Alarm analysis tools method and apparatus
First Claim
1. In a computer system, an apparatus for selecting alarms for an alarm monitor system, comprising:
- an application window, displaying a main alarm list having a set of alarm indications, and displaying a set of operation indications;
a selector coupled to said application window, capable of defining a set of selected alarm indications from the main alarm list, and defining a selected operation indication from the set of operation indications; and
an operation unit, (i) receiving the set of selected alarm indications and the selected operation indication from said application window as defined by said selector, (ii) affecting the set of alarm indications associated with the set of selected alarm indications in accordance with the received, defined, operation indication, and (iii) transmitting an alarm list subset having characteristics of the selected alarm indications.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The disclosed alarm analysis tools cope with insufficiently understood process characteristics. The configuration of the alarms and their associated displays are governed by generalized display policies applicable to groups of alarms rather than by detailed configuration of individual alarm action. To aid an operation in the configuration process, another aspect of the invention concerns an alarm selection method and apparatus operating on a computer, which comprises an application window displaying a main alarm list, a selection means to select the alarm indications displayed in the alarm list, and an operations means producing a main alarm list subset having characteristics of the selected alarm indications.
147 Citations
82 Claims
-
1. In a computer system, an apparatus for selecting alarms for an alarm monitor system, comprising:
-
an application window, displaying a main alarm list having a set of alarm indications, and displaying a set of operation indications;
a selector coupled to said application window, capable of defining a set of selected alarm indications from the main alarm list, and defining a selected operation indication from the set of operation indications; and
an operation unit, (i) receiving the set of selected alarm indications and the selected operation indication from said application window as defined by said selector, (ii) affecting the set of alarm indications associated with the set of selected alarm indications in accordance with the received, defined, operation indication, and (iii) transmitting an alarm list subset having characteristics of the selected alarm indications. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
the main alarm list has a set of alarm indication names; and
the selector defines a set of a full, a beginning, an intermediate, or an ending list of alarm indication name characters.
-
-
20. The apparatus according to claim 19 wherein each said alarm list operation indication performs its respective operation on the entire alarm list in said subwindow with which it is associated, said operations having boolean logic functionality for operating on said subwindow alarm list in reference to the selected alarm list text portions.
-
21. The apparatus according to claim 20 wherein said second subwindow and said third subwindow aggregate alarm indications in response to multiple move operations on the alarm list from said first subwindow and said second subwindow, respectively.
-
22. An alarm monitor configuration selection method operating on a computer, the method comprising the steps of:
-
displaying an alarm list of possible alarm indications for selection in an application window, said list being a main alarm list;
receiving an input selection criteria;
operating on the alarm list in response to the input selection criteria; and
producing an alarm list subset having characteristics of the input selection criteria resulting from said operating on the alarm list. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
loading the alarm list from an input file; and
displaying the alarm list in said first subwindow.
-
-
25. The method in claim 24 further comprising the step of storing the final alarm list subset to an output file.
-
26. An alarm monitor configuration selection method operating on a computer, the method comprising the steps of:
-
providing an application window comprising a first subwindow, a second subwindow, and a third subwindow;
loading an alarm list containing alarm indications from an input file, said alarm list being a main alarm list;
displaying the main alarm list in said first subwindow;
receiving a first input selection criteria referencing the main alarm list in said first subwindow;
operating on the main alarm list in response to the first input selection criteria, wherein a temporary subset of the main alarm list subset is transferred to and displayed in said second subwindow;
receiving a second input selection criteria referencing the temporary subset in said second subwindow;
operating on the temporary subset in said second subwindow in response to the second input selection criteria, wherein a final subset of the main alarm list is transferred to and displayed in said third subwindow; and
storing the final alarm list subset to a file. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
-
-
37. In a computer linked to an alarm system having electronic alarm messages, a method for providing alarm information, the method comprising the steps of:
-
for each alarm in a plurality of alarms in a subject alarm system, associating a respective alarm indication with each alarm, each alarm indication being a representation of an alarm message;
providing a set of alarm categories having a hierarchy of subcategories, wherein each category includes logically related alarm indications;
for the set of alarm categories, providing a set of categorizations, wherein each categorization includes logically related alarm categories;
receiving alarm messages from the subject alarm system;
mapping each received alarm message to the alarm indication that represents the alarm message;
updating the categories and categorizations by a metric, as a function of the received alarm messages and the alarm indications to which the received alarm messages are mapped; and
displaying a subset of the related categorizations and categories in an organized and meaningful manner, thereby providing alarm information to an operator. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
wherein the step of displaying the updated categorizations reflects a priority metric of the prioritizing step.
-
-
41. The method according to claim 39 wherein the step of updating the categories and categorizations by a metric includes the steps of:
-
for each alarm indication, providing an alarm criteria;
providing each alarm category and categorization with an alarm counter; and
adjusting each alarm counter in response to a comparison between an associated alarm indication of a received alarm message with the alarm indication'"'"'s respective alarm criteria, wherein a subcategory directly including an alarm indication adjusts its alarm counter for each associated alarm message comparison, and a hierarchically superior alarm category adjusts its alarm counter on a per subcategory and per immediately subordinate alarm indication basis.
-
-
42. The method according to claim 41 further comprising the step of determining a set of one word summaries comprising the steps of:
-
determining a list of indicator categories, an indicator category being a hierarchically highest level alarm category in a display;
scanning all subcategories of the determined indicator categories;
for each scanned subcategory of each determined indicator category, (i) determining which subcategory alarm counter equals the count of the indicator category and whose overall counts has the smallest number of alarm indications, and (ii) using the determined subcategory, forming one word summaries from a subcategory descriptor or alarm indication descriptor of the determined subcategory; and
displaying together the determined indicator category and the respective formed one word summary.
-
-
43. The method according to claim 42 further comprising the step of displaying a one word summary of a highest level priority for a subset of the indicator categories.
-
44. The method according to claim 43 wherein the step of updating comprises the steps of:
-
providing an alarm message discriminator referencing a subset of alarm indications;
screening the received alarm messages according to the alarm message discriminator, said screening resulting in a working set of alarm messages; and
applying the working set of alarm messages to the steps of determining a one word summary and displaying a subset of the updated categorizations.
-
-
45. The method according to claim 44 wherein the step of screening the received alarm message further includes automatically imposing selections of alarm categories to be displayed as a function of the policies.
-
46. The method according to claim 45 wherein the step of automatically imposing selections includes employing a dynamic alarm limit table, thereby dynamically adjusting a set of ranges for a subset of alarms as a function of the policies.
-
47. The method according to claim 37 wherein the step of receiving alarm messages includes parsing a frame of alarm messages into individual alarm messages for mapping to alarm indications.
-
48. The method according to claim 38 wherein for each category having patterns of alarms, an included alarm indication is classified from a group consisting of a causal, an acute, or a consequential alarm type.
-
49. The method according to claim 38 wherein the step of displaying in an organized manner includes alphabetizing the alarm indications included in the alarm categorizations and categories.
-
50. The method according to claim 43 wherein the step of displaying a subset of related categories in a meaningful manner includes indicating, for each alarm categorization and category in a subset of alarm categorizations and categories, an alarm activity reference unit indicates a total number of associated received alarm messages and a total number of filtered alarm messages.
-
51. The method according to claim 50 wherein categorization, category, and alarm indications are displayed having a visual effect including at least one of shading, color, font, and type style.
-
52. The method according to claim 43 wherein the step of forming a set of one word summaries further includes extending the one word summaries to include indications of additional alarm criteria.
-
53. The method according to claim 37 wherein the step of displaying in an organized and meaningful manner includes the steps of:
-
receiving a selection input from an operator; and
displaying a subset of alarm information in response thereto.
-
-
54. The method according to claim 37 wherein the step of displaying and hence providing alarm information is selected from a group consisting of logs, battle ribbon alarm/event trends, alarm summary indicator matrices, and prediction/diagnostic displays.
-
55. The method according to claim 54 wherein the step of displaying further includes displaying specific alarm information in a set of side log displays.
-
56. The method according to claim 44 wherein the step of screening according to an alarm message discriminator comprises the step of, for a plurality of alarm display consoles, screening the alarm messages according to a console specific alarm message discriminator for each console.
-
57. The method according to claim 56 wherein the step of screening according to a console specific alarm message discriminator includes alarm message discriminator sharing among consoles, thereby allowing an operator to transfer alarm monitoring duties.
-
58. The method according to claim 56 wherein the step of screening according to a console specific alarm message discriminator includes transmitting a console specific alarm message discriminator to the alarm system to inhibit alarm messages, thereby sharing the console specific alarm message discriminator with the plurality of alarm display consoles.
-
59. The method according to claim 37 further including the step of loading an external configuration file, thereby initializing a plurality of variables used to provide the alarm information to an operator.
-
60. In a computer linked to an alarm system having electronic alarm messages, an apparatus for providing alarm information, the apparatus comprising:
-
an interface receiving a plurality of alarm messages corresponding to a plurality of alarms from a subject alarm system;
a plurality of alarm indications coupled to said interface, each alarm indication representative of an alarm message for the alarm, different subsets of alarm indications forming different alarm categories and different subsets of categories forming different alarm categorizations;
a processor routine, coupled to the interface and responsive to the received alarm message, the processor routine mapping the alarm messages into alarm indications and updating the categories and categorizations by a metric as a function of the received alarm messages; and
display supported by the processor routine, wherein a subset of the categorizations and categories are displayed in an organized and meaningful manner, thereby providing alarm information to an operator. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82)
-
Specification