MECHANISM FOR CONSTRUCTING GENERIC CONTROL LOGIC INCLUDING VERSIONS IN VARIOUS PROTOCOLS

• US 20110160878A1
• Filed: 12/30/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Jhawar, Ankur, Gutha, Stalin, Bhadriraju, Lavanya, Krishnaswamy, Janaki, Moore, Kevin B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,532,797 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/83
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

A mechanism for constructing generic control logic with versions of the logic automatically generated and stored for one or more protocols. The complexity of the one or more protocols may be hidden under a hood of the mechanism from the view of engineers, programmers and users so as to improve their productivity relative to control logic designs and applications.

Claims

1. A method for constructing a generic control logic, comprising:

opening an application library;

constructing a control logic in a generic version; and

wherein;

a library tool automatically saves the control logic in versions of one or more protocols supported by the tool; and

the control logic is accessible from the library in a generic version or a version of the one or more protocols.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more protocols have a complexity that is hidden from the method of constructing the control logic under a hood.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the control logic comprises components being one or more function blocks and data points; and

as each component is added to the control logic, the tool maintains a reference of the component in each of the one or more protocols.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

for each component, invoking a configuration screen for the component;

configuring general properties of the component;

configuring specific properties of the component for a first protocol for a network interface; and

configuring specific properties of the component for a second protocol for the network interface.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising viewing a mapping of the components to the network interface.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the viewing is of a first protocol view.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the viewing is of a second protocol view.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the viewing is of a wiresheet.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising configuring specific properties for one or more additional protocols for a network interface.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the first protocol is BACnet; and

the second protocol is LonWorks.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the library is a Spyder application library.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the invoking a configuration screen of the component, the configuring general properties of the component, the configuring specific properties for a first protocol for a network interface, and the configuring specific properties for a second protocol for the network interface occur automatically while constructing the control logic comprising components.

13. A method for obtaining an application, comprising:

constructing a control logic comprising function blocks and data points; and

providing a tool that automatically generates protocol interfaces upon the constructing of the control logic.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein as data points are added to a wiresheet, the tool automatically provides corresponding backend entities of each protocol for the data points.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein since changes to the control logic are reflected in the protocol versions of the control logic, the control logic need not be replicated for the either protocol.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein when a data point is dropped in the control logic, the tool automatically creates an underlying protocol entity and maintains a mapping or reference between the data point and the protocol entity.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein:

the protocols comprise Lon and BACnet protocols;

the Lon and BACnet protocols are supported by the tool;

the tool maintains a mapping or reference for each protocol supported;

the tool maintains at least two mappings or references for each data point dropped into the control logic; and

the tool does an automatic translation for each protocol when the control logic is used in a Spyder controller.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the translation for each protocol is hidden under a hood of the controller.

19. A system for creating a generic control application, comprising:

an application library;

control logic constructed from data points and function blocks;

a configuration menu for each data point;

a first dialog box for configuring general properties of each data point;

a second dialog box for configuring network interface specific properties for each protocol used; and

a map of each data point to a network interface with a corresponding view for each protocol.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

a tool for automatically generating protocol interfaces for the control logic; and

wherein when a data point is dropped in the control logic, the tool automatically provides an underlying protocol entity and maintains a mapping or reference between the data point and the protocol entity.