Collaborative Automation IDE for Parallel Code Commits
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation systems face challenges in collaborative development, with existing platforms lacking the ability to support multiple developers working on a project in parallel while maintaining project consistency, and requiring separate configuration tools for disparate system aspects, leading to piecemeal design and significant testing efforts.
Innovation Solution
An integrated development environment (IDE) system that provides a cloud-based platform for collaborative development, allowing multiple developers to work on a common automation system project, with features like collaboration management, virtual reality presentations, and modular code libraries to facilitate integrated programming and configuration of control, visualization, and other aspects of industrial automation systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple developers work on a project in parallel using existing platforms, then development speed is improved, but project consistency deteriorates due to lack of collaborative development support
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces a cloud-based collaborative development platform as an intermediary between multiple developers and the automation system project. This platform manages code commits, version control, and synchronization, allowing parallel development while maintaining project consistency through centralized coordination of all development activities.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the development process into discrete, manageable units (code commits) that can be independently created, reviewed, and merged by different developers. This segmentation enables parallel development while maintaining overall project integrity through structured integration points.
2Adaptability or versatility
If separate configuration tools are used for different system aspects, then tool specialization is improved, but system integration deteriorates leading to piecemeal design
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges multiple specialized configuration tools into a unified cloud-based collaborative development platform. This platform provides integrated support for automation system programming, configuration, and documentation, eliminating piecemeal design while preserving specialized functionality through modular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The collaborative development platform achieves multi-functionality by supporting various configuration tasks (automation programming, system configuration, documentation) within a single unified environment, allowing developers to work across different system aspects without switching between separate tools.
3Adaptability or versatility
If separate configuration tools are used for different system aspects, then tool flexibility is improved, but testing effort increases due to integration challenges
Solution Approach 1:
The system combines configuration and testing capabilities within a single collaborative development platform, enabling integrated verification of system components. This reduces the time and effort required for testing by allowing developers to validate integrations in the same environment where configuration is performed.
Data Source
AI summary
An industrial integrated development environment (IDE) supports collaborative tools that allow multiple designers and programmers to remotely submit design input to the same automation system project in parallel while maintaining project consistency. The industrial IDE also permits localized development of system projects, and provides an infrastructure for sharing and selectively synchronizing project edits among multiple locally stored versions of the system project.