The term "network" as used herein refers to network for devices. An example can be a network of base stations or for example a fleet of vehicles or for example one or more portable devices using batteries. Term network can refer also devices of operated / monitored by an entity such as operator of the devices or a set of devices within certain geographical area.

The usage data and the ambient data are the data related to the battery condition and the battery technical specifications. Herein the terms "usage data" and "ambient data" refers to operating conditions and the surrounding conditions of the devices, respectively. Optionally, the usage data may include information about the operating conditions such as a temperature of the device, a charge and/or a discharge current, a depth of discharge (DOD), a state of charge (SOC), a cycle life, and so on. Optionally, the ambient data may include information about the operating conditions such as temperature of the surrounding (namely, ambient temperature), moisture levels of the surrounding (namely, ambient humidity), and so on. Herein, the term "ambient" relates to the immediate surroundings.

In this regard, the term "ambient temperature" as used herein refers to the air temperature around any object (such as the device) or the environment where the device is stored. As an example, operating ambient and/or device temperature may be in a range between -10 to 40 °C. The term "charge current" as used herein refers to the ideal current at which the device is initially charged (to roughly 70 percent state of charge (SOC)) under constant charging scheme before transitioning into constant voltage charging. The term "discharge current" as used herein refers to the maximum current at which the device (battery as an example) can be discharged continuously. This limit is usually defined by the device manufacturer in order to prevent excessive discharge rates that would damage the device or reduce its capacity. As an example, the charge/discharge current may typically range between 0.5C - 1C (in which C is recommended maximum discharge current amount i.e. for example C can be 50A in which scenario range is between 25A to 50A) can be higher especially discharge for example 3C (using same example 150A). From warranty point of view temporal exceeding of recommended operating conditions might be acceptable. For example, the warranty conditions might state that one have to operate the device between range of 0.5C-1C for 99.5% of the time but it can exceed maximum discharge current for 0.5% of the time. The term "depth of discharge" (DOD) as used herein refers to the percentage of capacity remaining in the device. As an example, the depth of discharge may typically be in a range from 100% to 0%, preferably 90% to 10%, more preferably 80% to 20%. The term "state of charge" as used herein refers to the expression of the present device capacity as a percentage of maximum capacity thereof. SOC is generally calculated using current integration to determine the change in device capacity over time. The term "cycle life" as used herein refers to the number of discharge-charge cycles the device can experience before it fails to meet specific performance criteria. Notably, the cycle life is estimated for specific charge and discharge conditions. Moreover, the actual operating life of the device is affected by the rate and depth of cycles and by other conditions such as temperature and humidity. Typically, higher the DOD, the lower the cycle life. As a further example, the cycles per day may be once a day, twice a day etc. It will be appreciated that if a battery is recharged and charged several times per day (or time unit) it might be considered stressful on devices particularly batteries. Optionally, the set of rules are associated with warranty conditions of the devices for recording operational condition of devices. As mentioned above, the set of rules for devices, such as battery units, may be defined to enable usage of the devices in order to enhance performance thereof with best longevity. Moreover, the set of rules for a given device also define warranty conditions (or claims) for the given device. Herein the term "warranty conditions" refers to a type of guarantee (namely, terms and situations) defined by the manufacturer or a third party regarding the condition of the device in which potential repairs or exchanges may be provided in case the device fails to function as originally described or intended.

Optionally, the warranty conditions are based on at least one operating load and operating environment to be subjected to the devices for recording operational condition of devices.

Moreover, the method comprises assigning an operating condition, to a device, from the one or more operating conditions, and receiving usage data and ambient data of the device. It will be appreciated that the assigned operating condition may be specific to a device. The usage data and ambient data corresponding to the assigned operating condition of the device is received for further analysis.

Optionally, receiving usage data and ambient data is performed continuously or at an interval of a pre-determined time. Optionally, the interval of a pre-determined time may range between a few seconds to a few hours.

Furthermore, the method comprises: comparing the received usage data and the ambient data of the device with the provided acceptable ranges related to the usage data and the ambient data based on the assigned operating condition; and verifying if the assigned operating condition is followed by the device or not based on the comparison. Indeed comparison of the received usage data and the received ambient data in respect to the assigned operating conditions is executed using computing resources to verify if the device is following the assigned operating conditions or not. Technical effect of this is to effectively find those devices which are used as those should be and those which are not. This can be used to for example to provide alerts to fix or adjust for example air conditioning or heating to control ambient temperature around the device or for example limiting drain of current from a battery (in case the device is a energy storage unit (battery as an example) of distributed energy storage system).

In this regard, a sensor arrangement associated with the device may be used to provide the usage data and ambient data of the device. Optionally, the sensor arrangement may include a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, an accelerometer sensor, an ammeter, and so forth. The received usage data and ambient data of the device is compared with the manufacturer provided usage data and ambient data of the device for the corresponding assigned operating condition to determine or verify if the device is properly handled or used by the user. It will be appreciated that higher difference in the compared values of the received usage data and ambient data of the device and the manufacturer provided usage data and ambient data of the device indicates an improper handling of the device by the user.

Optionally, the method further comprises storing the received usage data and ambient data when the received usage data and the ambient data are beyond the acceptable ranges; and storing an indication that the device is operating well when the received usage and ambient data are within the acceptable ranges. It will be appreciated that to reduce the computational powers, only the received usage data and the ambient data that are beyond the acceptable ranges are stored and when they are within the acceptable ranges only an indication, such as "OK", "Yes", "Working", and so on, corresponding to the functioning of the device may be stored. Moreover, the data may be related to the proof of historical usage if asset ownership is changed, or when unit replacement/maintenance responsibilities need to be agreed among multiple stakeholders (for example in "battery-as-a-service" models).

It will be appreciated that the received usage data and ambient data may not always be beyond or within the acceptable ranges in a binary format. In this regard, the broadest manufacturer's allowed operating conditions (AOC) must not be breached, but ideal operating conditions (IOC) that have better warranty terms are not absolute limits for 100% of time, but e.g. for 99% of usage time (and 100% of usage must be within broader limits). In other words, the non-binary nature of some of the warranty conditions, for example, if 99% of usage is within ideal operating conditions (IOC) a stricter warranty policy is applied, as long as 100% of usage is within the less limiting manufacturer's allowed operating conditions (AOC).

Optionally, the method further comprises storing at least one of the received usage data and the ambient data along with the storage of the indication for recording operational condition of devices. In this regard, besides the received usage data and the ambient data and/or the indication that the device is operating well, data corresponding to any of the provided usage data and the ambient data or an indication that the device is operating well when sold to the customer may be stored. Additionally, optionally, the data for warranty systems, such as batteries, includes temperature measurements (ambient, battery unit internal), power loads to either direction (absolute or in relation to unit capacity, e.g., 0.3C), data from accelerometers, data from orientation sensors, and calculations of effective cycle usage (i.e., accumulated charge/discharge energies).

Optionally, such data may be stored I recorded in a memory or a cloud server associated with the system (as discussed below).

Optionally, storing / recording the received usage and the ambient data is performed using a block chain for recording operational condition of devices. The term "block chain" as used herein refers to the distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. As a database, a block chain stores information electronically in digital format. As new data comes in, it is entered into a fresh block. Once the block is filled with data, it is chained onto the previous block, which makes the data chained together in chronological order. Optionally, he data related to the operating load and operating environment subject to the battery unit is collected on a regular interval using the block chain. Technical benefit of using distributed databases such as block chain is to ensure that the collected usage data and ambient data of the devices cannot be tampered I modified afterwards. This can at least partially eliminate possible fraud.

Optionally, stakeholder(s) have access to the long-term detailed data storage services so that the stakeholders may access the actual measurements and re-compute the hash signatures and confirm that the raw data with signatures matches the signatures received earlier. Implementations may vary if all data is visible to all stakeholders, or if data visibility is controlled in more detail with regard to stakeholders. Beneficially, by storing the usage and ambient data is performed using a block chain enables the stakeholder(s) to trust the data collection without the manufacturer being able to access all the data all the time.

Optionally, signatures may also be submitted to a distributed ledger system to which multiple stakeholders have access too. Notably, the distributed ledger system has characteristic feature that the data recorded is immutable for all practical/reasonable considerations. Beneficially, designing the signatures (whether submitted to distributed ledger or not) for data block so that they are linked in parallel (same time, different units) and longitudinal (time progresses, same unit) makes the signature chains very difficult to forge. Furthermore, at least some of the signatures are transmitted to stakeholders (including manufacturer) periodically, whereas, signed data contains at least one part that has been automatically signed by device/module by the vendor (not customer). This device-signed part can be, for example, summary of statistics recorded by the device during snapshot period. As a further example, when both parallel and longitudinal signature chains are used, an auditing system can be made between (e.g.) hw vendor (provider of one or more of the devices) and hw operator/customer (such as purchaser or leaser of the one or more devices) by allowing the hw vendor to sample upto e.g. 1% or 0.1% of data of their own selection. This way vendor can be sure signature chains are ok, yet the customer does not need to disclose all the potentially sensible data. The signatures (whether submitted to distributed ledger or not) for data block can be indeed designed in a way that they are linked in parallel (same time, different units) and longitudinal (time progresses, same unit). This makes the signature chains very difficult to forge. Furthermore, there could be additional right for the other party (device vendor) to observe subset of all the data as it is accumulated.

Optionally, data blocks storing at least one of the usage and ambient data may be signed in a way that makes falsifying subsets of the data difficult/impossible. Original detailed data can then have its own persistence rules (all data for some time, data with minor deviations for longer time, data with major deviations forever). Optionally, there can be additional "auditing means" agreed for subsets of the data between the device manufacturer (or vendor) and the customer. Alternatively, actual data may be stored in several other effective storages known to a person skilled in the art.

Optionally, for recording operational condition of devices, the usage data comprises snapshots of the devices based various operating loads, and the ambient data comprises corresponding snapshots of sensor data associated with various operating environments. Snapshots describing system usage and context data for some time periods are signed (e.g., by hash function). This signing is both for full data and for descriptive statistics of that period of the full data (e.g., min, max, various percentiles of the values). Full data can be also stored (long-term) by customer (asset owner). In some cases, a third party could operate that long-term data storage service on behalf of one or many customers. The devices such as sensors (as mentioned above) are used to collect the data from the devices for recording the operational conditions of the devices. Benefit of collecting snapshots is to reduce loading of the system compared to situation of collecting all of the data everywhere.

Further optionally the received usage data and the ambient data is stored as a first set of received usage data and ambient data, wherein the first set is collected as snapshots and a second set of received usage data and ambient data, wherein the second set is collected as a full data set. Verifying integrity of the full data set is performed by a comparison of the snapshots with corresponding data items of the full data set. According to further optional embodiment the first set of received usage data is stored by operator / 3 ^rd party in the operator / 3 ^rd party database and the second set of received usage data is stored by the device owner database.

As an example, if the snapshots are collected using random intervals it can be used to verify also if the full data set is untampered. Indeed, since the owner of the full data set does not know from which time periods the snapshots are collected, they cannot modify the data without risking modifying data corresponding to the snapshots. If data corresponding to signed snapshot of the full data is tampered it gives indication that all data might be tampered.

Optionally, the device is a computing device and the usage data is associated with one of a battery, a microcontroller, and a memory of the device for recording operational conditions of devices. It will be appreciated that the battery, the microcontroller, and the memory of the device, amongst any other parts of the device are associated with specific operational conditions and warranties. Optionally, the device may be a programmable rectifier controller, embedded in the computer, that helps in the local data collection and signing even if the warranty is for the batteries. In this regard, a part of the data signing may be done direct at the device level.

The present disclosure also relates to the system as described above. Various embodiments and variants disclosed above apply mutatis mutandis to the system.

The term "processor" as used herein refers to a computational element that is operable to respond to and process instructions given by the user and to control operations of the apparatus. Typically, the processor may be an application, program, process or device that responds to requests for information or services by another application, program, process or device (such as the external device) via a network interface. Examples of the processor include, but are not limited to, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, a reduced instruction set (RISC) microprocessor, a very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, or any other type of processing circuit. Furthermore, the processor may refer to one or more individual processors, processing devices and various elements associated with a processing device that may be shared by other processing devices. Additionally, one or more individual processors, processing devices and elements are arranged in various architectures for responding to and processing the instructions that drive the apparatus. It will be appreciated that each apparatus is configured to have the processor therein.

Optionally, the processor also encompasses software and the memory including the computer-executable program code that makes the act of serving information or providing services possible. It may be evident that a communication means of an external device may be compatible with a communication means of the processor, in order to facilitate communication therebetween.

Optionally, the processor is further configured to: store the received usage and the ambient data when the received usage and the ambient data are beyond the acceptable ranges; and store an indication that the device is operating well when the received usage data and the ambient data are within the acceptable ranges.

Optionally, the processor is further configured to store at least one of the received usage data and the ambient data along with the storage of the indication for recording operational condition of devices.

Optionally, the processor is configured to store the received usage data and ambient data using a block chain for recording operational condition of devices.

Optionally, the device is a computing device and the received usage data is associated with one of a battery, a microcontroller, and a memory of the device for recording operational conditions of devices.

Optionally, the processor is configured to receive usage data and ambient data continuously or at an interval of a pre-determined time. The present disclosure also relates to the computer program product as described above. Various embodiments and variants disclosed above apply mutatis mutandis to the computer program product.

Optionally, the computer program product is implemented as an algorithm, embedded in a software stored in the non-transitory machine- readable data storage medium. The non-transitory machine-readable data storage medium may include, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Examples of implementation of the computer-readable medium include, but are not limited to, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Flash memory, a Secure Digital (SD) card, Solid-State Drive (SSD), a computer readable storage medium, and/or CPU cache memory.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring to FIG 1, there is shown a flowchart 100 illustrating steps of a method for recording operational condition of devices, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. At step 102, a set of rules is provided for one or more operating conditions for the devices in a network, wherein each of the one or more operating conditions include acceptable ranges related to at least one of a usage data and an ambient data of the devices. At step 104, an operating condition is assigned, to a device, from the one or more operating conditions. At step 106, usage data and ambient data of the device is received. At step 108, the received usage data and the ambient data of the device is compared with the provided usage data and ambient data based on the assigned operating condition. At step 110, if the assigned operating condition is followed by the device or not based on the comparison of the usage data and the ambient data of the device is verified.

The steps 102, 104, 106, 108, and 110 are only illustrative and other alternatives can also be provided where one or more steps are added, one or more steps are removed, or one or more steps are provided in a different sequence without departing from the scope of the claims herein.

Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a block diagram of a system 200 for recording operational condition of devices, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The system comprises a processor 202 and a memory 204 including a computer-executable program code, the memory 204 and the computer-executable program code configured to, with the processor 202, cause the system 200 to provide a set of rules for one or more operating conditions for the devices in a network, wherein each of the one or more operating conditions include acceptable ranges related to at least one of a usage data and an ambient data of the devices; assign an operating condition, to a device, from the one or more operating conditions; receive usage data and ambient data of the device; compare the received usage data and the ambient data of the device with provided usage data and ambient data based on the assigned operating condition; and verify if the assigned operating condition is followed by the device or not based on the comparison of the usage data and the ambient data of the device.

Modifications to embodiments of the present disclosure described in the foregoing are possible without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the accompanying claims. Expressions such as "including", "comprising", "incorporating", "have", "is" used to describe and claim the present disclosure are intended to be construed in a nonexclusive manner, namely allowing for items, components or elements not explicitly described also to be present. Reference to the singular is also to be construed to relate to the plural.