System and methodology providing open interface and distributed processing in an industrial controller environment

• US 7,151,966 B1
• Filed: 06/04/2002
• Issued: 12/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baier, John Joseph, Callaghan, David Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Picard, Leo
• Assistant Examiner(s): KASENGE, CHARLES R
• Application Number:
  US10/162,315
• Time in Patent Office: 1,659 Days
• Field of Search: 700/17, 700/18, 700/19, 700/20, 700/24, 700/25, 700/83, 700/86, 700/87, 707/1, 707/100, 707/102, 709/203, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/230, 709/232, 709/238
• US Class Current: 700/19
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/056 Programming the PLC
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31196 SOAP, describes available services and how to call them remotely
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31457 Factory remote control, monitoring through internet
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32142 Define device, module description using xml format file
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34038 Web, http, ftp, internet, intranet server
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34444 Web control system, with intelligent control components each with web server
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and methodology providing virtual and remote component interactions in a networked industrial control environment. One or more components of an industrial control system are defined as a web service, wherein the components cooperate to support distributed controller functionality in all or portions of a virtual operating framework. For example, the components can include processing, logic, I/O and status components of an industrial control system. Standard and commonly available interfaces describe controller functionality in terms of the services, whereby controller applications are constructed via the components and associated interfaces. This can include discovery of other related services and employment of common web protocols to communicate between the services.

Claims

1. An open industrial control system, comprising:

a plurality of components cooperating to provide industrial control via a network, the components including a processing component, a logic component, and an Input/Output (I/O) component, at least one of the plurality of components is an industrial control system component configured as a web service; and

an interface that facilitates control interactions between at least one of the plurality of components and the at least one web service, the interface is an open standards Web Services Description Language (WSDL) that describes how to interact with the web service in order to provide industrial control.

2. The system of claim 1, the network is at least one of the Internet and a local factory network.

3. The system of claim 1, the WSDL describes an XML format for control system requests and responses.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to communicate with the interface, at least one of the plurality of components, and the web service.

5. The system of claim 4, the SOAP protocol is described in XML and includes at least one of a Remote Procedure Call, a wrapper for the web service, and a binding component.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a discovery component to facilitate locating the web service and determining web service functionality.

7. The system of claim 6, the discovery component is a Universal Discovery Description and Integration component (UDDI) providing a directory to access available web services.

8. The system of claim 7, the directory includes XML entries describing at least one of yellow pages, white pages, and green pages to locate and determine the web service.

9. The system of claim 1, the processing component executes logic programs provided by the logic service.

10. The system of claim 1, the processing component interacts with the I/O service to perform control operations, the I/O service providing at least one of physical and logical I/O operations.

11. The system of claim 10, the logical I/O operations are provided from remote web sites, physical I/O operations are provided from at least one of a network enabled I/O device and a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) system.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a status component to provide information relating to a status of at least one of the processing component and the I/O component, the status including error information, maintenance information and communications information.

13. The system of claim 1, the web service is operated from at least one of a remote network server, a network server cluster, a PLC system, and a PLC system cluster.

14. The system of claim 13, the network server, the network server cluster, the PLC system, and the PLC system cluster are configured in accordance with a .NET framework.

15. The system of claim 14, the network server and the network server cluster are provided by at least one Apache server.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a generically configured computer, workstation, and a PLC that interacts with at least one of the processing component, the I/O component, and the logic component to enable a web-based PLC via the web service.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communications component, the communications component including at least one of a web-server/client, an email server/client, a dial-in server/client, and a voice mail server/client.

18. The system of claim 17, the communications component including at least one of a stack and a data channel to process remote network requests and to transmit remote data.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising a query component to retrieve controller-based resources associated with a control process.

20. The system of claim 19, the query component employs at least one of a request schema, a response schema, and a path locator to determine the controller-based resources.

21. The system of claim 20, the response schema and the reply schema are described in XML, the schemas including a node address, and at least one resource type element.

22. The system of claim 21, the at least one resource element specifies at least one of memory capacity, processor bandwidth, processor utilization information, programs, variables, configurations, process information, batch information, parameters and other data that affects operational capabilities of the system.

23. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a distribution engine and associated drivers to propagate controller-based resources between systems.

24. The system of claim 23, the drivers facilitate reading and writing resource types, the distribution engine coordinates resource distributions among at least one of the drivers, remote systems, and associated data paths.

25. The system of claim 23, further comprising at least one of a request list that describes at least one of available resources and potential resources from remote systems, a response list that describes at least one of resources actually available from the remote systems and resources needed by the remote systems, an update list that describes at least one of actual resources sent to the remote systems and actual resources received from the remote systems.

36. The system of claim 1, further comprising a distribution component configured as a web service, the distribution component deploys at least one resource to facilitate load balancing between networked components in the industrial control system.

26. A method to facilitate open and distributed control in an industrial controller environment, comprising:

configuring at least one component in an industrial control process as a web service;

defining an open interface standard to communicate with the web service;

employing an XML-based protocol to communicate with the interface; and

interacting with the at least one component across a network to manage the industrial control process via the interface and the protocol.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising configuring the interface via a Web Service Description Language (WSDL) and employing Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) as the XML-based protocol.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising defining a service type and associated service data relating to a control process.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising defining access modes for interacting with the industrial control process.

30. The method of claim 29, the access modes include at least one of a polling mode, a broadcast mode, a request mode, and a reply mode.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising adapting a Universal Discovery Description and Integration component (UDDI) to locate available web services.

32. The method of claim 26, the at least one component is configured as at least one of a processing service, a logic service, an I/O service and a status service.

33. The method of claim 26, further comprising configuring at least one of a remote network server, a network server cluster, a PLC system, and a PLC system cluster to deliver the web service.

34. A system to facilitate open and distributed control in an industrial controller system, comprising:

means for adapting a plurality of industrial control components to at least one web service;

means for defining an open communications standard;

means for interfacing to the at least one web service via the open communications standard;

means for communicating with the at least one web service via a scripting technology; and

means for interacting with the plurality of components across a network to provide a virtual controller operating platform.

35. A web-enabled control system, comprising:

a processing station to interact with a network;

a downloadable control file to direct network operations of the processing station;

a plurality of controller service components, the controller service components including at least one of a processing component, a logic component, an Input/Output (I/O) component, and a status component, the controller service components are industrial control system components configured as web services, the control file initiates operations of at least one of the controller service components via the network;

at least one XML-based protocol that specifies an open standard for interaction via the network; and

an interface that employs the at least one XML-based protocol to communicate between the controller service components and the processing station to facilitate control interactions between the controller service components.