Virtual Plant Design IDE for Integrated Automation Engineering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation systems face inefficiencies due to the need for separate configuration tools and non-intuitive workflows in existing development platforms, leading to piecemeal design approaches and significant debugging efforts for integrating disparate system aspects.
Innovation Solution
An industrial Integrated Development Environment (IDE) system that supports a virtual design environment for interacting with a virtual reality presentation of a plant facility, allowing designers to develop automation systems through intuitive gestures, which are translated into control code, visualizations, and device configurations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate configuration tools are used for different system aspects, then each tool can be optimized for its specific function, but the overall system integration becomes complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate configuration tools into a single integrated development environment that can handle PLC programming, HMI design, motion control, and other automation tasks unified in one platform, eliminating the need for multiple discrete tools and reducing integration complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The IDE is designed as a universal platform that performs multiple functions including code generation, simulation, debugging, and deployment across different automation components, allowing a single tool to replace multiple specialized tools while maintaining comprehensive functionality
2Ease of operation
If traditional 2D interface workflows are used, then the interface design is simple, but the user interaction becomes non-intuitive and less efficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from traditional 2D graphical interfaces to immersive 3D virtual reality environments, allowing users to interact with automation systems in three-dimensional space, which provides more intuitive spatial understanding and easier manipulation of complex system relationships
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces conventional keyboard and mouse interactions with natural hand gestures recognized through computer vision and machine learning algorithms, making the interface more intuitive and easier to operate without requiring users to learn complex shortcut commands
3Reliability
If manual debugging of integrated systems is performed, then each component can be tested individually, but the overall debugging process becomes time-consuming and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements simulation capabilities that allow users to test and validate automation logic in a virtual environment before deploying to physical hardware, enabling early detection and correction of integration errors without time-consuming on-site debugging
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides automated feedback mechanisms including real-time error detection, validation rules, and cross-checking between different configuration aspects, which immediately identify integration conflicts and guide users toward correct configurations, reducing iterative debugging time
Data Source
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AI summary
An industrial integrated development environment (IDE) supports a virtual design environment that allows an automation system designer to perform project development via interaction with a virtual reality presentation of the plant facility. The industrial design environment can generate system project data for an automation project - including but not limited to device selections, industrial control programming, device configurations, visualizations, engineering drawings, etc. - based on the developer's manual interactions with the virtual reality presentation. These interactions can include, for example, placing and moving machines or other industrial assets within the virtualized environment, defining trajectories of motion devices or robots using manual gestures, or other such interactive input. The IDE system interprets the developer's interactions as design specifications for the automation system being designed and translates these interactions into control code, visualizations, device configurations, and other system aspects that satisfy the design specifications.