Industrial Development Hub for Secure Automation Code Management
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation systems face challenges in efficient development and testing due to complexity and custom nature, leading to long development cycles, cost overruns, and difficulties in managing proprietary intellectual property and cybersecurity.
Innovation Solution
A cloud-based Industrial Development Hub (IDH) with enhanced storage and design tools supports easy development and testing, providing a repository for control project code, device configurations, and digital aspects, facilitating backup, restore, code conversion, and version management, while offering real-time design feedback and project analytics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional industrial automation development methods are used, then proprietary intellectual property can be maintained locally, but development cycles become long and management of cybersecurity becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cloud-based Industrial Development Hub as an intermediary platform between developers and industrial automation systems. This hub provides centralized code storage, automated testing, and security validation services, allowing developers to maintain proprietary IP locally while benefiting from centralized security management and accelerated development cycles through cloud-based collaboration and automated processes.
2Adaptability or versatility
If custom industrial automation systems are developed to meet specific plant requirements, then adaptability to plant-specific standards is improved, but device complexity and development costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-configuring the Industrial Development Hub with standardized templates, common code libraries, and pre-validation frameworks that comply with various plant-specific standards. This allows developers to start with pre-prepared configurations rather than building from scratch, reducing the apparent complexity while maintaining adaptability to specific requirements through selective customization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the industrial automation system into modular components that can be independently developed, tested, and validated in the cloud-based hub before deployment. This modular approach allows plant-specific standards compliance to be achieved through configuration of specific modules rather than redesigning the entire system, thereby managing complexity while maintaining adaptability.
3Reliability
If comprehensive testing and validation are performed on industrial control code, then system reliability is improved, but development time and resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service through automated testing and validation systems within the Industrial Development Hub that automatically execute test suites, perform code analysis, and validate compliance with plant-specific standards without requiring manual intervention. This automated self-validation maintains high reliability while preserving development efficiency by eliminating time-consuming manual testing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies feedback mechanisms by implementing continuous automated testing and validation that provides real-time feedback to developers during the code development process. This allows issues to be identified and corrected early in the development cycle rather than during later testing phases, maintaining high reliability while actually reducing overall development time through iterative improvement rather than extensive final testing.
Data Source
AI summary
An industrial development hub (IDH) supports industrial development and testing capabilities that are offered as a cloud-based service. The IDH comprises an enhanced storage platform and associated design tools that serve as a repository on which customers can store control project code, device configurations, and other digital aspects of an industrial automation project. The IDH system can facilitate discovery and management of digital content associated with control systems, and can be used for system backup and restore, code conversion, and version management.