Real-Time Data Bus Configuration for Flexible Automation Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing real-time automation devices have a rigid configuration, limiting flexibility in component arrangement and communication scenarios, which restricts their adaptability to varying real-time requirements.
Innovation Solution
A real-time automation device with a configurable real-time data bus and memory device, utilizing a bus database to manage bus variables, allowing flexible registration of software applications as sources or receivers, and enabling deterministic data transmission with predefined time constraints, accommodating different real-time scenarios through cyclic, event-driven, or unbound data transport.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a modular set-up with backplane bus is used for real-time automation device, then real-time data exchange is enabled, but configuration flexibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic configuration capabilities where the controller system can adapt its structure at runtime. Software components can be dynamically added, removed, or modified without requiring physical reconfiguration of hardware modules. The system supports hot-swapping of communication partners and dynamic creation of communication paths, transforming the rigid modular architecture into a flexible dynamic system that maintains real-time performance while adapting to changing requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller system provides universal communication interfaces that can connect diverse software components and external devices through a unified data bus architecture. The system supports multiple communication protocols and modes (cyclic, event-driven, unbound) through the same infrastructure, allowing a single hardware platform to serve multiple functions and configurations without requiring dedicated hardware for each scenario.
2Stability of the object's composition
If rigid modular configuration is used, then system stability is maintained, but adaptability to varying real-time requirements is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system maintains stability through its core real-time data bus infrastructure while introducing dynamic configuration capabilities at the software and communication levels. The stable hardware foundation supports predictable timing, while the flexible software layer allows runtime adaptation of communication patterns, partners, and data formats, enabling the system to maintain stability while responding to varying real-time requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller system enables dynamic parameter changes for communication scenarios without altering the underlying system architecture. Communication parameters such as cycle times, data formats, transmission modes (cyclic, event-driven, unbound), and partner assignments can be modified at runtime through software configuration, allowing the system to adapt to different real-time requirements while maintaining structural stability.
3Manufacturing precision
If fixed communication paths are established, then deterministic transmission is achieved, but flexibility in component integration is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system establishes deterministic communication paths dynamically based on runtime requirements rather than fixed pre-configured routes. The real-time data bus automatically creates and manages communication paths between software components and external devices as needed, maintaining deterministic timing characteristics while adapting to changing integration requirements without manual reconfiguration.
Solution Approach 2:
The real-time data bus acts as an intermediary layer between software components and external devices, managing communication paths dynamically. The bus controller mediates data transmission by routing messages between sources and receivers based on current system state and requirements, enabling flexible component integration while maintaining deterministic transmission through centralized path management and timing control.
Data Source
AI summary
A real-time automation device includes a real-time databus, and a memory device, wherein the databus is configured to transmit values associated with defined bus variables and configured to communicate a value associated with a bus variable from a bus variable source in accordance with a bus database via a databus to a bus variable receiver associated with the bus variable in accordance with the bus database such that, following transfer of the value from the bus variable source to the databus, the value is transferred within a predefined time period to the bus variable receiver, wherein the memory device also includes a software application which receives values associated with the bus variable from the databus or sends values associated with the bus variable to the databus, and wherein the automation device registers the software application as a bus variable receiver or as a bus variable source for the bus variables.