Process control system including a method and apparatus for

50 Pages·2013·2.82 MB·English

US006098116A
Ulllted States Patent [19] [11] Patent Number: 6,098,116
Nixon et al. [45] Date of Patent: Aug. 1, 2000
[54] PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM INCLUDING 5,485,620 1/1996 Sadre et al. ........................... .. 395/700
A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR (List continued on next page.)
AUTOMATICALLY SENSING THE
CONNECTION OF DEVICES TO A FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
NETWORK 0 522 590 1/1993 Germany ................... .. G05B 19/417
[75] Inventors: Mark Nixon, Round Rock; Ken D. W029??? Kingdom """"" " G05B 19/18
Krivoshein, Elgin; John R. Shepard, '
Austin; Dan D. Christensen, Austin; OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Duncan Schlelss’ Ausnn’ an of TeX' John R. Gyoriki, “PLC’s drive standard buses”, Machine
[73] Assignee: Fisher-Rosemont Systems, Inc., Deslgns’ May 11’ 1925’ pp‘ 83_90' ”
Austin Tex' Moore Products Co., Control System , PoWer Apr. 1995, p.
’ 114, vol. 139, No. 4, Copyright 1995, McGraW—Hill, Inc.
_ Moore Products Co., “Apacs Control System”, PoWer Jun.
[21] APPl- N°~~ 08/631,519 1995, p. 81, vol. 139,110. 6, Copyright 1995, McGraW—Hill,
[22] Filed: Apr. 12, 1996 Inc
7 Robert R. Lyons, “New Telemecanique Programmable Con
[51] Int. Cl. ........................... .. G06F 13/14; G06F 13/20 [rollers Feature Multiple programming Languages”,
[52] US. Cl. ................................. .. 710/8; 710/10; 710/62; Telernaoaniqne, Arlington Heights, IL, Feb, 11, 1995,
709/220; 709/221; 709/250 L_ _ d
[58] Field of Search .......................... .. 395/2095, 200.51, ( 1st Comm“ 0“ next Page“)
395/200.8; 370/941; 710/8, 10, 62; 709/250, Primary Examiner—Thomas C. Lee
220, 221 Assistant Examiner—Rehana Perveen
_ Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Skjerven, Morrill, MacPherson,
[56] References Clted Franklin & Friell, LLP.; Ken J. Koestner
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS [57] ABSTRACT
4,302,820 11/1981 Struger et al. ........................ .. 364/900 A digital control System automatically Senses When a new
g/ ‘gorges et a1‘ controller is attached to a network and determines the
’ ’ / .0 USS """" " " / number and types of I/O Ports that are attached to the neW
4,689,786 8/1987 Sidhu et al. 370/94 11 Th d. . 1 1 f d d. 1
479167610 4/1990 Bapat 364/300 contro er. ‘e 1g1ta' contro system ormats an lsp ays
570067992 4/1991 Skeirik __ 364/513 the I/O Port information upon request by a user. The digital
5,063,523 11/1991 Vrenjak _ __ 364/514 control system program also includes an automatic con?gu
5,129,087 7/1992 Will ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,, 395/650 ration program that responds to sensing of a neW controller
5,134,574 7/1992 Beaverstock etal. ........... .. 364/551.01 by automatically con?guring the input/output (I/O) sub
5,155,842 10/1992 Rubin .................................... .. 395/575 System The user adds a new controller Without getting any
5,293,466 3/1994 Bflngmann 395/114 physical sWitches or nodes. Auser optionally supplies con
g’3o7’g46 21/1994 Fl‘i’ldhouse 370/85‘; ?guration information for a device into a database, prior to
311’ 62 / 1994 Pa.uSamy et a ' 376/21 connection of a device. Upon connection of the device, the
5,371,985 12/1994 Bristol ................................... .. 395/800 d . . . H d d ? d . h
5,432,711 7/1995 Jackson et a1. ....................... .. 364/514 W1“ 15 automatlca ,y Sense, an F0“ gum, ‘15mg t ,e
574427639 8/1995 Crowder et aL __ __ 371001 database con?guration information, W1thoutsett1ng of physi
5,444,851 8/1995 Woest __________ __ _ 395/20Q1 cal switches or node address information on the devices.
5,475,856 12/1995 Kogge ............. .. 395/800
5,481,741 1/1996 McKaskle et al. ................... .. 395/800 40 Claims, 27 Drawing Sheets
l
SEND
REQUEST
FORID
i l
REQUEST
RECEIVED ADD
BY TODATABASE
PLUGSrPLAY 2220
SEARCH l
DEVICE
CONFIG
TABLE F0“ WEE-kills“
MATCH 2222
NO MATCH
GENERATE
DEFAULT PROMPT
DEVICE USER FOR
NAME DEVlCE
2218 2224
AUTOMATIC MANUAL’
SET N EXT
DEVlCE DATA FHOMPTED
222s FOR DATA
222s
6,098,116
Page 2
US. PATENT DOCUMENTS 5,706,007 1/1998 Fragnito et al. ...................... .. 341/155
5,491,791 2/1996 Glowny et al. .................. .. 395/183.13 OTHER PUBLICATIONS
534933534 2/1996 Mok ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' " 365/226 Clifford J. Peshek et al., “Recent Developments and Future
5504902 4/1996 Mcpmh et a1‘ ' 395/700 Trends in PLC Pro rarnrnin Lan ua es and Pro rarnrnin
5,513,095 4/1996 Pa]0nk 364/131 . g g,, g g g g
575197706 5/1996 Bantz et a1‘ 370/853 Tools for Real—T1rne Control , IEEE Cement Industry Tech
5’519’878 5/1996 Donn’ JL _____ __ 395/800 nical Conference, May 1933, Toronto,Canada, pp. 219—230.
575247269 6/1996 Hamilton et a1_ _ 395/829 C.K. Duffer et al., “High—Level Control Language Custorn
5,526,489 6/1996 Nilakantan et a1, 395/200_02 iZes Application Prograrns”, PoWer Technologies, Inc., IEEE
5,530,643 6/1996 Hodorowski . . . . . . . . . .. 364/191 Computer Applications in PoWer, @ Apr. 1991, pp. 15—18.
5,537,414 7/1996 Takiyasu et al. .................... .. Beesterm?ller et all” “An Online and O?’line program
5,549,137 8/1996 Lenz et 'a1. ............................ .. 137/486 mable Mu1tip1e_LOOp Controller for Distributed Systems”,
55’,559560’,792830 1821///111929929627 5RPa2oS2mC5lo2lhC2Cr l e~t~~ ~~a~l~. “ 339955/0200001065 @(M icrosoft Windows 95 operating systern’s rnultirnedia ben
5,623,592 4/1997 Carlson et al. 395/348 ems)? Computing Canada, V21, I118, 1136(2), 56P- 1, 1995
5,675,748 10/1997 Ross ...................................... .. 395/284 Baldasserini, Denmac delivers LAN Stats (Denmac Systems
5,682,476 10/1997 Tapperson et al. .............. .. 395/200.05 Inc’s TrenData 2.0), Computer Shopper, v15, n6, p613(1),
5,701,411 12/1997 Tran et al. ......................... .. 395/2001 Jun. 1995.
U.S. Patent Aug. 1,2000 Sheet 1 0f 27 6,098,116
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U.S. Patent 6,098,116
Aug. 1, 2000 Sheet 3 0f 27
112
PROCESS
11O
\ GONTROLLER/ CONTROLLER/ ~11O
100-) MULTIPLEXER MULTIPLEXER
l 108
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102 WORKSTATION WORKSTATION
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H LANGUAGE GENERATOR GENERATOR : I
:ILTEMPLATE GENERATOR \126 j l 128
l__“§(______—_______—_—_________—________|
124
FIG. 1C
U.S. Patent Aug. 1,2000 Sheet 4 0f 27 6,098,116
210 270 220
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U.S. Patent Aug. 1,2000 Sheet 6 0f 27 6,098,116
400
SITE 4-)
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AREA
420
430
/
EQUIPMENT
MODULE
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CONTROL
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FIG. 4
U.S. Patent Aug. 1, 2000 Sheet 7 0f 27 6,098,116
500 512\
X‘ SITE 510
MODULES
PLANT AREAS
USER ACCOUNTS
EVENTS
OTHER DEFINITIONS
520
_ _ __________________________ ___ _ /_ _ _
PRIMITIvE
522 524
\ \
FUNCTIONS PARAMETERS
530
_.__ __________________________ _ _- __ /_ __
DEFINITION
DEFINITIONS & USAGE
FUNCTION BLOCKS
MODULES
/ LINKS
ATTRIBUTES
________._5_I'J2 _______________ ___/f’j'i°__
INSTANCE
PLANT AREA MODULE ATTRIBUTES
/ / \
542 544 546
PIO BLOCK
548~ I
550
____ “_n‘-__________—____—_____ DEVEE
DEVICES IO
\ /
552 560
U.S. Patent Aug. 1,2000 Sheet 8 0f 27 6,098,116