Message engine

• US 8,782,249 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2006
• Issued: 07/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Hood, Gavan W., Kalan, Michael D., Chand, Sujeet, D'Mura, Paul R., Hall, Kenwood H., Plache, Kenneth S., Bromley, Clifton H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gillis, Brian J
• Application Number:
  US11/536,395
• Time in Patent Office: 2,847 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/227, 709/228, 709/230, 700/1
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31181 Controller and device have several formats and protocols, select common one
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/35379 Conversion, normalize
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

Systems and methods that facilitate messaging capabilities within a plant (e.g., a unified plant model—UPM) via employing a message engine that normalizes messaging of various messaging protocols and formats, wherein various systems of such plant can map to the message engine; and provide a consistent interface where events are sent/received consistently across such system. Such messaging engines can facilitate communication (e.g., via preferred channels) to other services/products, wherein the configuration and management of messaging is consistent across the system.

Claims

1. A system for message exchange comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor and storing computer-executable instructions that facilitate operation of components comprising;

a first message engine configured to

normalize messages of different protocols and formats received from respective industrial devices of an industrial system based on a unified plant model (UPM) to yield normalized messages, wherein the UPM represents the industrial devices in terms of at least one of physical locations of the industrial devices or logical addressing of the industrial devices,

locate a second message engine and determine configuration information for the second message engine based on information retrieved from the UPM, and

exchange the normalized messages with at least one of a device or application via the second message engine based on the configuration information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine is further configured to support at least one of self describing messaging or non-self-describing messaging.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a view component configured to render information pertaining to the UPM, wherein the information is common to a proprietary device and a third party legacy device represented by the UPM.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine comprises an optimization component configured to determine at least one communication requirement for transmission of the a message, of the messages, between the industrial devices represented by the UPM.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine comprises an adapter component configured to facilitate communication between the industrial devices represented by the UPM in accord with an industrial standardof communication protocol.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine comprising a registration component configured to register an application to be associated with the first message engine.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first messaging engine is further configured to update a quality of service metric associated with the UPM in accordance with an update received from an administration environment device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine is further configured to configure a message, of the messages, based on a quality of service metric associated with the UPM.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising an artificial intelligence component configured to facilitate identification of at least one protocol or format utilized by at least one network or application comprising the UPM, wherein the identification of the at least one protocol or format facilitates communication between the industrial devices represented by the UPM.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a library that contains product messaging definitions related to operations performed by the industrial devices for which messages are to be generated, wherein the first messaging engine is further configured to facilitate access to the product messaging definitions by the industrial devices to facilitate communication of the normalized messages to at least one of a service or a product.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine comprises an application interface configured to provide a common access point between an application and the first message engine.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a management interface comprising an integrator component and a historian associated with the UPM.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine is further configured to transmit the normalized messages to a recipient, and the recipient is at least one of an industrial controller, a robot, a state machine, a subscriber to the first message engine, a database, a server, a client, an integration server, a business system, a business application, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), a Manufacturing Execution System (MES), or a Machine Control (MC) system.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine is integrated with an industrial controller.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a security component configured to authorize message posting to the first message engine and message retrieval from the first message engine.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a notification component configured to notify an industrial controller associated with the first message engine that a message, of the messages, was successfully stored by the first message engine.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine is further configured to send the normalized messages independent of an availability of at least one of a sending device that sends the normalized messages or a recipient device to which the normalized messages are directed.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the first message engine is further configured to facilitate negotiation between a sending device of the normalized messages and a recipient device of the normalized messages to determine a transmission strategy for sending the normalized messages, and wherein the transmission strategy comprises at least one of selection of a network link, a determination regarding whether to aggregate two or more messages, selection of a server through which to send the normalized messages, or a determination regarding whether to unicast or multicast the normalized messages.

19. A method of message exchange between devices within an industrial plant, comprising:

receiving, by a first message engine comprising one or more processors, a message from a source;

retrieving, by the first message engine in association with a unified plant model (UPM) representing devices of an industrial process as a function of at least one of physical locations of the devices or logical addressing of the devices, at least one property relating to a destination of the message;

locating, by the first message engine, a second message engine associated with the destination of the first message and configuration information for the second message engine based on the UPM;

normalizing, by the first message engine, the message to a common format employed for messaging between the devices represented by the UPM to yield a normalized message; and

sending, by the first message engine, the normalized message to the destination via the second message engine based on the configuration information.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising integrating a device into the UPM in response to the device being incorporated into the industrial plant.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising determining, by the first message engine, at least one communication requirement for transmittal of the normalized message based on the at least one property.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the at least one property relates to an Object Linking and Embedding interface.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

referencing, by the first message engine, a message definition stored in a data library associated with the devices represented by the UPM, wherein the sending comprises sending the normalized message based on the message definition.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the message definition is stored in the data library in association with an industrial operation for at least one of the devices represented by the UPM.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising gathering at least one attribute relating to transmission of at least one of the message or the normalized message.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising managing an exchange of the message and the normalized message with at least one device comprising the industrial plant.

27. A system comprising:

a processor configured to execute instructions to perform operations, comprising;

defining a plurality of devices associated with an industrial process in a unified plant model (UPM), including depicting the plurality of devices in the UPM based on at least one of physical location or logical addressing of respective devices of the plurality of devices;

associating, with the UPM, information relating to at least one communication protocol or at least one message format pertaining to the plurality of devices represented by the UPM;

normalizing, by a first message engine and based on the UPM, a message received from a first device of the plurality of devices for delivery to a second device of the plurality of devices to yield a normalized message;

locating, by the first message engine, a second message engine associated with the second device and determining configuration information for the second message engine based on information provided by the UPM; and

sending, by the first message engine, the normalized message to the second device via the second message engine based on the configuration information.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising associating a device with the UPM.

29. The system of claim 27, further comprising determining a quality of service associated with the message.

30. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon facilitating message exchange between devices within an industrial plant, the instructions comprising:

instructions for receiving a message from an external source, wherein the external source is a first device of a plurality of devices included in a unified plant model (UPM) representation, and the UPM representation is configured to facilitate depiction of the plurality of devices based on at least one of physical locations or logical addressing of the plurality of devices;

instructions for employing a first message engine to retrieve, in association with the UPM representation, at least one property relating to an external destination of the message, wherein the external destination is a second device represented by the UPM representation;

instructions for employing the first message engine to normalize the message to a common format employed for messaging between the plurality of devices to yield a normalized message;

instructions for employing the first message engine to locate a second message engine associated with the external destination and determine configuration information associated with the second message engine based on the UPM representation; and

instructions for employing the first message engine to send the normalized message to the external destination via the second message engine based on the configuration information.