Industrial automation smart object inheritance break and singleton creation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12412154-B2
Application number	US-202117197258-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2021
Priority date	Mar 10, 2021
Publication date	Sep 9, 2025
Grant date	Sep 9, 2025

Abstract

An industrial integrated development environment (IDE) provides a development framework for designing, programming, and configuring multiple aspects of an industrial automation system using a common design environment and data model. Projects creating using embodiments of the IDE system can be built on an object-based model rather than, or in addition to, a tag-based architecture. To this end, the IDE system can support the use of automation objects that serve as building blocks for this object-based development structure. To ensure consistency within and between projects, as well as to ensure that a given industrial project is dynamically updated to reflect changes to an industrial asset's attributes (e.g., control code, visualization definitions, testing scripts, analytic code, etc.), embodiments of the IDE system can use automation object inheritance features to propagate changes made to an automation object definition to all instances of the automation object used throughout a control project.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for developing industrial applications, comprising:
a memory that stores executable components and a library of automation objects representing respective industrial assets, the automation objects having respective programmatic attributes associated with the industrial assets; and
a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the executable components, the executable components comprising:
a user interface component configured to render integrated development environment (IDE) interfaces and to receive, via interaction with the IDE interfaces, industrial design input that defines aspects of an industrial automation project; and
a project generation component configured to generate system project data based on the industrial design input,
wherein
the industrial design input comprises at least an instruction to create an instance of an automation object, selected from the library of automation objects, as part of the system project data,
the system project data defines a system project comprising at least one of an executable industrial control program, an industrial visualization application, or industrial device configuration data, and
the project generation component is further configured to, in response to receipt, via the user interface component subsequent to creation of the instance of the automation object in the system project data, of object edit data that defines an edit to an attribute of the automation object stored in the library,
modify the automation object stored in the library in accordance with the object edit data,
in response to determining that modification of the instance of the automation object in accordance with the object edit data is permitted, modify the instance of the automation object in accordance with the object edit data, and
in response to determining that the modification of the instance of the automation object in accordance with the object edit data is not permitted, deny modification of the instance of the automation object in accordance with the object edit data,
wherein denial of the modification of the instance of the automation object causes the instance to become a singleton instance that differs from the automation object in the library.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the project generation component is configured to make a determination, based on analysis of the system project data and the object edit data, that application of the edit to the instance of the automation object will cause an error in the system project, and to deny the modification of the instance based on the determination.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the project generation component is configured to make a determination, based on analysis of the system project data and the object edit data, that application of the edit to the instance of the automation object will cause an incompatibility between the instance of the automation object and an instance of another automation object, and to deny the modification of the instance based on the determination.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein
the user interface component is to receive, as part of the industrial design input, an instruction to disable an inheritance property of the instance of the automation object, and
the project generation component is configured to, in response to determining that the inheritance property is disabled, deny the modification of the instance.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein
the project generation component is further configured to, in response to receipt of an instruction to save the singleton instance to the library, create a new automation object in the library based on the singleton instance.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein
the object edit data is first object edit data,
the singleton instance is a first singleton instance, and
the project generation component is further configured to, in response to receipt of second object edit data defining a modification directed to the instance of the automation object, modify the instance of the automation object to yield a second singleton instance of the automation object that differs from the automation object stored in the library.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the project generation component is further configured to, in response to receipt of an instruction to save the second singleton instance to the library, create a new automation object in the library based on the second singleton instance of the automation object.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the attribute of the automation object is at least one of control code for monitoring and controlling an industrial asset represented by the automation object, a visualization object that defines a graphical visualization of the industrial asset, an alarm definition for the industrial asset, a security feature of the industrial asset, a security protocol of the industrial asset, a test script configured to validate operation of the automation object within the system project, or an analytic script configured to perform an analysis on data generated by the industrial asset.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the automation objects represent, as the industrial assets, at least one of an industrial process, a controller, a control program, a tag within the control program, a machine, a motor, a motor drive, a telemetry device, a tank, a valve, a pump, an industrial safety device, an industrial robot, or an actuator.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the executable components further comprise a project deployment component configured to
translate the system project data to at least two of the executable industrial control program, the industrial visualization application, or the industrial device configuration data, and
send the at least two of the executable industrial control program, the industrial visualization application, or the industrial device configuration data to respective industrial assets for execution.

11. A method for developing industrial applications, comprising:
storing, by a system comprising a process, a library of automation objects that represent respective industrial assets and have respective programmatic attributes relating to the industrial assets;
rendering, by the system, integrated development environment (IDE) interfaces on a client device;
receiving, by the system via interaction with the IDE interfaces, industrial design input that defines aspects of an industrial control and monitoring project;
generating, by the system, system project data based on the industrial design input, wherein
the generating comprises generating at least one of an executable industrial control program, an industrial visualization application, or industrial device configuration data, and
the generating comprises, in response to determining that the industrial design input selects an automation object, from the library of automation objects, adding an instance of the automation object to the system project data; and

in response to receiving, subsequent to the adding of the instance of the automation object, object edit data that defines an edit to an attribute of the automation object stored in the library:
modifying, by the system, the automation object stored in the library in accordance with the object edit data,
in response to determining that modifying the instance of the automation object in accordance with the object edit data is permitted, modifying, by the system, the instance of the automation object in accordance with the object edit data, and
in response to determining that the modifying of the instance of the automation object in accordance with the object edit data is not permitted, preventing,

Assignees

• Rockwell Automation Tech Inc

Inventors

• Stump Andrew R
• Carrara Anthony
• Srinivasan Eashwer
• Josipovic Srdjan
• Majewski Lorenzo
• Como Christopher Wayne
• Stanek Christopher
• Ericsson Matthew R

Classifications

• G06Q10/103

  Workflow collaboration or project management · CPC title

• G06Q10/06313

  Resource planning in a project environment · CPC title

• G06F11/3688

  for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites · CPC title

• G06F8/60

  Software deployment · CPC title

• G06F8/20

  Software design · CPC title