Optimizing availability and safety by reconfiguring and auto-adjusting redundancy

• US 7,657,814 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2006
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Rollins, George E., Schuster, George K., Delcher, Ray C., Jones, Derek W., Galera, Richard, Dogul, James E., Nair, Suresh R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chase; Shelly A
• Application Number:
  US11/360,177
• Publication Number:
  US 20070198106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,440 Days
• Field of Search: 700/79, 700/83, 700/99, 714/1, 714/11, 714/746, 714/55, 714/797
• US Class Current: 714/746
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 9/03 with multiple-channel loop, i.e. redundant control systems

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides industrial automation systems and/or methods that configure available redundancy. An interface component can obtain input data. Additionally, an optimization component can generate a voting configuration that allocates available redundancy to provide an optimized combination of safety and availability based at least in part on the input data.

Claims

1. An industrial automation system that configures available redundancy, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions to implement the system, including;

an interface component that obtains input data, the input data includes information related to an added industrial automation device;

a redundancy assessment component that evaluates the input data to identify an amount of available redundancy;

an optimization component that generates a voting configuration that allocates the amount of available redundancy to provide an optimized combination of safety and availability based at least in part on the input data.

2. The system of claim 1, the interface component obtains the input data from at least one of an industrial automation device or a user.

3. The system of claim 1, the redundancy assessment component evaluates resources associated with at least one of an industrial automation environment, a machine, or a process and determines an amount of available redundancy therefrom.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a diversification component that analyzes likelihoods of common mode failure associated with one or more voting configurations that employ the available redundancy, and the optimization component utilizes the likelihoods in connection with selecting the voting configuration that provides the optimized combination.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a monitor component that detects at least one of a failure or degradation associated with an industrial automation device.

6. The system of claim 5, the monitor component provides a corrective response to the detected failure.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the corrective response provided by the monitor component at least one of stops operation, permits further operation, or allows for continued operation at a degraded in response to the detected failure.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an initialization component that generates an initial voting configuration at a time of setup of an industrial automation environment.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a real time evaluation component that monitors real time events associated with an industrial automation environment.

10. The system of claim 9, the real time evaluation component evaluates one or more of a level of risk or a level of availability associated with at least one of a system or process at a particular time.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a dynamic configuration component that adjusts utilization of the available redundancy and generates an updated voting configuration.

12. The system of claim 11, the dynamic configuration component generates the updated voting configuration based at least in part upon a monitored real time event.

13. The system of claim 11, the dynamic configuration component utilizes a rule set that provides an adjustment related to the combination of safety and availability associated with a monitored event.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a combination component that assembles information from a plurality of industrial automation devices in accordance with the voting configuration.

15. The system of claim 14, the combination component utilizes weights related to an ability of each of the devices to provide accurate data.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a remote redundancy component that at least one of adds or removes additional redundancy provided by remote devices.

17. The system of claim 16, the remote redundancy component negotiates acquisition of additional redundancy and the optimization component generates an updated voting configuration that accounts for the additional redundancy.

18. The system of claim 17, the optimization component being provided remotely to generate the updated voting configuration.

19. A method that facilitates optimizing utilization of redundancy in an industrial automation environment, comprising:

a processor-implemented act of executing computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium to implement the following;

acts of;

automatically evaluating and determining an amount of available redundancy;

determining an allocation between safety and availability based at least in part upon the available redundancy;

generating a voting configuration based on the allocation that provides an optimized combination of safety and availability; and

generating performance limits based upon the voting configuration.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising combining outputs from a plurality of industrial automation devices in accordance with the voting configuration.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising combining the outputs based at least in part upon weights associated with abilities of the industrial automation devices to provide accurate measurements.

22. The method of claim 19, evaluating the amount of available redundancy further comprises at least one of identifying a number of industrial automation devices included in the environment, determining locations of the devices, or evaluating associations between the devices.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising configuring an industrial automation device included in the industrial automation environment and evaluating the amount of available redundancy utilizing information associated with the configuration.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising determining the allocation between safety and availability based at least in part upon evaluating characteristics associated with at least one of the industrial automation environment, an industrial automation device, a machine, or a process.

25. The method of claim 24, the characteristics comprise at least one of a likelihood of failure or an amount of harm associated with the failure.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising allocating resources to provide for increased safety when a high level of risk of damage associated with continued operation exists.

27. The method of claim 19, further comprising allocating resources to provide for increased availability when downtime yields significant costs.

28. The method of claim 19, further comprising generating the voting configuration based upon at least one of a likelihood of common mode failure, faults currently associated with industrial automation devices, or historical fault related information.

29. The method of claim 19, further comprising monitoring an event associated with the industrial automation environment.

30. The method of claim 29, the events comprise at least one of an occurrence of a fault, an addition of redundancy, a removal of redundancy, or a change in location of a user.

31. The method of claim 29, further comprising dynamically updating the voting configuration to optimize utilization of the available redundancy in view of the monitored event.

32. A system that configures voting in an industrial automation environment, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions to implement the system, including;

means for obtaining input data that includes information related to an added industrial device;

means for evaluating the input data to identify an amount of available redundancy;

means for generating a voting configuration with an optimized allocation of the available redundancy between safety and availability that enables obtaining performance limits; and

means for combining data from a plurality of industrial automation devices in accordance with the voting configuration.

33. An industrial automation system that configures available redundancy, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions to implement the system, including;

an interface component that obtains input data;

an optimization component that generates a voting configuration that allocates the amount of available redundancy to provide an optimized combination of safety and availability based at least in part on the input data; and

a combination component that assembles information from a plurality of industrial automation devices in accordance with the voting configuration.

34. An industrial automation system that configures available redundancy, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions to implement the system, including;

an interface component that obtains input data;

an optimization component that generates a voting configuration that allocates the amount of available redundancy to provide an optimized combination of safety and availability based at least in part on the input data; and

a remote redundancy component that at least one of adds or removes additional redundancy provided by remote devices.