Enabling transactional mechanisms in an automated controller system

• US 8,275,680 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• 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: Chand, Sujeet, Hall, Kenwood H., Hood, Gavan W., Baier, John J., Kalan, Michael D., Braint, Stephen C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Havan, Thu Thao
• Application Number:
  US11/241,410
• Publication Number:
  US 20070078736A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,552 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 39
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a controller that facilitates implementing a transaction between a controller and a business system within an industrial automation environment. An interface component can facilitate receipt of data associated with a business system at the programmable logic controller. The controller can incorporate a transaction component that executes a transaction related to the business system.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions configured to implement the system, comprising;

an interface component configured to receive, from a business system, a request for data, stored on an industrial controller, that corresponds to a specified data class; and

a transaction component configured to execute a transaction definition, defined in the industrial controller, corresponding to the specified data class,

wherein the transaction component is further configured to roll back a transaction executed by the transaction definition to a configurable save point in response to a failure of the transaction.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction component is further configured to open a channel that links the industrial controller to the business system in response to execution of the transaction definition.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction component is further configured to subscribe the business system to the industrial controller based at least in part upon execution of the transaction definition.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the transaction component is further configured to send the data to the business system at least one of periodically or in response to occurrence of a defined event in accordance with an instruction included in the request.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the hierarchically structured data model is based upon at least one of International Society of Automation S95 standard (ISAS95) or International Society of Automation S88 standard (ISA_S88).

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction component is further configured to roll back the transaction to the configurable save point in response to a failure of communication between the industrial controller and the business system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the industrial controller relates to a hierarchically structured data model that represents a physical hierarchical location within an industrial automation environment.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the physical hierarchical location is indicative of at least one of a factory level, a cell level, a subcell level, an input within a subcell, or an output within the subcell.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the transaction component is further configured to convert the data to a hierarchical format that conforms to the hierarchically structured data model prior to sending the data to the business system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the industrial controller is configured to atomically communicate with a second industrial controller to coordinate a process.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction definition defines a plurality of queries between the industrial controller and the business system.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the specified data class is at least one of maintenance data, alarms, production schedule data, device capacity, part availability, or batch operation information data.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction component is further configured to utilize at least one standard behavior that includes at least one of a request transaction, a prepare transaction, a commit transaction, or a rollback transaction.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the transaction component is further configured to allow an override of the at least one standard behavior.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the override is at least one of logic to implement a behavior, a standard entry point, or a state transition.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction component is further configured to execute an operation to reserve at least one of a raw material or a piece of equipment, and to at least one of commit the operation or roll back the operation to the configurable save point based on an availability indicated in a database.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a query component configured to enable a network client to discover the transaction definition within the industrial controller via a query of a configuration file for the industrial controller.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction component is further configured to determine whether to complete an incomplete transaction or abort the incomplete transaction during a recovery operation based on an analysis of a log of transaction data associated with the incomplete transaction.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising a log component configured to record log data related to a transaction executed by the transaction definition.

20. A method that facilitates implementing a transactional operation, comprising:

using a processor to execute computer-executable instructions stored in a memory to perform operations, including;

receiving, from a business system, a request for data corresponding to a specified data type;

executing a transaction definition, stored on an industrial controller, corresponding to the specified data type;

defining a save point, for a transaction performed by the transaction definition, specifying a point in the transaction; and

rolling back the transaction to the save point in response to a failure of the transaction.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the rolling back includes rolling back the transaction in response to a communication failure occurring between the business system database and the industrial controller during the executing.

22. The method of claim 20, the operations further including implementing a hierarchically structured data model representing a physical hierarchical location, within an industrial environment, of at least one of a device, a tag, or a variable associated with the industrial controller.

23. The method of claim 22, the operations further including:

opening a communication channel between the industrial controller and the business system in response to the executing; and

sending at least a subset of the data to the business system over the communication channel.

24. The method of claim 23, the operations further including:

converting at least the subset of the data to a hierarchical naming format in conformance with the hierarchically structured data model prior to the sending.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the executing the transaction definition includes executing the transaction definition defining a plurality of queries between the industrial controller and the business system.

26. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computing system to perform operations, including:

receiving a request to subscribe a business system to receive controller data corresponding to a specified data type;

executing a transaction definition, defined on an industrial controller, corresponding to the specified data type; and

rolling back a transaction associated with the transaction definition to a defined save point in response to occurrence of a failure of the transaction.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, the operations further including sending the at least a subset of the data to the business system at least one of periodically or in response to occurrence of a defined event in accordance with an instruction included in the request.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the rolling back comprises rolling back the transaction in response to occurrence of a communication failure between the business system database and the automation controller during the transaction.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, the operations further including:

opening a channel that communicatively links the industrial controller and the business system in response to the executing; and

sending at least a subset of the controller data from the industrial controller to the business system over the channel in accordance with the transaction definition.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, the operations further including converting the at least a subset of the controller data to a hierarchical naming convention that conforms to a hierarchically structured data model defining a hierarchical location of the industrial controller within an industrial environment.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the executing the transaction definition includes executing the transaction definition defining a plurality of queries between the industrial controller and the business system.