Methods and systems for management and control of an automation control module

• US 20040049590A1
• Filed: 09/10/2002
• Published: 03/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Fanuc Automation North America Incorporated
• Original Assignee: GE Fanuc Automation North America Incorporated
• Inventors: Chambers, Robert Baxter II, Miller, Daniel H., Collier, David Scott, Bolfing, Brad J., Mercer, Ferrell Louis, Elliott, David Charles, Kadingo, Jason Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 7,536,475 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/042 using digital processors G05B19/05 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31196 SOAP, describes available services and how to call them remotely

Abstract

An automation control module (ACM) includes an ACM central processing unit (CPU) and a SOAP/XML and web server system electrically coupled to the ACM CPU. The SOAP/XML and web server system is configured to process simple object access protocol (SOAP)/extensible markup language (XML) requests from a network.

Claims

1. An automation control module (ACM) comprising:

an ACM central processing unit (CPU); and

a SOAP/XML and web server system electrically coupled to said ACM CPU, and configured to process simple object access protocol (SOAP)/extensible markup language (XML) requests from a network.

2. An ACM in accordance, with claim 1 wherein said SOAP/XML and web server system embedded within said ACM.

3. An ACM in accordance with claim 1 further comprising a backplane interface electrically coupled to said ACM and a backplane, said backplane electrically coupled to said SOAP/XML and web server system.

4. An ACM in accordance with claim 1 wherein said SOAP/XML and web server system comprises a web server electrically coupled to the network and a SOAP/XML server electrically coupled to said ACM CPU and said web server, said SOAP/XML server configured to process SOAP/XML requests from the network.

5. An ACM in accordance with claim 4 wherein said web server configured to receive SOAP/XML requests from the network and transfer the SOAP/XML requests to said SOAP/XML server.

6. An ACM in accordance with claim 5 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to respond to SOAP requests from the network.

7. An ACM in accordance with claim 4 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to transfer ACM data from said ACM CPU through said web server to the network.

8. An ACM in accordance with claim 4 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to transfer ACM data received from the network via said web server to said ACM CPU.

9. An ACM in accordance with claim 4 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to transfer ACM data from said ACM CPU and embed said ACM data within said SOAP/XML response based on function tags embedded within said SOAP/XML request.

10. An ACM in accordance with claim 9 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to send said SOAP/XML response through said web server to the network.

11. An ACM in accordance with claim 9 wherein said SOAP/XML request/response comprising at least one of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), hypertext markup language (HTML), and references to other files.

12. An ACM in accordance with claim 1 wherein said SOAP/XML and web server system further comprises a network interface configured for connection to the network.

13. An ACM in accordance with claim 1 wherein said ACM comprises a backplane interface electrically coupled to said ACM and a backplane electrically coupled to said backplane interface, said backplane configured for connection with at least one of an input/output (I/O) module and an input module.

14. An automation control module (ACM) system comprising:

an ACM;

a network;

a computer electrically coupled to said network and configured to communicate with said network; and

a SOAP/XML and web server subsystem electrically coupled to said ACM and said network, said subsystem configured to process simple object access protocol (SOAP)/extensible markup language (XML) requests received from said computer through said network.

15. An ACM system in accordance with claim 14 wherein said SOAP/XML and web server subsystem embedded within said ACM.

16. An ACM system in accordance with claim 14 further comprising a backplane interface electrically coupled to said ACM and a backplane, said backplane electrically coupled to said SOAP/XML and web server subsystem.

17. An ACM system in accordance with claim 14 wherein a user is required to enter a valid user name and user password to assess said ACM system.

18. An ACM system in accordance with claim 14 wherein said SOAP/XML and web server subsystem comprises a web server electrically coupled to said network and a SOAP/XML server electrically coupled to said ACM CPU and said web server, said SOAP/XML server configured to process SOAP/XML requests from generated from said computer and transmitted from said computer through said network to said ACM system.

19. An ACM system in accordance with claim 18 wherein said web server configured to receive SOAP/XML requests from said network and transfer the SOAP/XML requests to said SOAP/XML server.

20. An ACM system in accordance with claim 19 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to respond to SOAP requests sent from said computer through said network.

21. An ACM system in accordance with claim 19 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to transfer ACM data from said ACM CPU through said web server and said network to said computer.

22. An ACM system in accordance with claim 19 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to transfer ACM data received from said computer via said network and said web server to said ACM CPU.

25. An ACM system in accordance with claim 19 wherein said SOAP/XML and web server system further comprises a network interface electrically coupled to said network and said web server, said network interface configured to facilitate communication between said web server and said network.

26. An ACM system in accordance with claim 14 wherein said ACM comprises a backplane interface electrically coupled to said ACM and a backplane electrically coupled to said backplane interface, said backplane configured for connection with at least one of an input/output (I/0) module and an input module.

27. An ACM system in accordance with claim 21 wherein said SOAP/XML request/response comprises at least one of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), hypertext markup language (HTML), and references to other files.

23. An ACM system in accordance with claim 23 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to transfer ACM data from said ACM CPU and embed said ACM data within said SOAP/XML response based on function tags embedded within said SOAP/XML request.

24. An ACM system in accordance with claim 24 wherein said SOAP/XML server configured to send said SOAP/XML response through said web server and said network to said computer.

28. A method for management and control of an automation control module (ACM) including an ACM central processing unit (CPU) and a SOAP/XML and web server system, the web and file transfer system electrically coupled to a network, said method comprising:

electrically connecting the web and file transfer system to the ACM CPU; and

processing simple object access protocol (SOAP)/extensible markup language (XML) requests from the network using the web and file transfer system.

29. A method in accordance with claim 28 wherein the web and file transfer system includes a web server electronically coupled to the network and a SOAP/XML server electrically coupled to the ACM CPU and the web server, processing SOAP/XML requests from the network using the web and file transfer system comprises processing SOAP/XML requests from the network using the SOAP/XML server.

30. A method in accordance with claim 29 wherein processing SOAP/XML requests from the network using the SOAP/XML server comprises:

receiving SOAP/XML requests from the network using the web server; and

transferring the SOAP/XML requests from the web server to the SOAP/XML server; and

responding to the SOAP/XML requests using the SOAP/XML server.

31. A method in accordance with claim 30 wherein the SOAP/XML server processes SOAP/XML requests from the network using the SOAP/XML server comprising:

receiving SOAP/XML requests from the network using the web server;

transmitting the SOAP/XML requests to the SOAP/XML server using the web server;

reading the SOAP/XML request from the SOAP/XML server;

requesting ACM data from the ACM CPU via function tags embedded within the a SOAP/XML request;

receiving the ACM data from the ACM CPU;

embedding the ACM data within the SOAP/XML request using the SOAP/XML server; and

sending the SOAP/XML response from the SOAP/XML server through the web server to the network.

32. A method in accordance with claim 31 wherein processing SOAP/XML requests from the network using the SOAP/XML server comprises transferring ACM data to the ACM CPU using the SOAP/XML server as directed by function tags embedded within the SOAP/XML request.