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System and method for providing virtual online engineering of a production environment

  • US 20020194304A1
  • Filed: 06/15/2001
  • Published: 12/19/2002
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2001
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for providing remote engineering for an industrial environment, said industrial environment having a plurality of production devices each with at least one digital control unit connected thereto and employing one or more of a diverse plurality of communication protocols to provide a discreet communication channel providing input of instructions and output of data for each production device, comprising the steps of:

  • translating the output of said digital control units into a plurality of discrete data streams having a common communication protocol;

    reversably encoding said plurality of discrete data streams into a first single data stream using said common communication protocol;

    transmitting said first single data stream to a remote network;

    decoding said first single data stream into said discrete data streams;

    identifying by analysis of said data at the remote network at least one target production device of said plurality of production devices to receive instructions;

    formulating a plurality of instructions responsive to said analysis and arranged as a discrete instruction set corresponding to each of said at least one target production device;

    reversably encoding said instruction sets into a second single data stream using said common communication protocol;

    transmitting said second single data stream to said industrial environment;

    decoding said second single data stream at the local network into said discrete instruction set;

    translating said instruction set into at least one of said diverse communication protocols executable by the digital control unit connected to each of said at least one target production unit; and

    delivering said instructions over the local network to the target production unit.

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