Distribution policy for propagation of changes to process control objects

• US 9,513,780 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2013
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Scott, Cindy, Firkins, Molly Marie, Bellville, Keith R., Jones, Bryan Michael, Ott, Michael George, Marruchella, Dawn, Jundt, Larry Oscar
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pan, Yuhui R
• Application Number:
  US14/048,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20140100676A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,155 Days
• Field of Search: 700/83
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4188 characterised by CIM planning or realisation
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25067 Graphic configuration control system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31418 NC program management, support, storage, distribution, version, update
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31467 Display of operating conditions of machines, workcells, selected programs
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31472 Graphical display of process
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32128 Gui graphical user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

Techniques for flexibly configuring an operating process plant or process control system enable a change to a parent object to be selectively propagated to child objects derived from the parent object, so that a first subset of child objects and their respective instantiations are updated with the change, while a second subset and their respective instantiations remain unchanged. The parent object may be a class or instance process object corresponding to a process entity, and the first and/or the second subset of child objects may be selected. In some cases, the change may have been a propagated change, to the parent object, from a child object that is excluded from the first or the second subset of child objects. In some cases, the change may first be propagated to an instance object derived from the parent object, and then propagated from the instance object to a child object.

Claims

1. A method of flexibly configuring a process plant, comprising:

receiving an indication of a modification to a parent object corresponding to an entity of the process plant, the parent object corresponding to a set of child objects derived from the parent object, each derived child object corresponding to a respective specific element of the process plant, and the respective specific element operating according to an instantiation of the each derived child object to provide a respective function corresponding to one or processes being controlled in the process plant;

publishing the modification to the parent object;

based on a distribution policy, propagating the published modification of the parent object to each derived child object of the set of derived child objects, including;

(i) upon completion of the publishing of the modification to the parent object, automatically propagating the published modification of the parent object to a first set of child objects, the first set of child objects comprising any child object included in the set of derived child objects and indicated by the distribution policy as being subject to an automatic propagation;

(ii) upon completion of the publishing of the modification to the parent object, delaying, by a specified time interval indicated by the distribution policy, the propagation of the published modification of the parent object to a second set of child objects, the second set of child objects comprising any child object included in the set of derived child objects and indicated by the distribution policy as being subject to a phased propagation and, upon a lapse of the specified time interval, automatically propagating the published modification of the parent object to the second set of child objects; and

(iii) upon completion of the publishing of the modification to the parent object, delaying the propagation of the published modification of the parent object to a third set of child objects, the third set of child objects comprising any child object included in the set of derived child objects and indicated by the distribution policy as being subject to a manual propagation, and propagating the published modification of the parent object to the third set of child objects upon a reception of a subsequent explicit user request indicative of instantiating the published modification at the respective specific elements corresponding to the third set of child objects; and

for each child object to which the published modification of the parent object has been propagated and thereby for which a modified each child object has been generated, causing an instantiation of the modified each child object to be generated, and causing the instantiation of the first subset of modified each child object to be executed in the respective specific element corresponding to the modified each child object so that the respective specific element corresponding to the modified each child object operates at run-time according to the instantiation of the modified each child object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving at least one of:

an indication of a selection of the first set of child objects, an indication of a selection of the second set of child objects, or an indication of a selection of the third set of child objects.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the distribution policy further indicates whether or not changes are to be propagated to at least one of:

a particular class object or a particular process element object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of:

automatically propagating, upon the completion of the publishing of the modification to the parent object, the modification to the first set of child objects includes automatically propagating the modification to a first instance object derived from the parent object, wherein at least one of the child objects included in the first set of child objects is derived from the first instance object;

or

automatically propagating, upon the lapse of the specified time interval, the modification to the second set of child objects includes automatically propagating the modification to a second instance object derived from the parent object, wherein at least one of the child objects included in the second set of child objects is derived from the second instance object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication of the modification to the parent object comprises receiving an indication of at least one of:

an addition to a content of the parent object,

a deletion of at least a first part of the content of the parent object,

a disablement of the at least the first part of the content of the parent object or of at least a second part of the content of the parent object,

an enablement of a disabled content of the parent object,

a change to a value included in the parent object,

a change to a reference included in the parent object, or

a resolution of a reference included in the parent object.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified time interval is a first specified time interval, and the method further comprises

delaying an execution of the instantiation of the second set of modified child objects at respective specific elements until a lapse of a second specified time interval different from the first specified time interval.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the respective specific elements corresponding to the set of derived child objects includes at least one of a display module, a control module, or module that routes communications using a network included in the process plant.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication of the modification to the parent object comprises receiving an indication of a modification to a class object.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a modification to a particular child object, the particular child object included in the set of derived child objects, and the particular child object is not a member of the first set of child objects, the particular child object is not a member of the second set of child objects, and the particular child object is not a member of the third set of child objects; and

propagating the modification of the particular child object to the parent object; and

wherein receiving the indication of the modification to the parent object comprises receiving an indication of the propagated modification of the particular child object for the parent object.

33. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a user input indicating that at least one derived child object of the set of derived child objects is to be subject to the phased propagation, and causing an indication of the at least one derived child object being subject to the phase propagation to be stored in the distribution policy.

10. An apparatus for flexibly configuring a process plant, comprising:

a flexible configurator communicatively coupled to one or more specific elements included in the process plant, each of the one or more specific elements corresponding to one or more processes being controlled by the process plant, the flexible configurator including computer-executable instructions stored on one or more tangible, non-transitory memories, and the computer-executable instructions being operable by one or more processors to;

receive an indication of a user modification corresponding to a parent object corresponding to an entity of the process plant, the parent object corresponding to a set of child objects derived from the parent object, each derived child object corresponding to a respective specific element of the process plant, and the respective specific element operating according to an instantiation of the each derived child object to provide a respective function corresponding to one or more processes being controlled in the process plant;

propagate, based on a distribution policy, the user modification to the set of derived child objects to create a set of modified derived child objects, the distribution policy indicating;

a first set of any child objects, included in the set of derived child objects, that are subject to automatic propagation, whereby the user modification is automatically propagated to each member of the first set of any child objects upon completion of the user modification being applied to the parent object;

a second set of any child objects, included in the set of derived child objects, that are subject to a phased propagation, whereby the user modification is automatically propagated to each member of the second set of any child objects upon a lapse of a specified time interval after the completion of the user modification being applied to the parent object; and

a third set of any child objects, included in the set of derived child objects, that are subject to a manual propagation, whereby the user modification is manually propagated to each member of the third set of any child objects based on one or more explicit user indications that are received after the user modification has been applied to the parent object; and

cause respective instantiations of the set of modified derived child objects to be transmitted to the respective specific elements so that each of the respective specific elements operates at run-time according to the respective instantiation of the corresponding modified child object.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least one of:

the first set of any child objects is a selected first set of any child objects;

the second set of any child objects is a selected second set of any child objects, or the third set of any child objects is a selected third set of any child objects.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the distribution policy includes at least one distribution parameter corresponding to one or more objects, the one or more objects including at least one of:

the parent object, one or more derived child objects that are subject to automatic propagation, one or more derived child objects that are subject to phased automatic propagation, one or more derived child objects that are subject to manual propagation, or an instance object that is a parent object of at least one derived child object and that is derived from the parent object.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one distribution parameter is modifiable.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one distribution parameter corresponding to the one or more objects indicates a policy for accepting one or more propagated modifications at the one or more objects.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one distribution parameter corresponding to the one or more objects indicates a policy for propagating one or more modifications to the one or more objects.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein:

at least one child object included in the first set of any child objects, the second set of any child objects, or the third set of any child objects is derived from an instance object;

the instance object is derived from the parent object;

the user modification corresponding to the parent object is a user modification to the parent object;

the propagation of the user modification to the at least one child object is based on a propagation of the user modification to the instance object; and

the propagation of the user modification to the instance object is based on the user modification to the parent object.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein:

the user modification corresponding to the parent object is a modification propagated from a user modification to a particular child object;

the particular child object is derived from the parent object;

the particular child object is not a member of the first set of any child objects;

the particular child object is not a member of the second set of any child objects; and

the particular child object is not a member of the third set of any child objects.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least one child object included in the first set of any child objects, the second set of any child objects, or the third set of any child objects is derived from an instance object, and the instance object is derived from the parent object.

19. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the user modification to the parent object comprises at least one of:

an addition to a content of the parent object,

a deletion of at least a first part of the content of the parent object,

a disablement of the at least the first part of the content of the parent object or of at least a second part of the content of the parent object,

an enablement of a disabled content of the parent object,

a change to a value included in the parent object,

a change to a reference included in the parent object, or

a resolution of a reference included in the parent object.

20. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the parent object is one of a class object or an instance object derived from the class object.

21. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the respective function corresponding to the one or more processes being controlled in the process plant includes a function for presenting a display on a user interface, the display including real-time information generated by the one or more processes being controlled by the process plant.

22. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the respective function corresponding to the one or more processes being controlled by the process plant includes a control function executed to control the one or more processes.

23. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein respective function corresponding to the one or more processes being controlled in the process plant includes a delivery function executed to route a communication whose contents are used to control the one or more processes.

24. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the transmission of the set of modified derived child objects to the respective specific elements occurs only after the set of modified derived child objects is approved or published.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein at least one child object included in the set of approved or published modified derived child objects is re-named.

34. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the specified time interval is a first specified time interval, and wherein the distribution policy further indicates whether an instantiation of a particular modified derived child object, included in the set of modified derived child objects, is subject to:

an automatic transmission, whereby the instantiation of the particular modified derived child object is transmitted to the respective specific element upon completion of the propagation of the user modification to the particular modified derived child object;

a phased transmission, whereby the instantiation of the particular modified derived child object is transmitted to the respective specific element after a lapse of a second specified time interval after the completion of the propagation of the user modification to the particular modified derived child object;

or

a manual transmission, whereby the instantiation of the particular modified derived child object is transmitted to the respective specific element based on a subsequent user indication received after the completion of the propagation of the user modification to the particular modified derived child object.

26. A method of flexibly configuring a process plant, comprising:

receiving an indication of an update to a parent object, wherein each child object of a plurality of child objects is derived from the parent object, and an instantiation of the each child object is executed in a respective element to perform a respective function corresponding to controlling one or more processes in the process plant;

updating, based on the indication, the parent object to generate an updated parent object;

propagating, to the plurality of child objects and based on a distribution policy, the update to generate a set of updated child objects, including;

(i) upon generation of the updated parent object, automatically propagating the update to a first set of child objects, the first set of child objects comprising any child object included in the plurality of child objects derived from the parent object and indicated by the distribution policy as being subject to an automatic propagation;

(ii) upon the generation of the updated parent object, delaying, by a specific time interval indicated by the distribution policy, the propagation of the update to a second set of child objects, the second set of child objects comprising any child object included in the plurality of child objects derived from the parent object and indicated by the distribution policy as being subject to a phased propagation, and, upon a lapse of the specific time interval, automatically propagating the update to the second set of child objects; and

(iii) upon the generation of the updated parent object, delaying the propagation of the updated to a third set of child objects, the third set of child objects comprising any child object included in the plurality of child objects derived from the parent object and indicated by the distribution policy as being subject to a manual propagation, and, propagating the update to at least one member of the third set of child objects upon receiving a subsequent explicit user request indicative of propagating the update to the at least one member of the third set of child objects; and

causing respective configurations of the respective elements corresponding to the set of updated child objects to be updated according to the respective instantiations of the set of updated child objects so that the respective elements operate in real-time according to respective instantiations of the set of updated child objects.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein distribution policy includes a distribution parameter corresponding to:

the at least one of the members of the first set of child objects, the second set of child objects, or the third set of child objects, or

an instance object from which the at least one of the members of the first set of child objects, the second set of child objects, or the third set of child objects is derived, the instance object derived from the parent object.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein propagating the update to at least one child object included in the plurality of child objects comprises propagating the update to an instance object derived from the parent object and, based on the update to the instance object, propagating the update to the at least one child object included in the plurality of child objects.

29. The method of claim 26,

further comprising:

receiving an indication of an update to a particular child object, wherein the particular child object is derived from the parent object, the particular child object is not a member of the first set of child objects, the particular child object is not a member of the second set of child objects, and the particular child object is not a member of the third set of child objects; and

propagating, to the parent object, the update to the particular child object; and

wherein receiving the indication of the update to the parent object comprises receiving an indication of the update of the particular child object propagated to the parent object.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein receiving the indication of the update to the parent object comprises receiving an indication of at least one of:

an addition to a content of the parent object,

a deletion of at least a first part of the content of the parent object,

a disablement of the at least the first part of the content of the parent object or of at least a second part of the content of the parent object,

an enablement of a disabled content of the parent object,

a change to a value included in the parent object,

a change to a reference included in the parent object, or

a resolution of a reference included in the parent object.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising receiving an indication of an approval or a publication of the set of updated child objects, and wherein causing the respective configurations of the respective elements to be updated according to the respective instantiations of the set of updated child objects comprises causing the respective configurations of the respective elements to be updated according to the respective instantiations of the set of updated child objects after the set of updated child objects is approved or published.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein receiving the indication of the approval or publication of the set of updated child objects includes re-naming at least one child object included in the set of updated child objects.

35. The method of claim 26, wherein the specific time interval is a first specific time interval, and wherein causing respective configurations of the respective elements corresponding to the set of updated child objects to be updated according to the respective instantiations of the set of updated child objects comprises at least one of:

causing the configuration of a first particular element, indicated by the distribution policy as being subject to an automatic distribution, to be automatically updated upon the instantiation of a first particular updated child object corresponding to the first particular element;

causing the configuration of a second particular element, indicated by the distribution policy as being subject to a phased distribution, to be automatically updated after a lapse of a second specific time interval corresponding the instantiation of a second particular updated child object corresponding to the second particular element;

or

causing the configuration of a third particular element, indicated by the distribution policy as being subject to a manual distribution, to be manually updated based on a user input received subsequent to the instantiation of a third particular updated child object corresponding to the third particular element.

36. The method of claim 26, further comprising updating the distribution policy according to a user input.