US 6,799,080 B1 · Configurable PLC and SCADA-based control system

Abstract

The present invention provides an automated configurable control system (CCS) for a manufacturing process system, which permits a user to address menus on screen images for initially configuring the process, and for subsequently rapidly adding, modifying, and deleting components and control signals, without revising software programs. The control system utilizes a configuration tool for automatically providing a configuration database file from data inputted by a user into the CCS. A deployment tool automatically downloads the configuration database file to a SCADA application responsive thereto for defining the system, monitoring the status of the processing system, and displaying screen images. The deployment tool also provides the data via a download application to a PLC application for defining the objects and logic of the processing system.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A configurable control system (CCS) for a manufacturing process system, for providing a user the ability to rapidly configure or reconfigure the associated processing system without the use of programming tools, the CCS comprising:

configuration tool means for permitting a user to rapidly define the physical, logical, and control configuration for the associated processing system, said configuration tool including means for generating a configuration database file for the processing system configuration as implemented by a user at a given time;
supervisory control and data acquisition means (SCADA) for automatically receiving data from said configuration database file, and operating to deploy the processing system configuration, deploy changes to the processing system configuration at any given time, and to automatically generate and change a man machine interface (MMI);
and
programmable logic controller means for automatically processing data from said configuration database file to assign input/output (IO) and logic based upon the desired system configuration at any given time.

1 more element

A method for providing a configurable control system (CCS) to permit a user to rapidly configure and/or change a manufacturing process system through use of non-programmable tools, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a graphical user interface including a plurality of menu driven screen images, for permitting a user to initially configure the processing system;
receiving in a configuration tool initialization data inputted by a user via selected ones of said plurality of screen images;
automatically operating said configuration tool to produce a database file containing the configuration for said processing system received from said user;
automatically transferring data from said data file to a supervisory control and data acquisition application (SCADA);
automatically operating said SCADA to deploy changes and generate graphics and alarms based upon the processing system as defined by configuration data;
and
automatically transferring data from said data file to a programmable logic controller (PLC) application, which responds thereto by automatically assigning input/output IO signals to components to enable logic based upon the present configuration data.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Configurable PLC and SCADA-based control system

Life of this patent

Configurable PLC and SCADA-based control system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20