PLC Application Migration Using Bytecode and Access Modules
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing industrial automation applications written in IEC 61131-3 are tightly coupled to specific hardware and software, making it difficult to adapt them for deployment on more powerful devices or in edge-computing ecosystems.
Innovation Solution
A method for deploying a migratable application for a programmable logic controller (PLC) involves converting the application to a general-purpose programming language, generating access modules for sensor and actuator access, compiling into bytecode, validating the application, and deploying it on the PLC based on validation results.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If existing PLC applications are executed in customized industrial control runtime environments, then the applications are tightly coupled to specific hardware and software, but this makes flexible re-deployment on more powerful devices difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the PLC runtime environment using containerization technology. The application is packaged with its dependencies into a portable container image that can be copied and deployed across different hardware platforms without modification, resolving the contradiction between maintaining application reliability and enabling flexible re-deployment
Solution Approach 2:
The containerized application architecture makes the runtime environment universal across different devices. The same container image can execute on various hardware configurations (from traditional PLCs to powerful edge devices) by providing a standardized execution interface, thereby achieving both reliability through consistent execution and adaptability through platform independence
2Reliability
If existing PLC applications are developed on specific hardware, then the applications work reliably on that hardware, but this makes migration to other devices difficult without extensive hardware changes
Solution Approach 1:
The application along with its entire runtime environment is copied into a self-contained container image. This copy can be transferred to any target device without requiring the original development hardware, enabling easy migration while preserving execution reliability through environment consistency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the application and its dependencies into an isolated container unit. This segmentation separates the application from host hardware specifics, allowing the segmented container to be migrated across different hardware platforms without extensive changes, thus improving both migration ease and execution reliability
Data Source
AI summary
A method for deploying a migratable application for a programmable logic controller. The method includes: converting an application of the programmable logic controller to a general-purpose programming language; modifying the converted application using the general-purpose programming language in order to generate at least one access module to make access of the converted application to at least one sensor and/or at least one actuator possible; compiling the modified application into a bytecode format to deploy the migratable application; executing the migratable application and the application in order to provide an output of the migratable application and an output of the application in order to provide a validation result; validating the migratable application on the basis of a comparison of the output of the migratable application with the output of the application; deploying the validated migratable application on the programmable logic controller, wherein deployment depends on the validation result.