Enhanced operation diagnostics

• US 8,473,917 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2010
• Issued: 06/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2010
• 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, Norman A., Matheson, Mark K., Xu, Hui
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Qing
• Application Number:
  US12/895,011
• Publication Number:
  US 20120083906A1
• Time in Patent Office: 999 Days
• Field of Search: 717124-135, 700/17, 700/20, 700/26, 700/65, 700/83, 714/37, 714/38.1
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0267 Fault communication, e.g. human machine interface [HMI]

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided that dynamically render permissive status information on a human-machine interface (HMI) to inform an operator of conditions that are preventing an issued control command from executing. A status display generator deployed on the HMI can be associated with a control action to be initiated in a control program via the HMI. The control action can have one or more programmed conditions or permissives that must be satisfied before the control action can be initiated. Operators wishing to review the states of the various conditions can invoke the status display generator, which reads the conditions and their respective statuses from the control program and generates a permissive summary display listing the conditions together with their respective “ready” or “not ready” states. The permissive summary display provides a convenient reference that allows the operator to quickly assess what actions must be taken to place the system in the appropriate state to execute the desired control action.

Claims

1. A system for visualizing permissive diagnostic information, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, having stored thereon computer-executable components configured to implement the system, including;

a program analysis component configured to determine, based on an analysis of a control program, one or more programmed conditions defined within the control program that are to be satisfied to allow activation of a control output; and

a diagnostic display component configured to generate a summary display that indicates the one or more programmed conditions and status information respectively associated with the one or more programmed conditions, wherein the summary display includes an icon associated with a programmed condition of the one or more programmed conditions, and wherein selection of the icon causes the diagnostic display component to render a permissive display for the programmed condition that displays respective one or more permissive statuses associated with the programmed condition.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the program analysis component is further configured to reference at least one of a controller output, an output coil, a tag, or an address associated with the control output and determine the one or more programmed conditions based on an analysis of a portion of the control program that controls a state of the at least one of the controller output, the output coil, the tag, or the address.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the program analysis component is further configured to reference an equipment module deployed in the control program that controls the control output and read the one or more programmed conditions from the equipment module.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the program analysis component is further configured to reference a control module deployed within the control program and read the one or more programmed conditions from the control module.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein at least a subset of the one or more programmed conditions comprise multiple conditions that are aggregated by a multiplex module associated with the control module, and wherein the program analysis component is further configured to identify the multiple conditions aggregated by the multiplex module.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic display component is further configured to render on the summary display an indication conveying whether at least one of the one or more programmed conditions is in a state for the activation of the control output.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the program analysis component is further configured to read from the control program at least one of a comment string or a label string associated with at least one of the one or more programmed conditions, and wherein the diagnostic display component is further configured to render the at least one of the comment string or the label string on the summary display to identify the at least one of the one or more programmed conditions.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the program analysis component and the diagnostic display component are configured to execute in a human-machine interface (HMI) communicatively coupled to an automation controller that executes the control program.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic display component is further configured to render the summary display in response to selection of an icon associated with a composite availability indicator rendered on an interface display screen, wherein a state of the composite availability indicator is a function of an availability status of the control output.

10. A method for displaying permissive status information, comprising:

analyzing a portion of a control program, executing in an industrial controller, that controls execution of a control function;

identifying, based on the analyzing, one or more programmed conditions defined within the portion of the control program that prevent execution of the control function in response to at least one of the one or more programmed conditions being determined not to be satisfied; and

generating a diagnostic summary display that displays the one or more programmed conditions and state information for the one or more programmed conditions, wherein the diagnostic summary display includes an icon associated with a programmed condition of the one or more programmed conditions, and wherein selection of the icon renders a permissive display for the programmed condition that displays respective one or more permissive statuses associated with the programmed condition.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the analyzing comprises analyzing the portion of the control program that controls a state of at least one of a controller output, an output coil, a tag, or an address that initiates the control function.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the analyzing comprises analyzing an equipment module deployed in the industrial controller that initiates the control function.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the analyzing comprises analyzing a control module deployed in the industrial controller, and wherein the control module encodes the one or more programmed conditions.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the analyzing the control module further comprises determining whether a multiplex module provides an aggregated condition status to the control module and identifying a subset of the one or more programmed conditions being aggregated by the multiplex module.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising selecting a display format for the diagnostic summary display from a plurality of predefined display formats.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising rendering on the diagnostic summary display an indication specifying whether at least one of the one or more programmed conditions is in a state allowing the execution of the control function.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

reading at least one of a comment string or a label string associated with a program address for at least one of the one or more programmed conditions; and

displaying the at least one of the comment string or the label string on the diagnostic summary display.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computer to perform operations, the operations comprising:

determining, based on polling a control program, one or more programmed conditions defined within the control program that are to be satisfied in order to allow execution of a control command by the control program; and

generating a condition summary that displays the one or more programmed conditions and at least one state associated with at least one of the one or more programmed conditions, wherein the condition summary includes an icon associated with a programmed condition of the one or more programmed conditions, and wherein selection of the icon renders a permissive display for the programmed condition that displays respective one or more permissive statuses associated with the programmed condition.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising displaying an indication of whether the at least one state allows the execution of the control command by the control program.