METHODS AND APPARATUS TO CONFIGURE A PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM USING AN ELECTRONIC DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE SCRIPT

• US 20100211197A1
• Filed: 02/19/2009
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Balentine, James Randall, Nixon, Mark, Law, Gary Keith
• Granted Patent: US 9,354,629 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/87
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41845 characterised by system universality, reconfigurability, modularity
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31334 Database with devices, configuration, of plant
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32142 Define device, module description using xml format file
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

Example methods and apparatus to configure a process control system using an electronic description language (EDL) script are disclosed. A disclosed example method comprises loading a first script representative of a process plant, the first script comprising an interpretive system-level script structured in accordance with an electronic description language, and compiling the first script to form a second script, the second script structured in accordance with a vendor-specific configuration language associated with a particular process control system for the process plant.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

loading a first script representative of a process plant, the first script comprising an interpretive system-level script structured in accordance with an electronic description language; and

compiling the first script to form a second script, the second script structured in accordance with a vendor-specific configuration language associated with a particular process control system for the process plant.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first script is compile-able to form a third script structured in accordance with a second vendor-specific configuration language associated with a second process control system for at least one of the process plant or a second process plant.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein compiling the first script to form the second script comprises:

identifying one or more lexemes contained in the first script;

identifying tokens contained in the first script based on the one or more lexemes;

identifying one or more grammatical relationships between the tokens; and

forming the second script based on the tokens and the grammatical relationships.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first script is constructed in accordance with an extensible markup language.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first script represents a relationship between a first device of the process control system and a second device of the process control system.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the first device comprises a field device and the second device comprises a control system component.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising importing the second script into a process control system configuration database associated with the process control system.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

generating a process control system operation database based on the second script; and

configuring the process control system based on the operation database.

9. An apparatus comprising:

an editor useable to create a first script representative of a process plant, the first script comprising an interpretable system-level script structured in accordance with an electronic description language; and

a compiler to form a second script from the first script, the second script structured in accordance with a vendor-specific configuration language associated with a particular process control system for the process plant.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the first script is to be compiled to form a third script, the third script structured in accordance with a second configuration language associated with a second process control system for at least one of the process plant or a second process plant.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the compiler comprises:

a scanner to identify one or more lexemes contained in the first script;

a tokenizer to identify tokens contained in the first script based on the one or more lexemes;

a parser to identify one or more grammatical relationships between the tokens; and

an interpreter to form the second script based on the tokens and the grammatical relationships.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the first script is constructed in accordance with an extensible markup language.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the first script represents a relationship between a first device of the process control system and a second device of the process control system.

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

a database populator to populate a process control system configuration database based on the second script; and

a database server to configure the process control system based on the process control system configuration database.

15. An article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to:

load a first script representative of a process plant, the first script comprising an interpretive system-level script structured in accordance with an electronic description language; and

compile the first script to form a second script, the second script structured in accordance with a vendor-specific configuration language associated with a particular process control system for the process plant.

16. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to compile the first script to form a third script structured in accordance with a second vendor-specific configuration language associated with a second process control system for at least one of the process plant or a second process plant.

17. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to compile the first script to form the second script by:

identifying one or more lexemes contained in the first script;

identifying tokens contained in the first script based on the one or more lexemes;

identifying one or more grammatical relationships between the tokens; and

forming the second script based on the tokens and the grammatical relationships.

18. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 15, wherein the first script represents a relationship between a field device of the process control system and a control system component of the process control system.

19. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to import the second script into a process control system configuration database associated with the process control system.

20. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to:

generate a process control system operation database based on the second script; and

configure the process control system based on the operation database.

21-27. -27. (canceled)