VISUALIZATION OF PROCESS CONTROL DATA

• US 20090210814A1
• Filed: 10/10/2008
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Iconics, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Iconics, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Klimov, Alexander, Massaro, Simone, Altamore, Leonardo, Raimondo, Roberto, Vercelli, Roberto, Kresl, Vojta, Elsbree, Christopher N., Agrusa, Russell L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,321,806 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/772
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0267 Fault communication, e.g. human machine interface [HMI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/324 Display of status information
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

Graphical representations of operational process control data associated with monitored processes is displayed within the context of the geographical locations at which the processes operate, and in a manner as to model individual components of the processes.

Claims

1. A system for displaying operational process control data, the system comprising:

a human-machine interface comprising a geographic representation of an area of interest, a graphical representation of a monitored process, and one or more graphical status indicators, each being associated with a component of the monitored process, wherein the status indicators are displayed at locations within the geographic representation corresponding to physical locations at which the corresponding components of the monitored process operate, and are responsive to operational process control data generated by the monitored process; and

a server for configuring the graphical representation of the monitored process, the graphical status indicators, and the association between the graphical status indicators and the respective components of the monitored process.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a data storage device, operably coupled to the to server, for storing configuration parameters defining the graphical representation of the monitored process and the graphical status indicators

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the geographical representation of the area of interest based at least in part on data received from a geographic information system.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the human-machine interface further comprises an interactive controller for facilitating panning and zooming of the representation of the area of interest.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein visual properties of the graphical status indicators change in response to changes in the operational process control data associated therewith.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the visual properties change in real-time.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein at least a portion of the operational process control data is processed prior to influencing the visual properties of the graphical status indicators.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein the operational process control data is compared to one or more thresholds, and the result of the comparison influences one or more visual properties of the graphical status indicators.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein, upon receipt of a user-initiated command directed to one or more of the graphical status indicators, the human-machine interface displays the operational process control data associated with the one or more graphical status indicators.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the graphical status indicators comprise a plurality of segments, each segment being uniquely associated with a different element of operational process control data.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the different elements of operational process control data are received from different sources and displayed as parts of a single graphical status indicator.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the segments are arranged in manner corresponding to a physical arrangement of the respective components of the monitored process.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein a subset of the plurality of segments each comprise a graphical depiction evoking a component of an operational process control device.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein (a) the geographic representations of the monitored processes comprise three-dimensional renderings of the monitored processes and (b) the graphical status indicators remain associated with each monitored process notwithstanding changes to orientations of the three-dimensional renderings.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the server maintains a listing of operational process control data sources for association with the graphical status indicators.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the server accesses the operational process control data sources using one or more of native database protocols, application programming interfaces, web services, streaming data feeds, or open database connectivity interfaces.

17. An article of manufacture having computer-readable program portions embodied thereon for providing a visual representation of operational process control data, the article comprising computer-readable instructions for:

generating a human-machine interface comprising a geographic representation of an area of interest, a graphical representation of a monitored process, and one or more graphical status indicators, each being associated with a component of the monitored process, wherein the status indicators are displayed at locations within the geographic representation corresponding to physical locations at which the corresponding components of the monitored process operate, and are responsive to operational process control data generated by the monitored process; and

configuration of the graphical representation of the monitored process, the graphical status indicators, and the association between the graphical status indicators and the respective components of the monitored process.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17 further comprising instructions for storing on a physical storage medium the configuration parameters defining the graphical representation of the monitored process and the graphical status indicators.

19. A method of monitoring a process, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of data feeds, each data feed comprising operational process control data representative of one or more components of the monitored process; and

displaying, on a human-machine interface, a geographic representation of an area of interest, a graphical representation of the monitored process, and one or more graphical status indicators, each of the graphical status indicators being associated with a component of the monitored process, and wherein the status indicators are displayed at locations within the geographic representation corresponding to physical locations at which the corresponding components of the monitored process operate, and are responsive to the operational process control data.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising providing configuration parameters of the graphical representation of the monitored process, the graphical status indicators, and the association between the graphical status indicators and the respective components of the monitored process.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising storing the configuration parameters in a data storage module.

22. The method of claim 19 wherein visual properties of the graphical status indicators change in response to changes in the operational process control data associated therewith.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the visual properties change in real-time.

24. The method of claim 22 further comprising processing at least a portion of the operational process control data prior to influencing the visual properties of the graphical status indicators.

25. The method of claim 22 further comprising comparing the operational process control data to one or more thresholds, whereby the result of the comparison influences one or more visual properties of the graphical status indicators.

26. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

receiving a user-initiated command directed to one or more of the graphical status indicators; and

displaying the operational process control data associated with the one or more graphical status indicators.

27. The method of claim 19 wherein (a) the geographic representations of the monitored processes comprise three-dimensional renderings of the monitored processes and (b) the graphical status indicators remain associated with each monitored process notwithstanding changes to orientations of the three-dimensional renderings.

28. A method for configuring graphical status indicators associated with operational process control data, the method comprising:

associating one or more graphical status indicators with respective sources of operational process control data representative of operations at corresponding components of a monitored process;

associating the graphical status indicators with geographical locations at which the components of the monitored process occur;

associating individual segments of the graphical status indicators with the corresponding components of the monitored process;

arranging the visual representation of the individual segments in such a manner as to evoke the components of an operational process control device; and

storing configuration parameters describing (i) the associations between the graphical status indicators and the sources of operational process control data, the geographic locations, and the corresponding components of the monitored process and (ii) the arrangement of the individual segments in a server for subsequent retrieval and use in displaying the graphical status indicators.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the geographical locations comprise three dimensional coordinates and the display of the graphical status indicators comprises a three-dimensional renderings of the monitored process.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the graphical status indicators remain associated with each monitored process notwithstanding changes to orientations of the three-dimensional renderings.