Multilinguistic industrial control and monitoring system

• US 7,716,567 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2000
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Retlich, Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): Stork; Kyle R
• Application Number:
  US09/672,935
• Time in Patent Office: 3,512 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/223, 345/967, 715/526, 715/527, 715/536, 715/500, 715/513, 715/760, 715/853, 715/854, 715/517, 715/523, 715/530, 715/200, 715/234, 715/243, 715/254, 715/273
• US Class Current: 715/200
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0216 Human interface functionality, e.g. monitoring system providing help to the user in the selection of tests or in its configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer

Abstract

A control and monitoring system is adapted to collect parameter data from networked devices, and to display representations of the system or monitored data in a number of selectable languages on a monitoring station. Textual labels for the representations are stored in a system database. Component and system data may also be stored in the database for use in identifying and monitoring the components. The language used for the labels is selectable by a user via a menu, and the corresponding entries in the database are used in building the representations. The language may thus be changed in real time without interrupting the monitoring and control functions of the components or the monitoring station.

Claims

1. A control and monitoring system including a plurality of control and monitoring components coupled to a monitoring station via a data network, the system comprising:

a database including component data descriptive of the components and a plurality of language fields including textual labels for component data presentations translated into a plurality of languages; and

a plurality of monitoring screens viewable on the monitoring station and including representations of component designations and component status parameters based upon monitored data collected by the monitoring station via the data network from the components in which identifying component data is stored, the screens including textual labels for the representations;

wherein the monitoring station is configured to build a view of the components in real-time based upon the identifying component data and to access textual labels in a desired language from the database for display in the monitoring screens based upon the identifying component data collected from the components.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one monitoring screen includes a user viewable menu for selecting the desired language.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the monitoring station is configured to change textual labels in respective monitoring screen upon a change by a user of the desired language without otherwise altering the monitoring screen.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the component data in the database includes component parameter settings.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the component data in the database includes historical event data for the components.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the component data in the database includes textual data descriptive of each component, and wherein the textual data is translated into the desired language for display.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the component data in the database includes data representative of an image of each component.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring station is configured automatically to poll the components for the component status parameters and to display the updated status parameter representations with currently selected desired language labels.

9. An industrial control and monitoring system comprising:

a plurality of control and monitoring components configured to control or monitor application of electrical power to a load, and including at least data identifying the components stored in the respective components;

a data network coupled to the components for accessing parameter and identity data from the components;

a database including component data descriptive of the components; and

a plurality of language fields including textual labels for component data presentations translated into a plurality of languages;

a monitoring station coupled to the data network and configured to access the parameter data and the identifying data from the components; and

a plurality of monitoring representations built in real-time based upon the identifying data and viewable on the monitoring station and including data about components and component status parameters based upon the parameter data, the representations including textual labels from the database in a desired language from the plurality of languages for display in the monitoring screens.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the database is stored at the monitoring station.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the monitoring representations include a user viewable menu of selectable languages.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the monitoring station is configured to access the desired language for the textual labels from the database based upon a user selection made via the menu.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the textual labels are displayed with component status parameters updated in real time.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the desired language may be selectively changed by a user in real time without otherwise altering display of real time updated component status parameters.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the components are configured to store component designation data and to transmit the designation data to the monitoring system upon demand by the monitoring system.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the component data in the database includes component parameter settings.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the component data in the database includes historical event data for the components.

18. The system of claim 9, wherein the component data in the database includes textual data descriptive of each component, and wherein the textual data is translated into the desired language for display.

19. The system of claim 9, wherein the component data in the database includes data representative of an image of each component.

20. A method for monitoring status of a system including a plurality of networked electrical components, the method comprising the steps of:

accessing component status and identity data from a plurality of electrical components of a control and monitoring system via a data network, each component storing its respective identity data;

accessing textual labels corresponding to the component status data from a system database, the database including translations of the textual labels in a plurality of languages and component descriptions for the components; and

displaying a plurality of monitoring representations for the components, built in real-time based on the status and identity data, including presentations of component status data and textual labels in a desired language of the plurality of languages accessed from the database.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the component status data is accessed by a monitoring station through periodic polling of the components by the monitoring station.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the textual labels are accessed from the database in accordance with predetermined fields of the representations.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the textual labels are accessed from the database in accordance with a user selection of the desired language.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the representations include a user viewable menu for selecting the desired language.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the desired language can be changed in real time by user selection via the menu.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein the component descriptions are displayed in the monitoring representations for the respective components.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the component descriptions are stored in the database in the plurality of languages.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the component descriptions are displayed in the monitoring representations in the desired language.