Industrial Automation Device Naming for Automatic Configuration Updates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation system design and troubleshooting are hindered by the lack of guidance in preventing incompatible object usage and invalid connections, leading to time-consuming troubleshooting and reliance on skilled designers, with limited capabilities for operators to make adjustments during runtime.
Innovation Solution
Implementing AI and machine learning to enforce design rules, suggest compatible components and connections, and provide remedial actions based on historical data, while introducing a light engineering client environment for operators to make minor adjustments and recommendations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If designers manually update component names to maintain naming conventions, then naming convention compliance is maintained, but time consumption and human error increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically maintains naming conventions by detecting component additions, removals, or relocations and autonomously updating affected component names without requiring manual designer intervention. This self-service mechanism ensures naming convention compliance while eliminating the time-consuming manual update process.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-configures naming convention rules and automatically applies them when components are added, removed, or relocated. By establishing the naming framework in advance and automatically enforcing it during design modifications, the system prevents naming errors before they occur rather than requiring post-hoc manual corrections.
2Manufacturing precision
If designers manually update all affected component names when inserting, removing, or relocating objects, then naming convention compliance is maintained, but the design process becomes tedious and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically identifies all components affected by design changes and updates their names to maintain naming convention compliance without requiring designer intervention. This self-service approach preserves naming standards while keeping the design process simple and intuitive.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors design changes and provides automatic feedback by updating component names in real-time. When a component is added, removed, or relocated, the system detects the change and automatically adjusts affected component names to maintain convention compliance, creating a closed-loop system that eliminates manual updates.
3Reliability
If the system provides comprehensive design guidance and rule enforcement, then design quality and reliability improve, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides automatic feedback by monitoring design actions against predefined rules and guidelines, alerting designers to potential issues and suggesting corrections. This feedback mechanism improves design quality by catching errors early while maintaining relatively simple system architecture through rule-based monitoring rather than complex analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary layer of automated rule enforcement and guidance that mediates between the designer's actions and the final design output. This intermediary automatically checks compliance with naming conventions and design rules, improving reliability without requiring the core system architecture to become significantly more complex.
4Adaptability or versatility
If operators are empowered to make adjustments during runtime, then system adaptability improves, but the risk of incorrect modifications increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides runtime monitoring and feedback to operators, alerting them to potential issues with proposed modifications and guiding them toward correct adjustments. This feedback mechanism enables operators to make adaptive changes during runtime while reducing the risk of incorrect modifications through real-time validation and guidance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-establishes valid modification options and constraints for operators during runtime, presenting only approved changes that maintain system integrity. By preparing and validating modification paths in advance, the system enables operator adaptability while preventing incorrect modifications through pre-defined safety constraints.
Data Source
AI summary
A system includes a processor and a memory accessible by the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive an input adding a new industrial automation device to an industrial automation system including a plurality of industrial automation devices, generate a new name for the new industrial automation device based on a naming convention and a location of the new industrial automation device within the industrial automation system, determine, for each of one or more industrial automation devices of the plurality of industrial automation devices, a name change based on the addition of the new industrial automation device to the industrial automation system, wherein the name change comprises generating a replacement name and replacing a previous name with the replacement name, and update one or more respective configurations of the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the one or more name changes.