A collaborative automation platform and associated method include a fault-tolerant control server hosting one or more virtual controllers, and a fault-tolerant input/output server hosting a virtual input/output system. The collaborative automation platform also includes a master autonomous process interface system connected to the virtual input/output system, via a local area input/output network. The collaborative automation platform also includes a plurality of distributed autonomous process interface systems connected to the master autonomous process interface system, wherein each distributed autonomous process interface system is hardwired to a plurality of field instruments. The collaborative automation platform also includes real-time DDS middleware configured for execution with the fault-tolerant control server, the fault-tolerant input/output server, the master autonomous process interface system, and the plurality of distributed autonomous process interface systems.

A Multi-Purpose Dynamic Simulation and run-time Control platform includes a virtual process environment coupled to a physical process environment, where components/nodes of the virtual and physical process environments cooperate to dynamically perform run-time process control of an industrial process plant and/or simulations thereof. Virtual components may include virtual run-time nodes and/or simulated nodes. The MPDSC includes an I/O Switch which delivers I/O data between virtual and/or physical nodes, e.g., by using publish/subscribe mechanisms, thereby virtualizing physical I/O process data delivery. Nodes serviced by the I/O Switch may include respective component behavior modules that are unaware as to whether or not they are being utilized on a virtual or physical node. Simulations may be performed in real-time and even in conjunction with run-time operations of the plant, and/or simulations may be manipulated as desired (speed, values, administration, etc.). The platform simultaneously supports simulation and run-time operations and interactions/intersections therebetween.

A collaborative automation platform includes a control server connected to a local area control network, and a plurality of distributed autonomous process interface systems. Each distributed autonomous process interface system is configured to receive measurement data from one or more field instruments and forward converted measurement data via an uplink to subscribers. Each distributed autonomous process interface system includes a standalone data distribution system-enabled input/output system and associated hardware for connection to the one or more field instruments. The collaborative automation platform also includes real-time DDS middleware configured to interconnect process control applications of the control server with the plurality of distributed autonomous process interface systems. The collaborative automation platform is configured with circuitry to determine unmeasured process properties required for higher level process control applications, publish changed values of the converted measurement data to the subscribers, and publish the unmeasured process properties to the subscribers.

Methods are provided for communicating between devices in a network and remote servers, which may be located behind intermediate devices such as load balancers, by encapsulating messages sent by those devices and, in one implementation, to a load balancer in a transport header that may be understood by that load balancer; decapsulating the message from the transport header; re-encapuslating the message in a GRE tunnel and passing the message to a server, where the GRE tunnel is removed. Methods are also provided for communicating between devices in a network and local gateways by encapsulating messages sent by those devices and, in one implementation, to a load balancer in a transport header that may be understood by that gateway, and decapsulating the message from the transport header at the gateway.

In automation-engineering installations, there is a need to exchange process information between different devices. For this, OPC Unified Automation (OPC UA) from OPC Foundation has become established as a standard protocol. However, rather than transmit requested OPC-UA subscriptions via the conventional OPC-UA session channel, the invention sets up a separate TSN data communication by means of which that subscription information is transmitted.

An industrial control system may receive data associated with at least one component within an industrial automation system. The industrial control system may then determine whether the data is associated with at least one of a plurality of data tags, such that the at least one of the plurality of data tags describes at least one characteristic of the data. The industrial control system may then broadcast the data and the at least one of the plurality of data tags in a data feed channel when the data is associated with the at least one of the plurality of data tags.

An industrial control system may receive data associated with at least one component within an industrial automation system. The industrial control system may then determine whether the data is associated with at least one of a plurality of data tags, such that the at least one of the plurality of data tags describes at least one characteristic of the data. The industrial control system may then broadcast the data and the at least one of the plurality of data tags in a data feed channel when the data is associated with the at least one of the plurality of data tags.

Embodiments of the present invention may provide an improved distributed computing system. Entities in the distributed computing system may be divided into four categories: writers, readers, gateways, and applications. End users may interact with the system via the applications through the gateways. The role of writers and readers may be separated to distribute computational burdens. Writers may generate messages for an event stream. The messages may include a timestamp for consistent global ordering. The readers may arrange messages from various writers based on the timestamps to generate globally time-consistent event streams.

A method of controlling an industrial process run in a plant includes sending field data from the process to a data acquisition module. The data acquisition module converts the field data into Internet protocol (IP) field data. The IP field data is provided to an IP broker having a memory that stores the IP field data arranged in a tree of topics. The IP broker has a stored publisher/subscriber pattern including a plurality of clients including a first client subscribed by a published message to the IP broker that includes at least a selected topic from the tree of topics. Upon receipt of an update of the IP field data including the selected topic, the IP broker publishes the updated IP field data according to the publisher/subscriber pattern over a permanently open IP connection that is received by at least the first client.

A clustered automation platform includes a plurality of distributed autonomous junction boxes connected to a master autonomous junction box, wherein each of the distributed autonomous junction boxes is configured to connect to one or more process measurement and control devices. The clustered automation platform also includes a fault-tolerant local area Ethernet network configured to interconnect the master autonomous junction box with a fault-tolerant input/output system server and a fault-tolerant control server. The clustered automation platform also includes a plurality of virtual local area networks partitioned from the fault-tolerant local area Ethernet network, a plurality of virtual control modules virtualized from the fault-tolerant control server, and a plurality of virtual operation areas virtualized from the fault-tolerant input/output system server. The clustered automation platform also includes real-time DDS middleware configured to interconnect hardware components with virtual components of the clustered automation platform.