Industrial automation asset and control project analysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11449028-B2
Application number	US-202017011213-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 3, 2020
Priority date	Sep 3, 2020
Publication date	Sep 20, 2022
Grant date	Sep 20, 2022

Abstract

An industrial development hub (IDH) supports industrial development and testing capabilities that are offered as a cloud-based service. The IDH comprises an enhanced storage platform and associated design tools that serve as a repository on which customers can store control project code, device configurations, and other digital aspects of an industrial automation project. The IDH system can facilitate discovery and management of digital content associated with control systems, and can be used for system backup and restore, code conversion, and version management.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for analyzing industrial control projects, comprising:
a memory that stores executable components; and
a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the executable components, the executable components comprising:
a user interface component configured to receive, from a client device via a cloud platform, an industrial control project comprising at least control programming and device configuration data that, in response to execution on one or more industrial devices, facilitate monitoring and control of an industrial automation system;
a project telemetry component configured to generate project telemetry data based on a first analysis of the industrial control project, the project telemetry data defining characteristics of the one or more industrial devices and predicted operating characteristics of the industrial control project inferred based on the first analysis; and
a project analysis component configured to:
perform a second analysis on the project telemetry data, wherein the second analysis comprises at least performing a comparison of the project telemetry data with at least one of plant-specific standards definitions stored in a customer-specific repository or industry-specific standards definitions stored in a knowledgebase, and
in response to determining, based on a result of the comparison, that an aspect of the industrial control project deviates from at least one of the plant-specific standards definitions or the industry-specific standards definitions, generate a recommendation for modifying the industrial control project in a manner that brings the aspect into compliance with the at least one of the plant-specific standards definitions or the industry-specific standards definitions,

wherein the user interface component is configured to render the recommendation on the client device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the project telemetry component is configured to
determine, as a portion of the project telemetry data, an inventory of the one or more industrial devices used in the industrial control project, and
determine other industrial assets included in the industrial automation system based on analysis of device configuration data for the one or more industrial devices.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein
the system is configured to maintain multiple vendor-specific repositories that store digital device profiles representing industrial assets provided by respective different equipment vendors, the digital device profiles defining functional specifications for the industrial assets, and
the project analysis component is configured to, in response to determining that a device profile, of the digital device profiles, corresponds to an industrial device of the one or more industrial devices identified by the project telemetry data, generate another recommendation for modifying the industrial control project based on a comparison of the project telemetry data with the device profile.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the recommendation or the other recommendation comprises at least one of a recommended replacement or reconfiguration of the industrial device to reduce an amount of memory or processing resources consumed by the industrial control project, a recommended replacement or reconfiguration for the industrial device to increase an I/O capacity for the industrial control project, a recommendation to utilize a currently unused feature of the industrial device to improve a performance metric of the industrial control project, or a recommended reconfiguration of the industrial control project to increase an expected lifespan of the industrial device.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein
the industrial control project defines a control sequence involving an industrial device represented by a device profile of the digital device profiles, and
the project analysis component is configured to, in response to determining, based on analysis of the control sequence and the device profile, that the control sequence will cause an operating capacity threshold of the industrial device to be exceeded, generate an indication of a modification to the industrial control project that increases an available operating capacity of the industrial device.

6. The system of claim 3 , wherein
the project analysis component is configured to identify, based on the comparison of the project telemetry data with the device profile, that the industrial device supports a feature that is currently unused by the industrial control project and that would improve a performance metric of the industrial control project, and
the other recommendation comprises a recommendation to modify the industrial control project to utilize the unused feature.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the project telemetry data comprises at least one of an inventory of I/O modules or control modules used by the industrial control project, identification of industrial equipment connected to the I/O modules, a functional relationship between items of the industrial equipment or the one or more industrial devices, an amount of available I/O utilized by the industrial control project, estimated network bandwidth consumed by the industrial control project, a usage frequency of an industrial device of the one or more industrial devices, an estimated lifecycle for the industrial device, an estimated time-to-failure of the industrial device, an estimated amount of memory consumed by the industrial control project, an estimated amount of energy consumed by the industrial control project, or an estimated amount of processing utilization by the industrial control project.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plant-specific standards definitions or the industry-specific standards definitions define at least one of a safety integrity level requirement, definition of interlocks or permissives to be associated with a specified type of control operation, control coding standards, preferred equipment vendors whose equipment is approved for use in the industrial control project, or a preferred sequence of operations for executing a specified type of control operation.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein
the project analysis component is further configured to aggregate subsets of project telemetry data, collected from multiple industrial control projects, relating to vendor-specific industrial assets to yield aggregated telemetry data, and to generate usage statistics for the vendor-specific industrial assets based on the aggregated telemetry data, and
the user interface component is configured to render the usage statistics on a client device associated with an industrial equipment vendor that provides the vendor-specific industrial assets.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the usage statistics comprise at least one of indications of which of the industrial equipment vendor's products are being used at customer facilities, indications of where the industrial assets are being used, indications of degrees to which available features of the industrial assets are being used in the multiple industrial control projects, or indications of how closely the industrial assets are being operated to their functional capacities.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein
the second analysis further comprises comparing the industrial control project with a subset of archived control projects that perform equivalent control functions as the industrial control project, and
the project analysis component is further configured to generate an indication of an aspect of the industrial control project that deviates from corresponding aspects of the subset of the archived control projects.

12. The

Assignees

• Rockwell Automation Tech Inc

Inventors

• Miller Scott A
• Reynolds Nathan
• Como Christopher Wayne
• Sandler Nathaniel S
• Dunn Ryan P
• Mccleave Jr Bruce T
• Reissner Kyle
• Briant Stephen C

Classifications

• G05B19/4093 Primary

  characterised by part programming, e.g. entry of geometrical information as taken from a technical drawing, combining this with machining and material information to obtain control information, named part program, for the NC machine · CPC title

• G05B19/41885

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

• G06Q10/087

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/20

  Administration of product repair or maintenance · CPC title

• G05B19/41865 Primary

  characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow · CPC title