Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated

Pavel Vrba

Kenwood H Hall

Pavel Tichy

Filip Macurek

Vladimir Marik

Francisco Paul Maturana

Raymond John Staron

Petr Slechta

Marek Obitko

Petr Kadera

Miloslav Radakovic

The subject invention relates to systems and methods that distribute electronic data, such as Electronic Product Code (EPC) data, obtained from RFID tags by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers and/or servers to agents within an agent-based control system. The systems and methods employ a component that collects, filters, processes, and stores electronic product data. The component collects electronic product data through corresponding reader and/or server interfaces. This data can be filtered to accept particular electronic product data, processed to a format suitable to the agents, and stored. Such storage can include delineating the electronic product data across rows of a table by electronic product code and across columns of the table by various types of data. Upon receiving a subscription and/or request from an agent for electronic product data, the component can obtain and convey the information to the agent.

Systems and methods that integrate radio frequency identification (RFID) technology with agent-based control systems

An industrial control system and method of controlling an industrial process are disclosed herein. In at least one embodiment, the control system includes an order system configured to receive an order from an external source and process the order to generate an order instance in accordance with an order ontology, at least one database storing a plurality of selectable generalized production plans and information identifying capabilities of a plurality of control entities, and a product agent in at least indirect communication with the order system, the at least one database and the control entities. The product agent receives at least one portion of the order instance, selects at least one of the generalized production plans, and communicates with the control entities so as to determine a production plan instance suitable for governing at least one aspect of an industrial process in order to satisfy at least one portion of the received order corresponding to the at least one portion of the order instance.

Ontology-based system and method for industrial control

The subject invention relates to systems and methods that provide electronic data (e.g., Electronic Product Code (EPC) data) obtained from Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags by RFID readers and/or from servers to one or more industrial components (e.g., controllers, programmable logic controllers, modules, etc.). The systems and methods employ component that processes, if desired, and stores received electronic data as records within a table. Processing includes filtering for data of interest and/or formatting the data in a suitable structure. Storage can include delineating related electronic data across rows the table and types of data across columns of a row. Upon receiving a subscription and/or request for electronic data from the one or more industrial components, the data can be retrieved and conveyed to the subscribing and/or requesting components.

Systems and methods that integrate radio frequency identification (RFID) technology with industrial controllers

The subject invention relates to integrating agents, control logic, and simulations in order to simulate and validate a control strategy for a physical system. The systems and methods integrate agents and control logic with simulations, and utilize the integrated agents, control logic, and simulations to generate a proxy. The proxy can be employed to couple one or more controllers executing the agents and control logic with the simulations. Visualization is utilized to visualize the simulation, including the agents and the control logic. In addition, the systems and methods utilize a synchronization algorithm to synchronize the execution times of the controllers and the simulations. The foregoing mitigates validation through building and testing physical system and/or test beds. Upon validating control strategies, associated agents and logic can be loaded in one or more industrial controllers controlling the physical system, and the simulation can be utilized to represent the physical system.

Agent simulation development environment

A controller capable of being employed in a distributed control system, where the distributed control system controls operations of a plurality of devices that operate together to perform a process, and a method of communicating information between a first program portion and a second program portion of such a controller, are disclosed. The controller includes at least one processing component configured to perform a first plurality of program portions that operate in relation with one another as a first agent. The plurality of program portions includes a first program portion that controls agent-type behavior of the controller, and a second program portion that at least one of controls and monitors at least one of the devices. The controller further includes at least one memory component that stores a data table that is accessed by each of the first and second program portions to allow communication between those program portions.

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Plzen, Czechia

Pavel Vrba