Method for selecting and/or producing automation hardware

• US 7,343,208 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2005
• Issued: 03/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Hoefler, Werner, Becker, Norbert
• Primary Examiner(s): Knight; Anthony
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang; Sunray
• Application Number:
  US11/025,946
• Publication Number:
  US 20050198607A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,163 Days
• Field of Search: 700/83, 700/49, 700/99, 716/18, 716/5, 717/104, 717/100, 702/183
• US Class Current: 700/83
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41865 characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23273 Select, associate the real hardware to be used in the program
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31339 From parameters, build processes, select control elements and their connection
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A method for selecting and/or producing automation hardware which is appropriate or necessary for controlling and/or monitoring a technical process to be automated (10) according to an automation solution is provided. The method includes developing the description of the automation solution, analyzing this description with an analysis tool (20) and selecting and, where applicable, producing respective automation hardware on the basis of the analysis of the description.

Claims

1. A method for at least one of selecting and producing automation hardware for at least one of controlling and monitoring a technical process to be automated in accordance with an automation solution, the method comprising:

developing an electronically readable description of the automation solution, wherein the description of the automation solution is an engineering description which comprises description of at least parts of the technical process and description of at least some components of the automation hardware that is to be selected or produced, which are associated with the technical process;

analyzing the description of the automation solution using a computer-aided analysis tool;

supplementing the description of the automation solution through a dialog with a user initiated by the analysis tool, where the dialog relates to individual elements of the components of the automation hardware; and

selecting the respective automation hardware based on the analysis of the description,

wherein said analyzing comprises automatically determining, by the analysis tool, whether the at least some components provided for selection in the user dialog are suitable for at least one function of an associated part of the technical process and wherein said determining is based on the description of said at least one functions of the associated part of the technical process in the engineering description.

2. The method as claims in claim 1, wherein the description of the automation solution is a design drawing of the automation solution.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user dialog comprises an input of specifying parameters relating to individual automation hardware components.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein automation hardware components from the individual automation hardware components that belong together are selected b the automation tool based on the user input and the engineering description, and wherein the selected components match to parts of the technical process that belong together.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the suitable components provided for selection in the user dialog are determined based on already selected automation hardware components.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the suitable components provided for selection in the user dialog are further determined by the automation tool based on already selected automation hardware components.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the components provided for selection in the user dialog are determined by using data from a database.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the contents of the database result from previous selections of the automated hardware.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the contents of the database result from previously selected individual components of the automated hardware and information on compatibility of individual components based on previous selections.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the description of the automation solution is a control program for controlling the automation hardware that is to be selected.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the control program for controlling the technical process considers a plurality of inputs assigned by the technical process and influences a plurality of outputs assigned by the technical process, and wherein an input list comprising the plurality of inputs and an output list comprising the plurality of outputs are the elements of the description, and wherein scope of the input list is used to select automation hardware in a form of input modules and scope of the output list is used to select the automation hardware in a form of output modules.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein after the selection of the automation hardware has been completed, a data record representing the selected automation hardware is transmitted to an automation hardware supplier and a quote for the selected automation hardware is thereby obtained or a purchase order for the selected automation hardware is generated.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the automation hardware or the components thereof are custom produced according to the selection made.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the automation hardware supplier uses the data record representing the selected automation hardware to custom produce individual components of the automation hardware.

15. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising producing the selected respective automation hardware, wherein, prior to the producing of the selected automation hardware, the individual hardware components of the selected automation hardware are checked for compatibility with each other, and wherein, when a hardware component from the individual hardware components is incompatible with another individual hardware component from the individual hardware components, the automation toot automatically replaces one of the incompatible individual hardware components with a compatible individual hardware component.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the suitable components provided for selection in the user dialog are determined based on already selected automation hardware components of a different supplier.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining of the suitability of the at least some components provided for selection in the user dialog is performed after all of said at least some components are selected in the user dialog box.