Application builder for industrial automation

• US 8,359,573 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Issued: 01/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ICS Triplex ISaGRAF Inc. (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Chouinard, Julien, Brunet, Gilles, Lavallee, Denis, Trang, Chan-Dara, Laliberte, Jean-Francois, Larouche, Olivier, Darveau, Frdric
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Ted T
• Application Number:
  US12/242,409
• Publication Number:
  US 20100083229A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: 717100-129
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect

Abstract

A control system development platform is provided. The platform includes a shell component adapted to support development of a control systems application. An abstract model is associated with the shell component to facilitate development of the control systems applications.

Claims

1. A control system development platform to facilitate operation of an industrial automation process, comprising:

a memory storing computer executable components; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, that facilitates operation of at least one of the computer executable components, the computer executable components comprising;

a shell component configured to utilize an abstract model to facilitate development of a control systems application, wherein the abstract model represents, with a common representation, a plurality of disparate industrial automation protocols utilized to program at least one industrial controller configured to control at least one device associated with the industrial automation process, and the abstract model is configured to facilitate interaction with a representation of the plurality of industrial automation protocols without presentation of operational differences among the plurality of industrial automation protocols; and

a manager component configured to interface with the shell component, wherein the manager component is further configured to control access to the control systems application as a function of the development of the control systems application.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component is further configured to control the access based on content of a license object, wherein the license object includes a serialized collection comprising at least one of a command feature, a permission, or a constraint.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the command feature is an action performed on a data object associated with the control systems application including an addition, an update, a deletion, or a setting of a bound.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the command feature is configured to be optionally related to a constraint configured to specify a condition or an availability status, wherein the condition includes an enabled condition, a disabled condition, or a hidden condition.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component is further configured to determine the access based on content of a license that defines an event or a delegate type.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component is further configured to determine the access based on content of a license key, wherein the license key is retrieved by a license provider from a web site.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a license editor configured to display or modify an available feature, a permission, or a constraint associated with a license utilized by the management component to control the access.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component is configured to control the access based on operation of a role manager configured to employ an abstract model associated with at least one of a user role, a user authentication or a mapping of at least one role.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the abstract model is configured to provide an interface to facilitate definition of at least one property or method utilized for management of the user role.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component is configured to control the access based on operation of a user role editor configured to perform at least one of display an available user group, set authentication for a user group, or associate at least one feature received from a license provider or a feature matrix.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component is further configured to utilize a feature matrix configured to dynamically enable, disable, or hide at least one feature of a control system solution.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the feature matrix is utilized by at least one of a menu update, a tool bar update, a public method invocation, a property setter, or a validation method.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the feature matrix is configured to create a permission set for each feature declared by a loaded module.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the permission set is an aggregation of at least one of a license, a user role or an element status permission object.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the permission set further defines an unknown feature name as a custom feature comprising the permission set.

16. A method, comprising:

determining, by a system including a processor, a plurality of disparate industrial automation protocols associated with at least one industrial controller comprising an industrial automation process, wherein the plurality of disparate industrial automation protocols facilitate operation of the at least one industrial controller in controlling at least one device associated with the industrial automation process;

abstracting the plurality of industrial automation protocols to a common representation, wherein the common representation facilitates interaction with the plurality of industrial automation protocols without presenting the operational differences between the plurality of industrial automation protocols; and

controlling access to at least one component associated with the common representation, wherein the access is controlled based at least in part on information associated with a license manager or a feature matrix.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising adapting a user role component associated with the common representation to facilitate controlling the access to the common representation.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the feature matrix includes an access state having a status of enabled, disabled, visible, hidden, checked, or unchecked.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising creating at least one permission based at least in part on the access state comprising the feature matrix.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computing system including a processor to perform operations, comprising:

determining a plurality of disparate industrial automation protocols associated with at least one industrial controller comprising an industrial automation process, wherein the plurality of disparate industrial automation protocols facilitate operation of the at least one industrial controller in controlling at least one device associated with the industrial automation process;

abstracting the plurality of industrial automation protocols to a common representation, wherein the common representation facilitates interaction with the plurality of industrial automation protocols without presenting the operational differences between the plurality of industrial automation protocols; and

controlling access to the common representation including controlling the access based at least in part on information associated with a license manager or a feature matrix.