Fleet Control

Fleet Control

Send governed, recorded supervisory commands to your equipment through your Fleetera Edge gateways, with a person in command of every send.

Fleet Control is Fleetera's command layer. It lets your team change a setpoint or run an action on equipment from the Fleetera app, through the same Fleetera Edge gateways that collect your telemetry. Every command is declared in advance, sent by a person, checked against your rules before anything leaves the cloud, and recorded with what the equipment answered.

Fleet Control is supervisory. It sits above your plant controllers (PLC, turbine controller, BMS, PCS or EMS) and never replaces them. A command travels through the cloud and the gateway and can take seconds to reach the equipment, so Fleet Control never takes the place of the control loops in your controllers. It is human in command: a person sends every command, and nothing is scheduled, triggered by a rule or sent on its own.

Safety functions are never commandable through Fleetera. An emergency stop belongs to the plant's local safety chain. Fleetera refuses a command named as an emergency stop, and it does not offer an Emergency category for new commands.

The Command space

Fleet Control opens on the Command space. Its sidebar has these pages:

PageWhat it is forWho sees it
OverviewWhat waits for approval, what is running, the outcomes of the last 24 hours and how much of the fleet can be commandedEveryone
Execute CommandSend one command to up to 50 assets in a staged rollout. See Bulk RunsOperators and admins
ApprovalsCritical commands that wait for an approver. See Sending CommandsAdmins
Command HistoryEvery command requested in your organization, with its record. See Command HistoryEveryone
Bulk runsEvery bulk run and its rollout, under Command HistoryEveryone
CoverageWhich assets can be commanded, and what fixes the rest. See Coverage and ReadinessEveryone

The Command Overview: outcomes of the last 24 hours, how many assets can be commanded, and alerts waiting for acknowledgement

The Overview refreshes on its own every 30 seconds and says when it last did. Each outcome tile with something in it opens those commands in Command History. When your organization has no command yet, the Overview says so and links to the templates where commands are declared.

How the pieces fit

ConceptWhat it isWhere you work with it
Command definitionA command declared on an asset template: its name, key, type, category, risk level and timeoutThe template's Commands section. See Command Definitions
Command on an assetThe copy of a definition each asset carries. It keeps the name and risk level it was created withThe asset's Commands section
Command bindingWhere on the equipment a command acts: a connector and an address, such as an OPC UA node or a Modbus registerThe asset's Commands section. See Command Bindings
ReadinessWhether a command can be sent to an asset now, and if not, whyCoverage, the asset's Commands section and the Execute Command wizard
Execution recordOne command request: who asked, what was sent, what the equipment answered and what was read backCommand History. See Command History
Bulk runOne command sent to many assets in batchesBulk runs. See Bulk Runs

Readiness describes one command on one asset at the moment it was read. A Ready command is not a promise that the equipment will accept the value, and other commands on the same asset can be in a different state. Fleetera checks the command again when it is sent.

What Fleet Control can do today

ActionProtocolsNotes
Value write: write one value to a point, such as a setpoint or an operating modeOPC UA, Modbus (one holding register or one coil)After the write, the gateway reads the value back and the record says whether it matches. See Read-back
Method call: call a method on an OPC UA objectOPC UA onlyLimited today: only methods that take no input arguments, and only through a gateway whose runtime reports that it can run method calls. No read-back

A binding on a connector of any other protocol cannot be saved. Fleet Control does not schedule commands, repeat them, restore a value automatically after a time, or run them from alerts or rules.

Who can do what

Fleet Control follows your organization's roles. The same rules apply when a command is requested through the Fleetera API.

ViewerOperatorAdmin
See commands, Coverage, Command History and Bulk runsYesYesYes
Export Command History as CSVYesYesYes
Add and edit command definitions on a templateNoYesYes
Delete a command definitionNoNoYes
Sync a template's commands to existing assets, and bind commandsNoYesYes
Send commands, run bulk runs, and pause, resume or abort a runNoYesYes
Approve or decline a critical commandNoNoYes
Turn two-person approval on or offNoNoYes
Set or clear local control on a site or gatewayNoNoYes

See Governance and standards for risk levels, typed confirmation and two-person approval in one place.

Before you start

To send a command to an asset, you need:

  1. An asset template with the command declared on it, see Command Definitions
  2. The asset created from that template, or the command synced to it from the template
  3. An OPC UA or Modbus connector at the asset's site
  4. A binding from the command to an address on that connector
  5. An online edge gateway that manages the asset and runs that connector
  6. A plan that includes sending commands. Commands cannot be sent to equipment behind your own gateway during a trial, see Plans

Coverage tells you which of these is missing for each asset.

Command Definitions

Declare commands on a template and sync them to existing assets.

Command Bindings

Point each command at an OPC UA node, method or Modbus register.

Coverage and Readiness

See which assets can be commanded, and fix the rest.

Sending Commands

Send a command to one asset, with read-back and approval.

Bulk Runs

Send one command to up to 50 assets in a staged rollout.

Command History

Review, filter and export the command record.

Local Control

Hold a site or gateway under local control while people work on the equipment.

Governance and standards

How Fleet Control's controls relate to IEC 62443, IEC 61850 and NERC CIP.

Error Handling

Diagnose and resolve configuration sync errors.

Command Definitions

Declare commands on an asset template, choose their risk level, and sync them to the assets that already exist.

On this page

The Command spaceHow the pieces fitWhat Fleet Control can do todayWho can do whatBefore you start