Systems and methods for communication and/or control of scalable, modular network nodes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10929324-B2
Application number	US-201716461277-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 9, 2017
Priority date	Oct 7, 2016
Publication date	Feb 23, 2021
Grant date	Feb 23, 2021

Abstract

Methods and Systems are described for control at/of a network node. The network node can include a control module and first and second modules coupled to the control module. The first module can be configured to select first input/output (I/O) types of a field device coupled at an I/O interface of the network node. The second module can be configured to select a second I/O types of the field device. The first and second modules can be coupled to the I/O interface through a field device coupler.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A modular network node, the network node comprising:
a control module;
a first module coupled to the control module, the first module being configured to select either a first input type, a first output type, or both, of a first field device coupled at a first input/output (I/O) interface of the modular network node; and
a second module coupled to the control module, the second module being configured to select either a second input type, a second output type, or both, of the first field device coupled at the first I/O interface of the modular network node,
wherein the first module, the second module, or both, are coupled to the first I/O interface through a first field device coupler.

2. The modular network node of claim 1 , wherein the modular network node is configured as a Single Signal Input/Output (SSIO) module.

3. The modular network node of claim 2 , wherein the first module is configured as a Universal Input/Output (UIO) module and the second module is configured as an Ethernet/Serial module.

4. The modular network node of claim 3 , wherein either the first input type, the first output type, or both, is a signal that includes at least one of: analog input/output (AI/AO) signals, discrete input/output (DI/DO) signals, digital in/digital out signals, 4-20 milliamp in/out+Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART) signals, HART in/out signals, Foxcom in/out signals, pulse signals, Standardization Association for Measurement and Control (NAMUR) signals, thermocouple (T/C) signals, Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) signals, or optical networking signals.

5. The modular network node of claim 3 , wherein the second input type, the second output type, or both, is a physical layer, a network protocol, or both, that includes at least one of: Modbus, Serial, Internet Protocol (IP), Open Platform Communications (OPC) Unified Architecture (UA), OPC Data Access (DA), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850, or Ethernet/IP.

6. The modular network node of claim 1 , wherein the field device coupler is configured as a termination assembly (TA), the TA being configured to:
communicate with the first module and the second module of the modular network node using a signal conditioner; and
couple the modular network node at a first slot of a mounting structure.

7. The modular network node of claim 6 , wherein the TA includes a field termination and a field terminal unit.

8. The modular network node of claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to:
generate a control function for the first module and the second module, the control function being generated using control logic stored at a control execution module;
parse the generated control function; and
query the first field device using the parsed control function.

9. The modular network node of claim 8 , wherein the control module is further configured to:
configure the first I/O interface using the query; and
output the generated control function to the first field device.

10. The modular network of claim 9 , wherein the first field device, on receipt of the generated control function, is configured to:
initialize an operation; and
validate the initialized operation.

11. The modular network of claim 1 , wherein the second module includes a second I/O interface, the second I/O interface configured to receive a power input, a second field device, or both.

Assignees

• Schneider Electric Systems Usa Inc

Inventors

• Johnson Alexander Park
• Fox Michael
• Baines Michael Ian
• Green Mark William
• Linscott Richard Linwood

Classifications

• Y02P90/02

  Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] · CPC title

• G05B19/4185

  characterised by the network communication · CPC title

• G05B19/41845

  characterised by system universality, reconfigurability, modularity · CPC title

• G05B19/4183

  characterised by data acquisition, e.g. workpiece identification · CPC title

• G05B19/0423

  Input/output · CPC title