An information collecting device controls a plant based on process data acquired from controllers and field devices connected to the controllers. The information collecting device includes an arithmetic controller and an update controller. The arithmetic controller collects first information which is engineering information of the plant and second information which is device information from a controller, a field device or a combination of both selected from the controllers and the field devices. The update controller generates third information based on a definition in which the first information and the second information are set in advance, and updates the third information in a storage based on a preset update cycle.

In a component mounting system having an inspection device performing a mounting inspection after component mounting, a correction value for correcting a mounting program is calculated based on board inspection information including fed-back component position deviation information, a component is mounted on a board in accordance with the mounting program corrected based on the calculated correction value, and a present value based on most recent board inspection information and a pre-correction evaluation value are displayed together on an evaluation value display screen as evaluation values representing accuracy at a time of the mounting based on the board inspection information during this component mounting work, the pre-correction evaluation value being calculated based on a temporary position deviation amount pertaining to a case where it is assumed that no correction based on the calculated correction value has been performed.

The invention relates to detecting commissioning errors in a commissioned sensor system, wherein the sensor system comprises a plurality of sensor devices installed so as to cover an area. The sensor devices capture sensor data from the area whilst at least one entity moves through the area. A computer system of the sensor system processes the sensor data to generate a set of location data, which identifies locations traversed by the at least one moving entity. A discrepancy in the set of location data in detected, the discrepancy caused by at least one of the sensor devices having been incorrectly commissioned. Based on this detection, a modification can be made to the sensor system to compensate for or correct the incorrect commissioning of the at least one sensor device.

A method/device for managing/configuring field devices in an automation installation with a configuration tool designed to physically identify a field device therein, to logically incorporate it into, and configure it in, the automation installation, wherein the configuration tool to uses a prescribed field-device-type-specific information package describing functions and data of the field device at least partially and wherein the configuration tool has a server and a client, the server being designed to integrate received configuration data with the field-device-type-specific information package into an information package and to validate and process the information package with a piece of validation logic, and the client having a user interface for taking the configuration data. To avoid bottlenecks in the client/server communication, the client is equipped with an information package instance, and is designed to integrate taken configuration data into a package and validate the package. The server is designed to take validated packages.

System configuration management using encapsulation and discovery is provided. The configuration management may include requesting, by a first electronic control unit comprising a processor, feature information associated with a second electronic control unit. The feature information may include data related to a set of features implemented by the second electronic control unit. The configuration management may also include loading, by the first electronic control unit, an internal control for a first feature of the set of features based on a determination that the first feature is not loaded on the first electronic control unit.

Techniques for commissioning a process control device in a process plant include obtaining, at a portable computing device, commissioning data for commissioning the respective process control device for operation, such as a device tag. The portable computing device then transfers the commissioning data to a component in the same process control loop as the process control device via a wireless communication link. For example, the component includes a radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near field communication (NFC) unit for receiving RFID/NFC signals. When the portable computing device is within RFID/NFC communication range of the component, the commissioning data is transferred via an RFID/NFC signal to the component. The commissioning data is received while the component is in an unpowered state, where the RFID/NFC signal energizes the RFID/NFC unit at the component for receiving the signal.

A field device commissioning system includes a commissioning tool configured to communicate with a repository and an input-output (IO) device, the IO device is configured to communicate with a field device. The commissioning tool includes a first processor configured to retrieve engineering data for the IO device or the field device from the repository, retrieve a first configuration parameter value for the IO device or the field device from the IO device, determine a second configuration parameter value for the IO device or the field device from the retrieved engineering data, the second configuration parameter corresponds to the first configuration parameter, determine if the first configuration parameter value is the same as the second configuration parameter value; and generate alert on a user interface with when the first configuration parameter value is not the same as the second configuration parameter value, wherein the IO device comprises a second processor.

The present invention provides methods, systems and computer program products for detecting a configuration error or operating error corresponding to an input/output (I/O) device. The I/O device comprises a plurality of I/O points configured to establish a combined I/O channel between said I/O device and a field device, said combined I/O channel comprising a primary I/O channel and at least one secondary I/O channel.

The present invention provides methods, systems and computer program products for detecting a configuration error or operating error corresponding to an input/output (I/O) device. The I/O device comprises a plurality of I/O points configured to establish a combined I/O channel between said I/O device and a field device, said combined I/O channel comprising a primary I/O channel and at least one secondary I/O channel.

Techniques for determining device-specific information such as commissioning data, location information, images, and other data descriptive of a process device installed in a plant include obtaining the device-specific information at a local device during the process device's commissioning. Based on this information, the local device determines the relative order of the process device within a process flow, and may determine a process element alignment map indicating the activation order of a plurality of process elements within the flow. A user may modify the map at the local device. The map is transmitted to a process control big data network for use in discovery and learning analytics. The device-specific information and/or the map may be utilized to generate, at the local device, representations/views of the process flow, which may include real-time operational data. A user may zoom in or out on these views for more or less detail.