SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOGENERATING SIMULATIONS FOR PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM CHECKOUT AND OPERATOR TRAINING

• US 20150178422A1
• Filed: 03/10/2015
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Software, LLC (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Invensys Systems Incorporated (Invensys PLC)
• Inventors: McKim, Gregory, Karbhari, Prashant
• Granted Patent: US 9,904,746 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: C09B 9/00 Esters or ester-salts of leuco compounds of vat dyestuffs
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/04 involving the use of models or simulators
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/003 Repetitive work cycles; Sequence of movements
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/00 Simulators for teaching or training purposes for the use of weapons F41; computing aspects G06; protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality H04L67/131

Abstract

A method and system for automatically generating simulations for a distributed control system is disclosed herein. A programmed process model generator automatically incorporates a variety of process model data from pre-defined model libraries into descriptions of process equipment including control devices to render simulation models of various degrees of fidelity.

Claims

1. A method for providing a process simulation model for a process that includes potentially complex interactions between control points within the process, the method comprising:

generating a process simulation model of a process control system based on at least one data source; and

integrating cause and effect models from a library into the process simulation model, the cause and effect models including transfer constants corresponding to a unit change relationship between related process parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the cause and effect models include time constant parameters representing a lag between cause and effect of two related process parameters.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the cause and effect models are represented by two-dimensional matrixes where a first dimension specifies a cause and a second dimension specifies an effect.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one data source comprises a piping and instrumentation diagram.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein generating a process simulation model comprises:

generating a virtual process control system definition representative of one or more control processors and one or more physical I/O interfaces to a process;

generating process models; and

connecting the process models to the virtual process control system.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein generating process models comprises:

parsing I/O block information from the virtual process control system definition;

creating simulation models by a rules engine applying a set of rules to each I/O block name; and

configuring and parameterizing the created simulation models using rules provided by the rules engine.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising providing a user interface for creating and modifying the set of rules.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein creating simulation models further comprises matching, by the rules engine, I/O block information using regular expression syntax to each rule in the set of rules and creating the simulation models indicated by each rule to which I/O block information is matched.

9. A system for providing a process simulation model for a process that includes potentially complex interactions between control points within the process, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory device coupled to the processor, the memory device storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor;

generate a process simulation model of a process control system based on at least one data source; and

integrate cause and effect models from a library into the process simulation model, the cause and effect models including transfer constants corresponding to a unit change relationship between related process parameters.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the cause and effect models include time constant parameters representing a lag between cause and effect of two related process parameters.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the cause and effect models are represented by two-dimensional matrixes where a first dimension specifies a cause and a second dimension specifies an effect.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the at least one data source comprises a piping and instrumentation diagram.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the processor-executable instructions generating the process simulation model comprise processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor:

generate a virtual process control system definition representative of one or more control processors and one or more physical I/O interfaces to a process;

generate process models; and

connect the process models to the virtual process control system.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the processor-executable instructions generating process models comprise processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor:

parse I/O block information from the virtual process control system definition;

create simulation models by a rules engine applying a set of rules to each I/O block name; and

configure and parameterize the created simulation models using rules provided by the rules engine.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a user interface device providing an interface for creating and modifying the set of rules.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor-executable instructions creating simulation models comprise processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor:

match, by the rules engine, I/O block information using regular expression syntax to each rule in the set of rules; and

create the simulation models indicated by each rule to which I/O block information is matched.

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media for providing a process simulation model for a process that includes potentially complex interactions between control points within the process, the media comprising processor-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, perform:

generating a virtual process control system definition representative of one or more control processors and one or more physical I/O interfaces to a process based on at least one data source;

connecting one or more process models to the virtual process control system; and

integrating cause and effect models from a library into the process models, the cause and effect models including transfer constants corresponding to a unit change relationship between related process parameters.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17 wherein the cause and effect models include time constant parameters representing a lag between cause and effect of two related process parameters.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17 wherein the cause and effect models are represented by two-dimensional matrixes comprising a first dimension specifying a cause and a second dimension specifying an effect.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17 further comprising processor-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, perform:

parsing I/O block information from the virtual process control system definition;

creating simulation models by a rules engine applying a set of rules to each I/O block name; and

configuring and parameterizing the created simulation models using rules provided by the rules engine.