RECIPE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20150106346A1
• Filed: 10/14/2014
• Published: 04/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aveva Software LLC (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Invensys Systems Incorporated (Invensys PLC)
• Inventors: Grove, Eric P., Tunnell, Donald R. Jr., Miller, Christopher Justin
• Granted Patent: US 10,885,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/695
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41865 characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32097 Recipe programming for flexible batch
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32306 Rules to make scheduling decisions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A recipe management system includes a versioning system that tracks the revision history of templates and their child instances. Modifications to templates and instances create new records with new primary key identifiers and version identifiers. However, each new version of a template or instance has the same root identifier as the prior versions. When a template is modified, a flag is set in its child instances, but they are not modified automatically. When an instance is modified, it has no effect on the parent template. At runtime, a recipe model is loaded to an equipment model to execute a recipe on a piece of equipment. Only approved versions of equipment models are used during execution, even if newer versions exist. During execution, new equipment models can be created. The recipe management system includes an execution engine that can be hosted as a standalone executable or in a system platform.

Claims

1. A versioning system in a recipe management system configured to execute a recipe of a recipe class on a piece of equipment in a process plant, the recipe management system comprising a configuration database for storing models representing entities in the process plant, the versioning system being configured to:

store an initial template model representing an aspect of the recipe class in the configuration database in response to user inputs creating the initial template model, the initial template model comprising a version identifier that indicates the initial template model is an initial version;

store an initial instance model representing the aspect of the recipe in the configuration database in response to user inputs creating the initial instance model from the initial template model, the initial instance model comprising a version identifier that indicates the initial instance model is an initial version, the initial instance model being associated with the initial template model;

store a second instance model representing the aspect of the recipe in the configuration database in response to user inputs modifying the initial instance model, the second instance model comprising a version identifier that indicates the second instance model is a second version, the second instance model being associated with the initial template model;

store a second template model representing the aspect of the recipe class in the configuration database in response to user inputs modifying the initial template model, the second template model comprising a version identifier that indicates the second template model is a second version;

associate an indication that the initial template model with which the second instance model is associated has been modified with the second instance model; and

store a third instance model representing the aspect of the recipe in the configuration database in response to user inputs requesting the second instance model be modified in accordance with modifications to the initial template model to create the second template model, the third instance model comprising a version identifier that indicates the third instance model is a third version, the third instance model being associated with the second template model.

2. A versioning system as set forth in claim 1 further configured to retain the initial instance model after storing the second instance model.

3. A versioning system as set forth in claim 1 further configured to retain the initial model and the second instance model after storing the first instance model.

4. A versioning system as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of the initial template model, the second template model, the initial instance model, the second instance model, and the third instance model comprises data stored in a relational database.

5. A versioning system as set forth in claim 4 wherein each of the initial template model, the second template model, the initial instance model, the second instance model, and the third instance model comprises a unique primary key identifier.

6. A versioning system as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of the initial template model, the second template model, the initial instance model, the second instance model, and the third instance model has a unique identifier.

7. A versioning system as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of the initial template model and the second template model has a first root identifier and each of the initial instance model, the second instance model, and the third instance model has a second root identifier.

8. A versioning system as set forth in claim 1 wherein the version identifier of the initial template model is the same as the version identifier of the initial instance model.

9. A versioning system as set forth in claim 1 further configured to store an indication that the second template model is an approved version and the initial template model is not the current version in response to user inputs selecting the second template model as the approved version of the template model.

10. A versioning system as set forth in claim 9 wherein the user inputs selecting the second template model as the approved version of the template model are received after the user inputs modifying the initial template model.

11. A recipe management system for executing a recipe on a piece of equipment in a process plant, the recipe management system being configured to:

create an initial version of an equipment model representing the piece of equipment in response to user inputs;

generate an indication that the initial version of the equipment model is an approved version;

create a modified version of the equipment model representing the piece of equipment in response to user inputs; and

after creating the modified version of the equipment model, receive user inputs requesting execution of the recipe on the piece of equipment and in response thereto;

determine that the initial version of the equipment model is approved based on the indication; and

execute the recipe using data from the initial version of the equipment model.

12. A recipe management system as set forth in claim 11 wherein the recipe management system is further configured to create a second modified version of the equipment model while executing the recipe using the data from the initial version of the equipment model.

13. A recipe management system as set forth in claim 11 wherein the recipe management system is further configured to create a second equipment model representing another piece of equipment while executing the recipe using the data from the initial version of the equipment model in response to user inputs.

14. A recipe management system as set forth in claim 11 wherein the initial version of the equipment model stores input/output addresses for the piece of equipment.

15. A recipe management system as set forth in claim 14 wherein the recipe management system is further configured to create a recipe model representing the recipe, the recipe model including a formula model and at least one formula parameter.

16. A recipe management system as set forth in claim 15 wherein the recipe management system is further configured to download the at least one formula parameter from the recipe model to the piece of equipment using at least one of the input/output addresses.

17. A supervisory control system for executing a supervisory control routine on a piece of equipment in a process plant, the supervisory control system comprising:

a configuration system configured to create models representing the supervisory control routine and the piece of equipment in response to user inputs; and

an execution system configured to access the models representing the supervisory control routine and the piece of equipment and use said models to execute the control routine on the piece of equipment in the process plant, the execution system comprising an execution engine comprising execution code for conducting execution of the control routine and a programming interface for connecting the execution code to a hosting environment for the execution engine, said execution code being configured to conduct execution of the control routine when the execution engine is hosted in a standalone hosting environment and said execution code being configured to conduct execution of the control routine when the execution engine is hosted in an application server.

18. A supervisory control system as set forth in claim 17 wherein the execution code is scan-based.

19. A supervisory control system as set forth in claim 17 wherein the standalone hosting environment is a Microsoft Windows hosting environment.

20. A supervisory control system as set forth in claim 17 wherein the application server environment is configured to create an instantiation of the execution engine and associate the instantiation of the execution engine with the model of the piece of equipment.

21. A supervisory control system as set forth in claim 17 wherein the execution code comprises a state machine.

22. A supervisory control system as set forth in claim 17 wherein said execution code is scalable for conducting execution of one or more control routines on a plurality of pieces of equipment when the execution engine is hosted in a standalone hosting environment.