Automation device data interface

• US 7,565,351 B1
• Filed: 06/02/2005
• Issued: 07/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Callaghan, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ly; Anh
• Application Number:
  US11/143,207
• Time in Patent Office: 1,510 Days
• Field of Search: 709/246, 709217-219, 709223-224, 709238-244, 709/201, 709/220, 707/10, 707100-102, 707/1, 707/8, 700/96, 700/159, 700/169, 700/9, 700/17, 700 19- 20, 700/49, 702/33
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence

Abstract

The subject invention pertains to facilitating communication between industrial automation devices such as controllers and data systems and/or services. Systems and methods are provided that receive statements or other unit of data interaction from an automation device, provide the statements to an appropriate system or service for processing, and optionally return a response such as a result set. Furthermore, in accordance with an aspect of the invention native controller code, variables, or tags can be mapped to stored data, procedures or combinations of data and/or procedures and updated automatically or semi-automatically.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system to facilitate interaction between automation devices and database systems or services comprising following components stored in a computer memory of the system:

a device interface component, resident at the automation device, that receives one or more statements from one or more automation devices, wherein the device interface component is a Common Industrial Protocol object interface that receives Common Industrial Protocol objects that map to database statements;

a data interface component, resident at the automation device, that receives the statements from the device interface component and transmits the statements to a database, the database executes the statements and returns a response, indicating a result of execution of the statements at the database, to the automation device through the data interface component and the device interface component to facilitate interaction between the automation devices and the database;

wherein the database executes the statement by entering values into a specified table and returns the response indicative of a successful write or an error, to the automation device, from the database through the data interface component and the device interface component.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a database system that receives the statements from the data interface component and executes the statements on a database.

3. The system of claim 2, the database system returns a response including at least one of an indication of whether the statements were successfully executed and a result set that satisfies the one or more statements.

4. The system of claim 2, the device interface component receives declarative database statements from the one or more automation devices.

5. The system of claim 1, the one or more automation devices communicate with the device interface component via Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.

6. The system of claim 1, the data interface component communicates with a database via a Java Database Connectivity connector.

7. The system of claim 1, the data interface component communicates with a database via one of an Open Database Connectivity connector and a web service connector.

8. The system of claim 1, the data interface component includes a database driver to enable communication with a particular database.

9. The system of claim 1, the device interface component provides an open socket connection to the one or more automation devices.

10. The system of claim 1, the device interface component and the data interface component are part of one of a server application, a middleware application, and an automation device application.

11. The system of claim 1, the device interface component filters the number and time transactions are transmitted to the data interface component.

12. The system of claim 1, an industrial automation device persists local data to an object-oriented database via communication with the device interface component.

13. The system of claim 12, the communication is initiated with the device interface component by the automation device upon receipt of a remote command.

14. The system of claim 1, the data interface component communicates with a service including one of a network service and a web service.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the device interface component batches the received statements from one or more automation devices and transmits the batches to the data interface component upon receipt of a predetermined number of statements.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the device interface component employs at least one of a neural network, a Bayesian belief network, a fuzzy logic, a support vector machine and a classifier to aid in determining the batch size and time to transmit the batch.