A method is provided that provides data analysis for sequence of events reporting in the operation of an industrial process. A digital filter and edge detector are provided that combines a method for excluding known invalid samples and a method for excluding samples taken while the input in the traveling range. The filtering method reduces the overhead on the CPU from managing the sequence of events machine and allows it to focus on performing safety functions.

A method of operating an intelligent programmable logic controller over a plurality of scan cycles includes the intelligent programmable logic controller selecting one or more soft-sensors available in a control program corresponding to a production unit, each soft-sensor comprising a local parameter or variable used by the control program. The intelligent programmable logic controller determines updated soft-sensor values corresponding to the one or more soft-sensors during each scan cycle and stores those values during each scan cycle on a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the intelligent programmable logic controller. Additionally, the intelligent programmable logic controller annotates the updated soft-sensor values with automation system context information to generate contextualized data.

A technique is desired that can output a warning to a user before a buffer of a controller runs out of a free space. A control apparatus includes a buffer for buffering log data sequentially generated, an interface unit connectable with an external storage device, a writing unit for sequentially reading the log data buffered to the buffer and sequentially writing the log data to the external storage device while the external storage device is connected to the interface unit, a monitoring unit for monitoring a free space of the buffer, and a warning unit for outputting a warning upon the free space falling below a prescribed value.

A method of logging process data in a PLC controlled equipment is disclosed. Sections of a PLC application code comprise tasks configured to execute program functions at specific execution rates. Each of the tasks comprise program functions having dedicated memory areas assigned as tags, and each data entry of the process data comprises a tag value and an associated process value. The method comprises receiving process data from the PLC application code, assigning process values to threads of a thread pool, and receiving, for each of the threads, in a respective data table associated with each of the threads, the tag- and process values of the received process data, and determining a hash code for each of the tags according to a hash function of the respective data table for arranging the tag values and the associated process values in the respective data table according to said hash code.

A system for storing data in an industrial production environment, the system comprises a distributed data management system stored on a plurality of intelligent programmable logic controller devices. Each intelligent programmable logic controller device comprises a volatile computer-readable storage medium comprising a process image area, a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium; a control program configured to provide operating instructions to a production unit; an input/output component configured to update the process image area during each scan cycle with data associated with the production unit; a distributed data management component comprising an instance of the distributed data management system; a contextualization component; a historian component; and a data analytics component.

An information processing device includes: a collection unit configured to collect an event log corresponding to an event generated in a control system including at least one network; an extraction and specification unit configured to extract at least one event log corresponding to an event generated arising from an identical factor from the collected event log, and to specify an event log representing the event generated arising from the identical factor in the at least one event log extracted; and an output unit configured to output the event log representing the event generated arising from the identical factor and event logs corresponding to other events generated arising from the identical factor while distinguishing the event log representing the event generated arising from the identical factor and the event logs corresponding to other events generated arising from the identical factor from each other.

A method of operating an intelligent programmable logic controller over a plurality of scan cycles includes the intelligent programmable logic controller executing a control program and one or more reasoning algorithms for analyzing data received and transmitted by the intelligent programmable logic controller. The intelligent programmable logic controller receives one or more user-specified declarative knowledge models from an external source via a deployment interface included in the intelligent programmable logic controller. The intelligent programmable logic controller dynamically modifies the reasoning algorithms during runtime of the control program based on the user-specified declarative knowledge models.

A method of compressing signal data in an intelligent programmable logic controller includes the controller creating a process image area in a volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the controller. The intelligent programmable logic controller updates the process image area with contents comprising signal data associated with a production unit and applies a compression algorithm to the contents to generate compressed signal data. The compressed signal data is stored on a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the controller. The controller annotates the signal data with automation system context information to generate contextualized data. Next, the controller performs a statistical comparison of the signal data and the compressed signal data to generate statistical comparison results. Then, one or more compression parameters used by the compression algorithm may be automatically adjusted based on at least one of the statistical comparison and the contextualized data.

A programmable logic controller executes an SFC program including a plurality of blocks, each including a step indicating an operation output and a transition indicating a transition condition. The programmable logic controller includes an SFC device data collecting unit for collecting device data of a device included in an active step for each scan at the time when the SFC program is executed, an SFC device data storing unit for storing the data collected by the SFC device data collecting unit, and an SFC device data outputting unit for outputting the data stored in the SFC device data storing unit to a memory card as a file for each of the steps or the blocks.

An information processing device collects information on an operating state of a communication system formed of a master device that manages communication over a network and at least one slave device connected to the network and capable of performing communication as instructed by the master device. The master device and the slave device record communication log entries regarding time information and a communication state in accordance with communication processing. The information processing device includes an acquiring section that acquires communication log entries from at least one of the master device and the slave device, a log entry rearranging section that rearranges the acquired communication log entries based on the time information, and a log entry extracting section that extracts, out of the rearranged communication log entries, any communication log entry recorded within a predetermined period of time from occurrence of a communication log entry including communication abnormality information.