MONITORING COMMUNICATIONS FLOW IN AN INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM TO DETECT AND MITIGATE HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS

• US 20170139393A1
• Filed: 11/13/2015
• Published: 05/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: BOSS, Gregory J., MOORE, JR., John E., JONES, Andrew R., LINGAFELT, Charles S., MCCONNELL, Kevin C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,955,810 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/058 Safety, monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/13198 Safety, forbid dangerous instruction, instruction order while programming

Abstract

A computer-implemented method includes: monitoring, by a computing device, communication flows within an industrial processing system; identifying, by the computing device, a hazardous command based on monitoring the communication flows, wherein identifying the hazardous command includes running a simulation with the communication flows as an input to the simulation; generating, by the computing device, a set of one or more mitigating commands based on identifying the hazardous command; and outputting, by the computing device, the set of one or more mitigating commands to components within the industrial processing system, wherein outputting the set of the one or more mitigating commands reduces a level of hazard caused by the hazardous command.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

monitoring, by a computing device, communication flows within an industrial processing system;

identifying, by the computing device, a hazardous command based on the monitoring the communication flows, wherein the identifying the hazardous command includes running a simulation with the communication flows as an input to the simulation;

generating, by the computing device, a set of one or more mitigating commands based on the identifying the hazardous command; and

outputting, by the computing device, the set of one or more mitigating commands to components within the industrial processing system, wherein the outputting the set of the one or more mitigating commands reduces a level of hazard caused by the hazardous command.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring the communication flows includes monitoring commands and responses to the commands sent between a master compute system, an industrial controller, and a physical device implemented as part of the industrial processing system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the hazardous command is a set of a plurality of commands.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the outputting the set of one or more mitigating commands includes determining particular components in which to output the set of one or more mitigating commands.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the outputting the set of one or more mitigating commands includes determining a time or a delay in which to output the set of one or more mitigating commands.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the hazardous command includes determining that the hazardous command includes data that is historically different than data of previous commands of a same type.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of hazardous commands; and

ranking the plurality of hazardous commands based on a predicted level of danger associated with each of the plurality of hazardous commands.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting an alert identifying the hazardous command or a hazardous condition associated with the hazardous command.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the set of one or more mitigating commands includes predicting effects of candidate commands using the simulation, wherein the set of one more mitigating commands is based on the predicted results of the candidate commands.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains, deploys and supports the computing device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein steps of claim 1 are provided by a service provider on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device includes software provided as a service in a cloud environment.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising deploying a system for mitigating effects of hazardous commands, comprising providing a computer infrastructure operable to perform the steps of claim 1.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computing device to cause the computing device to:

observe commands within an industrial processing system;

determine a hazard level for a set of one or more of the observed commands using a simulation model that predicts the effects of the set of one or more observed commands;

validate the set of one or more observed commands when the hazard level is less than a particular threshold;

determine that the one or more observed commands is a hazardous set of commands when the hazard level is equal to or greater than the threshold;

generate a set of one or more mitigating commands based on determining that the one or more observed commands is a hazardous set of commands; and

output the set of one or more mitigating commands to components within the industrial processing system, wherein outputting the set of the one or more mitigating commands reduces a level of hazard caused by the set of hazardous commands.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the simulation model includes at least one of:

a discrete simulation model;

a continuous simulation model;

an algebraic simulation model;

a stochastic simulation model;

a deterministic simulation modeling;

a dynamic system simulation modeling; and

a local or distributed simulation model.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the outputting the set of one or more mitigating commands includes determining particular components in which to output the set of one or more mitigating commands.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the outputting the set of one or more mitigating commands includes determining a time or a delay in which to output the set of one or more mitigating commands.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the determining that that the one or more observed commands is a hazardous set of commands includes determining that the one or more observed commands includes data that is historically different than data of previous commands of a same type.

19. A system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage medium associated with a computing device;

program instructions to observe commands within an industrial processing system;

program instructions to determine a hazard level for a set of one or more of the observed commands using a simulation model that predicts the effects of the set of one or more observed commands;

program instructions to determine that the one or more observed commands is a hazardous set of commands when the hazard level is equal to or greater than the particular threshold;

program instructions to generate a set of one or more mitigating commands based on determining that the one or more observed commands is a hazardous set of commands;

program instructions to predict the effects of the set of one or more mitigating commands using the simulation model;

program instructions to modify the set of one or more mitigating commands based on the predicted effects; and

program instructions to output the modified set of one or more mitigating commands to components within the industrial processing system, wherein outputting the modified set of the one or more mitigating commands reduces a level of hazard caused by the set of hazardous commands,

wherein the program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage medium for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the program instruction to output the modified set of one or more mitigating commands include program instructions to determine particular components in which to output the set of one or more mitigating commands.

21. A computer-implemented method comprising:

monitoring, by a computing device, communication flows within an industrial processing system;

identifying, by the computing device, a hazardous command based on the monitoring the communication flows;

generating, by the computing device, a set of one or more mitigating commands based on the identifying the hazardous command; and

outputting, by the computing device, the set of one or more mitigating commands to components within the industrial processing system, wherein the outputting the set of the one or more mitigating commands reduces a level of hazard caused by the hazardous command.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the monitoring the communication flows includes monitoring commands and responses to the commands sent between a master compute system, an industrial controller, and a physical device implemented as part of the industrial processing system.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the hazardous command is a set of a plurality of commands.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the outputting the set of one or more mitigating commands includes determining particular components in which to output the set of one or more mitigating commands.