Distributed Interface Architecture for Programmable Industrial Control Systems

The present invention relates to industrial automation, and in particular to communication with and among programmable controllers for operating and monitoring industrial processes and equipment.

Sophisticated industrial processes, such as oil refining, automobile assembly or power generation, require the cooperative execution of numerous interdependent tasks by many different pieces of equipment. The enormous complexity of ensuring proper task sequencing and management, which requires not only procedural logic but constant monitoring of equipment states to organize and distribute operations and detect malfunction, has resulted in the widespread adoption of programmable controllers. These controllers operate elaborate industrial equipment in accordance with a stored control program. When executed, the program causes the controller to examine the state of the controlled machinery by evaluating signals from one or more sensing devices (e.g., temperature or pressure sensors), and to operate the machinery (e.g., by energizing or de-energizing operative components) based on a procedural framework, the sensor signals and, if necessary, more complex processing. The "inputs" to a particular controller can extend beyond the sensed state of the equipment the controller directly operates to include, for example, its environment, the state of related machinery or the state of its controllers.

Control requirements become even more complex when different aspects of the same overall process are assigned to remotely situated equipment. Such configurations often require reliable, high-bandwidth serial communication links to provide the necessary interconnection and handle data transfer among controllers and the sensors relevant to their operation.

Ordinarily, process operation is monitored, at least intermittently, by supervisory personnel by means of one or more central management stations. Each station samples the status of controllers (and their associated sensors) selected by the operator and presents the data in some meaningful format. The management station may or may not be located on the same site as the monitored equipment; frequently, one central station has access to multiple sites (whether or not these perform related processes). Accordingly, communication linkage can be vital even in traditional industrial environments where process equipment is physically proximate, since at least some supervisory personnel may not be.

To facilitate the necessary communication, the controller processors and related computers (such as monitoring stations) are arranged as a computer network. A network, basically, is a collection of interconnected computers that use some consistent protocol to communicate with one another. Typically, the network is organized such that any computer may communicate with any other network computer. The communication protocol provides a mechanism by which messages can be decomposed and routed to a destination computer identified by some form of address. The protocol may place a "header" of routing information on each component of a message that specifies source and destination addresses, and identifies the component to facilitate later reconstruction of the entire message by the destination computer. This approach to data transfer permits the network to rapidly and efficiently handle large communication volumes without reducing transfer speed in order to accommodate long individual messages, or requiring every network computer to process every network message. The degree of routing depends on the size of the network. Each computer of a local network typically examines the header of every message to detect matches to that computer's identifier; multiple-network systems use routing information to first direct message components to the proper network.

Controllers have been interconnected by means of computer networks for some time; see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,463. In typical systems, a monitoring computer, which may be remotely located from any or all of the controllers to which it has access, periodically queries the controllers to obtain data descriptive of the controlled process or machine, or the controller itself. This data is then available for analysis by the monitoring computer. Heretofore, however, the type of information obtainable, on demand, from a controller has been limited, while the interface used to present the information on the monitoring computer is typically crude. The latter condition results from the multiplicity of data types offered by the controller. Were each type of data to be rendered in a format suited to that data, it would be necessary to equip the monitoring computer with multiple interfaces, and configure the operating application to ascertain the type of data before selecting and launching the proper interface. Not only does this scheme impose a substantial real-time support burden on the monitoring computer, but would also require a constantly expanding repertoire of graphical capabilities keyed to new forms of data reported by the controllers. This can be especially cumbersome in highly--even internationally--distributed environments, since the controllers and their functionalities may be programmed by personnel having no contact with those responsible for central monitoring.

The present invention utilizes the capabilities of the Internet and, more particularly, the interactive capabilities made available by resources such as the World Wide Web to shift the burden of providing user interfaces for changing forms of data from monitoring computers to the controllers that actually gather and report the data. By combining data with functionality for displaying that data at the individual controller sites, the need to equip monitoring computers with specialized graphic capabilities is eliminated, along with the need for intensive, ongoing cooperation between engineers responsible for programming controllers and those who configure the computers that perform monitoring. Moreover, because Internet users are typically billed for connectivity at a single rate, the long-distance charges that would accrue through use of telephone lines for data communication are eliminated.

In accordance with the invention, an integrated control system comprises one or more controllers each equipped to perform a control function and to gather data (ordinarily from sensors) relevant to the control function. "Relevant" data includes, at a minimum, any information upon which control decisions are made or states shifted, but can also include information obtained from sensors not directly connected to the controller (e.g., involving other controlled machines) but which is nonetheless meaningful to supervisory personnel. For example, a chemical synthesis process may be carried out at a temperature controlled to stay within an operating range, but the optimal temperature may depend on the output of a previous process feeding into the synthesis; in this case, the temperature of the synthesis process as well as the output of the previous process are relevant control parameters with respect to the synthesis process.

Each controller contains computer storage means, such as computer memory (volatile and/or non-volatile, such as random-access memory ("RAM"), programmable read-only memory ("ROM") or Flash ROM), or a mass storage device such as a hard disk or CD-ROM, for storing the relevant data and instructions, associated with the data, for causing a remote computer to present the data (e.g., by generating a visual display incorporating the data) in a predetermined format; and a communication module for establishing contact and facilitating data interchange with the remote computer. The remote computer, in turn, also includes a communication module compatible with the controller-borne module, and which enables the remote computer to download the data and associated instructions from one or more controllers. The remote computer also includes a facility for processing the instructions to create a user interface--that is, a visual display or other presentation having a predetermined format--encoded by the instructions, and which incorporates the data. In this way, controller data is coupled to instructions for presenting that data, and this totality of information is continuously accessible, on a freely selective basis, to the remote computer.

It should be stressed that the system may include more than one remote monitoring computers, and any of these may not, in fact, be "remote" (in terms of distance) at all; instead, they may reside at the same site as the controlled process or equipment. Ordinarily, the monitoring computer or computers operate as peers with respect to the controllers on a flat network topology.

The invention facilitates a complete window into the operation of one or more controllers and, therefore, the industrial equipment they operate. Using the invention, remotely located personnel can monitor the efficiency or overall behavior of the equipment, perform diagnostic checks, or even effect certain maintenance operations. For widely dispersed control and supervisory operations, supervisory computers interact with the controllers over the Internet, with the controllers continuously connected to the Internet as "nodes." In local operations, the flexibility conferred by Internet formalisms can be retained on a restricted, internal network.

The foregoing discussion will be understood more readily from the following detailed description of the invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 schematically depicts a controller in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 2 schematically depicts a system incorporating multiple controllers as shown in FIG. 1 and a browser-equipped computer capable of accessing data associated therewith.

The Internet, which can provide the communication medium of the present invention, is a worldwide "network of networks" that links millions of computers through tens of thousands of separate (but intercommunicating) networks. Via the Internet, users can access tremendous amounts of stored information and establish communication linkages to other Internet-based computers.

Much of the Internet is based on the client-server model of information exchange. This computer architecture, developed specifically to accommodate the "distributed computing" environment that characterizes the Internet and its component networks, contemplates a server (sometimes called the host)--typically a powerful computer or cluster of computers that behaves as a single computer--that services the requests of a large number of smaller computers, or clients, which connect to it. The client computers usually communicate with a single server at any one time, although they can communicate with one another via the server or can use the server to reach other servers. A server is typically a large mainframe or minicomputer cluster, while the clients may be simple personal computers. Servers providing Internet access to multiple subscriber clients are referred to as "gateways"; more generally, a gateway is a computer system that connects two computer networks.

In order to ensure proper routing of messages between the server and the intended client, the messages are first broken up into data packets, each of which receives a destination address according to a consistent protocol, and which are reassembled upon receipt by the target computer. A commonly accepted set of protocols for this purpose are the Internet Protocol, or IP, which dictates routing information; and the transmission control protocol, or TCP, according to which messages are actually broken up into IP packets for transmission for subsequent collection and reassembly. TCP/IP connections are quite commonly employed to move data across telephone lines.

The Internet supports a large variety of information-transfer protocols. One of these, the World Wide Web (hereafter, simply, the "web"), has recently skyrocketed in importance and popularity; indeed, to many, the Internet is synonymous with the web. Web-accessible information is identified by a uniform resource locator or "URL," which specifies the location of the file in terms of a specific computer and a location on that computer. Any Internet "node"--that is, a computer with an IP address (e.g., a server permanently and continuously connected to the Internet, or a client that has connected to a server and received a temporary IP address)--can access the file by invoking the proper communication protocol and specifying the URL. Typically, a URL has the format http://<host>/<path>, where "http" refers to the HyperText Transfer Protocol, "host" is the server's Internet identifier, and the "path" specifies the location of the file within the server. Each "web site" can make available one or more web "pages" or documents, which are formatted, tree-structured repositories of information, such as text, images, sounds and animations.

An important feature of the web is the ability to connect one document to many other documents using "hypertext" links. A link appears unobtrusively as an underlined portion of text in a document; when the viewer of this document moves his cursor over the underlined text and clicks, the link--which is otherwise invisible to the user--is executed and the linked document retrieved. That document need not be located on the same server as the original document.

Hypertext and searching functionality on the web is typically implemented on the client machine, using a computer program called a "web browser." With the client connected as an Internet node, the browser utilizes URLs--provided either by the user or a link--to locate, fetch and display the specified documents. "Display" in this sense can range from simple pictorial and textual rendering to real-time playing of audio and/or video segments or alarms, mechanical indications, printing, or storage of data for subsequent display. The browser passes the URL to a protocol handler on the associated server, which then retrieves the information and sends it to the browser for display; the browser causes the information to be cached (usually on a hard disk) on the client machine. The web page itself contains information specifying the specific Internet transfer routine necessary to retrieve the document from the server on which it is resident. Thus, clients at various locations can view web pages by downloading replicas of the web pages, via browsers, from servers on which these web pages are stored. Browsers also allow users to download and store the displayed data locally on the client machine.

Most web pages are written in HyperText Markup Language, or HTML, which breaks the document into syntactic portions (such as headings, paragraphs, lists, etc.) that specify layout and contents. An HTML file can contain elements such as text, graphics, tables and buttons, each identified by a "tag." Markup languages, however, produce static web pages.

Recent innovations have allowed web-page designers to overcome the static page appearance dictated by HTML. The Java language is a well-known, machine-independent, interpreted computer language that facilitates dynamic display of information. Java-encoded "applets" are stand-alone programs embedded within web pages that can interact with the user locally, display moving animations and perform other functions on "Java-capable" browsers--that is, browsers which include a Java interpreter. The applet is transferred to the browser along with other web-page information and is executed by the Java interpreter; the data acted upon by the applet can be located on the same or a different web page, or a different server entirely, since applets can themselves cause the browser to retrieve information via hypertext links.

ActiveX controls represent an alternative to Java, although they typically require compatible browsers and computers. These programs can be written in many computer languages (including Java) and usually compile to machine code, in which case they operate only in conjunction with browsers running machines with appropriate processor architectures. Some languages, however, will compile to machine-independent byte codes, which can run on a variety of processor architectures.

Suppose, for example, that a client user instructs the client-resident browser to obtain a document having the URL http://host/file.html. The browser contacts the HTTP server running on "host," and requests the document file.html. The server finds this document and sends it according to the proper Internet protocol, along with a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension or "MIME" identifier that specifies the document's type. When the client receives the document, the browser examines the MIME to determine whether it is capable of autonomously displaying the document, or whether an external resource (e.g., a specialized viewer to display video segments) is necessary. In a simple case, the document might contain text and graphics specified in HTML, and specify an image residing in a different file on a different server or on the same server. The browser renders the document in accordance with the HTML instructions and requests the image, displaying it in the document as specified by the instructions when the image arrives. In more complex cases the document may contain, for example, Java instructions, which are passed to the browser's Java interpreter.

Key to the concept of a web page, therefore, is the division of functionality between the client-based browser and the server-based web page, and the particular roles assigned to each. The browser locates, fetches and displays resources, executes hyperlinks and applets, and generally interprets web-page information; the web page contains data, hyperlink addresses, transfer protocols and computer instructions defining "potential functionality" that may be executed by the browser. Ordinarily, web pages reside on servers accessible via the Internet. However, the above-discussed mode of splitting functions between web pages and browsers can be instituted on internal networks as well. These networks, sometimes called "intranets," support the TCP/IP communication protocol and typically serve the needs of a single business (or business department), which may be located at a single site (with individual clients connected by a simple local-area network) or multiple physically dispersed sites requiring a wide-area network but not access to the Internet. Various of the computers forming the intranet network can be utilized as servers for web pages, each with its own URL and offering access to network client computers via TCP/IP.

The manner in which this divided functionality can be incorporated into a bank of controllers and a monitoring system is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. With reference, first, to FIG. 1, a representative controller architecture is shown generally at 10. The controller 10 executes program instructions to operate, for example, a piece of industrial equipment, and includes a central processing unit ("CPU") 12 and one or more computer storage devices indicated generally at 14. Ordinarily, storage device 14 is composed of a combination of volatile RAM for temporary storage and processing, and non-volatile, programmable read-only memory ("PROM") that contains permanent aspects of the controller's operating instructions; however, computer storage 14 can, if desired, include mass-storage facilities such as a hard disk, CD-ROM drive, etc. Such on-board devices are useful if web pages or security features are expected to change frequently.

CPU 12 and computer storage 14 communicate over an internal system bus 16. The system further includes a series of input/output modules shown representatively at 20.sub.1, 20.sub.2 that sense the condition of, and send control signals to, the controlled machine over a communication link (indicated by arrows). This communication link facilitates the bidirectional exchange of signals between each I/O module and an associated device (e.g., a sensor or an actuator). I/O modules 20, as well as a network interface 30 that connects the controller 10 to a computer network, reside on or define a secondary I/O bus 22, which is driven by a bus transceiver 32; in effect, buses 16, 22 and bus transceiver 32 form a single logical bus. The computer network may be a local-area network of machines communicating via, for example, the Ethernet protocol, or a direct link to the Internet. In a local-area network, the computers can implement TCP/IP over the low-level Ethernet hardware-management routines to create an intranet, or can instead (or in addition) be tied into the Internet as a node via, for example, telephone hookup to an external host computer serving as a commercial Internet provider.

Storage 14 contains a series of functional blocks or modules that implement the functions performed by controller 10 through operation of CPU 12. A control block 35 contains instructions for operating I/O modules 20. These instructions are read in rapid sequence and interpreted to examine the condition of selected sensing devices associated with the controlled equipment, and, based thereon, to cause the controller to send appropriate operative control signals to the equipment. Typically, the instructions are written in a relatively high-level language that permits not only manipulation of input and output data, but also arithmetic and timing functions, file-handling capabilities and other complex tasks. These instructions are translated into machine-readable code by means of an interpreter. For example, one standardized type of instruction symbolically represents control functions according to a relay ladder diagram; it is preferred, however, to utilize state-control languages that represent controller actions in terms of steps, each of which consists of a command that creates action and one or more instructions for leaving the step. Interpreters for these and other types of controller languages are well characterized in the art. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,321,829 and 5,287,548 (the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference) and the QUICKSTEP.TM. User Guide published by Control Technology Corporation, Hopkinton, Mass. Control block 35 contains both the specific high-level instructions for operating the controller 10 and the interpreter module for translating these into instructions processed by CPU 12; its operative relationship to I/O modules 20 is indicated by the dashed line.

A network communication block provides programming to operate local-area network hardware and/or to connect with a remote network or network host. In the latter case, communication module 37 drives a modem within network interface 30 or other data-transmission circuitry to transfer streams of digitally encoded data over telephone or other communication lines.

Storage 14 also contains data structures defining one or more web pages shown representatively at 40.sub.1, 40.sub.2. The web pages 40 consist of ASCII data obtained from one or more of I/O modules 20, HTML formatting instructions and associated data, and/or "applet" instructions that cause a properly equipped remote computer to display the data in a dynamic fashion. For example, an applet might cause temperature data to be displayed as a graphical representation of a thermometer, with the height of the rendered mercury column dynamically varying in proportion to the data from I/O modules 20 (and constantly provided to the remote computer via network interface 30); pressure data might be represented in the form of a graphically rendered needle-type pressure gauge. Such renderings and the integration of data therein are straightforwardly implemented by those skilled in the art (and familiar, for example, with the Java language) without undue experimentation. Management and transmission of web pages 40 to a querying computer is handled by a web server module 45, which allows controller 10 to function as a network server. Once again, the features of this module are conventional in the art; see, e.g., Yuval Fisher, Spinning the Web (Springer 1996).

Incoming data from I/O modules 20 may be processed by control block 35 before being copied into one of the web pages 40. Because of the linking capabilities of the web, it is not necessary for the data to be stored in the web page containing the display instructions; instead, the latter page may contain a "hyperlink" pointer to a different web page in which data is accumulated. In addition, a web page can obtain data from other web pages (e.g., from different controllers) by accessing those web pages when appropriate. For example, if a cluster of controllers is operationally related such that data from one is usefully combined with data from the others, each page of the cluster can contain instructions to access the other pages (or their associated data pages) when accessed by a user, and the applet configured to present data from the entire cluster. Alternatively, the applet can be configured to cause the client's browser to access the web page. As used herein, data is "associated with" a web page or an applet if it is stored as part of the web page or applet, or stored in a directly or indirectly hyperlinked web page.

Refer now to FIG. 2, which illustrates the manner in which multiple versions of the controller 10 are linked and queried by one or more monitoring computers. The querying computer 50, which functions as a network client, may be, for example, a personal computer running the Windows graphical user interface supplied by Microsoft Corp. Computer 50 includes a network interface 52, which facilitates connection to and data transfer through a computer network 55 (which may, again, be a local network, the Internet, or an Internet-linked local network). The communications relevant to the present invention are handled by a web browser 57, which resides within computer 50 and operates the computer's display (e.g., video or liquid crystal) 60. Naturally, computer 50 also contains various conventional components, i.e., system storage, an operating system and a graphical user interface, and a keyboard and/or position-sensing device (e.g., a mouse) for accepting input from the user. For convenience of presentation, these are not shown.

Browser 57 contains functionality for locating and fetching, via network 55, web items (e.g., static pages or pages containing dynamic applets) identified by a URL, displaying these, executing applets, executing hyperlinks contained in web pages and selected by the user or invoked in an executing applet, and generally interpreting web-page information. The web items ordinarily are contained in the web pages of one or more controllers 10.sub.1, 10.sub.2, etc. As explained earlier, the web pages contain data, hyperlink addresses, transfer protocols and computer instructions defining applets. Browser 57 may be any of the numerous available web browsers, e.g., NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR (supplied by Netscape Communications Corp.) or MOSAIC (different versions of which are available free of charge at a variety of web sites).

In a working system, the network interface 30.sub.1, 30.sub.2, etc. of every controller in the system is constantly active and in communication with network 55, facilitating access by computer 50 to any controller-based web page(s) at any time. In this way, computer 50 can examine the data associated with any controller merely by specifying the appropriate URL of the controller's primary web page. The web page (and, preferably, an applet associated therewith) is copied to browser 57 and displayed along with the relevant, timely data. For example, the applet, executing on client computer 50, can autonomously access data from a web page different from the primary page the client user originally specified, all in a manner completely invisible to the user. Such access can be periodic or essentially continuous for data subject to rapid change.

Naturally, the network accessibility of control data, particularly over the Internet, raises security issues. It may be desirable to equip controller-based web pages with a password access feature, whereby browser 57 or an executing applet must present a password before being accorded access to associated data. In addition, the data may be encrypted before being placed on the network. These functions are handled by communication module 37, which acts as a gatekeeper to web server module 45. Security-clearance functions are conventional and readily implemented by those skilled in the art.

Security becomes particularly important if the controller-based web pages allow client computer 50 not only to access data, but to modify it as well. For example, while "read-only" access to control data suffices to inform the client user of the state of a controlled machine or process, the user cannot, if limited to such access, influence the operation of the controller. It may prove desirable, therefore, to allow an appropriately authorized client to directly modify control parameters (which may, for example, be stored on a restricted-access web page) that determine the operation of the controller and, hence, the controlled machine or process. Indeed, a controller-based applet invoked by the user's interaction with one of the controller's web pages can permit the remotely situated client user to operate the controller hardware--for example, causing the controller to execute a reset routine that restarts automated equipment following shutdown, or causing the controller to operate in a step-by-step fashion for diagnostic purposes.

It will therefore be seen that the foregoing represents a highly extensible and flexible approach to remote access to and presentation of controller information. The terms and expressions employed herein are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed.