Methods and apparatus to virtualize a process control system are described. A described process control system includes a server cluster including one or more servers. When operating, the server cluster provides a virtual workstation or virtual server, a virtual controller to interoperate with the virtual workstation or server and to implement process control operations, and a virtual input/output device to interoperate with the virtual controller and coupled to one or more field devices within the process control system.

A method for controlling real world objects in an industrial installation, which is performed in a server node and includes the steps of: receiving a connection establishment request having a user identity; authenticating the user identity; establishing a connection; receiving a service request, wherein the service request includes a reference to an aspect object and a reference to an aspect of the aspect object; forwarding the service request and the user identity to a service dispatcher module; determining a target service provider from the reference to the aspect object by querying a directory server module; and sending the service request and the user identity to the target service provider.

A method for operating a server device in a system is disclosed. The server device determines a current process value of at least one process parameter of a process controlled by the system and transmits the determined current process values to a plurality of client devices in the system for each process parameter or a subset thereof via a data network. According to the invention, the server device forms a variable group for at least one process parameter which is to be transmitted to more than one of the client devices. The server device then combines in each case the current process values of the at least one process parameter in the variable group at the different transmission times to form a single multi-target message and at the different transmission times to form a single multi-target message and transmits the multi-target message to a group address in the data network.

Methods, apparatus, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for selecting a first robot for a robot task of a user, and during a first session between a computing device of the user and the first robot to perform the task, determining a need for the first robot to perform an alternative task. Based on determining the need, a second robot is selected to “replace” the first robot in performing the task. The second robot may replace the first robot in performing the task by directing the telepresence robot to navigate to a location proximal to the first robot and transitioning the first telepresence robot's session to the second telepresence robot.

Disclosed is a field device adapter for HART communication with a field device. The field device adapter includes an adapter housing with an adapter chamber; arranged in the adapter chamber, an adapter electronics, which is adapted wirelessly to receive a second radio signal and by means of the second radio signal to control a circuit for shunting the communication resistor in such a manner that at least one communication resistor is selectively switchable in and out per radio, so that in a shunted condition a first radio signal received by the adapter electronics can be converted into a, preferably HART based, two conductor signal and modulated via the tapping point onto the loop current.

A system and method for performing management and diagnostic functions in a cloud computing system for advanced process control (APC). A cloud based APC management computer retrieves operating process data from an APC control computer and performs an iterative step test on the APC system. The iterative step test modifies at least one test parameter of the operating process data and identifies changes to a set of remaining parameters of the operating process data resulting from modification of the test parameter. The APC management computer determines at least one process variable from the iterative step test and generates at least one process model based on the process variable. The APC management computer transmits the process model to the APC control computer.

The embodiments described herein include a system and a method. In one embodiment, a system includes a library configured to store reusable executable control information and a substitution information. The system further includes a controller configured to instantiate the reusable executable control information in a memory and to associate the substitution information with a field device.

The present disclosure describes system and method to virtualize a plant facility with remote sites that are separated from a central site. The method includes: receiving, at a remote site of the plant facility and from a transport vehicle of a transport network, an engineering package assembled by a server computer located at the central site of the plant facility and addressed to the remote site of the plant facility, the engineering package comprising a command script and a data component; and extracting, by one or more computing devices at the remote site, the command script from the engineering package such that the command script is executed to cause the one or more computing devices to perform tasks of managing site operations at the remote site of the plant facility as if a human control systems engineer is present to perform such tasks on-site.

Aspects of the present invention provide isolating and applying a common protocol which may be used by multiple devices across multiple network levels to analyze an entire system of control networks. A generic message may be sent individually to targeted addresses across a network level. If a response is received from a device at a targeted address, such as within a timeout period, a specific message customized to the individual device may be sent to extract further detail about the device, including its connectivity to other devices and networks. The system may continue automatically until resource utilization of the entire system is determined to thereby provide diagnostic and reliability services.

Providing data generally involves a transformation of an OPC UA data model into an ontology. Such an ontology readily provides desired capabilities for validation, querying, and analytics of the OPC UA data model using sophisticated standard tools adapted to the ontology. A method for transforming a semantically enriched and graph-based data model into a target ontology is suggested. By a first act, identifications of nodes are retrieved of the data model. Subsequently or concurrently, semantic descriptions of one or more references interconnecting one or more nodes are retrieved. These semantic descriptions are expressed by at least one or more predicates and one or more concepts (e.g., classes) in the target ontology to be produced. Eventually, the target ontology is structured by a semantic ontology language and output to a triple store.