SERVICE-ORIENTED AUTOMATION DEVICE AND METHOD FOR SPECIFYING A SERVICE-ORIENTED AUTOMATION DEVICE

• US 20110066268A1
• Filed: 02/20/2009
• Published: 03/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Automation GmbH (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Schneider Electric Automation GmbH (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Mendes, Joao Marco, Colombo, Armando Walter
• Granted Patent: US 8,527,077 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/100
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/056 Programming the PLC
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31196 SOAP, describes available services and how to call them remotely
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A method for specifying the behavior of autonomous and collaborative automation devices in manufacturing plants with a service-oriented architecture and to a service-oriented automation device. In order to describe the operating behavior of such devices, the invention proposes the steps of original setting-up of the automation device, including configuration, depiction of services, establishment of connections to other automation devices and transfer of the set-up to waiting original status, receiving the events through service operations, internal device interfaces of inputs/outputs and/or generated directly from the controls, evaluating the received events, executing the events and changing the state of the model-based middleware shell, wherein the system achieves the next state and is capable of receiving further events.

Claims

1. A process for operating autonomous, collaborative service-oriented automating devices (AG) of a production system at the manufacturing plant level as well as part of an IT company system with service-oriented architecture, whereby the automating devices (AG) are coupled to production devices as well as to each other and offer their functionalities and/or the functionalities of the coupled production devices as service or aggregation of services, and/or ask for services or aggregation of services from automating devices (AG) of the manufacturing plant and/or of the IT company system, whereby a setup of the automating devices (AG) is carried out comprising a configuration, definition of service and establishing of connections to other automating devices, whereby the behavior of the production system is based on the asynchronous exchange of events and the calling up of service with the goal of manufacturing a product according to a work plan,

characterized in that the behavior of each automating device (AG) is represented by a part of a middleware envelope that is formally specified by HLPN (High Level Petri Net) models and is controlled by internal and/or external events and/or service call-ups, that an event received by an automating device (AG) is tested, whereby if the event corresponds to a description of a current status of the HLPN model the production system is transferred into a new status by updating the HLPN model as well as by synchronization of service activities, whereby if the event is an exception, an undocumented event or an internal conflict a decision is made in such a manner that an event is generated if necessary information for the solution of the decision is present, and/or that services of external components (DMS) and/or of automating devices (AG) are queried in order to make information for a concrete decision available, and that after execution of the event and/or querying of the services as well as development of the HLPN model the production system reaches a next status and is ready for receiving further events.

2. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that status change of the system is carried out by updating the HLPN control model, synchronizing of service activities such as interactions with other devices such as “

carry pallet,”

“

take/grasp,”

“

read/write to inputs/outputs,”

“

report diagnosis/monitoring indexes.”

3. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that in order to handle exceptions, undocumented events or conflicts, services of a decision-making system (DMS) are queried in order to make suitable information available for a correct decision.

4. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that the service orientation as well as the event-based status change of the HLPN model of the service-oriented automating device (AG) follow rules of the “

token game”

of a high level Petri net.

5. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that an autonomous service-oriented control behavior is implemented in each of the automating devices (AG) which is connected to other automating devices (AG) based on the layout configuration of the manufacturing plant.

6. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that the middleware envelope makes the possible behavior connections available based on the making available and/or the call-up of services.

7. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that decision mechanisms associated with a behavior of aggregated services are influenced by information connected to the production system, including a manufacturing plant and the higher-level components of the service-oriented IT company system.

8. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that the complete behavior of the manufacturing plant is based on an asynchronous exchange of events and the call-up of services that are carried out by the distributed, autonomous service-oriented automating devices, and that this behavior formally follows that of the HLPN model.