Patent EP0718727A2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0718727A2
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EP
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Industrial controllers with highly distributed processing and method of programming same
Assignee: Allen Bradley Co LLC
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Filing: 1995-05-11
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2015-05-11
Abstract
Abstract A highly distributed industrial control system employs a number of separate control modules (12) communicating together on a shared communications medium (14). Each module (12) emulates one or more basic electrical parts having electrical terminals, such as switches and relays, and transmits production messages indicating the state of the parts, such as conducting current or not. A connection list for each part in each control module (12) defines message identifiers of other parts whose production messages are received by the control module (12) and interpreted as current flow to one or more of its parts. The control system is programmed by generating a schematic on a programming terminal (20) showing connections of terminals on symbols of the parts such as would represent actual wiring of the emulated parts. A parts layout diagram is used in conjunction with the schematic to identify each part to a physical module. In this way the program is divided to run concurrently on the various modules (12) without explicit instructions by the programmer.
Inventors
- 👤 John Hodorowski
- 👤 Donald Pieronek
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-05 14:12
CPC Classifications
G; G05; G05B; G05B19/00; G05B19/02; G05B19/04; G05B19/042; G05B19/0421; G05B19/0426; G05B2219/00; G05B2219/20; G05B2219/21; G05B2219/21053; G05B2219/23; G05B2219/23258; G05B2219/23276; G05B2219/23406; G05B2219/25; G05B2219/25032; G05B2219/25067; G05B2219/25075; G05B2219/25086; G05B2219/25194; G05B2219/25232; G05B2219/25314; G05B2219/25324; G05B2219/26; G05B2219/2621
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 19
Claim 1
Independent Claim
244 words
A method of programming a highly distributed industrial controller comprised of a plurality of physically distinct modules communicating along a shared communications medium, the modules transmitting and receiving messages on the communications medium, the method of programming comprising the steps of: (a) generating a logical diagram depicting the industrial controller in the form of an electrical schematic of electrical symbols on an electronic display screen, the electrical symbols representing elemental electrical functions and having at least one input terminal and at least one output terminal, the terminals representing points between which current flows according to the elemental function, each terminal having a state indicating current flow, the terminals connected by lines representing wires to terminals of other electrical symbols and wherein one such electrical symbol is connected to a power source symbol; (b) generating a physical diagram, on the electronic display screen, showing outlines representing the modules surrounding physical symbols representing the elemental functions to be performed by the modules; (c) programming the modules to emulate the elemental function of the physical symbols associated with the module by the physical diagram; and (d) compiling the physical and logical diagrams to generate a communications table establishing communications between the modules on the communications link so that the elemental functions executed by a given module may communicate the state of their terminals with other elemental functions in other modules as if the electrical symbols of those elemental functions were wired together according to the logical diagram.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
66 words
The method of claim 1 wherein each module has a unique address on the shared communications link and wherein the compilation of step (d) produces an address list indicating for each given elemental function performed by a given module, the address of other modules having other elemental functions whose electrical symbols are connected to the electrical symbol of the given elemental function by the logical diagram.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the physical symbols depict the appearance of a physical equivalent to the elemental function.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the physical diagram indicates the interconnection of the modules by the shared link by means of a line connecting the outlines.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
73 words
The method of claim 1 wherein step (d) comprises: (i) reviewing the physical diagram to assign each terminal of the electrical symbols with an address formed of an address of the module to which its elemental function is allocated and a unique sub-address within that module; (ii) reviewing the logical diagram to determine the interconnections between each electrical symbol; and (iii) relating the interconnection to the assigned addresses to produce the communications table.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
66 words
The method of claim 1 wherein each module has a capability index indicating those elemental functions that can be performed by that module and wherein the compiling of step (d) reviews the physical diagram and the capability index of the modules to verify that the elemental functions assigned to each module can be performed by the module and if not provides an indication to an operator.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
70 words
The method of claim 1 wherein each module has a capability index indicating those elemental functions that can be efficiently performed by that module and wherein the compiling of step (d) also reviews the physical diagram and alters the assignment of elemental functions to the physical modules if the allocation of elemental functions indicated by the physical diagram allocates elemental functions to modules that cannot efficiently perform those elemental functions.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
63 words
The method of claim 7 including the step of: (e) identifying each elemental function as either module dependent and thus not freely movable to another module or module independent, and reallocating the module independent elemental functions to modules other than those indicated by the physical diagram to ensure the module independent functions are allocated to modules that can efficiently perform the elemental functions.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 7 wherein the capability index is a function of the module hardware and of the number of elemental functions assigned to the module.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
59 words
The method of claim 1 including the step of: (e) identifying each elemental function as either module dependent and thus not freely movable to another module or module independent, and reallocating the module independent elemental functions to modules other than those indicated by the physical diagram to reduce the need for communications between modules on the shared communications link.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
55 words
The method of claim 1 including the additional step of: (e) loading at least a portion of the communication table into each module so that it may initiate messages to other modules to communicate the state of the terminals of the electrical symbols of its elemental functions to the elemental functions of the other modules.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the physical diagram of step (b) is generated by selecting among a menu of module types having predefined construction electrical symbols.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
229 words
A method of programming a highly distributed industrial controller comprised of a plurality of modules communicating along a shared communications medium, the modules having message identifiers and output values and communicating the output values, identified by the message identifiers of the module, via messages on the communications medium, the method of programming comprising the steps of: (a) generating a schematic of interconnected electrical graphics symbols on an electronic display screen, the graphic symbols having terminals representing points between which current flows, the terminals connected by lines representing wires, wherein each graphic symbol is associated with one of the modules, and wherein one such graphic symbol is connected to a power source symbol; (b) isolating each given graphic symbol in the schematic to determine other graphic symbols that are its immediate upstream neighbors being other graphic symbols connected to the given graphic symbol by a line unbroken by any other graphic symbol and along a path of connections by lines and graphic symbols leading to the power source symbol; (c) sending to each given module a connection list of the message identifiers of the modules corresponding to the immediate upstream neighbors of the graphic symbol associated with the given module; and (d) causing the modules to respond selectively to messages from other modules having message identifiers on the module's connection list, so as to define virtual connections between the modules.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
28 words
The method of programming of claim 13 wherein the output value of a module corresponds to the represented current flow at a terminal of the associated graphic symbol.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of programming of claim 13 where, in step (d), a change in the output of the module causes the transmission of a message on the communications medium.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
100 words
The method of programming of claim 13 including the steps of: (e) isolating each given graphic symbol in the schematic to determine those other graphic symbols that are its immediate downstream neighbors, being other graphic symbols connected to the given graphic symbol by a line unbroken by any other graphic symbol and along a path of connections by lines and graphic symbols leading to a power return symbol; and (f) sending to each given module a connection list of the message identifiers of the modules corresponding to the immediate downstream neighbors of the graphic symbol corresponding to the given module.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
62 words
The method of programming of claim 13 including the steps of: (e) causing the modules to respond selectively to a mandatory reporting message from the modules' immediate upstream neighbors to transmit a message indicating the module's output value; and (f) modifying the graphic symbols on the electronic display screen to indicate any module that does not respond to the mandatory reporting message.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
22 words
The method of programming of claim 17 including the step of transmitting a first mandatory reporting message at a regular, predetermined interval.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method of programming of claim 17 wherein step (f) causes the graphic symbol associated with any non-reporting module to disappear from the electronic display screen.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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