Business process execution engine

• US 7,660,638 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Issued: 02/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Chand, Sujeet
• Primary Examiner(s): Hartman, Jr.; Ronald D
• Application Number:
  US11/239,889
• Publication Number:
  US 20070078525A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,593 Days
• Field of Search: 700/18, 700/86, 700/23, 700/3, 700/8, 700/9, 700/2, 700/11, 700/20
• US Class Current: 700/23
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/056 Programming the PLC
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/13137 Interpreter considers hierarchy of plc in system structure for programming it
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a controller that facilitates implementing a workflow within an industrial automation environment system. An interface component can facilitate the receipt of data associated with a workflow at the programmable logic controller. A controller communicatively coupled to the interface component incorporates an execution engine that can execute the workflow and allow a seamless data flow between applications to provide at least one service.

Claims

1. An industrial controller, comprising the following components stored in computer memory and executable by a processor:

an interface component that facilitates receipt of data associated with a workflow at the controller;

an execution engine that executes the workflow; and

a map component that interprets legacy data into a format that is compatible with the controller that relates to a hierarchically structured data model by using a naming convention based on the hierarchical structured data model to explicitly structure legacy data having an implicit physical hierarchical location of devices controlled by the industrial controller to manufacture a product in an industrial automation environment; and

an intelligent component that facilitates executing the workflow based upon a probabilistic inference calculated by interpreting data captured by the controller and is configured to automatically initiate at least one action based on the inference.

2. The industrial controller of claim 1, the workflow is a business process execution language and initiates at least one of a service and a transaction that synthesizes data received from the controlled devices of the industrial automation environment.

3. The industrial controller of claim 2, the service further comprises providing a detailed process condition.

4. The industrial controller of claim 1, the hierarchically structured data model is based at least in part upon ISA S95®

.

5. The industrial controller of claim 1, the hierarchically structured data model is based at least in part upon ISA_S88®

.

6. The industrial controller of claim 1, the hierarchically structured data model is based at least in part upon a combination of ISA_S95®

and ISA_S88®

.

7. The industrial controller of claim 1, the hierarchically structured data model represents the physical hierarchical location within the industrial automation environment that includes at least one tag and a controlled device.

8. The industrial controller of claim 7, the physical hierarchical location of is indicative of at least a portion of a factory-level, a cell-level, a subcell level, an input within a subcell, and an output within a subcell.

9. The industrial controller of claim 7, the tag is at least one of a virtual input, a physical input, a virtual output, and a physical output related to the programmable logic controller.

10. The industrial controller of claim 7, the device is at least one of a roller, a station, a welder, a scanner, a belt conveyor, a pump, a press, a fan, and a photo eye.

11. The industrial controller of claim 1, the execution engine enables data flow between a plurality of software applications to synthesize data and affect at least one of a service and a transaction.

12. The industrial controller of claim 1, the map component interprets the hierarchically structured data model data into a legacy format that is compatible with at least one legacy device.

13. The industrial controller of claim 1, further comprising a bridge component that provides a first network protocol utilized to carry data from the programmable logic controller and configures the data for transmittal over a second network protocol.

14. The industrial controller of claim 13, the bridge component bridges multiple communication networks.

15. The industrial controller of claim 13, the first network protocol is one of Fieldbus®

, Profibus®

, Hart®

, Modbus®

, ASI-bus®

, and Foundation Fieldbus®

.

16. The industrial controller of claim 15, the second network protocol is Common Industrial Protocol (CIP®

).

17. The industrial controller of claim 1, further comprising an Ethernet component that executes at least one of a process workflow engine and a business process.

24. The industrial controller of claim 2, the service further comprises providing a quality data associated with a batch of product to a database.

25. The industrial controller of claim 2, the service further comprises logging a computational error associated with a process.

26. The industrial controller of claim 2, the service further comprises providing a detailed process condition tracking a mechanical failure within a particular process.

27. The industrial controller of claim 1, the intelligent component further comprises a classifier function that maps an input attribute to a confidence that the input belongs to a class where the classifier employs at least one of support vector machines (SVM), naï

ve Bayes, Bayesian belief networks, decision trees, neural networks, fuzzy logic models or data fusion engines.

18. A method that facilitates implementing a workflow, comprising:

implementing a hierarchically structured data model;

incorporating an execution engine into a controller;

converting legacy data into a format in accordance with the hierarchically structured data model by using a naming convention based on the hierarchical structured data model to explicitly structure legacy data in accordance with an implicit physical hierarchical location of devices controlled by the controller to manufacture a product in an industrial automation environment;

probabilistically inferring at least one user desire and automatic acting based on the at least one user desire; and

enabling seamless data flow between applications relations to the controller to synthesize data.

19. The method of claim 18, the hierarchically structured data model represents the physical hierarchical location within the industrial automation environment of at least one of a controlled device, a tag, and a variable.

20. The method of claim 18, the physical hierarchical location of is indicative of at least a portion of a factory-level, a cell-level, a subcell level, an input within a subcell, and an output within a subcell.

21. The method of claim 18, the hierarchically structured data model is based at least in part upon one or more of ISAS95®

and ISA_S88®

.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising providing at least one of a bridge between at least two disparate networks and a mapping between disparate data.

28. The method of claim 18, the probabilistic inference is based on at least one observation captured as data from within the industrial automation environment where data can be derived from at least one data source.

23. The industrial controller utilized within an industrial automation environment, comprising the following components stored in computer memory and executable by a processor:

means for facilitating receipt of data associated with a workflow at the industrial controller;

means for converting legacy data into a format in accordance with the hierarchically structured data model by using a naming convention based on the hierarchical structured data model to explicitly structure legacy data in accordance with an implicit physical hierarchical location of devices controlled by the programmable logic controller to manufacture a product in an industrial automation environment;

means for probabilistically inferring an action to automatically perform based on user desires; and

means for incorporating an execution engine into the programmable logic controller that executes the workflow.