Offloading human-machine-interaction tasks
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsLingyun Wang, Arquimedes Martinez Canedo, Holger Strobel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an industrial automation environment, a three-tier architecture is used to offload human-machine-interaction (HMI) automation tasks to local mobile devices and then the cloud, to take advantage of distributed computing and processing resources and to add new features to the HMI panel system. A scheduling algorithm based on the characteristics of the HMI tasks distributes these tasks intelligently among the local HMI panel, mobile devices and the cloud, to best utilize the merits of each tier.
Claims24
A method for offloading human-machine-interaction tasks from a human-machine-interaction panel in an industrial automation system, the method comprising:
- classifying each human-machine-interaction task into one of at least a high-priority task type and a second task type according to real-time computing requirements;
- by the human-machine-interaction panel, computing a schedule for execution by the human-machine-interaction panel of the high-priority human-machine-interaction tasks;
- by the human-machine-interaction panel, executing the high-priority human-machine-interaction tasks according to the schedule;
- identifying offload destination resources available to the human-machine interaction panel;
- by the human-machine interaction panel, offloading the human-machine-interaction tasks of the second task type to the offload destination resources for execution by the offload destination resources;
- and
- periodically communicating with the offload destination resources to check a status of the offloaded human-machine-interaction tasks.
A human-machine-interaction panel for interacting with industrial automation equipment, comprising:
- a processor;
- an input/output module connected to the processor and connectable for communication with the industrial automation equipment;
- a network communications module connected to the processor and connectable for communication with offload destination resources;
- a non-transitory computer-usable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations for offloading human-machine-interaction tasks from the processor, the operations comprising:
- classifying each human-machine-interaction task into one of at least a high-priority task type and a second task type according to real-time computing requirements;
- computing a schedule for execution by the human-machine-interaction panel of the high-priority human-machine-interaction tasks;
- executing the high-priority human-machine-interaction tasks according to the schedule;
- identifying offload destination resources available to communicate via the network communications module with the human-machine interaction panel;
- offloading the human-machine-interaction tasks of the second task type via the network communications module to the offload destination resources for execution by the offload destination resources;
- and
- periodically communicating via the network communications module with the offload destination resources to check a status of the offloaded human-machine-interaction tasks.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.