Patents by Inventor David Dawkins

David Dawkins has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11947884
    Abstract: An industrial CAD system is supplemented with features that allow a developer to easily convert a mechanical CAD model of an automation system to a dynamic digital twin capable of simulation within a simulation platform, including simulation of fluid dynamics throughout the system. The features allow the user to label selected elements of a mechanical CAD drawing with “aspects” within the CAD environment, and to add fluid models representing fluids that travel through or are processed by the system. Based on these aspect labels and fluid models, the CAD platform transforms the mechanical CAD model into a dynamic digital twin that can be exported to a simulation and testing platform to facilitate simulation of both machine operation and fluid dynamics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ian McGregor, David Dawkins, Adam Davidson
  • Patent number: 11782427
    Abstract: An industrial virtual reality (VR) system includes visualization processing capabilities that allow an augmented reality (AR) human-machine interface (HMI) application to be tested within a virtual representation of the plant environment. This approach can yield an interactable AR HMI that simulates, within the VR environment, what a wearer of an AR appliance will see while traversing the physical plant. In this way, proper operation of the AR HMI can be verified prior to commissioning of the physical system. This can include ensuring that graphics are tied to the correct data points, confirming correct and non-obtrusive locations of graphics within the user's field of view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ian Mcgregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Patent number: 11675936
    Abstract: A design and testing simulation scales an industrial simulation across multiple different processing nodes, and generates a unified view of the distributed industrial simulation based on simulation and graphics data collected from the multiple processing nodes. The system can allow the user to designate different portions of the a digital model of an automation system to be executed on respective different distributed processing nodes, such that each portion of the model is executed on its designated node and the nodes exchange data as necessary to simulate the aggregate automation system as a whole. In order to visualize this aggregated simulation, the design and testing system unifies the distributed portions of the model into a unified three-dimensional presentation at a single node, and this unified view is animated based on data received from the nodes on which the distributed simulation is executed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ian McGregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Patent number: 11638994
    Abstract: An industrial control design and testing system allows vendor-specific digital twins of industrial robots to be imported into a vendor-agnostic simulation platform so that coordinated operation of the robots within the context of a larger automation system can be simulated and observed. Rather than requiring a designer to re-write the robot program in a format understandable by the simulation system, the design and testing system can link to instances of the vendor-specific robot simulation platforms to facilitate execution of the actual robot programs that will be installed and executed on the corresponding physical robots. This accurately simulates operation of the robots in a manner that requires less development work on the part of the designer and allows the robot's surrounding environment to be modeled and simulated more accurately than would be the case using a simulation platform specific to a particular robot vendor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2023
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ian Mcgregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Publication number: 20230128582
    Abstract: An industrial CAD system is supplemented with features that allow a developer to easily convert a mechanical CAD model of an automation system to a dynamic digital twin capable of simulation within a simulation platform, including simulation of fluid dynamics throughout the system. The features allow the user to label selected elements of a mechanical CAD drawing with “aspects” within the CAD environment, and to add fluid models representing fluids that travel through or are processed by the system. Based on these aspect labels and fluid models, the CAD platform transforms the mechanical CAD model into a dynamic digital twin that can be exported to a simulation and testing platform to facilitate simulation of both machine operation and fluid dynamics.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2022
    Publication date: April 27, 2023
    Inventors: Ian McGregor, David Dawkins, Adam Davidson
  • Publication number: 20230064632
    Abstract: An industrial virtual reality (VR) system includes visualization processing capabilities that allow an augmented reality (AR) human-machine interface (HMI) application to be tested within a virtual representation of the plant environment. This approach can yield an interactable AR HMI that simulates, within the VR environment, what a wearer of an AR appliance will see while traversing the physical plant. In this way, proper operation of the AR HMI can be verified prior to commissioning of the physical system. This can include ensuring that graphics are tied to the correct data points, confirming correct and non-obtrusive locations of graphics within the user's field of view.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2022
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Inventors: Ian Mcgregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Patent number: 11568110
    Abstract: An industrial CAD system is supplemented with features that allow a developer to easily convert a mechanical CAD model of an automation system to a dynamic digital twin capable of simulation within a simulation platform, including simulation of fluid dynamics throughout the system. The features allow the user to label selected elements of a mechanical CAD drawing with “aspects” within the CAD environment, and to add fluid models representing fluids that travel through or are processed by the system. Based on these aspect labels and fluid models, the CAD platform transforms the mechanical CAD model into a dynamic digital twin that can be exported to a simulation and testing platform to facilitate simulation of both machine operation and fluid dynamics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ian McGregor, David Dawkins, Adam Davidson
  • Patent number: 11526159
    Abstract: An industrial virtual reality (VR) system includes visualization processing capabilities that allow an augmented reality (AR) human-machine interface (HMI) application to be tested within a virtual representation of the plant environment. This approach can yield an interactable AR HMI that simulates, within the VR environment, what a wearer of an AR appliance will see while traversing the physical plant. In this way, proper operation of the AR HMI can be verified prior to commissioning of the physical system. This can include ensuring that graphics are tied to the correct data points, confirming correct and non-obtrusive locations of graphics within the user's field of view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ian Mcgregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Publication number: 20220241972
    Abstract: An industrial control design and testing system allows vendor-specific digital twins of industrial robots to be imported into a vendor-agnostic simulation platform so that coordinated operation of the robots within the context of a larger automation system can be simulated and observed. Rather than requiring a designer to re-write the robot program in a format understandable by the simulation system, the design and testing system can link to instances of the vendor-specific robot simulation platforms to facilitate execution of the actual robot programs that will be installed and executed on the corresponding physical robots. This accurately simulates operation of the robots in a manner that requires less development work on the part of the designer and allows the robot's surrounding environment to be modeled and simulated more accurately than would be the case using a simulation platform specific to a particular robot vendor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2022
    Publication date: August 4, 2022
    Inventors: Ian Mcgregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Patent number: 11318616
    Abstract: An industrial control design and testing system allows vendor-specific digital twins of industrial robots to be imported into a vendor-agnostic simulation platform so that coordinated operation of the robots within the context of a larger automation system can be simulated and observed. Rather than requiring a designer to re-write the robot program in a format understandable by the simulation system, the design and testing system can link to instances of the vendor-specific robot simulation platforms to facilitate execution of the actual robot programs that will be installed and executed on the corresponding physical robots. This accurately simulates operation of the robots in a manner that requires less development work on the part of the designer and allows the robot's surrounding environment to be modeled and simulated more accurately than would be the case using a simulation platform specific to a particular robot vendor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ian Mcgregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Publication number: 20220100917
    Abstract: A design and testing simulation scales an industrial simulation across multiple different processing nodes, and generates a unified view of the distributed industrial simulation based on simulation and graphics data collected from the multiple processing nodes. The system can allow the user to designate different portions of the a digital model of an automation system to be executed on respective different distributed processing nodes, such that each portion of the model is executed on its designated node and the nodes exchange data as necessary to simulate the aggregate automation system as a whole. In order to visualize this aggregated simulation, the design and testing system unifies the distributed portions of the model into a unified three-dimensional presentation at a single node, and this unified view is animated based on data received from the nodes on which the distributed simulation is executed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Publication date: March 31, 2022
    Inventors: Ian McGregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Publication number: 20220100181
    Abstract: An industrial control design and testing system supports emulation of a 2D representation of control system wiring between an industrial controller and field hardware. The design and testing system can simulate wiring diagrams to virtually confirm connectivity between the controller and the I/O devices in the field. This approach can also confirm wiring connections that do not pass through the controller, including emergency stop pushbuttons or other electrical connections that do not feed back into the controller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Publication date: March 31, 2022
    Inventors: Ian McGregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins, Andrew Deeble
  • Publication number: 20220083027
    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.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2020
    Publication date: March 17, 2022
    Inventors: Bernard Brooks, Ian Mcgregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Publication number: 20220075918
    Abstract: An industrial CAD system is supplemented with features that allow a developer to easily convert a mechanical CAD model of an automation system to a dynamic digital twin capable of simulation within a simulation platform, including simulation of fluid dynamics throughout the system. The features allow the user to label selected elements of a mechanical CAD drawing with “aspects” within the CAD environment, and to add fluid models representing fluids that travel through or are processed by the system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Publication date: March 10, 2022
    Inventors: Ian McGregor, David Dawkins, Adam Davidson
  • Publication number: 20210255611
    Abstract: An industrial virtual reality (VR) system includes visualization processing capabilities that allow an augmented reality (AR) human-machine interface (HMI) application to be tested within a virtual representation of the plant environment. This approach can yield an interactable AR HMI that simulates, within the VR environment, what a wearer of an AR appliance will see while traversing the physical plant. In this way, proper operation of the AR HMI can be verified prior to commissioning of the physical system. This can include ensuring that graphics are tied to the correct data points, confirming correct and non-obtrusive locations of graphics within the user's field of view.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2020
    Publication date: August 19, 2021
    Inventors: Ian McGregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Publication number: 20210141870
    Abstract: An industrial CAD system is supplemented with features that allow a developer to easily convert a mechanical CAD model of an automation system to a dynamic digital twin capable of simulation within a simulation platform. The features allow the user to label selected elements of a mechanical CAD drawing with “aspects” within the CAD environment. These aspect markups label the selected mechanical elements as being specific types of industrial assets or control elements. Based on these markups, the CAD platform associates mechatronic metadata with the selected elements based on the type of aspect with which each element is labeled. This mechatronic metadata defines the behavior (e.g., movements, speeds, forces, etc.) of the selected element within the context of a virtual simulation, transforming the mechanical CAD model into a dynamic digital twin that can be exported to a simulation and testing platform.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 11, 2019
    Publication date: May 13, 2021
    Inventors: Ian McGregor, David Dawkins, Adam Davidson
  • Publication number: 20210138651
    Abstract: An industrial control design and testing system allows vendor-specific digital twins of industrial robots to be imported into a vendor-agnostic simulation platform so that coordinated operation of the robots within the context of a larger automation system can be simulated and observed. Rather than requiring a designer to re-write the robot program in a format understandable by the simulation system, the design and testing system can link to instances of the vendor-specific robot simulation platforms to facilitate execution of the actual robot programs that will be installed and executed on the corresponding physical robots. This accurately simulates operation of the robots in a manner that requires less development work on the part of the designer and allows the robot's surrounding environment to be modeled and simulated more accurately than would be the case using a simulation platform specific to a particular robot vendor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 11, 2019
    Publication date: May 13, 2021
    Inventors: Ian Mcgregor, Adam Davidson, David Dawkins
  • Publication number: 20070085374
    Abstract: A door assembly for a vehicle is provided. The door assembly includes a guide track attached to a door, a slider positioned within the guide track, and a connecting member connecting the slider to the vehicle door frame. The connecting member has a vehicle end and a slider end and is arranged to be attached to the vehicle at the vehicle end and to the slider at the slider end. The connecting member and the slider are arranged to enable the door to translate relative to the vehicle along the guide track.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2005
    Publication date: April 19, 2007
    Inventors: Carl Mather, Todd Teasdale, Samer Shamon, William Hughes, Daniel Griffin, David Dawkins, Richmond Thomas
  • Patent number: D394283
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 12, 1998
    Inventor: David Dawkins