Process control system with on-line reconfigurable modules
First Claim
1. A computer-based method for operating a substantially continuous process, comprising the steps of:
- (1) operating the process with one or more sensors connected to sense conditions in materials being processed, and one or more actuators connected to change conditions in the process;
(2) controlling one or more of said actuators with a process controller in accordance with signals received from said sensors and in accordance with one or more control parameters;
(3) running a process supervisor procedure comprising one or more software modules, for selectively defining one or more of said control parameters for said process controller;
(4) selectively presenting a functional structure to a user, for a new software module for said process supervisor procedure and/or a functional structure corresponding to the user input from which a current software module of said process supervisor procedure was generated, and selectively loading the user input from said functional structure to be used by said process supervisor procedure;
wherein step (4) of presenting a functional structure includes presenting standardized data interface definitions further comprising the step (5) of enabling each said software module to perform the steps ofgetting data from any one of a plurality of data collection and/or process control systemsand/or sending process control parameters to any one of a plurality of data collection and/or process controls systemswithout the user explicitly defining any custom data interfacing procedures.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An integrated system for process control in which a process supervisor procedure (which is preferably the top-level procedure) is configured as a modular software structure with modules which can be revised by a user at any time, without significantly interrupting the operation of the process supervisor. Users can define or redefine modules by editing highly constrained templates. These templates use a standardized data interface (as seen by the user), which facilitates communications with an extremely wide variety of systems. The template set preferably contains highly constrained portions (which are optimized for the most common functions), and also contains pointers to user-customized functions. Thus, rapid set-up and modification are possible, but sophisticated users still have full flexibility to do customization.
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Citations
64 Claims
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1. A computer-based method for operating a substantially continuous process, comprising the steps of:
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(1) operating the process with one or more sensors connected to sense conditions in materials being processed, and one or more actuators connected to change conditions in the process; (2) controlling one or more of said actuators with a process controller in accordance with signals received from said sensors and in accordance with one or more control parameters; (3) running a process supervisor procedure comprising one or more software modules, for selectively defining one or more of said control parameters for said process controller; (4) selectively presenting a functional structure to a user, for a new software module for said process supervisor procedure and/or a functional structure corresponding to the user input from which a current software module of said process supervisor procedure was generated, and selectively loading the user input from said functional structure to be used by said process supervisor procedure; wherein step (4) of presenting a functional structure includes presenting standardized data interface definitions further comprising the step (5) of enabling each said software module to perform the steps of getting data from any one of a plurality of data collection and/or process control systems and/or sending process control parameters to any one of a plurality of data collection and/or process controls systems without the user explicitly defining any custom data interfacing procedures. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 37)
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2. A computer-based method for operating a substantially continuous process, comprising the steps of:
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(1) operating the process with one or more sensors connected to sense conditions in materials being processed, and one or more actuators connected to change conditions in the process; (2) controlling one or more of said actuators with a process controller in accordance with signals received from said sensors and in accordance with one or more control parameters; (3) running a process supervisor procedure comprising one or more software modules, for selectively defining one or more of said control parameters for said process controller; (4) selectively presenting a functional structure to a user, for a new software for said process supervisor procedure and/or a functional structure corresponding to the user input from which a current software module of said process supervisor procedure was generated, and selectively loading the user input from said functional structure to be used by said process supervisor procedure; wherein step (4) of presenting a functional structure includes presenting standardized data interface definitions.
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3. A computer-based process control system, comprising:
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(a) one or more sensors connected to sense conditions in the process, and one or more actuators connected to change conditions in the process; (b) process control means, comprising one or more software modules for controlling the process, respective ones of said software modules defining a control relation among one or more of said sensors and acutators; (c) build means which is configured to; (1) present to a user a template for a new software module for said process control means; (2) present to a user a template including data corresponding to the user input from which a current software module of said process control means was generated; and (3) selectively to load user inputs from said template to be operationally accessible by said process control means.
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29. A computer-based process control system, comprising:
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(a) one or more sensors connected to sense conditions in the process, and one or more actuators connected to change conditions in the process; (b) a process controller connected to control one or more of said actuators in accordance with deviations between one or more of said sensors and a respective goal condition; (c) process supervisor means, running on a digital computer separate from said process controller, and comprising one or more software modules, connected for communicating one or more of said respective goal conditions to said process controller; (d) build-supervisor means configured for; (1) selectively presenting to a user a functional structure for a new software module for said process supervisor means; (2) upon command, presenting to a user a functional structure corresponding to the user input from which a current of said software modules of said process supervisor means was generated; and (3) selectively loading the user input from said functional structure to be used by said process supervisor means; wherein said process supervisor means has a maximum iteration period significantly longer than the maximum iteration period of said process controller. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. A computer-based process control system, comprising:
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(a) one or more sensors connected to sense conditions in the process, and one or more actuators connected to change conditions (1) the process; (b) process control means, comprising one or more software modules for controlling the process, respective ones of said software modules defining a control relation among one or more of said sensors and actuators; (c) build means which is configured to; (1) present to a user a template for a new software module for said process control means; (2) present to a user a template including data corresponding to the user input from which a current software module of said process control means was generated; and (3) selectively loading user input from said template be used by said process control means; wherein each said template presented by said build means includes (i) a standard functional control relationship selected from a limited set, and (ii) a pointer to optional user-customized programming. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
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63. A computer-based process control system, comprising:
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(a) one or more sensors connected to sense conditions in the process, and one or more actuators connected to change conditions i the process; (b) process control means, comprising one or more software modules for controlling the process, respective ones of said software modules defining a control relation among one or more of said sensors and actuators; wherein each said software modules includes (i) a standard functional control relationship selected from a limited set, and (ii) a pointer to optional user-customized programming.
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64. A computer-based process control system, comprising:
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(a) one or more sensors connected to sense conditions in the process, and one or more actuators connected to change conditions the process; (b) process control means, comprising one or more software modules for controlling the process, respective ones of said software moduless defining a control relation among one or more of said sensors and actuators; (c) build means which is configured to; (1) present to a user a functional structure for a ne, software module for said process control means; (2) present to a user a functional structure including data corresponding to the user input from which a current software module of said process control means was generated; and (3) selectively loading the user inputs from said functional structure to be used by said process control means; wherein each said functional structure presented by said build means includes (i) a standard functional control relationship selected from a limited set, and (ii) a pointer to optional user-customized programming.
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Specification