Method and apparatus for partitioning industrial control data

• US 20070076264A1
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Published: 04/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Pierce, Scott, Diblasio, Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 7,721,019 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/474
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/054 Input/output
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/1166 Create optimum data blocks for transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/15023 Data packet, each module reads input stream and replaces with output
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

An industrial controller includes a processing unit and a memory. The industrial controller is operable to communicate using an optimized connection packet including I/O data from a plurality of I/O modules arranged as an unstructured data block. The processing unit is operable to operate on the I/O data within the optimized connection packet to control a process. The memory is operable to store a plurality of cast tags. Each cast tag is associated with one of the I/O modules and provides a logical reference to a subset of the unformatted data block including at least a portion of the I/O data for the associated I/O module.

Claims

1. An industrial control system, comprising:

a plurality of I/O modules operable to interface with a process to exchange I/O data with the process;

a scanner operable to exchange the I/O data with the I/O modules and communicate using an optimized connection packet including the I/O data for each module arranged in an unformatted data block; and

an industrial controller operable to exchange the optimized connection packet with the scanner and control the process using the I/O data included in optimized connection packet, the industrial controller being further operable to store a plurality of cast tags, each cast tag being associated with one of the I/O modules and providing a logical reference to a subset of the unformatted data block including at least a portion of the I/O data for the associated I/O module.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the cast tags includes a first cast tag referencing an input portion of the I/O data and a second cast tag referencing an output portion of the I/O data for a particular I/O module.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the I/O data comprises at least one of input data and output data.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a programming terminal operable to generate the cast tags based on a predetermined arrangement of the I/O data.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface unit operable to interface with the industrial controller and employ the cast tags to reference data associated with one of the I/O modules.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the interface unit comprises a human machine interface unit.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein each cast tag comprises a symbol name for the I/O data associated the I/O module, a data type, and a reference to the subset.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the data type specifies member names and data formats for the I/O data associated with the I/O module.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the I/O data for at least one of the I/O modules includes a plurality of data elements representing the configuration and state of the I/O module, and the data type includes a member name and a data format for each of the data elements.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the scanner is disposed between the industrial controller and the I/O modules.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the scanner is operable to poll the I/O modules to collect at least a portion of the I/O data.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the I/O modules are operable to send at least a portion of the I/O data to the scanner.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the optimized connection packet comprises the I/O data associated with each of the modules concatenated in a predetermined order.

14. An industrial controller operable to communicate using an optimized connection packet including I/O data associated with a plurality of I/O modules arranged as an unstructured data block, comprising:

a processing unit operable to operate on the I/O data within the optimized connection packet to control a process; and

a memory operable to store a plurality of cast tags, each cast tag being associated with one of the I/O modules and providing a logical reference to a subset of the unformatted data block including at least a portion of the I/O data for the associated I/O module.

15. The industrial controller of claim 14, wherein the cast tags includes a first cast tag referencing an input portion of the I/O data and a second cast tag referencing an output portion of the I/O data for a particular I/O module.

16. The industrial controller of claim 14, wherein the I/O data comprises at least one of input data and output data.

17. The industrial controller of claim 14, wherein each cast tag comprises a symbol name for the I/O data associated with the I/O module, a data type, and a reference to the subset.

18. The industrial controller of claim 17, wherein the data type specifies member names and data formats for the I/O data associated with the I/O module.

19. The industrial controller of claim 17, wherein the I/O data for at least one of the I/O modules includes a plurality of data elements representing the configuration and state of the I/O module, and the data type includes a member name and a data format for each of the data elements.

20. The industrial controller of claim 14, wherein the optimized connection packet comprises the I/O data associated with each of the modules concatenated in a predetermined order.

21. A method for referencing industrial control data, comprising:

exchanging I/O data with a plurality of I/O modules;

generating an optimized connection packet including the I/O data for each module arranged in an unformatted data block;

defining a plurality of cast tags, each cast tag being associated with one of the I/O modules and providing a logical reference to a subset of the unformatted data block including at least a portion of the I/O data for the associated I/O module.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein defining the cast tags further comprises defining a first cast tag referencing an input portion of the I/O data and a second cast tag referencing an output portion of the I/O data for a particular I/O module.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the I/O data comprises at least one of input data and output data.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising referencing data associated with a selected one of the I/O modules using one of the cast tags.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein defining the cast tags further comprises, for each cast tag, defining a symbol name for the I/O data associated with the I/O module, a data type, and a reference to the subset.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein defining the data type further comprises defining member names and data formats for the I/O data associated with the I/O module.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the I/O data for at least one of the I/O modules includes a plurality of data elements representing the configuration and state of the I/O module, and defining the data type further comprises defining a member name and a data format for each of the data elements.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein generating the optimized connection packet further comprises concatenating the I/O data associated with each of the modules in a predetermined order.