Industrial operator interfaces interacting with higher-level business workflow

• US 7,801,628 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Issued: 09/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Briant, Stephen C., Kalan, Michael D., Hood, Gavan W., Baier, John J., Chand, Sujeet, Hall, Kenwood H.
• Primary Examiner(s): DeCady; Albert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Garland; Steven R
• Application Number:
  US11/239,935
• Publication Number:
  US 20070078667A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,817 Days
• Field of Search: 700/12, 700/17, 705/1, 705/1.1
• US Class Current: 700/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided that enable high-level and abstract business engines to affect and influence plant-floor or industrial operations via dynamic and flexible operator interfaces. In a similar manner, actions directed from the operator interfaces can be communicated to higher level decision components of an enterprise to facilitate automated control and dynamics of the enterprise. In one aspect, an industrial automation system is provided. The system includes one or more controllers to process transaction events in an industrial automation environment. One or more operator interface components are provided that automatically adapt interface control functionality based on the transaction events.

Claims

1. An industrial automation system, comprising:

a processor executing computer executable components stored in memory, the components comprising;

at least one controller that employs a Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) to control operations of an enterprise, wherein the BPEL comprises at least one business process, and the at least one controller includes a transaction engine that determines abstract business level conditions and plant level conditions by automatically monitoring business variables and plant variables and automatically sends a message to an operator interface upon detection of business variable or plant variable changes, wherein the message comprises a state of the at least one business process and one or more controls; and

at least one operator interface that processes the message and responsive to the message dynamically alters interface control functionality based on the message.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is associated with at least one of a programmable logic controller (PLC), a communications module, or a server.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one business process comprises a plurality of structured activities, the structured activities include at least one of:

a sequence activity, a switch structured activity, a while activity, a pick activity or a flow construct.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one operator interface employs data expressions to process the message.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the data expressions include transition conditions, join conditions, while conditions, switch cases, and either deadline-valued expressions or duration-valued expressions.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the message includes one or more business process activity.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more business process activity is associated with an attribute, wherein the attribute is at least one of a name, a join condition or an indicator.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more business process activity employs at least one element.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one element is associated with at least one of a source or a target.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one element synchronizes relationships between one or more operator interfaces or one or more transaction engines.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one activity employs at least two nested elements.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one activity includes a web service that performs work in the at least one business process.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the work is a synchronous request/response invocation that employs an input variable and an output variable.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the output variable includes a fault message.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the work is an asynchronous one-way invocation.

16. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one activity includes fault and delay processing.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the fault and delay processing employs a throw activity that provides a globally unique name for a fault.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the fault and delay processing employs a wait activity that allows a business process to specify a delay for at least one of:

a period of time or until a deadline is reached.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the controls include at least one of:

altering routines, procedures, instructions, variables, parameters or authorizations.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one operator interface automatically administers the controls.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the BPEL includes at least one abstract business process defined by referencing port types of services involved in the process.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one operator interface includes at least one of a resource interface or an equipment interface.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the equipment interface includes at least one of a barcode scanner, a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader or a pH meter.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one operator interface is a graphical user interface (GUI).

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one business process specifies state-full interactions involving an exchange of messages between the controller and the operator interface.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one business process employs conditional constructs, time-out constructs and exceptional conditions.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one operator interface processes exceptions from the at least one business process by employing at least one of error handling, compensation handling, or fault messages.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one operator interface comprises an event processing component that processes the message as an event, wherein the event is at least one of a message event, an alarm event, an event enablement, an event processing, an event disablement, or a fault handling.

29. The system of claim 1, wherein the message includes at least one of a synchronous operation or an asynchronous operation.

30. An industrial automation system, comprising:

a processor executing computer executable components stored in memory, the components comprising;

at least one industrial controller that employs a Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) to control operations of an enterprise; and

at least one interface that exchanges messages comprising a state of at least one business process in a bidirectional manner with the at least one industrial controller and employs either a deadline valued data expression or a duration-valued data expression to process the messages and to dynamically alter interface control functionality responsive to the messages.

31. An industrial automation system, comprising:

a processor executing computer executable components stored in memory, the components comprising;

at least one controller that employs a Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) to control operations of an enterprise; and

at least one operator interface that exchanges messages in a bidirectional manner with the at least one controller, wherein the at least one operator interface dynamically alters its control functionality responsive to the messages,

wherein the messages comprise one or more business process activity, wherein a business process activity includes fault and delay processing and the fault and delay processing employs at least one of;

a throw activity that provides a globally unique name for a fault or a wait activity that allows the business process to specify a delay for at least one of;

a period of time or until a deadline is reached.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the at least one operator interface comprises an event processing component that processes the messages as an event.