BINDING GRAPHIC ELEMENTS TO CONTROLLER DATA

• US 20130006395A1
• Filed: 06/28/2011
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Plache, Kenneth Scott, Kowal, Steven John, Kalan, Michael D., Reichard, Douglas J., Stanek, Christopher E., Sprecher, Reginald W., Bronikowski, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 8,798,775 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/83
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23258 GUI graphical user interface, icon, function bloc editor, labview
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence

Abstract

System(s), device(s), and method(s) provide bi-directional mechanisms for binding graphic element definitions to industrial automation data types in an industrial control system. Moreover, a system that automatically provides data searching and filtering of an item based on user interactions with either the graphic element definition or a controller data type is provided. Further, a graphic element definition is associated with a data source type information, to simplify configuration of an instance of that graphic element and populate suitable data source fields based on instances of the associated data source type. In addition, a system to automatically generate the graphic element based on data from a logic controller is provided. Moreover, the graphic element can be updated to reflect a change in the data, without a manual refresh.

Claims

1. An industrial automation system, comprising:

a binding component configured to map a definition of a graphic element to at least one controller data type; and

a display component configured to depict an instance of the graphic element with at least one tag value associated with the at least one controller data type.

2. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the graphic element includes at least one of an externally generated graphic element received from an original equipment manufacturer, or a user defined graphic element.

3. The industrial automation system of claim 1, further comprising a definition editor configured to modify a property value associated with the graphic element.

4. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the display component is further configured to present a set of tags associated with a set of properties in the definition, in response to selection of the definition.

5. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the display component is further configured to present a set of definitions of graphic elements associated with a selected tag.

6. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the binding component is further configured to link the definition of the graphic element to data source type information.

7. The industrial automation system of claim 6, further comprising, a population component configured to populate the instance with information to access a data value field that is at least one of stored or sourced by a data source associated with the data source type information.

8. The industrial automation system of claim 1, further comprising, a graphics generation component configured to create a human machine interface (HMI) screen representing logic received from an industrial automation device.

9. The industrial automation system of claim 8, further comprising:

a discovery component configured to identify the logic associated with the industrial automation device; and

an update component configured to dynamically modify the HMI screen to reflect a change in logic received from the industrial automation device.

10. The industrial automation system of claim 9, further comprising, a setup component configured to determine a level of instance discovery during at least of on creation or modification of the HMI screen.

11. The industrial automation system of claim 1, wherein the binding component is further configured to generate a type mapping that enables at least one of an alternative data type or a fixed value to be employed as a binding for a property of the definition.

12. The industrial automation system of claim 11, wherein at least one of:

the type mapping is extended in a manner such that the definition remains intact,

the type mapping does not impact a visual layout of the graphical element, or

the type mapping is verified at run-time by the binding component

13. A method, comprising:

binding a definition of a graphic element to an industrial automation data type;

displaying a set of tags associated with the industrial automation data type, in response to the definition being selected; and

displaying a set of definitions of graphic elements associated with the industrial automation data type, in response to a tag associated with the industrial automation data type being selected.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the binding is based on a type mapping comprising at least one of a strongly-typed, loosely-typed, or un-typed mapping.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising, associating the definition of the graphic element to a definition of a data source type.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

configuring a human machine interface (HMI) screen to represent logic in an industrial automation device;

detecting a change in the logic; and

dynamically updating the HMI screen based on the detecting.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the detecting includes querying the industrial automation device at least one of periodically, at a predefined time or on-demand.

18. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause an industrial control system to perform operations, comprising:

associating a controller data type with a property of a graphic element definition;

identifying a set of tags associated with the controller data type, in response to selection of the graphic element definition; and

determining a set of graphic elements associated with the controller data type, in response to selection of a tag associated with the controller data type.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising, designating the property as required or optional to support design-time validation.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising at least one of:

binding a value of the property to at least one of a fixed value or a dynamic value,

specifying a binding for the property that references a disparate property, or

assigning a default value for the property, in response to a user-specified value not being available.