Patent ID: 11966731
Assignee: ABB SCHWEIZ AG
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 11:
12. A system for real time updating of process applications, comprising:
an application engineering tool;
a process device having a hardware processor;
a container deployment unit, the container deployment unit comprising:
a first execution engine executing a first process application thereby controlling a process device, wherein the first execution engine is a first software container deployed in a deployment unit, wherein software containers of the deployment unit are deployed on a single physical host node;
an update manager receiving an updated software, wherein the updated software comprises an updated process application, the updated process application being at least one of an updated version of the first process application, and an updated execution engine, the updated execution engine being an updated version of the first execution engine;
wherein the update manager is a second software container deployed in the container deployment unit;
initializing, by the update manager, the updated software in a second execution engine, wherein the second execution engine is a third software container deployed in the container deployment unit;
determining, by the update manager, an application state of the first process application;
instructing, by the update manager, a transfer of the application state from the first execution engine to the second execution engine via inter-process communication;
instructing, by the update manager, the second execution engine to execute the update using the received application state;
instructing, by the update manager, the first execution engine to stop writing output signals for the process device, and instructing the second execution engine to write the output signals for the process device;
verifying the output signals of the second execution engine based on the output signals of the first execution engine; and
at times when it is determined that the output signals of the second execution engine are reliable, instructing, by the update manager, the first execution engine to stop writing the output signals for the process device, and instructing the second execution engine to write the output signals for the process device; or
at times when it is determined that the output signals of the second execution engine are unreliable, deactivating, by the update manager, the second execution engine,
wherein the application engineering tool is configured for providing an updated software to the container deployment unit;
wherein the container deployment unit is configured for controlling the process device; and
wherein the process device is configured for being controlled by the container deployment unit.