State propagation for modules

• US 7,684,877 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carmount, Mark K., Weatherhead, N. Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Ramesh B
• Application Number:
  US11/864,664
• Publication Number:
  US 20080097624A1
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: 700/17, 700/19, 700/21, 700/28, 700/31, 700 78- 79, 700/83, 714/5, 714/25, 714/30, 714/47, 718/1
• US Class Current: 700/21
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31434 Zone supervisor, collects error signals from, and diagnoses different zone
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33294 Nc in case of propagation error, search previous module, origin of error
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0213 Modular or universal configuration of the monitoring system, e.g. monitoring system having modules that may be combined to build monitoring program; monitoring system that can be applied to legacy systems; adaptable monitoring system; using different communication protocols

Abstract

A system facilitates state processing in an industrial control environment is provided. The system includes a module component to facilitate control operations in an industrial control environment. A propagation component is embedded within the module component to communicate state information to at least one other module component. The state information is communicated in an upward or downward direction according to a hierarchical module configuration.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates state processing in an industrial control environment, comprising:

a plurality of module components that control operations in an industrial control environment; and

a plurality of propagation components, wherein a propagation component is embedded within each of the plurality of module components, each propagation component automatically communicates control information associated with the module component in which it is embedded to at least one other module component according to a hierarchy that defines parent and child relationships amongst the module components, the control information includes at least one of fault data, mode data, reset data, or safety data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the control information is communicated in at least one of an upward or downward direction according to the hierarchy.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a component to dynamically define module relationships.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the module component includes a unit module associated with one or more subordinate modules that include one or more equipment modules or control modules.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the hierarchy is user configurable to selectively enable or disable propagation of control information in a defined parent and child relationship between two module components.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the module component includes at least one of a command data structure, a state data structure, a mode control structure, an interlock structure, a simulation control, a configuration data structure, a permissive data structure, a fault data structure, an input data structure or an output data structure.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the fault data is associated with at least one of an alarm condition or a system/module error condition.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the reset data returns a module component to a staffing condition.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the mode data relates to an operating mode of a system that includes at least one of manual, automatic, or semi-automatic mode.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the propagation component allows fault, reset, mode, or safety conditions to move a module up and down the hierarchy, which allows higher level modules to perform a suitable response to a condition.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising an acknowledgement signal to move at least one of up or down the hierarchy that mitigates the need to perform device level fault acknowledgements.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a configuration component to enable how modules respond to the control information.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety data is associated with at least one of presence sensing devices, safety switches, interlock switches, safety relays, emergency stop devices, cable pulls, enabling switches, or safety controllers.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a functional safety component to communicate data at least one of up or down the hierarchy.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the functional safety includes at least one Safety Integrity Level component and at least one performance level component.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one safety parameter that includes at least one of a probability of failure on demand, a Spirius Trip Rate, an Availability, a Mean time between failure, a fault tolerance, a diagnostic coverage, or a systematic safety integrity component.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to publish safety system data over a network to a controller.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the controller consumes the safety system data and dynamically calculates overall safety parameters of a safety system.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the safety system executes a tuning algorithm to facilitate that safety system remains within parameters set for a safety guideline.

20. A method to propagate states for an industrial control process, comprising:

generating one or more conditions associated with at least one of reset, fault, mode, or safety state of at least one of a plurality of modules operating in an industrial automation system; and

automatically propagating the one or more conditions at least one of up or down between at least two of the plurality of modules according to a module hierarchy, wherein the module hierarchy identifies one or more parent and child relationships between the plurality of modules.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising generating an alarm associated with the one or more conditions and propagating the alarm according to the module hierarchy.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising selectively propagating a condition between two modules associated by a parent and child relationship according to a user defined inheritance configuration.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising dynamically defining one or more module relationships.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising dynamically calculating one or more safety parameters.

25. A module control propagation system, comprising:

means for defining a hierarchical organization between a plurality of modules of an automation system, wherein the hierarchical organization establishes parent and child relationships between pairs of the plurality of modules; and

wherein each of the plurality of modules has embedded means for propagating control data associated with the module to another module according to the hierarchical organization, the control data including at least one of fault data, reset data, mode data, or safety data.