INDUSTRIAL SIMULATION USING REDIRECTED I/O MODULE CONFIGURATIONS

• US 20120232869A1
• Filed: 10/07/2011
• Published: 09/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Staron, Raymond J., Carnahan, Danny L., Hall, Kenwood H., Maturana, Francisco P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,756,041 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/7
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 17/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0423 Input/output
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/13174 Pc, computer connected to plc to simulate machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06G 7/66 for control systems for optimisation G06G7/122

Abstract

A simulation environment for running a process simulation used to validate an industrial control program. The simulation environment exposes the I/O module configurations defined in the control program and retrieves module configuration information therefrom. This I/O module configuration information is combined with generic, module-specific I/O module profiles to create a pool of available controller I/O points, which can be selectively associated with I/O points in the simulation to create an I/O point mapping. During control program validation, simulated I/O data is exchanged between the process simulation and the I/O module instances in the controller in accordance with the I/O point mapping.

Claims

1. A system for interfacing a simulation with an industrial control program, comprising:

a configuration retrieval component configured to discover and retrieve an I/O module configuration, defined in the industrial control program, that defines one or more available I/O points of the industrial control program; and

a simulated I/O kernel configured to use the I/O module configuration to exchange simulation data with an I/O module instance corresponding to the I/O module configuration.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an I/O connection pool configured to leverage the I/O module configuration to expose the available I/O points to the simulation.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the I/O connection pool is further configured to retrieve, from a directory service, a generic I/O module profile corresponding to an I/O module represented by the I/O module configuration, and to customize the generic I/O module profile using the I/O module configuration to yield an available I/O point list.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the generic I/O module profile defines one or more characteristics of the I/O module, the one or more characteristics including at least one of a module type, an I/O point count, a communication characteristic, a data processing function, or a graphical representation.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein an available I/O point of the available I/O point list includes connection information that allows the simulated I/O kernel to establish a connection with an I/O point of the I/O module instance in the industrial control program, wherein the I/O point of I/O module instance corresponds with the available I/O point.

6. The system of claim 3, further comprising a simulation development interface configured to display the available I/O point list and to receive mapping input that selectively associates an available I/O point from the available I/O point list with a simulation I/O point of the simulation to yield an I/O point mapping.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the simulated I/O kernel is further configured to exchange the simulation data with the I/O module instance in accordance with the I/O point mapping.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration retrieval component and the simulated I/O kernel are configured to reside on at least one of a simulation workstation or a simulation module, and to communicate with an industrial controller hosting the industrial control program.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration retrieval component and the simulated I/O kernel are configured to reside on a common workstation with the industrial control program.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a synchronization component configured to adjust a simulation clock of the simulation to converge with a controller clock of the industrial control program.

11. A method for establishing simulation data linkages, comprising:

querying a control program to identify an I/O module configuration defined in the control program;

retrieving the I/O module configuration;

employing the I/O module configuration to establish a data linkage between a simulated I/O point in an automation system simulation and an I/O module instance corresponding to the I/O module configuration and residing in the control program.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating an I/O connection pool, based on the I/O module configuration, that exposes at least one I/O point of the control module instance to the simulation.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the generating the I/O connection pool comprises:

identifying an I/O module corresponding to the I/O module configuration;

retrieving a generic I/O module profile corresponding to the I/O module; and

customizing the generic I/O module profile using the I/O module configuration.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising establishing the data linkage between the simulated I/O point and a corresponding I/O point of the I/O module instance using connection information defined in the I/O connection pool.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the establishing the data linkage includes creating an I/O point mapping between the simulated I/O point and the corresponding I/O point of the I/O module instance based on selection input.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising exchanging simulation data between the simulated I/O point and the corresponding I/O point of the I/O module instance in accordance with the I/O point mapping.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising packaging simulated I/O data generated by the automation system simulation using common industrial protocol prior to sending the simulated I/O data over the data linkage.

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

discovering an I/O module configuration corresponding to an I/O module instance defined in a control program;

generating an I/O connection pool defining available controller I/O associated with the I/O module configuration;

exchanging simulated I/O messages between a simulation of an industrial system and the I/O module instance using connection path information defined in the I/O connection pool.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the generating comprises:

retrieving, from a directory service, a generic I/O module profile corresponding to a control module defined by the I/O module configuration; and

configuring the generic I/O module profile using the I/O module configuration to generate the I/O connection pool.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

displaying the available controller I/O defined by the I/O connection pool; and

establishing a communicative association between a simulated I/O point of the simulation and a selected one of the available controller I/O in accordance with selection input.