A method is provided for providing process protocols for processes carried out by a number of physical devices. A sensor assigned to a physical device detects measured values. Time stamps are assigned to the detected measured values, and the process protocol is generated from the measured values detected by the sensor, from an assignment of the detected measured values to the sensor and/or to the at least one device, and from the time stamp assigned to the measured values. The process protocol has a number of data sets, and each data set of the process protocol has a first attribute, where a unique identification of a process is stored and by which the process step is assigned to the process, a second attribute, where an identification of the process step is stored, and a third attribute, where a sequence of the process steps within a process is stored.

This invention implements a work system high in flexibility and speedy system development. The work system includes a plurality of modules each having software for work which performs predetermined in-module processing, and a service base unit which inputs and outputs event information to and from the modules. The event information includes an identifier and a payload. The service base unit has a function of receiving the event information from any of the modules, and a function of transferring the event information to the other module. The other module to which the event information is transferred determines based on the identifier included in the transferred event information whether the in-module processing is performed within its own module.

A work process management system includes at least one work device and a tag type individual controller that is directly or indirectly attached to a work object to control the work device. Each of the work device includes a work-device-side communicator, a work part, and a work-device-side control part. The tag type individual controller includes an individual-controller-side storage in which a work content of a work process performed with the work device is stored, an individual-controller-side communicator, and an individual-controller-side calculation controller that transmits the work content of the work process performed with the work device in which a performance result is reflected to the work-device-side communicator, and additionally stores the received performance result in the individual-controller-side storage.

A change management system is configured to control communication between one or more engineering subsystems utilized in the design and/or manufacture of a component. The change management system may be configured to facilitate communication between one or more engineering subsystems that are fragmented and/or not configured to communicate with one another. Further, the change management system may be configured to act as a virtual user when interfacing with one or more of the engineering subsystems. Additionally, the change management system may be configured to check data from one or more of the subsystems for compliance with one or more control rules governing the progression of a manufacturing/design project.

Provided is a deployment platform for deployment of an industrial application on an edge computing device, ECD, connected to the controller of a machine tool, MT, the deployment platform including a model management component, MMC, adapted to instantiate a generic machine tool model, GMTM, stored in a memory to provide a machine instance model, MIM, of the respective machine tool, MT, on the basis of a machine tool data report, MTDR, received by the model management component, MMC, from the edge computing device, ECD, of the respective machine tool, MT, and further adapted to convert generic data requirements, gR, of a generic industrial application into machine tool specific requirements, mtsR, using the machine instance model, MIM, of the respective machine tool, MT, wherein an instantiated industrial application for the machine tool, MT, is provided by instantiating the generic industrial application by extending its configuration data with machine tool specific requirements.

A system for providing access to locally stored process image data to other devices in an industrial production environment includes a plurality of controller devices and a process image backbone. Each respective controller device comprises the following: 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 or upon the occurrence of one or more events with process image data items associated with the production unit; and a historian component configured to locally store the process image data items of the process image area as time series data in the non-volatile computer-readable storage medium. The process image backbone provides the plurality of controllers with uniform access to the process image data items of each programmable logic device.

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.

A system for managing physical assets in a manufacturing system includes a plurality of product controllers corresponding to physical assets in the manufacturing system. Each product controller is configured to store a desired product state for a physical asset and collect sensor data received from other digital companions. Furthermore, each product controller determines an actual product state based on the collected sensor data, as well as one or more actions to be performed on one or more physical assets in the manufacture system to yield the desired product state. Once the actions are determined, the product controller transmits control instructions for performing the one or more actions to one or more operation controllers in the manufacturing system.

A system for monitoring and analyzing data in a distributed process control system is provided. The system includes a user interface having a set of user controls for selecting and configuring data blocks to create a data diagram representing a data model. The data blocks are associated with data operations, such as data analytics functions, and may be configured by the user for particular instances of general blocks. The data blocks are interconnected by wires conveying outputs or inputs of the blocks, which may also connect data sources to the data blocks. The data sources may include on-line data (i.e., data streams) or off-line data (i.e., stored data) from the process control system. Additional user controls may be used to evaluate the data diagram or convert the data diagram from an off-line to an on-line version.

A system for monitoring and analyzing data in a distributed process control system is provided. The system includes a user interface having a set of user controls for selecting and configuring data blocks to create a data diagram representing a data model. The data blocks are associated with data operations, such as data analytics functions, and may be configured by the user for particular instances of general blocks. The data blocks are interconnected by wires conveying outputs or inputs of the blocks, which may also connect data sources to the data blocks. The data sources may include on-line data (i.e., data streams) or off-line data (i.e., stored data) from the process control system. Additional user controls may be used to evaluate the data diagram or convert the data diagram from an off-line to an on-line version.