Industrial Automation GUI With AI-Guided Component Selection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Designing industrial automation systems is inefficient due to the lack of design guardrails, manual code writing, and troubleshooting challenges, leading to resource-intensive and error-prone processes, which often require expert intervention.
Innovation Solution
Implementing AI and machine learning to enforce design rules, suggest compatible component interactions, automate code generation, and provide real-time troubleshooting assistance, along with a light engineering client for minor adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If designers manually write code for each component and manually update naming conventions, then design flexibility and customization are improved, but design time and productivity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-configures template objects with standard code structures, naming conventions, and component relationships stored in a database. When a designer selects a template object, the pre-configured code and settings are automatically instantiated, eliminating the need to manually write code for each component while maintaining flexibility through customizable template parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses template objects as reusable blueprints that can be copied and instantiated multiple times. Each template contains pre-written code, configuration settings, and naming convention rules. When instantiated, these templates generate complete component definitions with proper code structures, allowing designers to rapidly deploy consistent components across multiple systems without manual recreation.
2Ease of operation
If designers are free to use any objects without validation, then ease of operation is improved, but system reliability deteriorates due to incompatible objects and invalid connections
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements real-time validation that monitors designer actions and provides immediate feedback. When a designer attempts to use incompatible objects or create invalid connections, the system checks against stored compatibility rules and design guidelines, then provides warnings or prevents the action. This feedback mechanism maintains design freedom while ensuring system reliability by guiding designers toward valid configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-establishes compatibility rules, design guidelines, and validation criteria in the database before design activities begin. These preliminary constraints define which objects can be combined and how they should be connected. The validation system continuously applies these pre-defined rules to prevent incompatible configurations from being created, rather than attempting to fix problems after they occur.
3Measurement precision
If expert designers manually troubleshoot and diagnose system issues, then troubleshooting accuracy is improved, but loss of time and resource efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-diagnostic capabilities that automatically monitor system performance, detect anomalies, and identify potential issues before they cause failures. The validation framework continuously checks component interactions against compatibility rules and generates alerts when problems are detected. This self-service approach reduces the need for expert intervention by automatically handling routine diagnostic tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual expert troubleshooting with automated validation and monitoring mechanisms. The validation system uses pre-configured rules and algorithms to automatically detect configuration errors, compatibility issues, and performance anomalies. This substitution of automated electronic validation for manual expert analysis significantly reduces troubleshooting time while maintaining high accuracy through consistent rule-based detection.
4Manufacturing precision
If manual code writing is required for each component, then manufacturing precision of code quality is improved, but device complexity and ease of manufacture deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the code generation process into separate, manageable template objects, each responsible for specific component types or functions. Each template encapsulates standardized code structures, validation rules, and configuration parameters. This segmentation allows designers to work with discrete, well-defined templates rather than writing entire codebases manually, maintaining code quality through standardized templates while reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The template objects are designed as universal, multi-functional components that can be instantiated in multiple contexts with different parameters. Each template contains generic code structures that adapt to specific requirements through configuration rather than custom programming. This universality maintains code quality through consistent templating while reducing design process complexity by eliminating the need to create unique code for each component instance.
Data Source
AI summary
A graphical user interface (GUI) for designing an industrial automation system via an electronic display includes a design window and a first accessory window. The GUI presents a library visualization representative of a plurality of objects within the first accessory window, each object represented by an icon and corresponding to a respective industrial automation device. The GUI receives a first input indicative of a first selection of a first object from the library, presents the first object in the design window, receives a second input indicative of a second selection of a second object from the library, presents the second object in the design window, determines a suggested next action based on historical data including a plurality of industrial automation system designs having the first and second objects, and updates the GUI to display a notification comprising the suggested next action.