Patent Application
20240020741
The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to industrial automation systems, and, for example, to management of industrial product catalogs.
Owners of industrial assets often reference electronic product catalogs containing information about the industrial devices and products that are currently available to be purchased from a vendor and integrated into the asset owner's industrial automation systems. Some types of industrial software also host and access local versions of product catalog information for various functions. For example, some industrial design platforms for developing industrial control projects—e.g., industrial control programming, device configurations, etc.—may include an integrated library of device files representing specific industrial devices or modules, which can be selectively added to the control project being developed. Addition of these device files (e.g., electronic data sheet, or EDS, files) to a control project can assist in development of the control project by automatically generating device configurations or control programming for the represented device, or providing the developer with interfaces for setting the device's configuration parameters. According to another example, some types of business applications may be designed to provide industrial product distributers with information about a device vendor's current product offerings. To ensure that distributors are aware of newly released products, and to ensure that customers are not exposed to discontinued products, these business applications should be provided with the most current information about the vendor's product availability.
The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects described herein. This summary is not an extensive overview nor is intended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope of the various aspects described herein. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
In one or more embodiments, a system for synchronizing industrial catalog information is provided, comprising an indexing component configured to monitor a source of industrial product catalog information and, in response to detecting a change to the industrial product catalog information relating to an industrial product, index the change as a product record in a global catalog stored on a cloud platform, wherein the product record contains information about the industrial product; and a synchronization component configured to, in response to determining that the product record has been added or modified, identify an application or a client device that hosts a local version of the industrial product catalog information, synchronize the product record to the local version of the industrial catalog product information.
Also, one or more embodiments provide a method, comprising monitoring, by a system comprising a processor, a source of industrial product catalog information; in response to detecting, based on the monitoring, a change to the industrial product catalog information relating to an industrial product, indexing, by the system, the change as a product record in a global catalog stored on a cloud platform, wherein the product record contains information about the industrial product; and in response to determining that the product record has been added or modified: identifying, by the system, an application or a client device that hosts a local version of the industrial product catalog information; and synchronizing, by the system, the product record to the local version of the industrial catalog product information.
Also, according to one or more embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium is provided having stored thereon instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system to perform operations, the operations comprising monitoring a source of industrial product catalog information; in response to detecting, based on the monitoring, a change to the industrial product catalog information relating to an industrial product, indexing the change as a product record in a global catalog stored on a cloud platform, wherein the product record contains information about the industrial product; and in response to determining that the product record has been added or modified: identifying an application or a client device that hosts a local version of the industrial product catalog information; and synchronizing, by the system, the product record to the local version of the industrial catalog product information.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative of various ways which can be practiced, all of which are intended to be covered herein. Other advantages and novel features may become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
The subject disclosure is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It may be evident, however, that the subject disclosure can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate a description thereof.
As used in this application, the terms “component,” “system,” “platform,” “layer,” “controller,” “terminal,” “station,” “node,” “interface” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity or an entity related to, or that is part of, an operational apparatus with one or more specific functionalities, wherein such entities can be either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component can be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, a hard disk drive, multiple storage drives (of optical or magnetic storage medium) including affixed (e.g., screwed or bolted) or removable affixed solid-state storage drives; an object; an executable; a thread of execution; a computer-executable program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. Also, components as described herein can execute from various computer readable storage media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate via local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the Internet with other systems via the signal). As another example, a component can be an apparatus with specific functionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electric or electronic circuitry which is operated by a software or a firmware application executed by a processor, wherein the processor can be internal or external to the apparatus and executes at least a part of the software or firmware application. As yet another example, a component can be an apparatus that provides specific functionality through electronic components without mechanical parts, the electronic components can include a processor therein to execute software or firmware that provides at least in part the functionality of the electronic components. As further yet another example, interface(s) can include input/output (I/O) components as well as associated processor, application, or Application Programming Interface (API) components. While the foregoing examples are directed to aspects of a component, the exemplified aspects or features also apply to a system, platform, interface, layer, controller, terminal, and the like.
As used herein, the terms “to infer” and “inference” refer generally to the process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system, environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured via events and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action, or can generate a probability distribution over states, for example. The inference can be probabilistic—that is, the computation of a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set of events and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether the events and data come from one or several event and data sources.
In addition, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or.” That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from the context, the phrase “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, the phrase “X employs A or B” is satisfied by any of the following instances: X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from the context to be directed to a singular form.
Furthermore, the term “set” as employed herein excludes the empty set; e.g., the set with no elements therein. Thus, a “set” in the subject disclosure includes one or more elements or entities. As an illustration, a set of controllers includes one or more controllers; a set of data resources includes one or more data resources; etc. Likewise, the term “group” as utilized herein refers to a collection of one or more entities; e.g., a group of nodes refers to one or more nodes.
Various aspects or features will be presented in terms of systems that may include a number of devices, components, modules, and the like. It is to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include all of the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection with the figures. A combination of these approaches also can be used.
Industrial devices 120 may include both input devices that provide data relating to the controlled industrial systems to the industrial controllers 118, and output devices that respond to control signals generated by the industrial controllers 118 to control aspects of the industrial systems. Example input devices can include telemetry devices (e.g., temperature sensors, flow meters, level sensors, pressure sensors, etc.), manual operator control devices (e.g., push buttons, selector switches, etc.), safety monitoring devices (e.g., safety mats, safety pull cords, light curtains, etc.), and other such devices. Output devices may include motor drives, pneumatic actuators, signaling devices, robot control inputs, valves, pumps, and the like.
Industrial controllers 118 may communicatively interface with industrial devices 120 over hardwired or networked connections. For example, industrial controllers 118 can be equipped with native hardwired inputs and outputs that communicate with the industrial devices 120 to effect control of the devices. The native controller I/O can include digital I/O that transmits and receives discrete voltage signals to and from the field devices, or analog I/O that transmits and receives analog voltage or current signals to and from the devices. The controller I/O can communicate with a controller's processor over a backplane such that the digital and analog signals can be read into and controlled by the control programs. Industrial controllers 118 can also communicate with networked industrial devices 120M over a network using, for example, a communication module or an integrated networking port. Exemplary networks can include the Internet, intranets, Ethernet, DeviceNet, ControlNet, Data Highway and Data Highway Plus (DH/DH+), Remote I/O, Fieldbus, Modbus, Profibus, wireless networks, serial protocols, and the like. The industrial controllers 118 can also store persisted data values that can be referenced by their associated control programs and used for control decisions, including but not limited to measured or calculated values representing operational states of a controlled machine or process (e.g., tank levels, positions, alarms, etc.) or captured time series data that is collected during operation of the automation system (e.g., status information for multiple points in time, diagnostic occurrences, etc.). Similarly, some intelligent devices—including but not limited to motor drives, instruments, or condition monitoring modules—may store data values that are used for control and/or to visualize states of operation. Such devices may also capture time-series data or events on a log for later retrieval and viewing.
Industrial automation systems often include one or more human-machine interfaces (HMIs) 114 that allow plant personnel to view telemetry and status data associated with the automation systems, and to control some aspects of system operation. HMIs 114 may communicate with one or more of the industrial controllers 118 over a plant network 116, and exchange data with the industrial controllers to facilitate visualization of information relating to the controlled industrial processes on one or more pre-developed operator interface screens. HMIs 114 can also be configured to allow operators to submit data to specified data tags or memory addresses of the industrial controllers 118, thereby providing a means for operators to issue commands to the controlled systems (e.g., cycle start commands, device actuation commands, etc.), to modify setpoint values, etc. HMIs 114 can generate one or more display screens through which the operator interacts with the industrial controllers 118, and thereby with the controlled processes and/or systems. Example display screens can visualize present states of industrial systems or their associated devices using graphical representations of the processes that display metered or calculated values, employ color or position animations based on state, render alarm notifications, or employ other such techniques for presenting relevant data to the operator. Data presented in this manner is read from industrial controllers 118 by HMIs 114 and presented on one or more of the display screens according to display formats chosen by the HMI developer. HMIs may comprise fixed location or mobile devices with either user-installed or pre-installed operating systems, and either user-installed or pre-installed graphical application software.
Some industrial environments may also include other systems or devices relating to specific aspects of the controlled industrial systems. These may include, for example, a data historian 110 that aggregates and stores production information collected from the industrial controllers 118 or other data sources, motor control centers 124 that house motor control devices, motor drives such as variable frequency drives 126, vision systems, or other such systems.
Higher-level systems 128 may carry out functions that are less directly related to control of the industrial automation systems on the plant floor, and instead are directed to long term planning, high-level supervisory control, analytics, reporting, or other such high-level functions. These systems 128 may reside on the office network 108 at an external location relative to the plant facility, or on a cloud platform with access to the office and/or plant networks. Higher-level systems 128 may include, but are not limited to, cloud storage and analysis systems, big data analysis systems, manufacturing execution systems, data lakes, reporting systems, etc. In some scenarios, applications running at these higher levels of the enterprise may be configured to analyze control system operational data, and the results of this analysis may be fed back to an operator at the control system or directly to a controller 118 or device 120 in the control system.
Industrial asset owners often reference industrial product catalogs that detail the industrial devices and software products available from various vendors. These catalogs may organize product information according to product types (e.g., industrial controller, I/O module, HMI terminal, variable frequency drive, telemetry device, photosensor, etc.) and provide information about each available product, including but not limited to the model number and technical specifications (e.g., physical dimensions, capabilities, power consumption, available data ports, I/O point count, etc.).
Some types of applications also host local versions of product catalog information regarding the industrial devices and products that are available to be purchased and integrated into an asset owner's industrial automation systems. For example, some industrial design platforms for developing industrial control projects—e.g., industrial control programming, device configurations, etc.—may include an integrated library of device profiles representing specific industrial devices or modules, which can be selectively added to the control project being developed. Addition of these device profiles to a control project can assist in development of the control project by automatically generating device configurations or control programming for the represented device, or providing the developer with device-specific user interfaces for setting the device's configuration parameters.
According to another example, some types of business applications may be designed to provide industrial product distributers with information about a device vendor's current product offerings. To ensure that distributors are aware of newly released products, and to ensure that customers are not presented with information regarding discontinued products, these business applications should be provided with the most current information about the vendor's product availability.
Typically, when a device product catalog is updated to add newly released products or to remove discontinued products, applications with integrated local versions of these product catalogs must be updated in order to make the updated catalog information available to the users of those applications. This requires new versions of the application software containing snapshots of the current product offerings to be distributed and installed locally on the end user's systems. This approach necessitates effort on the part of end users to obtain and install updated catalogs on their systems, and can result in continued usage of outdated catalog information by end users who neglect to install these updated versions.
To address these and other issues, one or more embodiments described herein provide a centralized industrial catalog system that brings together product information from disparate sources and globally synchronizing updated catalog information to relevant applications at end user sites. In one or more embodiments, the catalog system can execute as a service on a cloud platform accessible to end user applications or local catalogs that execute a catalog API. The catalog system serves as a scalable global authority for known product information for either a single product vendor or for multiple vendors. Embodiments of the industrial catalog system can ensure that product catalog content is synchronized with high-level sources.
Industrial catalog system 202 can include an indexing component 204, a synchronization component 206, one or more processors 218, and memory 220. In various embodiments, one or more of the indexing component 204, the synchronization component 206, the one or more processors 218, and memory 220 can be electrically and/or communicatively coupled to one another to perform one or more of the functions of the industrial catalog system 202. In some embodiments, components 204 and 206 can comprise software instructions stored on memory 220 and executed by processor(s) 218. Industrial catalog system 202 may also interact with other hardware and/or software components not depicted in
Indexing component 204 can be configured to obtain product information from external content stores using extensible indexing applications, and to index the product information in a global catalog 222 as product records 224. Synchronization component 206 can be configured to autonomously synchronize the product records 224 to on-premise catalog servers or applications that include integrated local versions of the catalog information.
The one or more processors 218 can perform one or more of the functions described herein with reference to the systems and/or methods disclosed. Memory 220 can be a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions and/or information for performing the functions described herein with reference to the systems and/or methods disclosed.
The catalog system's indexing component 204 can collect and index product update information 310 from disparate sources 312 of product information associated with one or more product vendors and aggregate this information 310 in a global catalog 222 as an authoritative set of product information known to be available from the vendors. The sources 312 of product update information 310 can reside at various locations accessible to the indexing component 204, including but not limited to the vendors' on-premise servers, cloud-based or web-based catalog databases, or other such locations.
In some embodiments, the indexing capability of the indexing component 204 can be extensible to the sources 312 of product content. For example, in some embodiments the indexing component 204 can deploy a custom plug-in indexing application to each source 312 of product content and coordinate with these local indexing applications to discover and obtain updates to the product information contained in the content source 312. Some aspects of the indexing functionality can be customizable to allow vendors a degree of control over publication of their product content; e.g., by allowing vendors to specify, to the plug-in indexing application, types of product content or a granularity of product content permitted to be published by the indexing schema. In cases in which a given product attribute exists in multiple different sources 312 of product content, vendors may also assign index priority to a specified content source 312 to be used to update the product attribute.
For each source 312 of product content, the indexing component 204 can use a custom indexing application capable of scanning and publishing the type of product content stored on that source 312. The indexing application used to scan a given source 312 may be a function of the format of the product data contained on the source 312. Example types of industrial product data which can be indexed by the catalog system 202 can include, but are not limited to, electronic data sheet (EDS) files corresponding to respective industrial devices, device profiles, device type modules, electronic document delivery (EDD) files, spreadsheet files or word processing documents containing product information, portable document format (PDF) files, or other such data types or file types.
The indexing component 204 can be configured to scan participating product content sources 312 for updates to vendors' product catalog information. When a vendor updates product information contained in one of their product content sources 312—e.g., to add a new product, edit technical specifications for an existing product, or remove an unavailable product from their catalog—the indexing component 204, working in collaboration with the local indexing applications executing on those sources 312 if appropriate, retrieves product update information 310 documenting the changes made to the catalog data and indexes the update information 310 in the global catalog 222.
In some embodiments, the global catalog 222 can maintain current product information in the form of product records 224 containing information about respective different industrial products. Products having product records 224 indexed in the global catalog 222 can include both hardware products and software products. Information contained in a product record 222 for a given industrial product can include, but is not limited to, a name and catalog number of the product, the product's technical specifications (e.g., capabilities, physical dimensions, I/O point count, storage capacity, processing capacity, power requirements, etc.), current firmware version, other devices with which the product is compatible, supported networks or communication protocols, or other such product attributes. In response to discovering that information for a new product has been added to a content source 312, the indexing component 204 retrieves, from the source 312, corresponding product update information 310 containing information about the new product, and generates a new product record 222 in the global catalog 222 based the product update information 310. In response to detecting a removal of a product from a content source 312, indexing component 204 can delete the corresponding product record 224 from the global catalog 222. If product update information 310 indicates a modification to a product that already has a corresponding product record 224 in the global catalog 222, the indexing component 204 locates and edits the corresponding product record 2224 to reflect the modification to the product.
In some scenarios, information about a given product may reside on multiple different content sources 312. For example, product information may be duplicated across different content sources 312 of the same type, or in different formats across content sources 312 supporting different data formats. Moreover, the distributed information for a given product may relate to different properties or attributes of the product. Indexing component 204 can be configured to recognize scenarios in which product information stored on different content sources 312 corresponds to the same product—e.g., based on a common product name or model number associated with the different sets of product data—and in response to detecting changes to any of the multiple sets of data, apply those changes to the same product record 224.
If conflicts between values of a product's attribute exist between two different sources 312 of information for the product, the indexing component 204 can apply any suitable conflict resolution criteria to determine how the attribute should be updated in the corresponding product record 224. In some embodiments, the indexing component 204 can allow a vendor to specify which source 312 of content for a given product or product attribute is to be given priority for current values of the product or product attribute, such that the indexing component 204 will only use information contained on the prioritized source 312 to update the product record 224 if such conflicts are discovered. In general, the indexing component 204 can use any suitable technique to aggregate information about an industrial product stored in disparate sources 312 into a common product record 224 for the product.
In some embodiments, the indexing component 204 can perform integrity checks on the content of the global catalog 222 to verify that the product records 224 have not been improperly modified by unauthorized entities. Trust relationships between the content sources 312 and the catalog system 202 can also prevent unauthorized modifications to the product records 224 by rogue synchronization to the catalog catalog 222.
The global catalog 222 acts as a captive data store for the product records 224 and is responsive to queries directed to the collection of product records 224. In some embodiments, the catalog system 202 can store the product records 224 in a segregated manner according to vendor, so that synchronization of product information to end user applications 308 or other consumers of the catalog information is performed separately for the different vendors.
The catalog system's synchronization component 206 is configured to synchronize the product records 224 to end user applications, servers, or other consumers of the catalog data. The example depicted in
In the example illustrated in
In general, the selection of global catalog content to be synchronized to a given local catalog instance can depend on the product vendors whose products are represented in the local catalog instances. In an example scenario, when a product update 310 for product associated with a given vendor is indexed into the global catalog 222 by the indexing component 204, the synchronization component 206 can determine which synchronization clients 402 are associated with local catalog instances that include products provided by that vendor, and send global device updates 306 reflecting the product update to those synchronization clients 402. In some embodiments, the synchronization clients 402 can also render notifications of catalog updates on the target applications. These notifications can summarize additions, deletions, or modifications that were applied to synchronize the local instance of the catalog with the global catalog 222.
In some embodiments, the catalog system 202 can also grant users a degree of control over the type or amount of global catalog content to be synchronized to their local catalog instances. To this end, synchronization clients 402 can be configured to generate user interfaces that allow users to define local administrative policies that specify which products, product types, or product attributes are to be synchronized to their local catalog instance from the global catalog 222. For example, a user can define an administrative policy specifying a subset of available products that are to be excluded from the synchronization process if the customer does not intend to use those products (or, alternatively, the user can positively specify an exclusive subset of products that are to be synchronized). Administrative policies could also be defined that specify a selected subset of product attributes that are to be synchronized exclusively, such that other product attributes are excluded from the synchronization process. In this way, global catalog content can be synchronized to local instances of the catalogs autonomously, while being constrained by local administrative preferences and policies.
Some embodiments of the catalog system 202 can allow vendors to tag selected product records 224 as representing licensed products that are only to be made available to customers having valid licenses to use the corresponding product. In such embodiments, the synchronization component 206 will only permit synchronization of those product records 224 to local catalog instances if the client devices or servers hosting the local catalogs provide a valid license to use the corresponding products.
In scenarios in which a network gap exists between the global catalog 222 and a local version of the product catalog, an administrator at a customer facility can copy the local device updates 508 to a storage device, such as a thumb drive or flash drive, and apply the updates to the local product catalog from these stored updates 508.
As noted above, the industrial catalog system 202 can be used to synchronize local versions of a device catalog hosted on industrial IDE applications used to develop industrial control projects.
IDE system 602 can include a user interface component 604 including an IDE editor 624, a project generation component 606, a project deployment component 608, a catalog synchronization component 610 one or more processors 618, and memory 620. In various embodiments, one or more of the user interface component 604, project generation component 606, project deployment component 608, catalog synchronization component 610, the one or more processors 618, and memory 620 can be electrically and/or communicatively coupled to one another to perform one or more of the functions of the IDE system 602. In some embodiments, components 604, 606, 608, and 610 can comprise software instructions stored on memory 620 and executed by processor(s) 618. IDE system 602 may also interact with other hardware and/or software components not depicted in
User interface component 604 can be configured to receive user input and to render output to the user in any suitable format (e.g., visual, audio, tactile, etc.). In some embodiments, user interface component 604 can be configured to communicatively interface with an IDE client that executes on a client device (e.g., a laptop computer, tablet computer, smart phone, etc.) that is communicatively connected to the IDE system 602 (e.g., via a hardwired or wireless connection). The user interface component 604 can then receive user input data and render output data via the IDE client. In other embodiments, user interface component 604 can be configured to generate and serve suitable interface screens to a client device (e.g., program development screens), and exchange data via these interface screens. Input data that can be received via various embodiments of user interface component 604 can include, but is not limited to, programming code, industrial design specifications or goals, engineering drawings, AR/VR input, DSL definitions, video or image data, device configuration data, device profile definition data, or other such input. Output data rendered by various embodiments of user interface component 604 can include program code, programming feedback (e.g., error and highlighting, coding suggestions, etc.), programming and visualization development screens, project testing results, etc.
Project generation component 606 can be configured to create a system project comprising one or more project files based on design input received via the user interface component 604, as well as industrial knowledge, predefined code modules and visualizations, and automation objects maintained by the IDE system 602. Project deployment component 608 can be configured to commission the system project created by the project generation component 606 to appropriate industrial devices (e.g., controllers, HMI terminals, motor drives, AR/VR systems, etc.) for execution. To this end, project deployment component 608 can identify the appropriate target devices to which respective portions of the system project should be sent for execution, translate these respective portions to formats understandable by the target devices, and deploy the translated project components to their corresponding devices.
The one or more processors 618 can perform one or more of the functions described herein with reference to the systems and/or methods disclosed. Memory 620 can be a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions and/or information for performing the functions described herein with reference to the systems and/or methods disclosed
Embodiments of the IDE system 602 that are implemented on a cloud platform also facilitate collaborative project development whereby multiple developers 704 contribute design and programming input to a common automation system project 702. Collaborative tools supported by the IDE system can manage design contributions from the multiple contributors and perform version control of the aggregate system project 702 to ensure project consistency.
Based on design and programming input from one or more developers 704, IDE system 602 generates a system project 702 comprising one or more project files. The system project 702 encodes one or more of control programming; HMI, AR, and/or VR visualizations; device or sub-system configuration data (e.g., drive parameters, vision system configurations, telemetry device parameters, safety zone definitions, etc.); or other such aspects of an industrial automation system being designed. IDE system 602 can identify the appropriate target devices 706 on which respective aspects of the system project 702 should be executed (e.g., industrial controllers, HMI terminals, variable frequency drives, safety devices, etc.), translate the system project 702 to executable files that can be executed on the respective target devices, and deploy the executable files to their corresponding target devices 706 for execution, thereby commissioning the system project 702 to the plant floor for implementation of the automation project.
To support enhanced development capabilities, some embodiments of IDE system 602 can be built on an object-based data model rather than, or in addition to, a tag-based architecture. Automation objects 822 serve as the building block for this object-based development architecture.
An automation object 822 for a given type of industrial asset can encode such aspects as 2D or 3D visualizations, alarms, control coding (e.g., logic or other type of control programming), analytics, startup procedures, testing protocols and scripts, validation reports, simulations, schematics, security protocols, and other such properties associated with the industrial asset 802 represented by the object 822. As will be described in more detail herein, an automation object 822 can also store device configuration settings for an industrial device as a sequence of mouse and keystroke interactions with a device profile configuration interface, such that these interactions can be played back to facilitate reproducing the device configuration for another device. Automation objects 822 can also be geotagged with location information identifying the location of the associated asset. During runtime of the system project 702, the automation object 822 corresponding to a given real-world asset 802 can also record status or operational history data for the asset. In general, automation objects 822 serve as programmatic representations of their corresponding industrial assets 802, and can be incorporated into a system project 702 as elements of control code, a 2D or 3D visualization, a knowledgebase or maintenance guidance system for the industrial assets, or other such aspects.
In addition to control programming and visualization definitions, some embodiments of IDE system 602 can be configured to receive digital engineering drawings (e.g., computer-aided design (CAD) files) as design input 912. In such embodiments, project generation component 606 can generate portions of the system project 702—e.g., by automatically generating control and/or visualization code—based on analysis of existing design drawings. Drawings that can be submitted as design input 912 can include, but are not limited to, P&ID drawings, mechanical drawings, flow diagrams, or other such documents. For example, a P&ID drawing can be imported into the IDE system 602, and project generation component 606 can identify elements (e.g., tanks, pumps, etc.) and relationships therebetween conveyed by the drawings. Project generation component 606 can associate or map elements identified in the drawings with appropriate automation objects 822 corresponding to these elements (e.g., tanks, pumps, etc.) and add these automation objects 822 to the system project 702. The device-specific and asset-specific automation objects 822 include suitable code and visualizations to be associated with the elements identified in the drawings. In general, the IDE system 602 can examine one or more different types of drawings (mechanical, electrical, piping, etc.) to determine relationships between devices, machines, and/or assets (including identifying common elements across different drawings) and intelligently associate these elements with appropriate automation objects 822, code modules 908, and/or visualizations 910. The IDE system 602 can leverage physics-based rules 916 as well as pre-defined code modules 908 and visualizations 910 as necessary in connection with generating code or project data for system project 702.
Also, or in addition, some embodiments of IDE system 602 can support goal-based automated programming. For example, the user interface component 604 can allow the user to specify production goals for an automation system being designed (e.g., specifying that a bottling plant being designed must be capable of producing at least 5000 bottles per second during normal operation) and any other relevant design constraints applied to the design project (e.g., budget limitations, available floor space, available control cabinet space, etc.). Based on this information, the project generation component 606 will generate portions of the system project 702 to satisfy the specified design goals and constraints. Portions of the system project 702 that can be generated in this manner can include, but are not limited to, device and equipment selections (e.g., definitions of how many pumps, controllers, stations, conveyors, drives, or other assets will be needed to satisfy the specified goal), associated device configurations (e.g., tuning parameters, network settings, drive parameters, etc.), control coding, or HMI screens suitable for visualizing the automation system being designed.
Some embodiments of the project generation component 606 can also generate at least some of the project code for system project 702 based on knowledge of parts that have been ordered for the project being developed. This can involve accessing the customer's account information maintained by an equipment vendor to identify devices that have been purchased for the project. Based on this information the project generation component 606 can add appropriate automation objects 822 and associated code modules 908 corresponding to the purchased assets, thereby providing a starting point for project development.
In some embodiments, IDE system 602 can also store and implement guardrail templates 906 that define design guardrails intended to ensure the project's compliance with internal or external design standards. Based on design parameters defined by one or more selected guardrail templates 906, user interface component 604 can provide, as a subset of design feedback 918, dynamic recommendations or other types of feedback designed to guide the developer in a manner that ensures compliance of the system project 702 with internal or external requirements or standards (e.g., certifications such as TUV certification, in-house design standards, industry-specific or vertical-specific design standards, etc.). This feedback 918 can take the form of text-based recommendations (e.g., recommendations to rewrite an indicated portion of control code to comply with a defined programming standard), syntax highlighting, error highlighting, auto-completion of code snippets, or other such formats. In this way, IDE system 602 can customize design feedback 918—including programming recommendations, recommendations of predefined code modules 908 or visualizations 910, error and syntax highlighting, etc.—in accordance with the type of industrial system being developed and any applicable in-house design standards.
Guardrail templates 906 can also be designed to maintain compliance with global best practices applicable to control programming or other aspects of project development. For example, user interface component 604 may generate and render an alert if a developer's control programing is deemed to be too complex as defined by criteria specified by one or more guardrail templates 906. Since different verticals (e.g., automotive, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, food and drug, marine, etc.) must adhere to different standards and certifications, the IDE system 602 can maintain a library of guardrail templates 906 for different internal and external standards and certifications, including customized user-specific guardrail templates 906. These guardrail templates 906 can be classified according to industrial vertical, type of industrial application, plant facility (in the case of custom in-house guardrail templates 906) or other such categories. During development, project generation component 606 can select and apply a subset of guardrail templates 906 determined to be relevant to the project currently being developed, based on a determination of such aspects as the industrial vertical to which the project relates, the type of industrial application being programmed (e.g., flow control, web tension control, a certain batch process, etc.), or other such aspects. Project generation component 606 can leverage guardrail templates 906 to implement rules-based programming, whereby programming feedback (a subset of design feedback 918) such as dynamic intelligent autocorrection, type-aheads, or coding suggestions are rendered based on encoded industry expertise and best practices (e.g., identifying inefficiencies in code being developed and recommending appropriate corrections).
Users can also run their own internal guardrail templates 906 against code provided by outside vendors (e.g., OEMs) to ensure that this code complies with in-house programming standards. In such scenarios, vendor-provided code can be submitted to the IDE system 602, and project generation component 606 can analyze this code in view of in-house coding standards specified by one or more custom guardrail templates 906. Based on results of this analysis, user interface component 604 can indicate portions of the vendor-provided code (e.g., using highlights, overlaid text, etc.) that do not conform to the programming standards set forth by the guardrail templates 906, and display suggestions for modifying the code in order to bring the code into compliance. As an alternative or in addition to recommending these modifications, some embodiments of project generation component 606 can be configured to automatically modify the code in accordance with the recommendations to bring the code into conformance.
In making coding suggestions as part of design feedback 918, project generation component 606 can invoke selected code modules 908 stored in a code module database or selected automation objects 822 stored in an automation object library 902 (e.g., on memory 620). Code modules 908 comprise standardized coding segments for controlling common industrial tasks or applications (e.g., palletizing, flow control, web tension control, pick-and-place applications, conveyor control, etc.). Similarly, automation objects 822 representing respective industrial assets may have associated therewith standardize control code for monitoring and controlling their respective assets. In some embodiments, code modules 908 and/or automation objects 822 can be categorized according to one or more of an industrial vertical (e.g., automotive, food and drug, oil and gas, textiles, marine, pharmaceutical, etc.), an industrial application, or a type of machine or device to which the code module 908 or automation object 822 is applicable.
In some embodiments, project generation component 606 can infer a programmer's current programming task or design goal based on programmatic input being provided by the programmer (as a subset of design input 912), and determine, based on this task or goal, whether one of the pre-defined code modules 908 or automation objects 822 may be appropriately added to the control program being developed to achieve the inferred task or goal. For example, project generation component 606 may infer, based on analysis of design input 912, that the programmer is currently developing control code for transferring material from a first tank to another tank, and in response, recommend inclusion of a predefined code module 908 comprising standardized or frequently utilized code for controlling the valves, pumps, or other assets necessary to achieve the material transfer. Similarly, the project generation component 606 may recommend inclusion of an automation object 822 representing one of the tanks, or one of the other industrial assets involved in transferring the material (e.g., a valve, a pump, etc.), where the recommended automation object 822 includes associated control code for controlling its associated asset as well as a visualization object that can be used to visualize the asset on an HMI application or another visualization application.
Customized guardrail templates 906 can also be defined to capture nuances of a customer site that should be taken into consideration in the project design. For example, a guardrail template 906 could record the fact that the automation system being designed will be installed in a region where power outages are common, and will factor this consideration when generating design feedback 918; e.g., by recommending implementation of backup uninterruptable power supplies and suggesting how these should be incorporated, as well as recommending associated programming or control strategies that take these outages into account.
IDE system 602 can also use guardrail templates 906 to guide user selection of equipment or devices for a given design goal; e.g., based on the industrial vertical, type of control application (e.g., sheet metal stamping, die casting, palletization, conveyor control, web tension control, batch processing, etc.), budgetary constraints for the project, physical constraints at the installation site (e.g., available floor, wall or cabinet space; dimensions of the installation space; etc.), equipment already existing at the site, etc. Some or all of these parameters and constraints can be provided as design input 912, and user interface component 604 can render the equipment recommendations as a subset of design feedback 918. In conjunction with this equipment recommendation, the project generation component 606 can also recommend inclusion of corresponding automation objects 822 representing the recommended equipment for inclusion in the system project 702.
As noted above, the system project 702 generated by IDE system 602 for a given automaton system being designed can be built upon an object-based architecture that uses automation objects 822 as building blocks.
At least some of the attributes of each automation object 822 are default properties defined by the IDE system 602 based on encoded industry expertise pertaining to the asset represented by the objects. These default properties can include, for example, industry-standard or recommended control code for monitoring and controlling the asset represented by the automation object 822, a 2D or 3D graphical object that can be used to visualize operational or statistical data for the asset, alarm conditions associated with the asset, analytic or reporting scripts designed to yield actionable insights into the asset's behavior, or other such properties. Other properties can be modified or added by the developer as needed (via design input 912) to customize the automation object 822 for the particular asset and/or industrial application for which the system projects 702 is being developed. This can include, for example, associating customized control code, HMI screens, AR presentations, or help files associated with selected automation objects 822. In this way, automation objects 822 can be created and augmented as needed during design for consumption or execution by target control devices during runtime.
Once development and testing on a system project 702 has been completed, commissioning tools supported by the IDE system 602 can simplify the process of commissioning the project in the field. When the system project 702 for a given automation system has been completed, the system project 702 can be deployed to one or more target control devices for execution.
Conventional control program development platforms require the developer to specify the type of industrial controller (e.g., the controller's model number) on which the control program will run prior to development, thereby binding the control programming to a specified controller. Controller-specific guardrails are then enforced during program development which limit how the program is developed given the capabilities of the selected controller. By contrast, some embodiments of the IDE system 602 can abstract project development from the specific controller type, allowing the designer to develop the system project 702 as a logical representation of the automation system in a manner that is agnostic to where and how the various control aspects of system project 702 will run. Once project development is complete and system project 702 is ready for commissioning, the user can specify (via user interface component 604) target devices on which respective aspects of the system project 702 are to be executed. In response, an allocation engine of the project deployment component 608 will translate aspects of the system project 702 to respective executable files formatted for storage and execution on their respective target devices.
For example, system project 702 may include—among other project aspects—control code, visualization screen definitions, and motor drive parameter definitions. Upon completion of project development, a user can identify which target devices—including an industrial controller 118, an HMI terminal 114, and a motor drive 1110—are to execute or receive these respective aspects of the system project 702. Project deployment component 608 can then translate the controller code defined by the system project 702 to a control program file 1102 formatted for execution on the specified industrial controller 118 and send this control program file 1102 to the controller 118 (e.g., via plant network 116). Similarly, project deployment component 608 can translate the visualization definitions and motor drive parameter definitions to a visualization application 1104 and a device configuration file 708, respectively, and deploy these files to their respective target devices for execution and/or device configuration.
In general, project deployment component 608 performs any conversions necessary to allow aspects of system project 702 to execute on the specified devices. Any inherent relationships, handshakes, or data sharing defined in the system project 702 are maintained regardless of how the various elements of the system project 702 are distributed. In this way, embodiments of the IDE system 602 can decouple the project from how and where the project is to be run. This also allows the same system project 702 to be commissioned at different plant facilities having different sets of control equipment. That is, some embodiments of the IDE system 602 can allocate project code to different target devices as a function of the particular devices found on-site. IDE system 602 can also allow some portions of the project file to be commissioned as an emulator or on a cloud-based controller.
As an alternative to having the user specify the target control devices to which the system project 702 is to be deployed, some embodiments of IDE system 602 can actively connect to the plant network 116 and discover available devices, ascertain the control hardware architecture present on the plant floor, infer appropriate target devices for respective executable aspects of system project 702, and deploy the system project 702 to these selected target devices. As part of this commissioning process, IDE system 602 can also connect to remote knowledgebases (e.g., web-based or cloud-based knowledgebases) to determine which discovered devices are out of date or require firmware upgrade to properly execute the system project 702. In this way, the IDE system 602 can serve as a link between device vendors and a customer's plant ecosystem via a trusted connection in the cloud.
Copies of system project 702 can be propagated to multiple plant facilities having varying equipment configurations using smart propagation, whereby the project deployment component 608 intelligently associates project components with the correct industrial asset or control device even if the equipment on-site does not perfectly match the defined target (e.g., if different pump types are found at different sites). For target devices that do not perfectly match the expected asset, project deployment component 608 can calculate the estimated impact of running the system project 702 on non-optimal target equipment and generate warnings or recommendations for mitigating expected deviations from optimal project execution.
As noted above, some embodiments of IDE system 602 can be embodied on a cloud platform.
In this example, IDE system 602 resides on a cloud platform 1206 and executes as a set of cloud-based IDE service 1202 that are accessible to authorized remote client devices 904. Cloud platform 1206 can be any infrastructure that allows shared computing services (such as IDE services 1202) to be accessed and utilized by cloud-capable devices. Cloud platform 1206 can be a public cloud accessible via the Internet by devices 904 having Internet connectivity and appropriate authorizations to utilize the IDE services 1202. In some scenarios, cloud platform 1206 can be provided by a cloud provider as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and the IDE services 1202 can reside and execute on the cloud platform 1206 as a cloud-based service. In some such configurations, access to the cloud platform 1206 and associated IDE services 1202 can be provided to customers as a subscription service by an owner of the IDE services 1202. Alternatively, cloud platform 1206 can be a private cloud operated internally by the industrial enterprise (the owner of the plant facility). An example private cloud platform can comprise a set of servers hosting the IDE services 1202 and residing on a corporate network protected by a firewall.
Cloud-based implementations of IDE system 602 can facilitate collaborative development by multiple remote developers who are authorized to access the IDE services 1202. When a system project 702 is ready for deployment, the project 702 can be commissioned to the plant facility via a secure connection between the office network 108 or the plant network 116 and the cloud platform 1206. As discussed above, the industrial IDE services 1202 can translate system project 702 to one or more appropriate executable files—control program files 702, visualization applications 704, device configuration files 708, system configuration files 1212—and deploy these files to the appropriate devices in the plant facility to facilitate implementation of the automation project.
Some embodiments of the industrial IDE system 602 can support the use of device profiles to facilitate setting values of configurable device parameters for devices that are to be included in the automation project.
The IDE system 602 can store device profiles 1306 for multiple types of devices in a device profile library 1302 for selective inclusion in system projects 702. Device profiles 1306 can be defined for a variety of different industrial devices or systems, including but not limited to industrial controller modules (e.g., analog or digital input and output modules, networking or scanner modules, special function modules, etc.), variable frequency drives, telemetry devices, safety relays, vision systems, or other such devices.
As illustrated in
For an example system project 702, the project tree 1406 can include a controller node 1502 representing an industrial controller 118 to be programmed as part of the system project 702. A backplane node 1504 is defined as a child node of the controller node 1502 and represents the backplane of the industrial controller 118 on which one or more devices or modules will be installed. Any modules or devices to be connected to the controller's backplane are represented as device nodes 1414 below the backplane node 1504. Example devices that can be associated with the controller can include, but are not limited to, digital or analog input modules, digital or analog output modules, networking or scanning modules, analytic modules, special function modules, smart industrial devices, motor drives such as variable frequency drives, or other such devices. Per the workflow illustrated in
The explorer icons rendered on the control bar 1508 can also include an Application icon that causes the explorer panel 1412 to display a list of applications—e.g., industrial control programs such as ladder logic routines—that make up the system project 702. This viewing mode allows the user to develop, view, and edit control programs within the main workspace area 1410. These control programs will be installed and executed on the industrial controller 118.
Returning to
Informational categories listed in the category window 1408 can include an Overview category and a more detailed Device Information category. Selection of the Overview category can cause summary information about the device—e.g., model number and revision number of the device, device type, a type of electronic keying, or other such information—to be rendered in the main workspace area 1410. In the example depicted in
Depending on the type of device, some of the device information accessible via the Overview or Device Information categories can be edited by the user.
Returning again to
As noted above, the device profile 1306 for the device being configured defines the configuration parameters that will be presented for viewing and editing in the main workspace area.
In some embodiments, the IDS system 602 can be configured to generate dynamic feedback in response to determining that the user has submitted a device configuration parameter value that is not within a valid range for the edited parameter. In this regard, some device profiles 1306 can define ranges of valid values for respective device parameters. As the user submits device configuration parameter values, the project generation component 606 can verify that each parameter value submitted by the user is within the valid ranges. If the user enters a parameter value that is outside that parameter's valid range, the user interface component 604 can render a notification on the development interface 1402 indicating that the value entered by the user is invalid. The project generation component 606 can reject any submitted parameter values that are outside their valid ranges.
The device configuration interfaces illustrated in
As discussed above in connection with
The project depicted in
The example project depicted in
The industrial catalog system 202 described above in connection with
To allow for continued use of older versions of devices or legacy devices that may no longer be offered by a vendor, the profile updates 1902 may maintain device profiles 1306 for discontinued devices in the profile library 902 and flag those profiles 1306 as corresponding to devices that are no longer offered or supported. These flags can be reflected in on development interface 1402 in any suitable manner; e.g., by adding a note to the profile's main configuration area 1404.
The industrial catalog system 202 can synchronize instances of the device profile library 902 regardless of whether the host IDE system 602 resides on a client device (e.g., a laptop or desktop computer), a server residing at an industrial facility on an office or plant network, or on a cloud platform as a cloud-based service. Synchronization of the device profile library 902 in this manner does not require a new version of the IDE system's software including the updated profile library 902 to be installed on its host device or platform. Instead, the industrial catalog system 202 autonomously replicates product updates to customer-owned instances of the IDE system 202 so that new devices are available to developers for selective addition to control projects (e.g., by selectively adding the new profiles to their project trees 1406 as device nodes 1414).
Embodiments of the global catalog system described herein can ensure that updates to industrial product catalog information is autonomously and globally distributed to local systems and applications that reference local instances of the product catalog. Local applications that host local versions of the product catalog, such as industrial IDE systems, are automatically updated to reflect current product offerings without the need to install new versions of those applications equipped with current snapshots of the catalog.
At 2004, a determination is made as to whether an update to a source of industrial catalog content is detected based on the scanning performed at step 2002. The update may be an addition of a new product, a modification to a product's specifications or attributes, or removal of a product from a vendor's catalog. If an update is detected (YES at step 2004), the methodology proceeds to step 2006, where the update is indexed in a global product catalog as a new, modified, or deleted product record.
At 2008, a local instance of the industrial product catalog that requires the updated product record is identified. The local instance can be hosted by any system, server, or application that maintains and accesses a local instance of the product catalog. At 2010, a determination is made as to whether synchronization of the product record is permitted by locally defined constraints. These local synchronization constraints can be defined by an administrator associated with the enterprise that owns the local instance of the catalog, and may specify types of industrial products that are not to be synchronized to the local instance (e.g., if those products are not used by the enterprise and therefore do not require synchronization). These constraints may also specify a limited subset of product attributes that are to be synchronized to the local instance of the catalog, so that other product attributes will not be synchronized.
If synchronization of the product record is not permitted by the local constraints (NO at step 2010), the methodology returns to step 2002 and scanning continues. Alternatively, if synchronization of the product record is permitted (YES at step 2010), the methodology proceeds to step 2012, where the product record is synchronized to the local instance of the product catalog in compliance with the locally defined constraints. Depending on the constraints defined by the local administrator, all attributes of the product record may be synchronized, or a limited subset of the product attributes specified by the constraints may be synchronized.
Embodiments, systems, and components described herein, as well as control systems and automation environments in which various aspects set forth in the subject specification can be carried out, can include computer or network components such as servers, clients, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), automation controllers, communications modules, mobile computers, on-board computers for mobile vehicles, wireless components, control components and so forth which are capable of interacting across a network. Computers and servers include one or more processors—electronic integrated circuits that perform logic operations employing electric signals—configured to execute instructions stored in media such as random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), a hard drives, as well as removable memory devices, which can include memory sticks, memory cards, flash drives, external hard drives, and so on.
Similarly, the term PLC or automation controller as used herein can include functionality that can be shared across multiple components, systems, and/or networks. As an example, one or more PLCs or automation controllers can communicate and cooperate with various network devices across the network. This can include substantially any type of control, communications module, computer, Input/Output (I/O) device, sensor, actuator, and human machine interface (HMI) that communicate via the network, which includes control, automation, and/or public networks. The PLC or automation controller can also communicate to and control various other devices such as standard or safety-rated I/O modules including analog, digital, programmed/intelligent I/O modules, other programmable controllers, communications modules, sensors, actuators, output devices, and the like.
The network can include public networks such as the internet, intranets, and automation networks such as control and information protocol (CIP) networks including DeviceNet, ControlNet, safety networks, and Ethernet/IP. Other networks include Ethernet, DH/DH+, Remote I/O, Fieldbus, Modbus, Profibus, CAN, wireless networks, serial protocols, and so forth. In addition, the network devices can include various possibilities (hardware and/or software components). These include components such as switches with virtual local area network (VLAN) capability, LANs, WANs, proxies, gateways, routers, firewalls, virtual private network (VPN) devices, servers, clients, computers, configuration tools, monitoring tools, and/or other devices.
In order to provide a context for the various aspects of the disclosed subject matter,
Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the inventive methods can be practiced with other computer system configurations, including single-processor or multiprocessor computer systems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, distributed computing systems, as well as personal computers, hand-held computing devices, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, and the like, each of which can be operatively coupled to one or more associated devices.
The illustrated embodiments herein can be also practiced in distributed computing environments where certain tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
Computing devices typically include a variety of media, which can include computer-readable storage media, machine-readable storage media, and/or communications media, which two terms are used herein differently from one another as follows. Computer-readable storage media or machine-readable storage media can be any available storage media that can be accessed by the computer and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable storage media or machine-readable storage media can be implemented in connection with any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable or machine-readable instructions, program modules, structured data or unstructured data.
Computer-readable storage media can include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disk (DVD), Blu-ray disc (BD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, solid state drives or other solid state storage devices, or other tangible and/or non-transitory media which can be used to store desired information. In this regard, the terms “tangible” or “non-transitory” herein as applied to storage, memory or computer-readable media, are to be understood to exclude only propagating transitory signals per se as modifiers and do not relinquish rights to all standard storage, memory or computer-readable media that are not only propagating transitory signals per se.
Computer-readable storage media can be accessed by one or more local or remote computing devices, e.g., via access requests, queries or other data retrieval protocols, for a variety of operations with respect to the information stored by the medium.
Communications media typically embody computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other structured or unstructured data in a data signal such as a modulated data signal, e.g., a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery or transport media. The term “modulated data signal” or signals refers to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in one or more signals. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media include wired media, such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.
With reference again to
The system bus 2108 can be any of several types of bus structure that can further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of commercially available bus architectures. The system memory 2106 includes ROM 2110 and RAM 2112. A basic input/output system (BIOS) can be stored in a non-volatile memory such as ROM, erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), EEPROM, which BIOS contains the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the computer 2102, such as during startup. The RAM 2112 can also include a high-speed RAM such as static RAM for caching data.
The computer 2102 further includes an internal hard disk drive (HDD) 2114 (e.g., EIDE, SATA), one or more external storage devices 2116 (e.g., a magnetic floppy disk drive (FDD) 2116, a memory stick or flash drive reader, a memory card reader, etc.) and an optical disk drive 2120 (e.g., which can read or write from a CD-ROM disc, a DVD, a BD, etc.). While the internal HDD 2114 is illustrated as located within the computer 2102, the internal HDD 2114 can also be configured for external use in a suitable chassis (not shown). Additionally, while not shown in environment 2100, a solid state drive (SSD) could be used in addition to, or in place of, an HDD 2114. The HDD 2114, external storage device(s) 2116 and optical disk drive 2120 can be connected to the system bus 2108 by an HDD interface 2124, an external storage interface 2126 and an optical drive interface 2128, respectively. The interface 2124 for external drive implementations can include at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394 interface technologies. Other external drive connection technologies are within contemplation of the embodiments described herein.
The drives and their associated computer-readable storage media provide nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions, and so forth. For the computer 2102, the drives and storage media accommodate the storage of any data in a suitable digital format. Although the description of computer-readable storage media above refers to respective types of storage devices, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of storage media which are readable by a computer, whether presently existing or developed in the future, could also be used in the example operating environment, and further, that any such storage media can contain computer-executable instructions for performing the methods described herein.
A number of program modules can be stored in the drives and RAM 2112, including an operating system 2130, one or more application programs 2132, other program modules 2134 and program data 2136. All or portions of the operating system, applications, modules, and/or data can also be cached in the RAM 2112. The systems and methods described herein can be implemented utilizing various commercially available operating systems or combinations of operating systems.
Computer 2102 can optionally comprise emulation technologies. For example, a hypervisor (not shown) or other intermediary can emulate a hardware environment for operating system 2130, and the emulated hardware can optionally be different from the hardware illustrated in
Further, computer 2102 can be enable with a security module, such as a trusted processing module (TPM). For instance with a TPM, boot components hash next in time boot components, and wait for a match of results to secured values, before loading a next boot component. This process can take place at any layer in the code execution stack of computer 2102, e.g., applied at the application execution level or at the operating system (OS) kernel level, thereby enabling security at any level of code execution.
A user can enter commands and information into the computer 2102 through one or more wired/wireless input devices, e.g., a keyboard 2138, a touch screen 2140, and a pointing device, such as a mouse 2142. Other input devices (not shown) can include a microphone, an infrared (IR) remote control, a radio frequency (RF) remote control, or other remote control, a joystick, a virtual reality controller and/or virtual reality headset, a game pad, a stylus pen, an image input device, e.g., camera(s), a gesture sensor input device, a vision movement sensor input device, an emotion or facial detection device, a biometric input device, e.g., fingerprint or iris scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 2104 through an input device interface 2144 that can be coupled to the system bus 2108, but can be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, an IEEE 1394 serial port, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, a BLUETOOTH® interface, etc.
A monitor 2144 or other type of display device can be also connected to the system bus 2108 via an interface, such as a video adapter 2146. In addition to the monitor 2144, a computer typically includes other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers, printers, etc.
The computer 2102 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections via wired and/or wireless communications to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer(s) 2148. The remote computer(s) 2148 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainment appliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer 2102, although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device 2150 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted include wired/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 2152 and/or larger networks, e.g., a wide area network (WAN) 2154. Such LAN and WAN networking environments are commonplace in offices and companies, and facilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such as intranets, all of which can connect to a global communications network, e.g., the Internet.
When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 2102 can be connected to the local network 2152 through a wired and/or wireless communication network interface or adapter 2156. The adapter 2156 can facilitate wired or wireless communication to the LAN 2152, which can also include a wireless access point (AP) disposed thereon for communicating with the adapter 2156 in a wireless mode.
When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 2102 can include a modem 2158 or can be connected to a communications server on the WAN 2154 via other means for establishing communications over the WAN 2154, such as by way of the Internet. The modem 2158, which can be internal or external and a wired or wireless device, can be connected to the system bus 2108 via the input device interface 2122. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 2102 or portions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device 2150. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are example and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers can be used.
When used in either a LAN or WAN networking environment, the computer 2102 can access cloud storage systems or other network-based storage systems in addition to, or in place of, external storage devices 2116 as described above. Generally, a connection between the computer 2102 and a cloud storage system can be established over a LAN 2152 or WAN 2154 e.g., by the adapter 2156 or modem 2158, respectively. Upon connecting the computer 2102 to an associated cloud storage system, the external storage interface 2126 can, with the aid of the adapter 2156 and/or modem 2158, manage storage provided by the cloud storage system as it would other types of external storage. For instance, the external storage interface 2126 can be configured to provide access to cloud storage sources as if those sources were physically connected to the computer 2102.
The computer 2102 can be operable to communicate with any wireless devices or entities operatively disposed in wireless communication, e.g., a printer, scanner, desktop and/or portable computer, portable data assistant, communications satellite, any piece of equipment or location associated with a wirelessly detectable tag (e.g., a kiosk, news stand, store shelf, etc.), and telephone. This can include Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) and BLUETOOTH® wireless technologies. Thus, the communication can be a predefined structure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices.
What has been described above includes examples of the subject innovation. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the disclosed subject matter, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the subject innovation are possible. Accordingly, the disclosed subject matter is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
In particular and in regard to the various functions performed by the above described components, devices, circuits, systems and the like, the terms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component which performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., a functional equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure, which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary aspects of the disclosed subject matter. In this regard, it will also be recognized that the disclosed subject matter includes a system as well as a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the acts and/or events of the various methods of the disclosed subject matter.
In addition, while a particular feature of the disclosed subject matter may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “includes,” and “including” and variants thereof are used in either the detailed description or the claims, these terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.”
In this application, the word “exemplary” is used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.
Various aspects or features described herein may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer readable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips . . . ), optical disks [e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD) . . . ], smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., card, stick, key drive . . . ).
