Three-dimensional immersive system for representing an automation control environment

• US 8,547,376 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2011
• Issued: 10/01/2013
• 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: Reichard, Douglas R., Gordon, Kevin G., Bromley, Clifton H., Dorgelo, Eric G., Virji, Shafin A., Semkow, Marc D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phu K
• Application Number:
  US13/208,817
• Publication Number:
  US 20110298796A1
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 345/419, 345/420, 700/83, 703/1, 703/21, 715/700, 715/705, 715/762
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/20 Perspective computation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/00 Manipulating 3D models or images for computer graphics
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing

Abstract

A computer-implemented system for representing a production environment comprises a modeling module that creates a three-dimensional model of at least a portion of a production environment. The system also includes a view module that renders a graphical depiction of at least a portion of the three-dimensional model from a reference point that is based at least in part upon a location. Methods of using the system are also provided.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system including at least one processor, reference point data including a reference point related to a location in an industrial automation environment;

rendering, by the system, a representation of an object within a field of view of the industrial automation environment, wherein the field of view is determined based on the reference point and context information related to a role of a user in the industrial automation environment; and

displaying, by the system, at least one of data and metadata associated with the object as a textual representation with the representation of the field of view.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

rendering, by the system, a representation of a second object within the field of view; and

displaying, by the system, at least one of second data and second metadata associated with the second object as a textual representation with the representation of the field of view.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering further comprises rendering a cell of a model of the industrial automation environment based on the reference point.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of data and metadata is associated with an operating condition of the object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the object is a machine.

6. A device, comprising:

a memory that stores computer-executable components; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the computer-executable components to at least;

receive data including a reference point relative to a location in an industrial automation environment;

calculate a field of view based on the reference point;

render a representation of the field of view of the industrial automation system; and

display at least one of data and metadata associated with the representation as a textual description with the representation.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the device is a mobile device.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the location is a physical location of the mobile device.

9. The device of claim 6, further comprising an interface configured to display the representation.

10. The device of claim 6, wherein the representation comprises a graphical representation of a first machine and the at least one of data and metadata is displayed as a textual description of the first machine.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the representation comprises a graphical representation of a second machine and the at least one of data and metadata is displayed as a textual description of the second machine.

12. The device of claim 6, wherein the at least one of data and metadata is related to the location.

13. The device of claim 6, wherein the location is a logical location.

14. The device of claim 6, wherein the processor further facilitates the execution to render the representation of the field of view based on a context related to a user.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the context is based on a role of the user within the industrial automation environment.

16. The device of claim 14, wherein the context is based on a current time.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein the context is based on a role of the user within the industrial automation environment and a time.

18. The device of claim 6, wherein the field of view is rendered based on a first cell of a model of the industrial automation environment.

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

receiving a reference point related to a location in an industrial automation environment;

determining a field of view of the industrial automation environment based on the location;

rendering a graphical representation of the field of view filtered based on context information related to a user; and

displaying at least one of data and metadata associated with the field of view as text associated with the graphical representation of the field of view.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the graphical representation comprises a graphical representation of a machine and the at least one of data and metadata is related to the machine.