Industrial touchscreen
An industrial touchscreen apparatus integrates critical control functions and visualization features into a single display while maintaining safe operation of industrial machines. The apparatus includes a host computing unit for operation functions and a separate control computing unit for critical control functions associated with industrial machines. A mixer module mixes data flows from both computing units, prioritizing data from the control computing unit to prevent faults in the visualization system from compromising safe operation of the critical control functions. The display presents control widgets for critical control functions in a critical control zone and graphical indicia for operation functions in a visualization zone. A touchscreen controller detects touch input locations and routes them to the appropriate computing unit based on the zone.
1 . An apparatus comprising:
a host computing unit for operating the apparatus with operation functions,
a control computing unit for operating the apparatus with critical control functions associated with one or more industrial machines connected to the apparatus,
a touchscreen system comprising;
a touchscreen configured for receiving touch inputs to the touchscreen; and
a display for presenting control widget relating to critical control functions in a critical control zone and graphical indicia relating to operation functions in a visualization zone,
a touchscreen controller communicatively coupled with the host computing unit and control computing unit and configured to detect a location of the touch inputs to the touchscreen;
a mixer module communicatively coupled with the control computing unit and the host computing unit for mixing data flow coming from the control computing unit and the host computing unit,
the mixer module providing data flow coming from the control computing unit to the control zone of the display and providing data flow coming from the host computing unit to the visualization zone of the display, and
wherein the mixer module is configured to prevent faults from the host computing unit from compromising safe operation of the critical control functions associated with one or more industrial machines by prioritizing the data flow coming from the control computing unit over the data flow coming from the host computing unit.
2 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the visualization zone comprises one zone of the display and the critical control zone comprises one or more zones of the display.
3 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the critical control functions are deterministic functions with high reliability and low latency and the critical control functions are associated with one or more industrial devices connected to the apparatus.
4 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the critical control zone comprises predefined digital slots dedicated to control widget for activating critical control functions.
5 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a control widget provides a set of data and technologies that gather resources and information to reconstruct a digital representation of a machine control device for controlling an industrial device connected to the apparatus.
6 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a control widget is associated with one of the following machine control devices that are human machine interface components: push button, selector, slider, encoder and pilot light.
7 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a machine control device associated with a control widget is configured with a haptic feedback and/or an audio feedback.
8 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a control widget has at least three different visual states of a machine control device comprising an idle state, a selection state and a fail state.
9 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein one control widget is configured to control a set of machine control devices.
10 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , included in an industrial control panel.
11 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control widgets are accompanied by 3D shapes on a cover glass of the touchscreen.
12 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control computing unit is configured to:
receive, from the touchscreen controller and in response to a touch input to the touchscreen on a control widget, a location of the touch input to the touchscreen,
determine the control widget associated with the location and a state of the control widget, trigger a critical control function corresponding to the state of the control widget, and
update the state of the control widget.
13 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control computing unit is configured to:
send a data flow associated with the updated state of the control widget to the mixer module; and
retrieve a checksum related to the control widget presented on the display from the mixer module and validate an integrity of control widget is the checksum is correct.
14 . A method for operating an industrial touchscreen apparatus, the method comprising:
operating, by a host computing unit, the apparatus with operation functions;
operating, by a control computing unit, the apparatus with critical control functions associated with one or more industrial machines connected to the apparatus;
receiving, by a touchscreen, touch inputs to the touchscreen;
presenting, by a display, control widgets relating to critical control functions in a critical control zone and graphical indicia relating to operation functions in a visualization zone;
detecting, by a touchscreen controller communicatively coupled with the host computing unit and control computing unit, a location of the touch inputs to the touchscreen;
mixing, by a mixer module communicatively coupled with the control computing unit and the host computing unit, data flow coming from the control computing unit and the host computing unit;
providing, by the mixer module, data flow coming from the control computing unit to the control zone of the display and data flow coming from the host computing unit to the visualization zone of the display; and
preventing, by the mixer module, faults occurring in the host computing unit from compromising safe operation of the critical control functions associated with one or more industrial machines by prioritizing the data flow coming from the control computing unit over the data flow coming from the host computing unit.
15 . The method according to claim 14 , wherein the visualization zone comprises one zone of the display and the critical control zone comprises one or more zones of the display.
16 . The method according to claim 14 , wherein the critical control functions are deterministic functions with high reliability and low latency.
17 . The method according to claim 14 , wherein the critical control zone comprises predefined digital slots dedicated to control widgets for activating critical control functions.
18 . The method according to claim 14 , further comprising configuring a machine control device associated with a control widget with a haptic feedback and/or an audio feedback.
19 . The method according to claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving, by the control computing unit and from the touchscreen controller in response to a touch input to the touchscreen on a control widget, a location of the touch input to the touchscreen;
determining, by the control computing unit, the control widget associated with the location and a state of the control widget;
triggering, by the control computing unit, a critical control function corresponding to the state of the control widget; and
updating, by the control computing unit, the state of the control widget.
20 . The method according to claim 19 , further comprising:
sending, by the control computing unit, a data flow associated with the updated state of the control widget to the mixer module; and
retrieving, by the control computing unit, a checksum related to the control widget presented on the display from the mixer module and validating an integrity of the control widget based on the checksum.