System, method and article of manufacture for utilizing external models for enterprise wide control

• US 6,161,051 A
• Filed: 05/08/1998
• Issued: 12/12/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Allen-Bradley Company (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Technologies, LLC (Teledyne Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Brooks, Ruyen E., Hoskins, Josiah C., Sastry, Shivakumar, Hafemann, Dennis R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DU, THUAN N
• Application Number:
  US09/075,122
• Time in Patent Office: 949 Days
• Field of Search: 700/86, 700/87, 700/17, 700/18, 700/80, 710/62-64, 709/217, 709/223, 707/10
• US Class Current: 700/86
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41885 characterised by modeling, simulation of the manufacturing system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32347 Knowledge based simulation engine, use answers from user, database
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32351 Visual, graphical animation of process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/44 Encoding
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A system software solution for controlling an enterprise which defines and illustrates the electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, logic, diagnostics, external behavior, controlled resources and safety elements of an enterprise control system. The elements of the control system are encapsulated in objects of an object-oriented framework within a control assembly. The control assembly is the fundamental building block for providing object-oriented control of the enterprise. A control assembly component is a deployable control subsystem that provides an interface using a common object model that is configurable. The enterprise control system includes facilities for retrieving external models utilizing a predefined interface. The retrieved model includes support for external resources such as an external resource tree in which the leaf nodes correspond to resources to be controlled, resource and process information and a computer aided design model. The retrieved model is transformed from a flowchart representation into a timing diagram.

Claims

1. A method of enabling a computer having a display and operating under control of an object oriented framework, including one or more control assemblies, to control an enterprise, comprising the steps of:

a) defining an interface for retrieving a model from an external source;

b) storing information in the external source which complies with the interface;

c) retrieving the model from the external source; and

d) generating an enterprise control system utilizing the model wherein the external source is transformed from a flow chart to a timing diagram.

2. A system, including a computer having a display and operating under the control of an object oriented framework, including a control assembly, to control an enterprise, comprising:

a) a first code segment that defines an interface for retrieving a model from an external source;

b) a second code segment that stores information in the external source which complies with the interface;

c) a third code segment that retrieves the model from the external source; and

d) a fourth code segment that generates an enterprise control system utilizing the model;

wherein the external source is transformed from a flow chart to a timing diagram.