Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Siemens Corporation

Other

Hartmut Ludwig

Lingyun Wang

George Lo

Livio Dalloro

Thomas Gruenewald

Florian Ersch

Mohammad Abdullah Al Faruque

Arquimedes Martinez Canedo

Kurt Dirk Bettenhausen

Florian Erseh

Justinian Rosca

Steffen Lamparter

Michael J Wynblatt

Paul J Terricciano

Roland Porsch

Hasan Sinan Bank

Farshid Arman

Stefan Nitzsche

Georg Muenzel

Siyuan Zhou

Andreas Ziegler

Andreas Kirsch

Michael Jaentsch

Hermann Friedrich

Tino Schwarz

Barry R Contrael

Manuel Schlemelch

A system for providing access to locally stored process image data to other devices in an industrial production environment includes a plurality of controller devices and a process image backbone. Each respective controller device comprises the following: a volatile computer-readable storage medium comprising a process image area; a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium; a control program configured to provide operating instructions to a production unit; an input/output component configured to update the process image area during each scan cycle or upon the occurrence of one or more events with process image data items associated with the production unit; and a historian component configured to locally store the process image data items of the process image area as time series data in the non-volatile computer-readable storage medium. The process image backbone provides the plurality of controllers with uniform access to the process image data items of each programmable logic device.

Universal data access across devices

Service interfaces and data topics can be discovered and retrieved so as to bridge different industrial automation ecosystems, programming languages, platforms, and the like, together. For example, nodes of one ecosystem can discover endpoints (e.g., interfaces and topics) across heterogeneous incompatible ecosystems, without changing the ecosystem. Further, endpoint descriptions are managed across heterogeneous incompatible ecosystems. Endpoint descriptions can be automatically generated based on interface and topic description in an interface description file. Such descriptions can also be automatically exported into registries of other ecosystems.

Endpoint registry across ecosystems

Current approaches to integrating industrial ecosystems, for instance integrating automation functions across different vendors of programmable logic controllers (PLCs), lack efficiencies and capabilities. In an example aspect, a consumer, for instance a PLC, can poll PLCs for an automation function. In response to the polling, a first PLC that includes a memory defining a plurality of dedicated memory areas, can retrieve an interface from a registry memory area that stores information concerning available interfaces in a provider memory area of the plurality of dedicated memory areas, such that the consumer discovers the interface. The consumer can bind to the interface so as to establish a connection between the consumer and the first PLC at runtime of the automation function. In some cases, the plurality of dedicated memory areas further defines a consumer memory area. The first PLC can track available interfaces associated with the first PLC in the registry memory area of the plurality of dedicated memory areas.

Abstraction of PLC communication

An automation system and a method of injecting transactional services in automation is provided. The method performed by the automation system comprises providing a gatekeeper for deployment access control to determine which components can be deployed by an abstraction layer. The method further comprises providing a plugin interface between a consumer plugin associated with a first automation function and a provider plugin associated with a second automation function. The method further comprises injecting an interceptor plugin associated with a transactional service of the transactional services between the consumer plugin and the provider plugin based on an interceptor design pattern.

Automation system and a method for injecting transactional services in automation

A method of monitoring a track using train cars includes collecting first sensor data corresponding to a track location by a first sensor network on a first train car. Based on the first sensor data, a potential track anomaly at the track location is identified by a diagnostics system on the first train car. A message describing the anomaly is transmitted to diagnostics systems located on other train cars. The message is received by a second diagnostics system on a second train car located behind the first train car. The second diagnostics system determines a time at which the second train car will be passing over track location and, at the determined time, collects second sensor data. If the track anomaly is present in both the first sensor data and the second sensor data at the track location, a train control system is notified of the track anomaly.

Distributed bogie diagnostics for track monitoring

A system for using digital twins to interact with physical objects in an automation system includes a plurality of controller devices, a process image backbone, and a registry comprising a plurality of digital twins. Each respective controller device comprises a volatile computer-readable storage medium comprising a process image area. The process image backbone provides the controllers with uniform access to the process image area of each controller. Each digital twin in the registry corresponds to a physical device controllable via one of the controllers devices via a corresponding process image area.

Process image within controllers enabling visibility and accessibility of real world objects

A system for managing physical assets in a manufacturing system includes a plurality of product controllers corresponding to physical assets in the manufacturing system. Each product controller is configured to store a desired product state for a physical asset and collect sensor data received from other digital companions. Furthermore, each product controller determines an actual product state based on the collected sensor data, as well as one or more actions to be performed on one or more physical assets in the manufacture system to yield the desired product state. Once the actions are determined, the product controller transmits control instructions for performing the one or more actions to one or more operation controllers in the manufacturing system.

Product closing the loop

A system for implementing automation functions through abstraction layers includes a control application and an automation equipment abstraction framework executable in a runtime environment. The control application is designed to communicate with automation equipment using one or more automation functions. Each automation function comprises one or more equipment-agnostic instructions. During execution of the control application, the automation equipment abstraction framework receives an equipment-agnostic instructions and an indication of a particular unit of automation equipment. The automation equipment abstraction framework translates the equipment-agnostic instructions into equipment-specific automation instructions executable on the particular unit of automation equipment. These equipment-specific automation instructions may then be sent to the particular unit of automation equipment.

Abstraction layers for automation applications

A system for storing data in an industrial production environment includes a distributed database stored on a plurality of intelligent programmable logic controller devices. Each respective intelligent programmable logic controller device includes a volatile computer-readable storage medium containing a process image area; a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium; a control application; an input/output component; a historian component; and a distributed data management component. The control application is configured to provide operating instructions to a production unit. The input/output component is configured to update the process image area during each scan cycle with data associated with the production unit. The historian component is configured to store automation system data including the operating instructions and contents of the process image area on the non-volatile computer-readable storage medium. The distributed data management component is configured to facilitate distributed operations involving the automation system data by the plurality of intelligent programmable logic controller devices.

Automation and control distributed data management systems

A method of managing a control system includes: executing a first iteration of a program in a first processor core of a multi-core computer system during a first period (S), executing a second iteration of the program in a second processor core of the multi-core system during a second period that overlaps the first period (S); and using outputs of the iterations to control the control system (S).

Pipelining for cyclic control systems

A method of operating an intelligent programmable logic controller over a plurality of scan cycles includes creating, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, a process image area in a volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the intelligent programmable logic controller. The intelligent programmable logic controller then updates the process image area during each scan cycle with contents comprising data associated with a production unit. The contents of the process image area are stored by the intelligent programmable logic controller during each scan cycle on a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the intelligent programmable logic controller. The intelligent programmable logic controller annotates the contents of the process image area with automation system context information to generate contextualized data.

Intelligent programmable logic controller

A method for pipeline parallelizing a control program for multi-core execution includes using () data dependency analysis on a control program to identify tasks that can be performed in parallel, identifying () a largest task Tmax requiring the most execution time of the identified tasks, identifying () cut-points in the largest task Tmax where data dependency delays decouple the task, inserting () delayed data dependencies into cut-points of the largest task Tmax to create N pipeline sub-tasks, in which N is a number of cores available to a processor on which the control program will be executed, and scheduling () the tasks and pipeline sub-tasks to the available processor cores.

Reducing the scan cycle time of control applications through multi-core execution of user programs

Deployment of a plurality of services to a plurality of nodes in a communication network during fulfillment of a service request may be facilitated. A request for the services may be received from the service consumer via a first node of the plurality of nodes. The first node is associated with the service consumer. One or more second nodes of the plurality of nodes are identified in the communication network. Each of the one or more second nodes is associated with one or more service providers. It is determined whether the first node and the one or more second nodes are capable of providing the requested services. The provision of the requested services is assigned to the first node, one or more of the second nodes, or a combination thereof, based on the determination.

Deploying services during fulfillment of a service request

A method for operating a control network includes a first control computer, a second redundant control computer and a plurality of data-processing appliances, wherein a connection between the computers and the appliances is provided by a redundant and diverse heartbeat. The connection between the computers is checked before operating the control network. If a test result is positive, a master function is assigned to the first computer. If the test result is negative, both computers connect the appliances to themselves in a defined sequence. When a predetermined number of appliances are connected to the first computer, the computer takes over a master function and the second computer takes over a standby function, or, when a number, which is less than the predetermined number, of appliances are connected to each of the two computers, a signal is produced which signals a fault state of the control network.

Method for operation of a control network, and a control network

A system and method are provided for the collaborative charging of electric vehicles. The collaborative charging manages the disbursement of power from a neighborhood transformer so as to increase the efficiency of electric vehicle charging at the residences without significantly altering the existing power distribution and residential infrastructures. Time-flexible loads are shed in order to efficiently allocate energy distribution without compromising the comfort or security of the user. The identities of individual residential power demands can be concealed to protect the user's privacy or made available to further optimize power allocation. The power allocation negotiation may be performed in a residential local demand management client separate from the residential charging station.

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West Windsor, NJ, United States of America

Hartmut Ludwig