Industrial Co-Design Editor for Integrated Control Programming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing industrial automation systems require separate and piecemeal development environments for different aspects, leading to inefficiencies in programming and configuration, and significant debugging is necessary to ensure proper integration.
Innovation Solution
An integrated development environment (IDE) that supports industrial control programming using a graphical and text-based co-design editor, allowing simultaneous development of control programs in both formats, with an industrial domain-specific language (DSL) and automation objects, and provides features like dynamic programming feedback and customizable guardrails to ensure compliance with industry standards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If separate development environments are used for different aspects of industrial automation programming, then each aspect can be developed independently, but integration complexity and debugging time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate development environments into a single integrated development environment (IDE) that supports graphical programming, text-based programming, and configuration tools simultaneously. This merging eliminates the need for separate tools for each programming aspect, reducing integration complexity while maintaining the ability to work with different programming paradigms.
Solution Approach 2:
The IDE is designed as a universal platform that can handle multiple programming languages and methodologies (graphical LAD, structured text, IEC 61131-3 standards) within a single interface. This multi-functionality allows developers to switch between different programming approaches without changing tools, simplifying the development workflow while supporting diverse automation requirements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple separate tools are used for programming and configuration, then specialized functionality is available for each task, but the overall development time increases due to context switching and integration overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges configuration tools, graphical editors, and text editors into a single integrated environment, eliminating the need to switch between separate applications. This consolidation maintains specialized functionality for each task while removing the overhead of context switching, thereby improving development efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The IDE performs preliminary actions by automatically generating, validating, and cross-referencing code across different programming paradigms in real-time. This includes automatic syntax checking, consistency validation, and integration verification before deployment, reducing the need for extensive manual debugging and testing later in the development process.
3Reliability
If extensive debugging is performed to ensure proper integration, then system reliability improves, but development time and resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation and integration checking automatically during the development phase, before deployment. The IDE includes built-in validators that check for consistency, syntax errors, and integration issues in real-time, catching problems early when they are easier and faster to fix, thereby reducing the need for extensive post-deployment debugging.
Solution Approach 2:
The IDE provides continuous feedback during the programming process through automatic error detection, warning messages, and validation results. This real-time feedback mechanism allows developers to correct issues immediately rather than discovering them during later testing or runtime, improving reliability while minimizing the time spent on debugging.
Data Source
AI summary
An industrial IDE supports development of control programming using an industrial domain-specific language (DSL) that allows control programming to be written using a scripted programming language having features catered to the industrial domain. The industrial DSL can simplify and streamline development of industrial control code relative to using conventional graphics-based control programming formats such as ladder logic, since a script-based industrial DSL can be used to write programming code using fewer mouse clicks relative to traditional control programming environments. Editing tools inherent to the industrial DSL can provide dynamic programming feedback that guides the developer through the process of developing control code. A development interface of the industrial IDE can comprises two editing windows that render the control program in a graphical format and in a text-based format simultaneously, allowing the user to edit the program in either format on the same interface.