Industrial Automation Rules Engine for Compatibility and Naming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation system design and implementation face challenges due to the lack of guidance in ensuring compliance with best practices and compatibility of components, leading to inefficiencies and increased troubleshooting time, with designers often relying on manual updates and external expertise for naming conventions and code modifications.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of AI and machine learning algorithms to enforce design rules, suggest compatible components, and automatically update naming conventions, along with a light engineering client environment for operators to make minor adjustments, enhances the design and monitoring of industrial automation systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If designers manually update component names according to naming conventions, then naming consistency is maintained, 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 designer intervention. The automated naming service monitors component additions, modifications, and deletions, then automatically adjusts names to maintain consistency with organizational naming conventions, eliminating the need for designers to manually update names.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical process of designers updating names is replaced with an automated software service. The system uses event-driven architecture where naming events are published to a message queue, triggered by component lifecycle events, and processed automatically by the automated naming service that generates compliant names and updates the component registry.
2Reliability
If designers manually review previous designs and specifications to ensure compatibility, then system reliability is improved, but productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary compatibility checking automatically when components are added or modified. The automated service evaluates component compatibility against predefined rules and organizational standards before the design is finalized, preventing incompatible components from being integrated and eliminating the need for designers to manually review specifications later.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback mechanisms where the automated naming and compatibility service monitors component interactions and provides real-time validation. When compatibility issues are detected, the system automatically notifies designers and can even prevent deployment of incompatible configurations, ensuring system reliability without manual intervention.
3Adaptability or versatility
If operators need to troubleshoot and modify the industrial automation system, then system adaptability is improved, but system complexity increases due to requiring external expertise
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an automated naming service as an intermediary layer between operators and the complex underlying system architecture. This service provides a simplified interface that operators can use to understand and modify system components without needing to comprehend the full system complexity. The service translates operator requests into appropriate system modifications while maintaining consistency and compatibility automatically.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables operators to perform self-service troubleshooting and modifications through automated tools and services. The automated naming service allows operators to add, remove, or modify components and automatically handles the complex tasks of name generation, compatibility checking, and configuration updates, eliminating the need for external expert intervention for routine modifications.
4Adaptability or versatility
If designers use incompatible objects or form invalid connections without warnings, then design flexibility is improved, but system reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary anti-action by automatically detecting and preventing incompatible object combinations and invalid connections before they can cause system failures. The automated service evaluates proposed design configurations against compatibility rules and organizational standards, providing warnings or blocking invalid configurations from being implemented, thus preventing reliability issues before they occur.
Data Source
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AI summary
A (GUI) for designing an industrial automation system 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 is represented by an icon and corresponds to a respective industrial automation device. The GUI receives inputs indicative of a selection of one or more objects of the plurality of objects from the library, presents the one or more objects in the design window, determines that the one or more inputs do not comply with a set of industrial automation system rules comprising one or more relationships between a plurality of industrial automation devices, and displays a warning message that the one or more inputs do not comply with the set of industrial automation system rules.