Abb Schweiz Ag

Staffan Andersson

Heiko Koziolek

Julius Rueckert

Mats Rågberger

Hans Thilderkvist

Anders Rune

Åke Bromö

Stefan Sallberg

Sten Gruener

Thomas Pauly

Pablo Rodriguez

Andreas Burger

Stefan Sällberg

Ulf Hagberg

Magnus Hammar

A method for controlling an industrial process includes providing process data of the industrial process to an active instance of a control software as input, based on this input, updating an internal state of the active instance of the control software that is characterized by a set of internal variables of this active instance; based on this updated internal state, determining an output signal and outputting this output signal to at least one piece of equipment that is configured to alter a state, and/or a behavior, of the industrial process. The method further includes providing a prioritized subset of the internal variables that characterize the state of the active instance to at least one further instance of a control software that is configured to take over control of the industrial process in case of a failure and/or malfunction of the active instance.

Controlling an industrial process using virtualized instances of control software

A system and method for real time updating of process applications includes a first execution engine executing a first process application to control a process device, an update manager receiving an updated software, the update manager being a second software container deployed in the deployment unit; initializing the updated software in a second execution engine; determining an application state of the first process application; instructing a transfer of the application state from the first execution engine to the second execution engine; instructing the second execution engine to execute the updated process application using the received application state; and instructing the first execution engine to stop writing output signals for the process device, and instructing the second execution engine to write output signals for the process device.

Method for real-time updating of process software

A method for process control in a network centric process control system. The network centric process control system includes a plurality of nodes, wherein each node includes one or more control services being a separate executable running in a separate operating system process provided by a real time operating system thereof, wherein configuration data defining a communication interface for process data between the plurality of nodes has been received from an engineering node. The method includes publishing, by one or more of the plurality of controller nodes and plurality of device nodes, process data information in a middleware service, the process data information having an identity unique in the network centric process control system, a data type for process data, and process data, wherein the middleware service being a separate executable running in a separate operating system process provided by a real time operating system thereof, and subscribing, by the one or more of the plurality of nodes, to process data information published in the middleware service. A network centric process control system, a computer program, and a computer program product thereof are also presented.

Network centric process control

A method for providing redundancy in a network centric process control system, where at least one node includes at least one control service as well as at least one middleware service for communicating in the process control system, where the control service and middleware service is each a separate executable running in a separate operating system process provided by a real time operating system thereof, wherein a first control service in a first node communicating via a first middleware service and implementing a first control function acts as an active control service for the first control function and a second control service communicating via a second middleware service and implementing the first control function acts as a standby control service for the first control function, the method including performing, by the first control service, the first control function through subscribing, via the first middleware service, to input process data of the first control function and publishing, via the first middleware service, output process data of the first control function, synchronizing the first control service with the second control service, and taking over, by the second control service based on a determination that a fault has occurred in the first node, the role of active control service, the taking over including publishing, by the second control service via a second middleware service provided for the second control service, the output process data of the first control function based on a subscription of the second control service to the input process data.

Redundancy in a network centric process control system

A method for online reconfiguration of a node in a process control system including components. Each component is a separate executable running in a separate operating system process as provided by a real time operating system of the node. A method is performed by a node manager of the node to be reconfigured. The method includes triggering, based on new configuration data and whilst running the at least one of the components to be reconfigured, creation of a new configuration entity for each of the at least one of the components to be reconfigured, the creating involving implementing, by each new configuration entity, a part of the reconfiguration corresponding to its component to be reconfigured. The method includes triggering synchronization of runtime data in each new configuration entity with runtime data of its corresponding existing configuration entity. The method includes triggering replacement of the existing configuration entity with its new configuration entity and thereby reconfiguring the node.

Online reconfiguration of a node in a process control system

A method for dynamic load balancing between nodes in a network centric process control system. The network centric process control system includes a plurality of nodes and each node includes control service components, where each control service component is a separate executable running in a separate operating system process as provided by a real time operating system of each node. The method is performed by a node manager of a node, and the method includes negotiating a load balancing master role between the plurality of nodes, wherein the negotiating is based on an indication of the plurality of nodes representing load balancing cluster nodes, subscribing, in the negotiated load balancing master role, to a load balancing information from nodes of the load balancing cluster nodes, and reallocating, in the negotiated load balancing master role, one or more control logic tasks from one node to another node of the plurality of nodes based on the subscribed load balancing information. A node manager, a computer program, and a computer program product thereof are also presented.

Dynamic load balancing in network centric process control systems

A method for heterogeneous execution engines in a network centric process control system. The network centric process control system includes a plurality of nodes and each node includes one or more control service components, a middleware service component, a middleware API subcomponent, an address space subcomponent, and a communication component, where each control service component, middleware service component, and communication component is a separate executable running in a separate operating system process as provided by a real time operating system of each node. The method is performed by the network centric process control system, and includes identifying, by the communication component, a component of a node of the network centric process control system by an indication of a namespace ID of the component, forwarding, by the communication component, a request to the address space subcomponent of the identified component, wherein an item ID for runtime data of the identified component indicates an entity in the address space corresponding to the runtime data, and sending, by the communication component, an entity value, wherein the entity value corresponds to the requested runtime data. A network centric process control system, a computer program, and a computer program product for heterogeneous execution engines are also presented.

Heterogeneous execution engines in a network centric process control system

A node for online firmware upgrade in a process control system includes components. Each component is a separate executable running in a separate operating system process as provided by a real time operating system of the node. A new component is created for each of the components to be upgraded such that each new component is implementing a part of the firmware upgrade corresponding to its component to be upgraded. Each new component is a separate executable running in a separate operating system process. Runtime data is synchronized in each new component with runtime data of its corresponding component to be upgraded. Each component to be upgraded is replaced with its new component.

Online firmware upgrade of a node in a process control system

A method for providing redundancy in a network centric process control system, where at least one node includes at least one control service as well as at least one middleware service for communicating in the process control system, where the control service and middleware service is each a separate executable running in a separate operating system process provided by a real time operating system thereof, wherein a first control service in a first node communicating via a first middleware service and implementing a first control function acts as an active control service for the first control function and a second control service communicating via a second middleware service and implementing the first control function acts as a standby control service for the first control function, the method including performing, by the first control service, the first control function through subscribing, via the first middleware service, to input process data of the first control function and publishing via the first middleware service, output process data of the first control function, synchronizing the first control service with the second control service, and taking over, by the second control service based on a determination that a fault has occurred in the first node, the role of active control service, the taking over including publishing, by the second control service via a second middleware service provided for the second control service, the output process data of the first control function based on a subscription of the second control service to the input process data.

A computer-implemented method for creating software objects in a process control system. The method is performed by a processing tool. The method includes creating a process object in the process control system, the process object having at least two aspects. The method includes instantiating at least one instance of the process object in the process control system. The process object is defined by a control device object type having at least two aspects. The control device object type inherits at least one aspect of the at least two aspects from a control object type and inherits at least one other aspect of the at least two aspects from a device object type. There is also provided a processing tool, a computer program, and a computer program product.

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Lund, Sweden

Staffan Andersson