Dynamic User Interface for Configuring and Managing a Process Control System

• US 20120029661A1
• Filed: 09/29/2009
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Jones, Bryan Michael, Bellville, Keith R., Scott, Cindy Alsup, Balentine, James R., Fellows, Hubbard F.
• Granted Patent: US 10,139,812 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/17
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41865 characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23258 GUI graphical user interface, icon, function bloc editor, labview
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31396 Business management, production, document, asset, regulatory management, high level
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32097 Recipe programming for flexible batch
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A process control management method in a computer system for configuring and supervising a process plant includes providing an interactive user interface to manage a plurality of objects in the process plant, where each of the plurality of objects corresponds to a physical or logical entity in the process plant, including generating a navigation pane to display a set of selectable items, each in the set of selectable items corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of objects, and generating a command pane to display a set of selectable controls, each in the set of selectable controls corresponding to a task to be performed on at least one of the plurality of objects in the process plant; receiving a selection of one of an item in the set of selectable items via the navigation panel and a control in the set of selectable controls via the command panel; determining an operational context based on the received selection, wherein the operational context corresponds to one of a range of actions applicable to the selection if the selection is an item selection, or a range of items to which the selection is applicable if the selection is a control selection; and adjusting one of the navigation pane or the command pane according to the operational context, including displaying a subset of selectable items in the navigational pane, wherein each in the subset of selectable items is within the range applicable to the selection, if the selection is a control selection, and displaying a subset of selectable controls in the command pane, wherein each in the subset of selectable controls is within the range applicable to the selection, if the selection is an item selection.

Claims

1. A process control management method in a computer system for configuring and supervising a process plant, comprising:

providing an interactive user interface to manage a plurality of objects in the process plant, wherein each of the plurality of objects corresponds to a physical or logical entity in the process plant, including;

generating a navigation pane to display a set of selectable items, each in the set of selectable items corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of objects; and

generating a command pane to display a set of selectable controls, each in the set of selectable controls corresponding to a task to be performed on at least one of the plurality of objects in the process plant;

receiving a selection of one of an item in the set of selectable items via the navigation panel and a control in the set of selectable controls via the command panel;

determining an operational context based on the received selection, wherein the operational context corresponds to one of a range of actions applicable to the selection if the selection is an item selection, or a range of items to which the selection is applicable if the selection is a control selection; and

adjusting one of the navigation pane or the command pane according to the operational context, including;

displaying a subset of selectable items in the navigational pane, wherein each in the subset of selectable items is within the range applicable to the selection, if the selection is a control selection; and

displaying a subset of selectable controls in the command pane, wherein each in the subset of selectable controls is within the range applicable to the selection, if the selection is an item selection.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying one or several items selected via the navigation pane in a content pane.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the navigation pane and the command pane are associated with a common screen;

the method further comprising morphing the common screen, comprising;

generating anew pane to display information related to the selection; and

adjusting a size of at least the content pane to accommodate the new pane within the common screen.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of objects corresponds to one of a controller that implements at least a portion of process control logic in the process plant, a physical device that performs a physical function in the process plant, an input/output (I/O) card that processes input and output signals between physical devices in the process plant, or a workstation that implements a software to manage the process plant.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of objects corresponds to one of a control strategy implemented by one or several devices operating in the process plant, an event reportable from a device operating in the process plant, or an area in the process plant in which one or several devices operate.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the command pane includes displaying a plurality of regions of the command pane, each of the plurality of regions having a set of controls grouped according to at least one of a common category of functionality or use.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting one of the navigation pane or the command pane further includes:

displaying at least one additional selectable item not included in the set of selectable items in the navigation pane if the selection is a control selection; and

displaying at least one additional selectable control not included in the set of selectable controls in the command pane if the selection is an item selection.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the operational context includes using statistical data descriptive of a correlation between the selection and one of a control or an item.

9. A user interface configuration method for use a computer system for configuring and supervising a process plant, the method comprising:

generating a plurality of panes within a screen area, each of the plurality of panes being in a respective position and having a respective size, including;

generating a navigational pane to display a set of selectable items, each in the set of selectable items corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of objects; and

generating a command pane to display a set of selectable controls, each in the set of selectable controls corresponding to a task to be performed on at least one of the plurality of objects in the process plant;

receiving a customization request from a user, wherein the customization request related to at least one of the plurality of panes and specifies at least one of;

a position of the at least one of the plurality of panes; and

a size of the at least one of the plurality of panes;

generating a custom layout of the plurality of panes in accordance with the customization request; and

storing custom layout data descriptive of the custom layout in a database record corresponding to the user.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising automatically restoring the custom layout in accordance with the custom layout data upon identifying a new login session of the user.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a role selection from the user, wherein the user is associated with several roles;

wherein

storing the custom layout data includes associating the custom layout with the role selection; and

wherein

automatically restoring the custom layout further includes identifying a role of the user and comparing the role to the role selection.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein generating the plurality of panes further includes

generating two or more main content panes to perform at least one of configuring or editing one of the plurality of objects selected via the navigational pane;

and wherein

generating the custom layout includes positioning each of the two or main content panes relative to each other in accordance with the customization request.

13. The method of claim 9, generating the plurality of panes further includes:

generating a main content pane to perforin at least one of configuring or editing one of the plurality of objects selected via the navigational pane, and wherein

the customization request further specifies at least one of;

a placement of each of a plurality of text columns in the main content area;

a respective size of each of the plurality of text columns; and

a font size fore each of the plurality of text columns.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the customization request further specifies a filter to be applied in the navigational pane, wherein the filter specifies a rule according to which a first subset of the set of selectable items is displayed and a second subset of the set of selectable item is not displayed.

15. A process control management system stored as a set of instructions on a computer readable medium and executable on a processor for configuring a process control system implemented in a process plant, comprising:

a user interface controller to display a plurality of objects and to receive commands to manage the plurality of objects, wherein each of the plurality of objects corresponds to a physical or logical entity in the process plant, the user interface controller including;

a navigation pane controller to display a set of selectable items, each in the set of selectable items corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of objects, and to receive a first selection of an item in the set of selectable items;

a command pane controller to display a set of selectable controls, each in the set of selectable controls corresponding to a task to be performed on at least one of the plurality of objects in the process plant, and to receive a second selection of a control in the set of selectable controls;

a context controller to determine an operational context based on one or both of the first selection and the second selection, wherein the operational context corresponds to one of a range of actions applicable to the selection if the selection is an item selection, or a range of items to which the selection is applicable if the selection is a control selection; and

an operational context controller configured to perform at least one of adjusting the navigation pane according to the operational context in response to the second selection, or adjusting the command pane according to the operational context in response to the first selection.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a filtering module to apply a filter to the navigation pane, wherein filter selects a subset of the plurality of objects to be displayed in the navigation pane.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the context controller is adapted to activate and deactivate additional panes based on the determined operational context.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the context controller is adapted to automatically reposition and resize panes based on the determined operational context.