HMI views of modules for industrial control systems

• US 7,835,805 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Hood, Gavan W, Kalan, Michael D., Chand, Sujeet, Hall, Kenwood H., D'Mura, Paul R., Plache, Kenneth S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahta; Kidest
• Application Number:
  US11/536,746
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082185A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,509 Days
• Field of Search: 700 1- 2, 700 17- 20, 700/83, 700/86, 700/89, 717 10- 11, 717/9, 717/5, 709/1, 709/100, 709/202, 709/224, 709/303, 719/315
• US Class Current: 700/20
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/409 characterised by using manual data input [MDI] or by using control panel, e.g. controlling functions with the panel; characterised by control panel details or by setting parameters G05B19/408, G05B19/4093 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23258 GUI graphical user interface, icon, function bloc editor, labview
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23261 Use control template library
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36133 MMI, HMI: man machine interface, communication

Abstract

A human machine interface (HMI) interface for an industrial automation system is provided. A module is provided that employs resources and logic to expose functionality of the module while providing generic interfaces to external components of the module. A human machine interface (HMI) component associated with the module adapts functionality of a display based at least in part on a type of user or application. In addition to the display, the HMI component adapts functionality of one or more interface inputs based in part on the type of user or application.

Claims

1. A human machine interface (HMI), embodied on a computer readable storage medium, for an industrial automation system, comprising:

a module component, comprising a plurality of modules, the plurality of modules comprising;

at least one equipment resource control module, comprising;

a common interface that includes one or more attributes and input/output capabilities that are standard among a plurality of modules; and

logic of a first platform that controls a state of at least one equipment resource in the industrial automation system;

at least one material resource control module, comprising;

the common interface that includes one or more attributes and input/output capabilities that are standard among the plurality of modules; and

logic of a second platform that controls at least one component in the industrial automation system that manages at least one material resource; and

at least one resource module that coordinates the at least one equipment resource control module and the at least one material resource control module, wherein the at least one material resource control module is subordinate to the at least one equipment resource control module; and

a human machine interface (HMI) component that presents a display or a view of at least one of the plurality of modules, the HMI component alters one or more display objects or interface inputs based at least in part on a user role or a type of application.

2. The HMI of claim 1, further comprising one or more module classes and templates that are maintained in libraries, wherein the one or more module classes and templates facilitate access to desired interface functions.

3. The HMI of claim 1, at least one of the plurality of modules includes one or more attributes that are exposed or hidden based on the user role or the type of application.

4. The HMI of claim 3, the one or more attributes include one or more command interfaces.

5. The HMI of claim 4, the one or more command interfaces are used as access points that include one or more of real time diagnostics or security.

6. The HMI of claim 4, the one or more command interfaces include one or more of input/output (I/O) mapping or material management logic routines.

7. The HMI of claim 3, the one or more attributes include one or more alarm and event messages visible to external systems during execution of at least one of the plurality of modules.

8. The HMI of claim 7, the one or more attributes include one or more artifacts that include information that documents an operation or a structure of a resource or an interface.

9. The HMI of claim 1, the display provides at least one of an Organizational View, a Geographical View, or an Asset Management View of at least one of the plurality of modules.

10. The HMI of claim 1, further comprising an application component that determines the user role, determines the type of application that the user has selected, and alters the display or the view.

11. The HMI of claim 10, the application component determines the role based on direct input from the user or inferred from a task.

12. The HMI of claim 1, further comprising a developer view that shows substantially all interfaces, logic, and data of at least one of the plurality of modules, a deployment view that shows administrative elements of interest when configuring a system, a management view for debugging and maintenance of applications, or resource logic views for design and management of a control system.

13. The HMI of claim 12, the developer view, the deployment view, and the management view show at least two module components cooperating to form an application.

14. The HMI of claim 12, the deployment view enables an administrator to resolve interface connections required for proper operation of at least one of the plurality of modules including internal and external connections.

15. The HMI of claim 12, the deployment view facilitates loading of at least one of the plurality of modules component into at least one controller.

16. The HMI of claim 12, the deployment view enables attributes associated with the at least one of the plurality of modules to be bound to one or more system components.

17. The HMI of claim 12, the management view provides a black box representation of the at least one of the plurality of modules where logic and resources are hidden and module component functionality is exposed.

18. The HMI of claim 17, the management view includes public interfaces with defined semantics, public properties that can be used to configure the at least one of the plurality of modules and report a state of the at least one of the plurality of modules, or alarm and event messages that are published by the at least one of the plurality of modules.

19. The HMI of claim 17, further comprising production execution views or maintenance views that present CAD drawings, I/O wiring diagrams or message logs associated with the module component.

20. The HMI of claim 12, further comprising a component that navigates between at least two of the deployment view, the management view or the resource logic views.

22. The HMI of claim 11, the application component is associated with one or more classifiers that monitor the application and infer the role from the task.

21. A method for generating an industrial control interface, comprising:

employing a processor to execute computer executable code stored on a storage medium to perform the following acts;

defining a first module, comprising;

choosing one or more resources that perform one or more actions in an industrial automation system from a plurality of resources, wherein the plurality of resources includes at least two of an equipment resource, a material resource, a segment resource or a storage resource; and

defining logic to control the one or more actions performed by the one or more resources;

defining at least one standard interface for the first module independent of a platform of the logic based in part on a user type, an application, and a location; and

associating the at least one standard interface with at least a second module;

deploying the first module, comprising binding the first module to at least one run time process that utilizes a hierarchical common data model; and

altering the at least one standard interface for the module based in part on the user type, the application, and the location.