System and method to capture and document cross-product compatibility status information for industrial devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016330082-A1
Application number	US-201514708068-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 8, 2015
Priority date	May 8, 2015
Publication date	Nov 10, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A device compatibility information system captures, processes, and presents cross-product compatibility status information for industrial devices. The system can receive device compatibility information from both device vendors as well as end users of the industrial devices in order to rapidly accumulate device compatibility information for large numbers of industrial device pairs. In some embodiments, the system can also automatically discover and collect device and system configuration information from industrial devices already deployed at a plant facility and infer device compatibility information from the collected configuration information. The system can use this inferred compatibility information to populate the stored set of device compatibility status information, which can be accessed and viewed by authorized users.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for collecting and rendering device compatibility status information, comprising:
a memory that stores computer-executable components; a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the computer-executable components, the computer-executable components comprising:
a compatibility data storage area configured to store compatibility status information identifying compatibility statuses for multiple pairs of industrial devices;
an interface component configured to receive, via one or more interface displays delivered to a client device, selection information from the client device that identifies a set of industrial devices;
a search component configured to retrieve a subset of the compatibility status information, for at least two industrial devices of the set of industrial devices, from the compatibility data storage area based on the selection information, wherein the interface component is further configured to render the subset of the compatibility status information on the client device via the one or more interface displays; and
a correlation component configured to update the subset of the compatibility status information stored in the compatibility data storage area in accordance with new compatibility status information, for the at least two industrial devices, received via the one or more interface displays, wherein the correlation component updates the subset of the compatibility data based on a user role associated with the client device.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more interface displays comprises a compatibility grid having multiple cells, wherein a cell of the multiple cells displays at least one of a graphic symbol or a text string indicating whether a pair of the industrial devices represented by the cell are functionally compatible.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the interface component is further configured to receive, via the one or more interface displays, user feedback information relating to compatibility of the at least two industrial devices, and to display the feedback information on the at least one of the one or more interface displays.

4 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a verification component configured to determine how to update the subset of the compatibility status information using the new compatibility status information based on verification criteria data defining one or more sets of verification criteria.

5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the one or more sets of verification criteria comprise at least a first set of verification criteria corresponding to an end user role and a second set of verification criteria corresponding to a device vendor role.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the verification component is further configured to
in response to a determination that the user role is the device vendor role, instruct the correlation component to replace a current compatibility status indication for a pair of industrial devices specified by the subset of the compatibility status information with a new compatibility status indication specified by the new compatibility status information, and in response to a determination that the user role is the end user role, instruct the correlation component to update the current compatibility status indication based on an aggregation of the new compatibility status information with previously received compatibility status information for the pair of industrial devices.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the correlation component is further configured to update the subset of the compatibility status information for the at least two industrial devices based on an aggregation of the new compatibility status information with previously received compatibility status information for the at least two industrial devices to yield a composite compatibility status for the at least two industrial devices.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the correlation component is further configured to generate certainty data for the at least two industrial devices indicating a degree of certainty associated with the composite compatibility status, and wherein the degree of certainty is based on the aggregation of the new compatibility status information with the previously received compatibility status information for the at least two industrial devices.

9 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a discovery component configured to discover and retrieve device configuration information residing on one or more of the industrial devices; and an indexing component configured to determine a new compatibility status for two industrial devices based on the device configuration information and to update the compatibility status information to reflect the new compatibility status.

10 . A method for updating and rendering device compatibility information, comprising:
storing, by a system comprising at least one processor, compatibility status information on a compatibility data store, wherein the compatibility status information identifies compatibility statuses for multiple pairs of industrial devices; receiving, by the system via interaction with one or more interface displays, selection information from a client device, wherein the selection information identifies at least two industrial devices; retrieving, by the system from the compatibility data store, a subset of the compatibility status information for the at least two devices based on the selection information; displaying, by the system, the subset of the compatibility status information on the client device via the one or more interface displays; receiving, by the system from the client device, new compatibility status information for the at least two industrial devices via interaction with the one or more interface displays; determining, by the system, a user role associated with the client device; and modifying, by the system, the subset of the compatibility status information in accordance with the new compatibility status information, wherein the modifying comprises modifying the subset of the compatibility data based on the user role.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the displaying comprises displaying the subset of the compatibility status information on a compatibility grid rendered by an interface display of the one or more interface displays, and wherein the compatibility grid comprises at least one cell, corresponding to the at least two industrial devices, that displays a graphic symbol or a text string indicating whether the at least two industrial devices are functionally compatible.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifying comprises modifying the subset of the compatibility status information based on a set of verification criteria, selected from multiple defined sets of verification criteria stored in a verification criteria data store, corresponding to the user role.

13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising, in response to determining that the user role is a product vendor role, replacing, by the system, a current compatibility status indication for that at least two industrial devices with a new compatibility status indication specified by the new compatibility status information.

14 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising, in response to determining that the user role is an end user role:
aggregating, by the system, the new compatibility status information with previously received compatibility status information for that at least two industrial devices, and updating, by the system, a current compatibility status indication for the at leas

Assignees

• Rockwell Automation Tech Inc

Inventors

• Bliss Ronald
• Wylie Dennis M

Classifications

• G06F17/245

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L41/22 Primary

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title

• G06F3/04842

  Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L41/0873

  Checking configuration conflicts between network elements · CPC title

• G06F9/451

  Execution arrangements for user interfaces · CPC title