Enabling transactional mechanisms in an automated controller system

• US 20070078736A1
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Published: 04/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chand, Sujeet, Kalan, Michael, Hall, Kenwood, Baier, John, Hood, Gavan, Braint, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 8,275,680 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a controller that facilitates implementing a transaction between a controller and a business system within an industrial automation environment. An interface component can facilitate receipt of data associated with a business system at the programmable logic controller. The controller can incorporate a transaction component that executes a transaction related to the business system.

Claims

1. A programmable logic controller, comprising:

an interface component that facilitates receipt of data associated with a business system at the programmable logic controller; and

a transaction component that executes a transaction related to the business system.

2. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, the transaction component further comprising a request analyzer that that receives a request for data relating to the programmable logic controller and locates a transaction definition within the programmable logic controller based upon the request.

3. The programmable logic controller of claim 2, the transaction component further comprising a subscribing component that subscribes the business system to the programmable logic controller based at least in part upon the located transaction definition.

4. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, the programmable logic controller relates to a hierarchically structured data model.

5. The programmable logic controller of claim 4, the hierarchically structured data model is based at least in part upon ISAS95.

6. The programmable logic controller of claim 4, the hierarchically structured data model is based at least in part upon ISA_S88.

7. The programmable logic controller of claim 4, the hierarchically structured data model is based at least in part upon a combination of ISAS95 and ISA_S88.

8. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, the transaction can be rolled back upon failure of communication between the programmable logic controller and the business system.

9. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, the programmable logic controller relates to a hierarchically structured data model that represents the physical hierarchical location within an industrial automation environment that includes at least one tag and a device.

10. The programmable logic controller of claim 9, the physical hierarchical location of is indicative of at least a portion of a factory-level, a cell-level, a subcell level, an input within a subcell, and an output within a subcell.

11. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, the programmable logic controller atomically communicates with a disparate programmable logic controller to coordinate and initiate a process.

12. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, the business system communicates with a disparate business system.

13. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, further comprising a bridge component that provides a first network protocol utilized to carry data from the programmable logic controller and configures the data for transmittal over a second network protocol.

14. The programmable logic controller of claim 13, the bridge component bridges multiple communication networks.

15. The programmable logic controller of claim 13, the first network protocol is one of Fieldbus, Profibus, Hart, Modbus, ASI-bus, and Foundation fieldbus.

16. The programmable logic controller of claim 15, the second network protocol is Common Industrial Protocol (CIP).

17. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, the transaction component utilizes built-in standard behaviors that are at least one of the following:

a request transaction;

a prepare transaction;

a commit transaction; and

a rollback transaction.

18. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, further comprising an override component that allows an override to the standard behaviors.

19. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, the override is at least one of the following:

user logic to implement a required behavior;

a standard entry point; and

a state transition.

20. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, the programmable logic controller atomically interacts with a database to reserve at least one of a raw material and a piece of equipment based at least in part upon availability to provide at least one of a commitment to complete an operation and a rollback of the operation.

21. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, further comprising a query component that provides at least one of the following:

ennoblement of a network client to discover and utilize the transaction within the programmable logic controller;

and enablement of a client to discover and utilize the transaction within the programmable logic controller via querying of a configuration file for the programmable logic controller.

22. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, further comprising a manager component that transparently manages a state of the transaction across a distributed transaction.

23. The programmable logic controller of claim 1, further comprising a log component that logs data related to the transaction.

24. A method that facilitates implementing a transactional operation within an industrial automation environment, comprising:

implementing a hierarchically structured data model;

incorporating transaction mechanism into a controller; and

utilizing the transaction mechanism to initiate a transaction between the controller and a business system.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising rolling back the transaction upon a communication failure between the business system database and the automation controller.

26. The method of claim 24, the hierarchically structured data model represents the physical hierarchical location within an industrial automation environment of at least one of a device, a tag, and a variable.

27. The method of claim 24, the physical hierarchical location of is indicative of at least a portion of a factory-level, a cell-level, a subcell level, an input within a subcell, and an output within a subcell.

28. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

providing a standard behavior in relation to the transaction; and

utilizing an override on the standard behavior.

29. The method of claim 24, the hierarchically structured data model is based at least in part upon one or more of ISAS95 and ISA_S88.

30. The method of claim 24, further comprising providing at least one of a bridge between at least two disparate networks and a mapping between disparate data.

31. A programmable logic controller utilized within an industrial automation environment comprising:

means for facilitating receipt of data associated with a business system at the programmable logic controller; and

means for incorporating a transaction mechanism into the programmable logic controller that executes a transaction related to the business system.