An industrial control system may receive processing information from at least two control systems associated with at least two components within an industrial automation system. The processing information may include a processing load value for each of the at least two control systems. The industrial control system may then distribute processing loads associated with the at least two control systems when a total processing load between the at least two control systems is unbalanced.

A system is provided with a group of controllers configured into a hive, wherein the hive is configured to receive control strategies and to assign a particular control strategy to a controller within the hive that is a best fit for a particular control strategy and wherein each controller communicates to a plurality of input/output (I/O) interfaces.

Embodiments described herein relate to a system for processing manufacturing data, comprising: an edge device; a cloud platform; a sensing device configured to collect manufacturing data and to provide the collected data to the edge device; wherein the edge device and the cloud platform are each configured to carry out a plurality of data processing functions on the manufacturing data; the system further comprising a resource manager configured to communicate with the edge device and with the cloud platform, wherein the resource manager is further configured to: determine whether each of the plurality of data processing functions is to be carried out at the edge device or at the cloud platform; if it is determined that the plurality of data processing functions is to be carried out at the edge device, instruct the edge device to carry out the plurality of data processing functions; if it is determined that the plurality of data processing functions is to be carried out at the cloud platform, instruct the cloud platform to carry out the plurality of data processing functions; and if it is determined that at least one of the plurality of data processing functions is to be carried out at the edge device and at least one other data processing function is to be carried out at the cloud platform, instruct the edge device to carry out the at least one of the plurality of data processing functions and instruct the cloud platform to carry out the at least one other data processing function.

Embodiments described herein relate to a system for processing manufacturing data, comprising: an edge device; a cloud platform; a sensing device configured to collect manufacturing data and to provide the collected data to the edge device; wherein the edge device and the cloud platform are each configured to carry out a plurality of data processing functions on the manufacturing data; the system further comprising a resource manager configured to communicate with the edge device and with the cloud platform, wherein the resource manager is further configured to: determine whether each of the plurality of data processing functions is to be carried out at the edge device or at the cloud platform; if it is determined that the plurality of data processing functions is to be carried out at the edge device, instruct the edge device to carry out the plurality of data processing functions; if it is determined that the plurality of data processing functions is to be carried out at the cloud platform, instruct the cloud platform to carry out the plurality of data processing functions; and if it is determined that at least one of the plurality of data processing functions is to be carried out at the edge device and at least one other data processing function is to be carried out at the cloud platform, instruct the edge device to carry out the at least one of the plurality of data processing functions and instruct the cloud platform to carry out the at least one other data processing function.

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.

Techniques for controlling the operation of a process plant or several process plants within a process control system using a centralized or distributed controller farm allow for increased flexibility in the process control system. Any of the controllers in the controller farm may be utilized to execute modules corresponding to any of the field devices in one or several process plants. Control modules or other operations may be allocated amongst the controllers distributing the load so that one controller is not performing several operations while others are inactive. Additionally, the controller farm may be located in a temperature controlled room or area in an offsite location from the process plants. In some scenarios, load balancing techniques are performed to distribute the load for the modules equally or at least similarly amongst the controllers.

An industrial control system may receive processing information from at least two control systems associated with at least two components within an industrial automation system. The processing information may include a processing load value for each of the at least two control systems. The industrial control system may then distribute processing loads associated with the at least two control systems when a total processing load between the at least two control systems is unbalanced.

The invention concerns a method, arrangement and computer program product for distributing processing for a first robot in a cell among more than one processing entities. The arrangement includes a processing entity determining unit that obtains data about current limitations in the processing environment of a prospective processing entity intended to perform a processing task for the first robot, determines, based on the processing environment limitations, whether a performance requirement will be fulfilled or not if the task is performed in the prospective processing entity, and assigns the processing task for processing in the prospective processing entity or in at least one other processing entity based on the determining of whether the performance requirement is fulfilled or not.

Techniques for controlling the operation of a process plant or several process plants within a process control system using a centralized or distributed controller farm allow for increased flexibility in the process control system. Any of the controllers in the controller farm may be utilized to execute modules corresponding to any of the field devices in one or several process plants. Control modules or other operations may be allocated amongst the controllers distributing the load so that one controller is not performing several operations while others are inactive. Additionally, the controller farm may be located in a temperature controlled room or area in an offsite location from the process plants. In some scenarios, load balancing techniques are performed to distribute the load for the modules equally or at least similarly amongst the controllers.

Provided is a method and an arrangement for enabling a processing step for an object that is to be processed, wherein an availability result, which indicates an availability of the processing step, is determined for the processing step on the basis of rules.