Various embodiments of the present technology generally relate to industrial automation environments. More specifically, embodiments include systems and methods to surface data pipelines in an industrial automation environment. In some examples, a design component generates a control program configured for implementation by a programmable logic controller to control an industrial process. The design component adds program tags to the control program and implements the control program through the programmable logic controller. The design component establishes data pipelines that correspond to the program tags in the control program between data sources associated with the program tags and a machine learning system that consumes process data generated by the data sources. A pipeline management component generates a pipeline suggestion that indicates individual ones of the data pipelines and their corresponding program tags. The pipeline management component surfaces the pipeline suggestion via a software user interface.

Embodiments of this present disclosure may include an industrial control system that uses a daisy chain communication network to couple point-to-point sensors (P2P sensors) for communication of data between respective P2P sensors and a controller. Each P2P sensor may couple to the daisy chain communication network via accessing circuitry. The accessing circuitry may include switching circuitry and flip-flop circuitry to control when each P2P sensors may communicate with the controller via the daisy chain communication network.

A method, performed by at least one processor, comprising generating a first set of images representative of configuration data associated with an industrial automation system. An electronic display may display at least one image of the first set of images. The processor may detect a change in the configuration data and retrieve updated configuration data from the industrial automation system. The processor may encode the updated configuration data into a second set of images and display at least one additional image of the second set of images on the electronic display.

The present disclosure resides in a method for monitoring an automated facility, wherein a plurality of field devices are integrated in the facility, comprising: connecting a cloud gateway with a first communication network of the facility; ascertaining field devices connected to the first communication network; testing whether device descriptions corresponding to the field devices are present in a server connected with the cloud gateway via a second communication network; downloading from the server device descriptions corresponding to the field devices and installing the device descriptions in the cloud gateway; creating a configuration plan, wherein the configuration plan defines at least one field device to be queried, the type of queried data, and the frequency of the querying; transmitting the configuration plan to the cloud gateway; querying data from the queried field devices according to the configuration plan; transmitting queried data to the server; and collecting and evaluating transmitted data.

A modular I/O system for an industrial automation network includes a network adapter including first and second adapter modules, wherein each adapter module is configured for connection with an industrial network. The I/O system further includes a first I/O device with first and second I/O modules each configured for operative connection to a controlled system for input/output of data with respect to the controlled system. The I/O system further includes first and second independent backplane data networks that connect each of the first and second adapter modules to each of the first and second I/O modules. The network adapter includes first and second removable backplane network switches and the first I/O device includes third and fourth removable backplane network switches that establish the backplane networks. The backplane network switches can be Ethernet gigabit switches.

A program display control unit performs a display process of displaying first time-series data corresponding to a specified time specified by a display time specification unit, on a first sequence program stored in a first device, which is displayed in a second display section, and another display process of displaying second time-series data acquired from a second device of multiple devices, corresponding to the specified time specified by the display time specification unit, on a second sequence program stored in the second device, which is displayed in a third display section.

Provided herein are methods, systems, and software for automatic generation of reports associated with an industrial automation environment. In one implementation, a method includes accessing a source of data containing information related to operation of an industrial automation system. An industrial controller controls the operation. The method also includes identifying user defined types (UDTs) containing a data property in the source of data; creating asset model tags that point to the UDTs in the industrial controller; creating asset definitions by grouping all asset model tags of a particular UDT; instantiating a separate model for each asset in the industrial automation system based on the corresponding asset definition; and generating a report to display values of the asset model tags of the instantiated models.

A program display control unit performs a display process of displaying first time-series data corresponding to a specified time specified by a display time specification unit, on a first sequence program stored in a first device, which is displayed in a second display section, and another display process of displaying second time-series data acquired from a second device of multiple devices, corresponding to the specified time specified by the display time specification unit, on a second sequence program stored in the second device, which is displayed in a third display section.

A computer-implemented method for detecting an anomaly in a technical system. The method includes detecting an environment state vector and a system state vector, the environment state vector including at least one first value which characterizes a physical environment condition or a physical operating condition of the technical system, and the system state vector including at least one second value which characterizes a physical condition of the technical system; ascertaining, using an environment anomaly model, an environment value which characterizes a probability or a probability density value with which the environment state vector occurs; ascertaining, using a system anomaly model, a system value which characterizes a conditional probability or a conditional probability density value with which the system state vector occurs if the environment state vector occurs; signaling the presence of an anomaly or signaling the absence of an anomaly based on the environment value and/or the system value.

Methods for the computer-supported creation and execution of a control function are provided. The control function can be implemented in particular for a specific technical system, for example an automation system, and can in particular be cryptographically protected by a blockchain. In particular, the methods are suitable for a specific technical system, for example an automation system.