Industrial automation control program generation from computer-aided design

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11726459-B2
Application number	US-202016905130-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 18, 2020
Priority date	Jun 18, 2020
Publication date	Aug 15, 2023
Grant date	Aug 15, 2023

Abstract

An industrial control programming development platform simplifies generation of an industrial control program and associated tag definitions by generating at least a portion of the control program and tag definitions based on analysis of digital engineering drawings of an automation system to be monitored and controlled. This drawing-based program generation includes creation and configuration of smart data tags that model and contextualize controller data at the device level for processing by higher level analytic systems. This device-level contextualization can be based in part on inferences drawn from the digital engineering drawings.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a processor, operatively coupled to a memory, that executes executable components stored on the memory, the executable components comprising:
a user interface component configured to render program development interfaces and to receive, via interaction with the program development interfaces, programming input that defines a first portion of an industrial control program for execution on an industrial controller;
a drawing import component configured to import digital engineering drawings representing an automation system to be monitored and controlled by the industrial controller, the digital engineering drawings comprising at least electrical I/O drawings and mechanical drawings of the automation system; and
a program generation component configured to:
identify, based on analysis of the mechanical drawings, an industrial asset included in the automation system;
discover, based on analysis of the digital engineering drawings, a correlation between input and output devices represented in the electrical I/O drawings and the industrial asset;
identify, based on analysis of the electrical I/O drawings, an input address or an output address of the industrial controller that interfaces the industrial controller to the industrial asset;
identify, based on the correlation, one or more control functions to be carried out by the industrial asset;
generate, as a second portion of the industrial control program a control routine that facilitates control of the industrial asset by the industrial controller to carry out the one or more control functions based on the correlation; and
set an I/O address of the control routine based on the input address or the output address.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein
the digital engineering drawings further comprise at least one of an electrical schematic, a piping and instrumentation diagram, or a flow diagram, and
the program generation component is configured to generate the control routine further based on analysis of at least one of the electrical schematic, the piping and instrumentation diagram, or the flow diagram.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program generation component is configured to
infer, based on analysis of relationships between machines represented in the mechanical drawings, at least one of a type of industrial application or an industrial vertical for which the automation system is designed, and
generate the control routine based on a predefined code segment corresponding to the type of industrial application or the industrial vertical.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein
the program generation component is further configured to generate data tag definitions that define smart tags associated with the industrial control program,
the industrial control program is configured to read data values from and write data values to smart tags, and
the smart tags comprise contextualization metadata that defines correlations between the smart tags relevant to a defined business objective.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the program generation component is configured to set the contextualization metadata for one or more of the smart tags based on a data modeling template, selected from a library of data modeling templates stored on the memory, that corresponds to the defined business objective.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein
the data modeling templates are classified in the library according to at least one of an industrial vertical or a type of industrial application, and
the program generation component is configured to select the data modeling template based on an inference of the industrial vertical or the type of industrial application to which the automation system relates as determined from the digital engineering drawings.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the defined business objective is at least one of maximization of product output, minimization of machine downtime, minimization of machine faults, optimization of energy consumption, prediction of machine downtime events, determination of a cause of a machine downtime, maximization of product quality, minimization of emissions, identification of factors that yield maximum product quality, identification of factors that yield maximum product output, or identification of factors that yield minimal machine downtime.

8. The system of claim 4 , wherein the program generation component is further configured to:
identify an automation object, from a library of automation objects stored on the memory, corresponding to the industrial asset identified in the digital engineering drawings, wherein the automation object defines an automated learning model for learning baseline relationships between two or more key performance variables of the industrial asset; and
set the contextualization metadata for two or more of the smart tags corresponding to the key performance variables based on the automated learning model.

9. A method for generating industrial control programming, comprising:
generating, by a program development system comprising a processor, a first portion of an industrial control program for execution on an industrial controller based on programming input submitted to the program development system;
importing, by the program development system, digital engineering drawings representing an automation system to be monitored and controlled by the industrial controller, wherein the digital engineering drawings comprise at least electrical I/O drawings and mechanical drawings of the automation system;
identifying, by the program development system based on analysis of the mechanical drawings, an industrial asset included in the automation system;
inferring, by the program development system based on analysis of the digital engineering drawings, a correlation between input and output devices represented in the electrical I/O drawings and the industrial asset;
identifying, by the program development system based on analysis of the electrical I/O drawings, an input address or an output address of the industrial controller that interfaces the industrial controller to the industrial asset;
identifying, by the program development system based on the correlation, one or more control functions to be carried out by the industrial asset;
generating, by the program development system as a second portion of the industrial control program, a control routine that facilitates control of the industrial asset by the industrial controller to carry out the one or more control functions based on the correlation; and
setting, by the program development system, an I/O address of the control routine based on the input address or the output address.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein
the digital engineering drawings further comprise at least one of an electrical schematic, a piping and instrumentation diagram, or a flow diagram, and
the generating further comprises generating the second portion of the industrial control program based on analysis of at least one of the electrical schematic, the piping and instrumentation diagram, or the flow diagram.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the generating of the second portion of the control program comprises:
inferring, by the program development system based on analysis of relationships between machines represented in the mechanical drawings, at least one of a type of industrial application or an industrial vertical for which the automation system is designed, and
generating, by the program development system, the second portion of the control program based on a predefined code segment corresponding to the type of industrial application or the industrial vertical.

Assignees

• Rockwell Automation Tech Inc

Inventors

• Sayyarrodsari Bijan
• Govindaraj Subbian
• Vasko David A
• Weinhofer Juergen
• Ellis Andrew J
• Lin Ka-Hing
• Pantaleano Michael
• Chand Sujeet
• Crum Kyle A

Classifications

• G05B19/41835 Primary

  characterised by program execution · CPC title

• G05B2219/34329

  Generate extended plc program during machining, execution of nc program · CPC title

• G05B19/056 Primary

  Programming the PLC · CPC title

• G06F8/30 Primary

  Creation or generation of source code · CPC title

• G05B2219/13004

  Programming the plc · CPC title