Version change systems and methods applied to industrial automation systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12307245-B2
Application number	US-202318107909-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2023
Priority date	Feb 9, 2023
Publication date	May 20, 2025
Grant date	May 20, 2025

Abstract

Systems and methods described herein may improve configuration file generation and management in an industrial automation system. Indeed, described herein is an integrated development environment (IDE) tool that may be integrated with a version control system (VCS) to improve change control issues that may otherwise arise when multiple IT devices have access to a same project and/or configuration file.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory storing a copied version of a project and instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
loading the copied version of the project from the memory;
receiving, via a graphical user interface presenting at least a portion of the copied version of the project, an indication of an edit to be made to the copied version of the project;
modifying the copied version of the project based on the edit;
receiving an instruction to push the modified project to a version control system;
in response to receiving the instruction, pushing the modified project to the version control system;
receiving, from the version control system, an indication of one or more conflicting edits between the modified project and a previous version of the project stored by the version control system;
generating a visualization to present via the graphical user interface based on the indication of the one or more conflicting edits;
receiving an indication of one or more accepted edits, wherein the one or more accepted edits correspond to a subset of the one or more conflicting edits to modify the previous version of the project;
generating a latest version of the project based on the indication of the one or more accepted edits and the modified project;
accessing a permission parameter stored in the memory, wherein the permission parameter indicates that the latest version of the project is to be validated by an additional computing device;
associating the latest version of the project with the permission parameter; and
pushing the latest version of the project and the permission parameter to the version control system, wherein the version control system is configured to push the latest version of the project to the additional computing device based on the permission parameter.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system and the version control system are communicatively coupled to an information technology (IT) network associated with an industrial automation system.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the version control system executes on a computing device.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to load the project from the memory in response to receiving a load instruction from an industrial control system communicatively coupled to an operation technology (OT) network associated with an industrial automation system, wherein the industrial control system is configured to generate the load instruction in response to detecting a change to a component communicatively coupled to the OT network that is affected by the edit.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to load the project from the memory in response to receiving, via the graphical user interface, an instruction to not load a most recent version of the project stored in the memory.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the project is associated with one or more template instance configuration files, wherein at least one of the one or more template instance configuration files are associated with a processing operation to be performed on operational technology (OT) data associated with one or more industrial automation devices of an industrial automation system.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to write the project to the memory before loading the project from the memory based on one or more configuration files received from an external computing system, wherein the external computing system is disposed outside of an industrial automation system in which the system is disposed.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the version control system is configured to:
determine that the permission parameter indicates that the latest version of the project is to be validated by the additional computing device;
save the latest version of the project separate from the previous version of the project;
generate an indication of one or more latest edits corresponding to differences between the latest version of the project and the previous version of the project;
push the latest version of the project and the indication of one or more latest edits to the additional computing device;
receive an indication of validation from the additional computing device that indicates the one or more latest edits as validated; and
save the latest version of the project over the previous version of the project to incorporate the one or more latest edits.

9. A method, comprising:
loading, via a computing device, a first version of a configuration file from a memory associated with the computing device;
receiving, via a graphical user interface of the computing device, an indication of an edit to be made to the configuration file;
modifying, via the computing device, the configuration file stored in the memory based on the edit;
receiving, via the computing device, an instruction to push the modified configuration file to a version control system, wherein the version control system is configured to communicatively couple to a plurality of computing devices disposed in an information technology (IT) network associated with an industrial automation system, and wherein the version control system is configured to manage edits made between different versions of configuration files by different computing devices before the edits are accessed by an industrial control system communicatively coupled to an operation technology (OT) network associated with the industrial automation system;
in response to the instruction, pushing, via the computing device, the modified configuration file to the version control system;
accessing, via the computing device, a permission parameter stored in the memory, wherein the permission parameter indicates that the edit is to be validated by an additional computing device;
transmitting, via the computing device, the permission parameter to the version control system in association with the modified configuration file, wherein the version control system is configured to push the edit to the additional computing device based on the permission parameter;
receiving, via the computing device, an indication of one or more conflicting edits from the version control system, wherein the version control system is configured to determine the one or more conflicting edits based on the modified configuration file and a previous version of the modified configuration file;
determining, via the computing device, a hierarchy of operation technology (OT) devices relative to the indication of the one or more conflicting edits and the modified configuration file; and
generating, via the computing device, a visualization to present via the graphical user interface based on the hierarchy of OT devices, the one or more conflicting edits, and the modified configuration file.

10. The method of claim 9 , comprising:
receiving, via the computing device, an indication of one or more accepted edits, wherein the one or more accepted edits correspond to a subset of the one or more conflicting edits to modify the previous version of the configuration file;
generating, via the computing device, a latest version of the configuration file based on the indication of the one or more accepted edits and the modified configuration file; and
pushing, via the computing device, the latest version of the configuration file to the version control system.

11. The method of claim 9 , comprising:
receiving, via the computing device, an indication of commonalities among the one or more conflicting edits,
determining, via the computing device, a subset of the one or more conflicting edits based on

Assignees

• Rockwell Automation Tech Inc

Inventors

• Flickinger Peter J
• Dudley Andrew T
• Uniewski Brandon
• Coon Ryan
• Beugnet Andrew G
• Vance Todd A
• Vazquez-Rivera Christian O
• Stanek Christopher E
• Michelich Suzanne M

Classifications

• G06F8/71 Primary

  Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management · CPC title