System and method for user-configurable resource arbitration in a process control system

A method, comprising:

• creating a resource object associated with a resource;
• creating a plurality of requester objects associated with at least a portion of one or more processes, the one or more processes associated with production of one or more products using the resource;
• submitting arbitration requests from the plurality of requester objects to the resource object, each arbitration request indicating that one of the requester objects is attempting to acquire the resource object so that the associated resource is used to produce one of the products;
• arbitrating between multiple arbitration requests from multiple ones of the requester objects using one or more user-defined strategies;
• and
• generating a graphical user interface showing contents of (i) a queue identifying requester objects that have requested and not yet acquired the resource object and (ii) a pointer identifying the requester object that has acquired and not released the resource object, wherein the contents of the queue and the pointer are modifiable by a user;
• wherein submitting the arbitration requests comprises at least one of the requester objects repeatedly submitting arbitration requests to the resource object until the resource object is acquired;
• and
• wherein the repeated arbitration requests by one of the requester objects do not cause multiple acquisitions of the resource object by the requester object and do not require multiple releases of the resource object by the requester object.

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium, the computer program comprising computer readable program code for:

• creating a resource object associated with a resource;
• creating a plurality of requester objects associated with at least a portion of one or more processes, the one or more processes associated with production of one or more products using the resource;
• arbitrating between multiple arbitration requests from multiple ones of the requester objects using one or more user-defined strategies, each arbitration request indicating that one of the requester objects is attempting to acquire the resource object so that the associated resource is used to produce one of the products;
• and
• generating a graphical user interface showing contents of (i) a queue identifying requester objects that have requested and not yet acquired the resource object and (iii a pointer identifying the requester object that has acquired and not released the resource object, wherein the contents of the queue and the pointer are modifiable by a user;
• wherein at least one of the requester objects is operable to repeatedly submit arbitration requests to the resource object until the resource object is acquired;
• and
• wherein the repeated arbitration requests by one of the requester objects do not cause multiple acquisitions of the resource object by the requester object and do not require multiple releases of the resource object by the requester object.