A method and a system facilitate remote commissioning of workstations for controlling, maintaining, and/or configuring process control field devices in a process control plant. Using a configuration workstation coupled to the workstation by a communication network, a user may specify a configuration for the workstation in software and, upon selecting the workstation for commissioning, can effect configuration of the workstation, according to the specified configuration, remotely from the configuration workstation. Effecting configuration of the workstation may include installing/updating an operating system, installing/updating an operator, maintenance, or configuration interface application, and/or installing/updating a process plant configuration. Upon completion of the configuration, the workstation is operable to communicate with a process controller to implement control, maintenance, and/or configuration of the process control plant.

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, and at least one processor to execute instructions to at least convert a first data packet to a second data packet, the first data packet having a first format based on an industrial communication protocol, the second data packet having a second format based on a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication protocol, the second data packet including a first payload having a first size, remove first data from the second data packet, increase the first size of the first payload to a second size to generate a second payload, add second data to the second payload, and transmit the second data packet to a remote device via a BLE network, the second data packet including the second payload.

A distributed control system may include a main processing unit, a distributed control module, and a controllable component. The distributed control module may be configured to receive a nominal command reference from the main processing unit, determine a series of cumulating command references based at least in part on the nominal command reference; and output a series of cumulating control commands to the controllable component. The series of cumulating control commands may be based at least in part on the series of cumulating command references.

An industrial automation component may receive a first set of data associated with the industrial automation component, such that the industrial automation component is associated with a first industrial automation system. The industrial automation component may then receive a second set of data associated with one or more other industrial automation components, such that the one or more other industrial automation components are associated with one or more other industrial automation systems. The industrial automation component may then identify one or more similar patterns in the first set of data and the second set of data and adjust one or more operations of the industrial automation component based on the similar patterns.

An apparatus is disclosed that is used in an industrial process control and automation system that operates using an open platform data communication protocol. The apparatus includes a processor and a memory, and a communications interface connected to at least one process instrument and arranged to transmit instructions to and receive data from the at least one process instrument and to a data network of the industrial process control and automation system that communicates using the open platform data communication protocol. The apparatus memory contains a system repository file containing process data information sent to the apparatus from the at least one process instrument, a stored function block definition file containing function blocks that define a control strategy for controlling the at least one process instrument and an engineering repository containing the characteristics and parameters for the function blocks associated with the at least one process instrument. The processor operates to communicate the process data from the system repository file to the industrial process control and automation system using the open platform data communication protocol and to receive instructions from the industrial process control and automation system to execute the control strategy.

The present invention relates to the field of control engineering, in particular to a distributed control method for consensus of an agricultural multi-agent system based on sampled data, comprising the following steps: for a first-order multi-agent system with fixed directed topology, designing a distributed control protocol based on sampled information in a time delay state; obtaining a dynamic model of the multi-agent system with time delays based on sampled information, and transforming a consensus problem of multiple agents into a stability problem by means of tree transformation; determining constraint conditions on a time delay and a sampling period that the multi-agent system achieves stability, that is, sufficient and necessary conditions that the agents in the multi-agent system achieve average state consensus; and realizing average consensus of the multi-agent system according to the sufficient and necessary conditions.

An industrial automation component may receive a first set of data associated with the industrial automation component, such that the industrial automation component is associated with a first industrial automation system. The industrial automation component may then receive a second set of data associated with one or more other industrial automation components, such that the one or more other industrial automation components are associated with one or more other industrial automation systems. The industrial automation component may then identify one or more similar patterns in the first set of data and the second set of data and adjust one or more operations of the industrial automation component based on the similar patterns.

A control system includes a control unit configured to control a target controlled apparatus, and at least one communication processing unit configured to execute communication processing in communication between the target controlled apparatus and the control unit, and in the control system, the communication processing unit sequentially measures a processing time of the communication processing and sequentially outputs delay information indicating the measured processing time to the control unit, and the control unit sequentially acquires the delay information from all of a plurality of the communication processing units, and sequentially updates delay information incorporated in a control algorithm for controlling the target controlled apparatus based on the acquired delay information.

Disclosed is a smart factory platform for processing data obtained in a continuous process including a first process and a second process following the first process. The smart factory platform includes a distributed parallel processing system including at least one processing unit that generates mapping data by mapping a process identification (ID) to collection data collected from the continuous process and sorts the mapping data to generate sorting data, the process ID defining a process where the collection data occurs and the sorting data being generated for association processing between pieces of collection data collected from different processes; and a big data analysis system storing the sorting data with respect to the process ID.

To provide a trusted, secure, and immutable record of transactions within a process plant, techniques are described for utilizing a distributed ledger in process control systems. The distributed ledger may be maintained by nodes which receive transactions broadcasted from field devices, controllers, operator workstations, or other devices operating within the process plant. The transactions may include process plant data, such as process parameter data, product parameter data, configuration data, user interaction data, maintenance data, commissioning data, plant network data, and product tracking data. The distributed ledgers may also be utilized to execute smart contracts to allow machines such as field devices to transact by themselves without human intervention. In this manner, recorded process parameter values and product parameter values may be retrieved to verify the quality of products. Moreover, regulatory data may be recorded in response to triggering events so that regulatory agencies can review the data.