Design Template Abstraction for Industrial Automation Reducing Reengineering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation designers face inefficiencies due to the repeated reengineering of identical or similar components for different projects, resulting in high redundancy and unnecessary rehashing of similar designs, which hampers the pace of system development and installation.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for abstraction and creation of design templates that remove class-specific layers such as customer, industry, and project-specific requirements, generating a generalized design pattern or template that can be formatted for use with a template management system, thereby reducing redundancy and increasing efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If engineers reengineer identical or similar components repeatedly for different projects, then project-specific requirements are met, but time and resources are wasted due to redundancy
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary abstraction of design specifications into reusable templates before actual project implementation. By pre-processing and generalizing design elements into standardized templates, the system eliminates the need for repeated reengineering of similar components across different projects, directly reducing reengineering time while maintaining project-specific adaptability through template instantiation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If design specifications include multiple class-specific layers (customer, industry, project, application), then specific requirements are captured, but complexity increases and redundancy occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments design specifications into distinct hierarchical layers (customer-specific, industry-specific, project-specific, and application-specific layers). Each layer is independently processed and abstracted, allowing the system to manage complexity by handling one layer at a time while maintaining the complete requirements coverage through layered composition.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates universal templates that can serve multiple functions across different projects and applications. By abstracting common design elements into reusable templates that can be instantiated with different parameters, the system reduces specification complexity while maintaining the ability to cover diverse requirements through a single versatile template framework.
3Reliability
If engineers constantly rehash similar subject matter, then thoroughness is maintained, but efficiency decreases due to unnecessary repetition
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates standardized templates that capture proven design solutions and best practices. These templates can be copied and instantiated across multiple projects, maintaining design thoroughness by ensuring consistent application of validated design patterns while dramatically improving productivity by eliminating the need to rehash similar subject matter from scratch.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a system and/or methodology for the abstraction and creation of templates for use in industrial automation. The system providing for the abstraction of one or more engineering specifications, and creation of design templates based at least in part on the abstracted design templates. Additionally, the invention provides a user interface for modification of the template creation process and/or templates.