Automatic controller relationship resolution

• US 7,996,093 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2008
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Liberman, Eugene, Kalan, Michael D., Govindaraj, Subbian, Staron, Raymond J., Hall, Kenwood H., D'Mura, Paul R., Rischar, Charles Martin, Jasper, Taryl J., Kretschmann, Robert J., Vasko, David A.
• Primary Examiner(s): VON BUHR, MARIA N
• Application Number:
  US12/019,463
• Publication Number:
  US 20090192645A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,293 Days
• Field of Search: 700/1, 700/2, 700 18- 20, 700/86, 700/87, 709220-225, 709/248, 711204-207, 707/10, 712216-220, 717/110, 717/111, 717/120, 717/121, 717/162, 719/331, 719/332
• US Class Current: 700/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31327 Directory service for database

Abstract

In an industrial control system, a relatively large number of bindings can permeate between different controllers. As a modification is made in a primary binding, supplemental bindings can be impacted and can become erroneous. The supplemental bindings can be automatically resolved such that they are no longer erroneous. Resolution can take place through access of a distributed directory that holds information related to the different controllers. To lower a likelihood of control system error or failure, the primary binding and supplemental binding can be placed online in synchronization.

Claims

1. A system capable of implementation upon an industrial control configuration, comprising:

an obtainment component that collects metadata related to a binding change in a controller relationship;

a correction component that resolves at least one dependent relationship that depends from the controller relationship, wherein the at least one dependent relationship requires resolution based upon the binding change; and

a synchronization component that makes active in the industrial control configuration the binding change and the resolved at least one dependent relationship within a time window tolerance of each other.

2. The system of claim 1, the correction component utilizes a directory component to resolve the at least one dependent relationship.

3. The system of claim 2, the directory component implements as a distributed directory.

4. The system of claim 1, resolution of the at least one dependent relationship takes place at runtime.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a recognition component that identifies at least one relationship that is dependent upon the binding change in the controller relationship, the at least one identified dependent relationship is resolved by the correction component.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a validation component that authenticates the binding change in the controller, wherein the correction component does not resolve the at least one dependent relationship unless the change is authenticated.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a backup component that retains information of a controller state before the binding change, if the binding change is not authenticated, then the controller is reinstated through the retained information.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an assessment component that tests a resolved dependent relationship.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising an evaluation component that analyzes a result of the tests.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a gate component that cancels the tested dependent relationship resolution and instructs the correction component to re-resolve the resolved dependent relationship if the results of the tests indicate a failure.

11. The system of claim 1, the correction component examines the binding change in the controller relationship as a primary binding in order to resolve the at least one dependent relationship based at least in part upon the collected metadata, wherein the correction component resolves dependent relationships by iteratively:

identifies dependent relationships to the primary binding,

modifies dependent relationships that are affected by the change in the primary binding in order to correct the affected dependent relationships, and

examines each modified dependent relationship by treating the modified dependent relationship as the primary binding.

12. A method capable of implementation upon an industrial control configuration, comprising:

determining if a supplemental binding is at least partially erroneous through alteration of a primary binding;

modifying the supplemental binding such that the supplemental binding is no longer erroneous if the supplement binding is determined to be at least partially erroneous; and

bringing online in the industrial control configuration the alteration of the primary binding and the modified supplemental binding at a substantially equal time.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising analyzing a directory, a result of the analysis is used in modifying the supplemental binding such that the supplemental binding is no longer erroneous.

14. The method of claim 13, the directory is a distributed directory.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising gathering information that relates to the alteration of the primary binding, the gathered information is used to identify the supplemental binding that becomes at least partially erroneous.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein modifying the supplemental binding such that the supplemental binding is no longer erroneous comprises:

evaluating a plurality of solutions to correct the erroneous binding; and

selecting a solution of the plurality of solutions that is determined to provide a best result.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising validating the primary binding modification or the supplemental binding modification.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising nullifying the primary binding alteration or the supplemental binding modification based upon a negative validation result.

19. The method of claim 12, alteration of the primary binding is creating of the primary binding.

24. The method of claim 12, modifying the supplemental binding such that the supplemental binding is no longer erroneous includes deleting a first supplemental binding that is erroneous and creating a second supplemental binding such that the second supplemental binding is not erroneous.

25. The method of claim 12, the supplemental binding that is at least partially erroneous includes when the supplemental binding is in failure according to at least one aspect, when the supplemental binding is no longer optimal, when the supplemental binding becomes unnecessary, or a combination thereof.

20. A system capable of implementation upon an industrial control configuration, comprising:

means for analyzing a distributed directory to determine a supplemental binding that causes an industrial process controlled by the industrial control configuration to become less effective from an alteration to a primary binding;

means for determining a plurality of manners in which to change the supplemental binding to improve effectiveness of the industrial control process;

means for selecting a manner of the plurality of manners that provides the most improvement in effectiveness of the industrial control process.

21. A system, comprising:

means for retaining metadata of a binding among a primary component and a supplemental component in an online directory associated with an executing industrial control configuration controlling one or more industrial processes;

means for automatically resolving the binding in real time in the online directory when the primary component moves from a first location to an auxiliary location in an industrial control system associated with the one or more industrial processes through utilization of the retained metadata.

22. The system of claim 21, the first location and the auxiliary location are physical entities.

23. The system of claim 21, the directory is a distributed directory.

26. A computer program embodied upon a computer-readable storage medium comprising:

program code for collecting metadata related to a runtime binding change in a controller relationship in an online industrial control configuration; and

program code for resolving at least one dependent relationship that depends from the controller relationship, wherein the at least one dependent relationship requires resolution based upon the runtime binding change; and

program code for activating in the online industrial control configuration the runtime binding change and the resolved at least one dependent relationship within a time window tolerance of each other.