US 12,693,650 B2Granted

Industrial touchscreen

AssigneeSchneider Electric Industries SAS

InventorsFelipe Castillo Buenaventura, Rollan Boulard

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Abstract

An industrial touchscreen apparatus integrates critical control functions and visualization features into a single display while maintaining safe operation of industrial machines. The apparatus includes a host computing unit for operation functions and a separate control computing unit for critical control functions associated with industrial machines. A mixer module mixes data flows from both computing units, prioritizing data from the control computing unit to prevent faults in the visualization system from compromising safe operation of the critical control functions. The display presents control widgets for critical control functions in a critical control zone and graphical indicia for operation functions in a visualization zone. A touchscreen controller detects touch input locations and routes them to the appropriate computing unit based on the zone.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An apparatus comprising:

a host computing unit for operating the apparatus with operation functions,
a control computing unit for operating the apparatus with critical control functions associated with one or more industrial machines connected to the apparatus,
a touchscreen system comprising;
a touchscreen configured for receiving touch inputs to the touchscreen;
and
a display for presenting control widget relating to critical control functions in a critical control zone and graphical indicia relating to operation functions in a visualization zone,
a touchscreen controller communicatively coupled with the host computing unit and control computing unit and configured to detect a location of the touch inputs to the touchscreen;
a mixer module communicatively coupled with the control computing unit and the host computing unit for mixing data flow coming from the control computing unit and the host computing unit,
the mixer module providing data flow coming from the control computing unit to the control zone of the display and providing data flow coming from the host computing unit to the visualization zone of the display, and
wherein the mixer module is configured to prevent faults from the host computing unit from compromising safe operation of the critical control functions associated with one or more industrial machines by prioritizing the data flow coming from the control computing unit over the data flow coming from the host computing unit.

7 more elements

A method for operating an industrial touchscreen apparatus, the method comprising:

operating, by a host computing unit, the apparatus with operation functions;
operating, by a control computing unit, the apparatus with critical control functions associated with one or more industrial machines connected to the apparatus;
receiving, by a touchscreen, touch inputs to the touchscreen;
presenting, by a display, control widgets relating to critical control functions in a critical control zone and graphical indicia relating to operation functions in a visualization zone;
detecting, by a touchscreen controller communicatively coupled with the host computing unit and control computing unit, a location of the touch inputs to the touchscreen;
mixing, by a mixer module communicatively coupled with the control computing unit and the host computing unit, data flow coming from the control computing unit and the host computing unit;
providing, by the mixer module, data flow coming from the control computing unit to the control zone of the display and data flow coming from the host computing unit to the visualization zone of the display;
and
preventing, by the mixer module, faults occurring in the host computing unit from compromising safe operation of the critical control functions associated with one or more industrial machines by prioritizing the data flow coming from the control computing unit over the data flow coming from the host computing unit.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.