System and method for testing a distributed control system of an industrial plant

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10317868-B2
Application number	US-201414773403-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2014
Priority date	Mar 12, 2013
Publication date	Jun 11, 2019
Grant date	Jun 11, 2019

Abstract

A system for testing a distributed control system of an industrial plant is provided. The distributed control system includes at least two industrial control devices and at least one data communication device. The system includes at least one engineering computer that includes an engineering data storage unit for storing engineering data of at least one part of the distributed control system, and at least one human machine interface for manipulating the engineering data. The system also includes at least one remote data processing server connected to the at least one engineering computer via a remote data connection and including an emulating virtual machine on which a soft emulator is installed for emulating one of the at least two industrial control devices and the at least one data communication device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for testing a distributed control system of an industrial plant, the distributed control system having at least two industrial control devices, each industrial control device configured to control operation of a respective actuating part of the industrial plant during a production process of the industrial plant, and at least one data communication device configured to connect each of the at least two industrial control devices with at least a corresponding actuator of the industrial plant,
the system comprising:
at least one engineering computer having an engineering data storage unit for storing engineering data of at least one part of the distributed control system, and at least one human machine interface for manipulating the engineering data; and
at least one remote data processing server connected to the at least one engineering computer via a remote data connection,
wherein the engineering data comprises, a number, a type, and communication configuration information for each of the at least two industrial control devices and the at least one data communication device of the at least one part of the distributed control system, and
wherein the at least one remote data processing server installed outside of the industrial plant comprises:
for each possible type of the at least two industrial control devices and of the at least one data communication device, a separate virtual machine template with an installed soft emulator adapted to the corresponding type, the virtual machine templates being useable to create separate emulating virtual machines for each of the at least two industrial control devices and the at least one data communication device which operate using separate computer resources and execute the respective installed soft emulators so as to emulate software of the at least two industrial control devices and of the at least one data communication device which is executed in the distributed control system on the respective emulating virtual machines, and
an orchestration virtual machine, the orchestration virtual machine configured to:
retrieve a copy of the engineering data via the remote data connection at pre-defined time intervals or whenever the engineering data is amended,
store the copy of the engineering data in at least one remote data storage unit,
add or remove ones of the emulating virtual machines to or from the at least one remote data processing server by creating or deleting copies of the virtual machine templates so that the number of the resulting emulating virtual machines and the types of their corresponding soft emulators match the number and types contained in the copy of the engineering data,
configure the soft emulators in the resulting emulating virtual machines according to the communication configuration information contained in the copy of the engineering data,
ensure that the emulating virtual machines are running,
further configure the soft emulators in the resulting emulating virtual machines by downloading to them from the engineering data storage unit device at least one of configuration data and executable program code of the corresponding industrial control device or data communication device of the at least one part of the distributed control system, at least if their engineering data have been amended, and
communicate with the resulting emulating virtual machines and the at least one or a further human machine interface in order to run the soft emulators of the resulting emulating virtual machines according to simulation commands entered via the at least one or the further human machine interface.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one remote data processing server further comprises a simulation virtual machine containing a runtime environment of a simulation model of the production process of the industrial plant.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the orchestration virtual machine is arranged to retrieve a copy of an update of the simulation model via the remote data connection, whenever the update is available or at pre-defined time intervals, and to load the update into the simulation virtual machine.

4. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the orchestration virtual machine initiates the storing of a previous simulation model before loading the update into the simulation virtual machine.

5. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the orchestration virtual machine is arranged to configure a data communication connection between the resulting emulating virtual machines and the simulation virtual machine based on the communication configuration information of the engineering data.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the orchestration virtual machine is arranged to initiate a distribution of the resulting emulating virtual machines across the at least one remote data processing server.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein one of the soft emulators is arranged to emulate at least one communication interface of one of the at least two industrial control devices.

8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the orchestration virtual machine is configured to at least one of put the resulting emulating virtual machines and the simulation virtual machine in a suspended mode or to store the resulting emulating virtual machines and the simulation virtual machine in the at least one remote data storage unit at a corresponding user request.

9. A method for testing a distributed control system of an industrial plant, the distributed control system comprising:
at least two industrial control devices, each of them being arranged to control operation of a respective actuator of the industrial plant during a production process of the industrial plant, and
at least one data communication device arranged to connect each of the at least two industrial control devices with at least the respective actuating part of the industrial plant,
the method comprising:
storing engineering data of at least one part of the distributed control system in an engineering data storage unit of at least one engineering computer,
providing at least one human machine interface for manipulating the engineering data,
connecting at least one remote data processing server to the at least one engineering computer device via a remote data connection,
storing in the engineering data at least a number, a type, and communication configuration information of the at least two industrial control devices and of the at least one data communication device of the at least one part of the distributed control system,
installing the at least one remote data processing server outside of the industrial plant,
providing in the at least one remote data processing server for each possible type of the at least two industrial control devices and of the at least one data communication device, a separate virtual machine template with an installed soft emulator adapted to the respective type, the virtual machine templates being useable to create separate emulating virtual machines for each of the at least two industrial control devices and the at least one data communication device which operate using separate computer resources and execute the respective installed soft emulators so as to emulate software of the at least two industrial control devices and of the at least one data communication device which is executed in the distributed control system on the respective emulating virtual machines, and
performing, by an orchestration virtual machine running on the at least one remote data processing server:
retrieving a copy of the engineering data via the remote data connection at pre-defined time intervals or whenever the engineering data have b

Assignees

• Abb Technology Ag
• Abb Schweiz Ag

Inventors

• Schroeter Ben
• Dai Fan
• Ding Hao
• Hoernicke Mario
• Mauser Nicolas
• Weber Peter

Classifications

• G05B2219/32345

  Of interconnection of cells, subsystems, distributed simulation · CPC title

• G05B2219/31018

  Virtual factory, modules in network, can be selected and combined at will · CPC title

• Y02P90/12

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G05B19/41885 Primary

  characterised by modeling, simulation of the manufacturing system · CPC title

• Y02P90/18

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic