EMBEDDING CONTROLLERS AND DEVICES WITH DATA TO FACILITATE UP-TO-DATE CONTROL AND CONFIGURATION INFORMATION

• US 20130159260A1
• Filed: 02/14/2013
• Published: 06/20/2013
• 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: VanGompel, Dave
• Granted Patent: US 8,677,013 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/690
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4183 characterised by data acquisition, e.g. workpiece identification
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25064 Update component configuration to optimize program execution
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31166 Access data by name, object, stored in list, database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

An industrial automation system comprising a processor with an updating component coupled to automation devices via a network. The updating component reads control information from machine readable representations of the devices and populates a data structure with the control information. The updating component also updates configuration information of a device from data stored in a file object and/or the data structure, further allowing this transfer to be fragmented into a plurality of messages if the configuration information exceeds a threshold. As well, a vendor deployment methodology is provided that embeds devices and firmware for devices with a Device Type Manager (DTM) prior to deployment and can optionally allow post deployment updates to the DTM.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, configured to facilitate execution of computer-executable components, the computer-executable components comprising;

an updating component configured to create a hierarchical tag of a controller in response to reading information specifying an identity, a data type, and a data size of a data element of an automation device, populate a name field of a data structure of the controller with the hierarchical tag, and communicatively map a data field of the data structure to the data element of the automation device based on the information,

wherein the hierarchical tag comprises a device name that represents a name of the automation device and an element name that represents the data element of the automation device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the updating component is further configured to read, as the information, a machine-readable representation of the automation device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the information comprises at least one of a device type manager, an electronic data sheet, or a device profile associated with the automation device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device name represents a first hierarchical level of the hierarchical tag and the element name represents a second hierarchical level of the hierarchical tag.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the updating component is further configured to read the device name from a scan list stored in the controller and write the device name to the hierarchical tag, wherein the scan list comprises a data element that stores a plurality of device profiles for a corresponding plurality of automation devices including the automation device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device name is received via input and written to the hierarchical tag.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the information further comprises at least one of a position of the data element within an 1/O block or an offset of the data element within the 1/O block, and the updating component is further configured to communicatively map the data field to a segment of the 1/O block identified by the position or the offset.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data structure includes one or more fields configured to store configuration information of the automation device, and the updating component is further configured to retrieve the configuration information from the data structure and send the configuration information to the automation device.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the updating component is further configured to retrieve the configuration information from the automation device and store the configuration information in the data structure.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the updating component is further configured to read a first configuration consistency value from the automation device and send the configuration information to the automation device in response to a determination that the first configuration consistency value does not match a second configuration consistency value calculated based on the configuration information.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the updating component is further configured to determine a maximum message size supported by the automation device, fragment the configuration information into messages having respective sizes less than or equal to the maximum message size, and send the messages to the automation device.

12. A method for creating a data structure in an industrial controller, comprising:

creating, by the industrial controller, a hierarchical tag in the industrial controller in response to receiving information comprising an identity, a data type, and a data size of an input data element or an output data element of an automation device, wherein the hierarchical tag comprises a device name representing a name of the automation device and an element name representing the input data element or the output data element;

labeling a data field of a data structure in the controller with the hierarchical tag; and

mapping the data field to the input data element or the output data element of the automation device.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving, as the information, at least one of a device type manager, an electronic data sheet, or a device profile.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

retrieving configuration information from the automation device; and

storing the configuration information in the data structure.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

retrieving the configuration information from the data structure; and

sending the configuration information to the automation device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining a maximum message size supported by the automation device; and

fragmenting the configuration information into a plurality of messages having respective sizes equal to or less than the maximum message size,

wherein the sending the configuration information comprises sending the plurality of messages.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

reading a first configuration consistency value from the automation device,

wherein the first configuration consistency value is based on current configuration information stored on the automation device, and

wherein the sending the configuration information comprises sending the configuration information in response to a determination that the first configuration consistency value does not match a second configuration consistency value generated based on the configuration information.

18. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a device to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving information that defines an identity, a data type, and a data size of a data element of an automation device;

labeling, in response to the receiving, a data field of a data structure in a controller with a hierarchical tag comprising a device name that represents a name of the automation device and an element name that represents the data element of the automation device, wherein the hierarchical tag is generated based on the information; and

mapping the data field to the data element.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the receiving comprises receiving at least one of a device type manager, an electronic data sheet, or a device profile.

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

retrieving configuration data from the automation device; and

writing the configuration data to the data structure.