Services associated with an industrial environment employing controller engine instances

• US 7,870,223 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2007
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Govindaraj, Subbian, Staron, Raymond J., Hall, Kenwood H., Kretschmann, Robert J., Rischar, Charles M., Grgic, Richard J., Vasko, David A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Thu
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, NAM T
• Application Number:
  US11/738,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20080208369A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,359 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates providing a service to an industrial environment. A selection component can identify a portion of data hosted by a remote server. A build component can construct at least one of a portion of a customized application or a portion of a customized service based at least in part upon the portion of data, wherein at least one of the portion of customized application or the portion of customized service is utilized within the industrial environment.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates providing at least one of a service or data to an industrial environment, comprising:

at least two controllers associated with the industrial environment, comprising;

a processor that generates at least two controller engine instances and executes the at least two controller engine instances, wherein the at least two controller engine instances control at least two industrial devices or industrial processes; and

a memory that stores the at least two controller engine instances, wherein

at least one of the at least two controller engine instances is shared between the at least two controllers;

a selection component that identifies a portion of data hosted by a remote server based at least in part on a data request related to at least one of the at least two controller engine instances; and

a build component that constructs at least one of a portion of a customized application or a portion of a customized service based at least in part upon the portion of data, at least one of the portion of the customized application or the portion of the customized service is related to at least one of the at least two controller engine instances.

2. The system of claim 1, the build component constructs at least one of the portion of the customized application or the portion of the customized service with at least one of a disparate portion of data hosted by the remote server, a disparate portion of data hosted by the industrial environment, or data created in order to annotate the portion of the customized application or the portion of the customized service.

3. The system of claim 1, the remote server is a remotely accessible palette of at least one of a portion of applications, a portion of services, a portion of data, a tool, a functional block, a portion of processes, or a portion of software.

4. The system of claim 1, at least one of the portion of the customized application or the portion of the customized service is at least one of an emulation of at least one of the at least two controller engine instances, a pre-test for at least one of the at least two controller engine instances, a customized at least one of the at least two controller engine instances, or a load balancing service for at least one of the at least two controller engine instances.

5. The system of claim 1, the portion of the data is at least one of a portion of a partitioned application, a portion of functional blocks, a portion of control blocks, portions of data related to applications, portions of data related to code, or portions of data related to a programming language.

6. The system of claim 1, at least one of the portion of the customized application or the portion of the customized service enables at least one of an isolation of an industrial environment, a prioritization of the industrial environment, a scalability within the industrial environment, an on-line editing, a versioning update, a security within an industrial environment, a load balancing for the industrial environment, a redundancy utilizing multiple controller engine instances within the industrial environment, or a safety related to the industrial environment.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a balance component generated by the build component based upon the portion of data.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a locate component that identifies a part of the portion of data that is not located on the remote server and finds the part of the portion of data within at least one of a plurality of entities.

9. The system of claim 1, the selection component further comprising a security component that defines at least one of a security level, an authorization, or a privilege that corresponds to at least one of the portion of the customized application or the portion of the customized service.

10. The system of claim 1, the selection component further comprising a search component that facilitates querying the remote server for the portion of data.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a log component that tracks data related to at least one of the portion of the customized application, or the portion of the customized service.

12. The system of claim 1, the selection component further comprising a bridge component that is a network bridge between two or more communication networks.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one controller generates at least one of the at least two controller engine instances.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least two controller engine instances executes on the at least one controller with a real time operating system.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least two controller engine instances is a distributed controller engine instance, wherein at least two controllers host the distributed controller engine instance.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least two controller engine instances is hosted on a first controller and handed off to a second controller upon occurrence of at least one event.

17. A method that facilitates remotely serving an industrial environment, comprising:

receiving a data request related to two or more controller engine instances generated by at least two controllers in an industrial environment, wherein the two or more controller engine instances control two or more industrial devices or industrial processes;

sharing at least one of the at least two controller engine instances between the at least two controllers;

providing a portion of data from a remote server based at least in part upon the data request; and

assembling the portion of data to construct a customized service related to the two or more controller engine instances.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

exposing the data request to an entity outside the remote server.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the receiving the data request comprises receiving a selection of at least one of services or applications associated with implementing the two or more controller engine instances.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the assembling the portion of data further comprises assembling the at least one of services or applications associated with implementing the two or more controller engine instances.

21. A method for providing a portion of service to an industrial environment, comprising:

identifying a portion of data hosted by a remote server according to a data request related to two or more controller engine instances generated by at least two controllers, wherein the two or more controller engine instances control two or more industrial devices or industrial processes;

sharing at least one of the two or more controller engine instances between the at least two controllers; and

constructing at least one of a portion of a customized application or a portion of a customized service based at least in part upon the portion of data.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising utilizing the at least one of the portion of the customized application or the portion of the customized service in connection with the two or more controller engine instances.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the identifying the portion of data further comprises identifying the portion of data hosted by the remote server according to a selection of at least one of services or applications associated with implementing the two or more controller engine instances.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the constructing further comprises assembling the at least one of services or applications associated with implementing the two or more controller engine instances.