Collaborative Industrial IDE Synchronization for Parallel Control Code

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Solution Overview

Problem

Industrial automation systems face challenges in collaborative development, with existing platforms struggling to support multiple developers working on automation system projects in parallel while maintaining project consistency and requiring significant testing and debugging due to disparate programming efforts.

Innovation Solution

An integrated development environment (IDE) system that enables collaborative, cloud-based development by rendering a common IDE interface on client devices, managing user permissions, and synchronizing edits across devices, using a collaboration management component to ensure consistency and coordinate design inputs from multiple developers.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If multiple developers work on automation system projects in parallel using existing platforms, then development productivity increases, but project consistency deteriorates and testing/debugging effort increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedevelopment productivityVSAvoidproject consistency

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a collaboration management component as an intermediary between multiple developers and the project data. This component manages edit records, tracks modifications, coordinates synchronization between developers, and ensures project consistency through centralized control mechanisms while allowing parallel development activities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Productivity

If multiple developers work on automation system projects in parallel using existing platforms, then development productivity increases, but testing and debugging effort increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedevelopment productivityVSAvoidtesting and debugging effort

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The collaboration management component performs preliminary actions by tracking and managing edit records before final integration. It identifies modifications, coordinates between developers, and prepares synchronization in advance, preventing conflicts that would otherwise require extensive testing and debugging later in the development process.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Ease of operation

If a common IDE interface is implemented for collaborative development, then ease of operation improves, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of operationVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a universal IDE interface that serves multiple developers and multiple functions through a single standardized system. The collaboration management component provides multi-functional capabilities including edit record management, modification tracking, user coordination, and synchronization control, reducing the need for multiple specialized tools while maintaining ease of operation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS12190293B2System and method of industrial automation multi-developer control code change commits

Publication Date: 2025.01.07 ROCKWELL AUTOMATION TECH INC

AI summary

An industrial integrated development environment (IDE) supports collaborative tools that allow multiple designers and programmers to remotely submit design input to the same automation system project in parallel while maintaining project consistency. The industrial IDE also permits localized development of system projects, and provides an infrastructure for sharing and selectively synchronizing project edits among multiple locally stored versions of the system project.