US 12,248,306 B2
Abstraction of PLC communication
Manuel Schlemelch, Erlangen (DE); Florian Ersch, Plainsboro, NJ (US); and Hartmut Ludwig, West Windsor, NJ (US)
Appl. No. 17/635,154
Filed by Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Munich (DE)
PCT Filed Aug. 28, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/048353
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 14, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/041774, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 4, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/893,425, filed on Aug. 29, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0291668 A1, Sep. 15, 2022
Int. Cl. H04B 5/45 (2024.01); G05B 19/05 (2006.01); G05B 19/418 (2006.01)
CPC G05B 19/4185 (2013.01) [G05B 19/052 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method performed in an automation system that comprises a plurality of ecosystems that define respective physical assets and a plurality of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) configured to control the physical assets, the method comprising:
polling, by a consumer from one of the plurality of ecosystems, the plurality of PLCs for an automation function;
in response to the polling, retrieving, by a first PLC of the plurality of PLCs that includes a memory defining a plurality of dedicated memory areas, an interface from a registry memory area that stores information concerning available interfaces in a provider memory area of the plurality of dedicated memory areas, such that the consumer discovers the interface;
binding to the interface, by the consumer, so as to establish a connection between the consumer and the first PLC at runtime of the automation function; and
after binding, sending a function call to the first PLC to execute the automation function.