Abstract: A control design and testing system simplifies the execution of parallelized control testing simulators using emulation techniques. The system is capable of emulating large and complex industrial systems using a combination of selective model partitioning, space parallel simulation, and co-simulation. According to this approach, a digital model of the industrial automation system is partitioned into sub-models such that inter-model logical relationships between the sub-models comprise only logical relationships that can tolerate a temporal error equal to or less than a duration, or timestep, of a co-simulation cycle. The sub-models are deployed to separate processing spaces, and the system uses co-simulation to execute a parallel emulation of the sub-models.

Abstract: An industrial simulation system exchanges data between a virtualized industrial system and an industrial controller at high frequencies and accuracies without the need for additional network emulation hardware. Rather than timing the sending of emulated device data packets from the simulation to the industrial controller using an operating system clock, the simulation system uses the arrival event of a data packet received from the industrial controller as the clock signal that drives the sending of data packets from the virtual system to the controller. Using the arrival time of data packets from the industrial controller as the clock signal rather than the system clock of the operating system can yield high accuracy, low jitter data exchanges during simulation.

Abstract: An industrial simulation system simulates an industrial automation system using a virtual model or digital twin of the automation system and emulated execution of an industrial control program. The simulation system also includes a network emulation component that emulates the device network over which the industrial controller will communicate with field devices of the automation system. The network emulation component can configure the device network emulation based on controller configuration data obtained by interrogating the hardware controller executing the control code being tested, as well as I/O point information obtained from the virtual model.

Abstract: An industrial simulation system simulates an industrial automation system using a virtual model or digital twin of the automation system and emulated execution of an industrial control program. The simulation system also emulates the control network over which the industrial controller will communicate with field devices of the automation system. In order to emulate the control network without the need for a separate piece of hardware external to the hardware on which the main simulation executes, the simulation system instantiates a network emulator as a device driver or virtual machine in the kernel space of the hardware platform on which the simulation executes. The network emulator monitors data traffic between user space and kernel space, processes a subset of the data traffic relating to the simulation, and returns results of the processing to the main simulation in user space. This architecture accurately emulates the control network with low latency.