A partial circuit selector selects a partial circuit comprising a plurality of contacts in a ladder diagram program. A replacement circuit generator generates a replacement circuit comprising a smaller number of contacts than in the selected partial circuit. An auxiliary circuit generator generates an auxiliary circuit that causes the replacement circuit to perform the same action as the partial circuit. A program editor performs, on the ladder diagram program, a replacement process for replacing a partial circuit appearing in the ladder diagram program with the replacement circuit, and performs an auxiliary circuit insertion process for inserting the auxiliary circuit into the ladder diagram program.

Various embodiments of the present technology generally relate to industrial automation environments. More specifically, embodiments include systems and methods for applying machine learning techniques to industrial control code to detect errors, perform optimizations, and generate predictions. In some embodiments, a design application in an industrial automation environment generates a functional block diagram configured for implementation by a programmable logic controller. The design application generates feature vectors that represent the functional block diagram configured for ingestion by a machine learning model. The design application supplies the feature vectors to the machine learning model. The design application receives a machine learning output that comprises the recommendation feedback generated by the machine learning model and responsively modifies the functional block diagram based on the recommendation feedback.

A partial circuit selector selects a partial circuit comprising a plurality of contacts in a ladder diagram program. A replacement circuit generator generates a replacement circuit comprising a smaller number of contacts than in the selected partial circuit. An auxiliary circuit generator generates an auxiliary circuit that causes the replacement circuit to perform the same action as the partial circuit. A program editor performs, on the ladder diagram program, a replacement process for replacing a partial circuit appearing in the ladder diagram program with the replacement circuit, and performs an auxiliary circuit insertion process for inserting the auxiliary circuit into the ladder diagram program.

An industrial controller can perform multi-dimensional optimization locally using the controller's native hardware and processing. An optimization algorithm is encoded on the industrial controller in a language understandable and executable by the controller (e.g., IEC61131-3). The optimization algorithm is adapted for the scan-based processing performed by industrial controllers rather than sequential processing, thereby allowing the optimization algorithm to be executed by the industrial controller as part of the controller's control program execution. A control program development system allows a user to add and configure the optimization algorithm as an instruction within the controller's control program. The instruction's configurable parameters allow the user to submit constraints and cost functions for the algorithm. During runtime, the controller executes this optimization instruction in accordance with the optimization parameters submitted by the user during development, using values of specified data tags as inputs and outputs for the algorithm.