LAYERED INTERFACE IN AN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT

• US 20110022198A1
• Filed: 09/29/2010
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bliss, Ronald, Reichard, Douglas J., Govindaraj, Subbian, Brandes, Russell, Plache, Kenneth, Kalan, Michael, Jasper, Taryl, Kretschmann, Robert J., Staron, Raymond, Jarrett, James Harry, Seger, Daniel B. III, Hall, Kenwood
• Granted Patent: US 8,732,658 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/86
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/056 Programming the PLC
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41845 characterised by system universality, reconfigurability, modularity
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/13063 Synchronization between modules
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23389 Modular program, each process has corresponding program module
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32137 Configure, connect, combine different program modules
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36174 Program divided into modules
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

System(s) and method(s) are provided for implementing a set of interface components across a set of layers of an industrial environment, and for managing at least one interface component or at least one layer of the industrial environment. To implement an interface component in at least one layer in the set of layers, a specification that defines the interface component is acquired and, based at least on the specification, a service is generated. Execution of the service implements the interface component. The managing includes deploying or discovering the at least one interface component or the at least one layer of the industrial environment. The managing also includes indexing specific functional feature(s) of the at least one interface component and searching across the set of layers for one or more interface components that satisfy specific functional criteria. Moreover, the managing can include supplying metadata related to interface component(s) or layer(s).

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one memory that retains one or more sets of computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor configured to execute the one or more sets of computer-executable instructions, in response to execution by the at least one processor, the one or more sets of computer-executable instructions, to implement a group of components comprising;

an acquisition component that acquires a specification that defines an interface component; and

a code generator component that composes a service automatically based on the specification, the service is configured to implement at least one functional feature of the interface component in a set of layers of an industrial environment.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the acquisition component retains the specification in the at least one memory, the specification is an abstraction of the at least one functional feature, wherein the abstraction is agnostic with respect to implementation of the at least one functional feature.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the acquisition component acquires the specification from one of a layer different than the layer in which the at least one functional feature of the interface component is implemented, a centralized network node that is part of the industrial environment, or a portion of the layer the at least one functional feature of the interface component is implemented.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the code generator component composes the service automatically based in part on a mapping that associates the specification with a set of one or more computer-executable code instructions.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more computer-executable instructions is specific to a programming language employed to execute the service configured to implement the at least one functional feature of the interface component.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the programming language is one of a high-level language, a device code language, or a domain-specific simulation code language.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the industrial environment comprises at least one of a visualization layer, a control layer, and a manufacturing execution system (MES) layer.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one layer of the set of layers includes a group of sub-layers, at least one sub-layer includes a least one interface component.

9. A method, comprising:

acquiring a specification that defines an interface component; and

based on the specification, generating a service that is configured to implement the interface component in at least one layer of an industrial environment comprising at least one of a visualization layer, a control layer, and a manufacturing execution system (MES) layer.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

executing the service in the at least one layer of the industrial environment, wherein the at least one layer includes at least one physical layer and at least one logical layer.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the generating includes:

composing computer-executable code based on a mapping associating the specification with a set of one or more computer-executable code instructions.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

discovering the interface component within the at least one layer of the industrial environment based at least on an event and a policy related to the interface component.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

discovering the at least one layer of the industrial environment.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the discovering includes:

scanning a repository that retains configuration information related to a set of layers of the industrial environment, the set of layers includes the at least one layer; and

based at least on configuration information acquired through the scanning, extracting information that characterizes, at least in part, the at least one layer of the industrial environment.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

searching for at least one of the interface component or the at least one layer of the industrial environment based at least on a group of criteria.

16. The method of claim 15, the searching includes querying a set of layers based at least on one or more of a functionality criterion, a version of the interface component, a security criterion, or a location criterion.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

indexing at least one of the interface component or the at least one layer of the industrial environment.

18. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

supplying metadata related to at least one of the interface component or the at least one layer of the industrial environment.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one memory comprising one or more sets of computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to execute the one or more sets of computer-executable instructions, in response to execution by the at least one processor, the one or more sets of computer-executable instructions implement a group of components comprising;

a configuration driver that provisions at least one of a set of layers or a set of interface components within an industrial environment; and

a discovery driver that identifies at least one layer of the set of layers or at least one interface component of the set of interface components.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the discovery driver identifies the at least one layer in response to the at least one layer being deployed within the industrial environment.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the discovery driver identifies the at least one layer in response to a query, wherein the query is received from a user device or a functional element within a disparate layer of the set of layers.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, the group of components further comprising:

a classification driver that searches for a specific interface component within one or more layer of the set of layers, based at least on a query related to one or more functional features of the specific interface component.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the classification driver indexes at least one functional feature of one or more interface components of the set of interface components within the industrial environment.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the classification driver supplies metadata related to one or more interface components of the set of interface components within the industrial environment, the metadata is supplied to a layer of the set of layers.