Application and service management for industrial control devices

• US 7,693,581 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Batke, Brian A., Callaghan, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Ramesh B
• Application Number:
  US11/764,702
• Publication Number:
  US 20070293952A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,023 Days
• Field of Search: 700/9, 700 17- 20, 700 26- 28, 700 48- 50, 700/104, 709/201, 709217-220, 707/1, 707/8, 707/10
• US Class Current: 700/9
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4188 characterised by CIM planning or realisation
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31101 Configuration file with format of relevant messages for different equipment
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31166 Access data by name, object, stored in list, database
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31324 Distributed real time knowledge, database
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31334 Database with devices, configuration, of plant
• 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: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database

Abstract

The subject invention provides systems and methods that facilitate accessing and management of information (e.g., instructions, executables, classes, objects . . . ) associated with a control system. The systems and methods enable a control system entity the ability to leverage functionality of another control system entity, for example, to employ a service and/or execute an application within an execution environment of the other control system entity. Other capabilities include, but are not limited to, installing and uninstalling, registering and deregistering, loading and/or unloading instructions, commencing, pausing and terminating instruction execution, passing parameters and variables to instructions, modifying, overriding instructions and removing instructions, reliable messages, files, executables, classes, data structures, schema, objects, services, notifications, behaviors, alerts, etc. Optionally, a security mechanism can be utilized to determine the scope of access to the control system entity and/or instructions, applications, and services therein.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates interaction between industrial control components, comprising:

a management component that facilitates execution of at least one of one or more instructions or data operating within an execution environment associated with a first industrial control component, by a second industrial control component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component interacts with one or more of data files, configurations, and objects persisted in a database management system that is remote to the first industrial control component.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component includes a map component that maps data between local and remote databases, the data resides in at least one of memory, data files, object database management system(s) (ODBMS) or relational database management system(s) (RDBMS).

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component is resident on the second industrial control component.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the second industrial control component is one of a hard controller, a soft controller, a Human Machine Interface (HMI), an agent, autonomous I/O, a module, a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, Manufacturing Execution System (MES), an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, a Master Control (MC) system, an application, a sensor network, a bridge, a scanner, a database, a server or a client.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a security component that at least one of denies, provides or revokes access to the first industrial control component by the second industrial control component.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the security component defines a scope of access to the second industrial control component, the scope of access is at least one of application specific or extensible.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the security component authenticates and authorizes the second industrial control component to access the first industrial control component.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component deploys the at least one of one or more instructions or data that comprise a service on the first industrial control component.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component reads or writes data on the first industrial control component.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component and provides information necessary for a service associated with the one or more instructions.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component removes at least one of the one or more instructions or data that comprise a service from the first industrial control component.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component receives at least one of instructions or data from a high-level information system including one or more of an MES system, ERP system, and object or relational databases.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the first industrial control component is one of a hard controller, a soft controller, a module, a scanner, a bridge, a Human Machine Interface (HMI), an agent, or an autonomous I/O.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more instructions are associated with at least one of a reliable message, a binary file, an ASCII file, source code, an executable, a class, a data structure, a schema, an object, a service, a notification, a behavior, an alert, a PLC program, or a timer.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component further enables the second industrial control component to at least one of install, uninstall, register, deregister, load, unload, spawn, invoke, pause, publish, post, search, query, retrieve, move, modify, copy, override, or terminate at least one instruction, application or service deployed on the first industrial control component.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component further enables the second industrial control component to at least one of install, uninstall, register, deregister, load, unload, spawn, invoke, publish, post, search, query, retrieve, move, modify, copy, or override at least one data value, variable, data reference, database value, configuration or file stored on the first industrial control component.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component further enables the second industrial control component to pass at least one of a parameters or a variable to the one or more instructions.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component further enables the second industrial control component to at least one of read or write to an object persistence store, or provide persistence to an object used to execute code related to the execution of the one or more instructions.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component further enables the second industrial control component to at least one of read or write data employed for persistence or configuration of an industrial component, the data includes at least one of a data object, code object, java class or object, java bean, container, or variable to the one or more instructions.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of one or more instructions or data is at least one of encrypted, digitally signed, encoded, compressed, or password protected.

22. An industrial automation device interaction system comprising:

a first industrial automation device; and

a management component included within the first industrial automation device that interacts with automation logic or processes data at least one of provided to, removed from or stored on at least a second industrial automation device.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising a container component included within the first industrial automation device from which at least one of automation logic or data is at least one of added or removed by the management component.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the at least one of automation logic or data is encapsulated by one or more software components.

25. The system of claim 23, further comprising one or more information systems communicatively coupled to the first industrial automation device that provide the at least one of automation logic or data to the management component.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the one or more information systems includes at least one of a database system, an MES system, an MRP system, or an ERP system.

27. A method for executing a service in a first control device by a second control device, comprising:

storing at least one service on the first control device; and

managing the execution of the at least one service by the second control device in an execution environment of the first control device.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the storing the at least one service includes storing at least one of a reliable message, a binary file, an ASCII file, source code, an executable, a class, a data structure, a schema, an object, a service, a notification, a behavior, an alert, or a timer.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising utilizing the second control device to at least one of load, unload, spawn, invoke, pause, publish, post, search, query, retrieve, move, modify, copy, override, or terminate the at least one service deployed on the first control device.

30. The method of claim 27, further comprising utilizing the second control device to pass at least one of a parameter or a variable to the at least one service for execution on the first control device.

31. The method of claim 27, further comprising utilizing the second control device to provide object persistence to the at least one service.

32. The method of claim 27, further comprising at least one of authenticating or authorizing the second control device to utilize the execution environment to execute the at least one service.

33. The method of claim 27, wherein the storing at least one service includes storing a service that is at least one of encrypted, digitally signed, encoded, compressed, or password protected.

34. The method of claim 27, further comprising transmitting data that is at least one of encrypted, digitally signed, encoded, compressed, or password protected to the first control device via the second control device.

35. The method of claim 27, further comprising simultaneously providing the at least one service to the first control device and at least one other device.

36. The method of claim 27, wherein the storing at least one service includes storing a service that is associated with at least one of a diagnostic, a firmware update, a protocol conversion, or a custom-written service.

37. The method of claim 27, wherein the storing at least one service includes storing a service that performs a portion of a control function.

38. A system that facilitates interaction between industrial control components, comprising:

means for deploying at least one instruction in a first industrial control component with an execution environment; and

means for interfacing a second industrial control component to utilize the execution environment of the first industrial control component to run the at least one instruction.