Industrial IDE Training Module for Integrated Control Programming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation systems face inefficiencies due to the need for separate configuration tools for disparate aspects of automation, leading to a piecemeal design approach that requires significant testing and debugging to ensure proper integration.
Innovation Solution
An integrated development environment (IDE) is provided that uses a common design environment and data model to configure and manage automation system devices, incorporating a training component that improves design tools through analytics, facilitating integrated programming of control, visualization, and other aspects of the control system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If separate configuration tools are used for disparate aspects of automation, then each tool can be specialized for its specific function, but the overall system integration becomes complex and requires significant testing and debugging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate configuration tools into a single integrated development environment that can configure controllers, HMI devices, and other automation components through a unified interface. This merging eliminates the need for multiple disparate tools while maintaining specialized configuration capabilities for each device type, thereby reducing integration complexity and testing requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The configuration tool is designed with multi-functionality to handle various automation devices and programming tasks within a single platform. It can generate control program code, configure HMI displays, and manage device parameters across different device types, making it a universal tool that replaces multiple specialized tools while maintaining their individual capabilities.
2Ease of operation
If separate configuration tools are used for each automation device, then each device can be configured independently, but the development cycle is extended due to repeated testing and debugging
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated development environment performs preliminary configuration actions for multiple devices in a coordinated manner before final deployment. It pre-generates and validates control program code, HMI configurations, and device parameters together, identifying and resolving integration issues early in the development process rather than during later testing phases, thereby reducing overall development cycle time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms that allow real-time validation and testing of device configurations within the integrated environment. As configurations are created for different devices, the system continuously checks for compatibility and integration issues, providing immediate feedback that allows developers to correct problems before they propagate through the system, thus reducing iterative testing and debugging time.
3Productivity
If traditional programming approaches are used without analytics, then development follows established patterns, but design tools lack intelligence and require manual configuration of all aspects
Solution Approach 1:
The configuration tool incorporates analytics capabilities that enable it to automatically analyze project requirements and generate appropriate control program code and device configurations without requiring manual programming for every detail. The tool serves itself by using collected project data to improve its generation algorithms, automatically configuring devices based on analyzed patterns while maintaining standardized development processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses analytics to dynamically adjust configuration parameters and generation algorithms based on learned patterns from previous projects. By analyzing aggregated project data, the tool identifies optimal parameter settings and configuration approaches for different device types and application scenarios, automatically applying these learned parameters to reduce manual configuration effort while maintaining productivity through standardized processes.
Data Source
AI summary
An industrial integrated development environment (IDE) includes a training component that improves the IDE's automated design tools over time based on analysis of aggregated project data submitted by developers over time. The industrial IDE can apply analytics (e.g., artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc.) to project data submitted by developers across multiple industrial enterprises to identify commonly used control code, visualizations, device configurations, or control system architectures that are frequently used for a given industrial function, machine, or application. This learned information can be encoded in a training module, which can be leveraged by the IDE to generate programming, visualization, or configuration recommendations. The IDE can automatically add suitable control code, visualizations, or configuration data to new control projects being developed based on an inference of the developer's design goals and knowledge of how these goals have been implemented by other developers.