Automation Control Library Guardrails With AI Design Suggestions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing industrial automation system design environments lack effective tools for ensuring design compliance with best practices and internal guidelines, leading to potential system inoperability and increased troubleshooting time.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a set of industrial automation system design rules that act as 'design guardrails' to prevent prohibited actions, combined with AI and machine learning to suggest design actions based on previous designs and component specifications.
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-written code and configurations are automatically instantiated, eliminating the need to manually write code for each component while maintaining design flexibility through customizable parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses template objects as reusable copies that can be instantiated multiple times. Each template contains pre-defined code, properties, and connection patterns that are copied and adapted to specific design contexts. This allows designers to rapidly deploy standardized components while maintaining the ability to customize individual instances.
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 provides feedback to designers as they assemble objects. The validation engine checks object compatibility, connection validity, and naming convention compliance, alerting designers to potential issues before they result in system inoperability. This maintains design freedom while preventing erroneous configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system preemptively prevents incompatible object combinations and invalid connections by enforcing design rules and validation constraints before the designer completes the configuration. The template objects are pre-validated to ensure compatibility, and the system blocks attempts to create invalid connections, thereby preventing reliability issues before they occur.
3Stability of the object's composition
If designers manually update component names according to naming conventions, then naming standardization is improved, but time consumption and human error increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically generates and updates component names according to naming conventions without requiring manual intervention. When template objects are instantiated or when components are added to the system, the naming engine automatically assigns names that comply with the configured naming conventions, and automatically updates references throughout the codebase, eliminating manual name management entirely.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-configures naming convention rules and templates that automatically generate compliant names during the design process. Rather than requiring post-design name updates, the correct names are generated upfront when objects are created or instantiated, and all code references are automatically updated to maintain consistency.
4Manufacturing precision
If highly trained designers are required to ensure design quality, then design precision is improved, but device complexity and resource requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an automated validation engine and template management system as intermediaries between the designer and the code generation process. These intermediaries enforce design rules, validate object compatibility, and ensure naming convention compliance automatically, replacing the need for highly trained designers with automated quality assurance mechanisms that maintain design precision without requiring expert human intervention.
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.