Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated

Darren R Klug

Petr Ptacek

David Alan Vasko

Edward C Korsberg

An industrial control system includes an industrial controller and a series of bridge devices logically connected in a cascaded arrangement to facilitate data communication between the industrial controller and an I/O device. The control system further includes a programming interface connected to the industrial controller to provide modifications to the program and component configuration. Modifications are provided to the controller and to the bridge devices across the network in a multiphase operation that includes a first operation that cascades the modifications from the industrial controller and to the bridge devices, and a second operation that cascades a apply command to the industrial controller and to the bridge devices instructing the industrial controller and the bridge devices to update the configuration of each of the devices based on the modifications provided in the first phase only upon acknowledgement that the industrial controller and each of the bridge devices has accepted the modifications.

Method and apparatus for synchronizing configuration changes across multiple components of an industrial control system

A universal network adapter for a control system provides an appliance receiving a user selection of network cards for different proprietary network types and an internal interpreter running custom scripts downloadable to the appliance to map the network protocols of the different networks to a single common network communicating with the programmable controller. A buffer table interposed between the networks provides for a consistent ordering of data transfer in separate input and output sessions. Configuration data may be held by the appliance to configure the networks and the devices using the same scripting translation.

Universal network adapter for industrial control networks

An industrial control system communicating among various control elements via a serial network synchronizes the scanning loops associated with collecting and forwarding data along the network so as to substantially reduce transmission delay and jitter, using synchronization information passed along the network.

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Willoughby, OH, United States of America

Darren R Klug