Industry template customization and transclusion for use in industrial automation and information solutions

• US 8,255,869 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2008
• Issued: 08/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Weatherhead, N. Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Qing
• Application Number:
  US12/164,901
• Publication Number:
  US 20090327991A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,520 Days
• Field of Search: 717100-113, 700/97
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management

Abstract

The invention relates to a system and/or methodology for the customization and transclusion of design templates/patterns for use in industrial automation. The system provides for the de-abstraction of one or more design templates, and generating engineering specifications via customization of the de-abstracted design templates. Additionally, the invention provides a user interface for modification of the template de-abstraction and/or customization process.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating customization of de-abstracted design templates, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable components that at least partly implement the system, including;

a transclusion component configured to de-abstract at least one design template according to a requirement of an automation project by appending at least one class specific layer to the at least one design template to generate at least one de-abstracted design template, wherein the at least one class specific layer includes at least one of an industry specific layer, a customer specific layer, an application specific layer, or a project specific layer; and

a customization component configured to customize the at least one de-abstracted design template to generate at least one customized de-abstracted design template, and generate at least one design specification for the automation project based at least in part on the at least one customized de-abstracted design template, wherein the at least one design specification includes at least one hardware design specification that specifies at least one hardware module that at least partly implements the automation project.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the customization component is further configured to customize the at least one de-abstracted design template based on at least one of an input from an interface, an associated application, or a customization schema.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable components further include an interface component configured to allow interaction with at least one of the transclusion component, the customization component, or a data store.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface component is further configured to expose at least one interface that enables at least one of selection of the at least one design template, selection of at least one class specific layer to append to the at least one design template, selection of a transclusion schema, selection of a customization schema, or customization of the at least one de-abstracted design template.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the transclusion component is further configured to de-abstract the at least one design template based on at least one of a project requirement definition or a functional specification provided to the transclusion component.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the transclusion component is further configured to determine at least one class specific layer to append to the at least one design template based at least in part on the project requirement definition, the functional specification, an input from an interface, or a transclusion schema.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the project requirement definition defines at least one of a product to be manufactured, a quality tolerance, or a rate of production.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the transclusion component or the customization component employs one or more Holonic agents to facilitate de-abstraction of the at least one design template or customization of the at least one de-abstracted design template.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one design specification further includes at least one software design specification that specifies a sequence of programmable events that at least partly implement the automation project.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the industry specific layer defines at least one regulatory detail specific to an industry to which the automation project relates.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer specific layer defines at least one of a pre-selected vendor to be used by the transclusion component to specify the at least one hardware module or a data set required from software specified by the at least one design specification.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the an application specific layer defines an installation requirement.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the project specific layer defines at least one of a set of process data required by the automation project or equipment configuration information.

14. A method for facilitating customization of de-abstracted design templates, comprising:

employing one or more processors to facilitate executing computer-executable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium to implement acts, comprising;

de-abstracting at least one design template based on a requirement of an industrial project to generate at least one de-abstracted design template, wherein the de-abstracting comprises appending at least one class specific layer to the at least one design template, and wherein the at least one class specific layer includes at least one of an industry specific layer, a customer specific layer, an application specific layer, or a project specific layer;

customizing the at least one de-abstracted design template to generate at least one customized de-abstracted design template; and

generating at least one design specification for the industrial project based at least in part on the at least one customized de-abstracted design template, wherein the at least one design specification includes at least one hardware design specification that specifies at least one hardware module to execute the industrial project.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the customizing comprises customizing the at least one de-abstracted design template based at least in part on at least one of a manual input, one or more data transfers, or a customization schema.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising exposing at least one interface that enables interacting with at least one of the de-abstracting the at least one design template or the customizing the at least one de-abstracted design template.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one interface enables at least one of selecting the at least one design template, selecting at least one class specific layer to append to the at least one design template, selecting a transclusion schema, selecting a customization schema, or customizing the at least one de-abstracted design template.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising automating via artificial intelligence at least one of the de-abstracting the at least one design template or the customizing the at least one de-abstracted design template.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the generating the at least one design specification includes generating at least one software design specification that specifies a sequence of programmable events to execute the industrial project.

20. A system for facilitating customization of de-abstracted design templates, comprising:

means for de-abstracting at least one design template in accordance with at least one requirement of an automation project to generate at least one de-abstracted design template, wherein the means for de-abstracting includes means for appending at least one class specific layer to the at least one design template, and wherein the at least one class specific layer includes at least one of an industry specific layer, a customer specific layer, an application specific layer, or a project specific layer;

means for customizing the at least one de-abstracted design template to generate at least one customized de-abstracted design template; and

means for generating at least one design specification for the automation project based at least in part on the at least one customized de-abstracted design template, wherein the at least one design specification includes at least one hardware design specification that identifies at least one hardware component capable of implementing the automation project.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising means for at least one of selecting the at least one design template, selecting at least one class specific layer to append to the at least one design template, selecting a transclusion schema, selecting a customization schema, or customizing the at least one de-abstracted design template.

22. A computer program product for facilitating customization of de-abstracted design templates, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising;

code that de-abstracts at least one design template based on a project requirement definition for an industrial project to generate at least one de-abstracted design template, wherein the code that de-abstracts comprises code that appends at least one class specific layer to the at least one design template, and wherein the at least one class specific layer includes at least one of an industry specific layer, a customer specific layer, an application specific layer, or a project specific layer; and

code that customizes the at least one de-abstracted design template to generate at least one customized de-abstracted design template, and generates at least one design specification for the industrial project based at least in part on the at least one customized de-abstracted design template, wherein the at least one design specification includes at least one hardware design specification that designs one or more hardware modules for implementation of the industrial project.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, further comprising code that customizes the at least one de-abstracted design template based at least in part on at least one of a manual input, one or more data transfers, or a customization schema.

24. The computer program product of claim 22, further comprising code that exposes at least one interface that enables interaction with at least one of the de-abstracting the at least one design template or the customizing the at least one de-abstracted design template.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the at least one interface enables at least one of selecting the at least one design template, selecting at least one class specific layer to append to the at least one design template, selecting a transclusion schema, selecting a customization schema, or customizing the at least one de-abstracted design template.