Graphics integration into a process configuration and control environment

• US 7,702,409 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2005
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Webb, Arthur, Nixon, Mark J., Enver, Alper, Lucas, J. Michael, Zhou, Ling
• Primary Examiner(s): BARNES-BULLOCK, CRYSTAL JOY
• Application Number:
  US10/591,804
• Publication Number:
  US 20070139441A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,812 Days
• Field of Search: 700/17, 700/18, 700/26, 700/28, 700/79, 700/80, 700/83, 700/96, 700/108, 702/183, 703/6, 345/173, 345/440, 345/619
• US Class Current: 700/96
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41885 characterised by modeling, simulation of the manufacturing system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23424 Select construction element from function library
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25067 Graphic configuration control system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25428 Field device
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31467 Display of operating conditions of machines, workcells, selected programs
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31469 Graphical display of process as function of detected alarm signals
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31472 Graphical display of process
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31474 Icon display for quick access of detailed information
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32128 Gui graphical user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32342 Real time simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0267 Fault communication, e.g. human machine interface [HMI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/12 Symbolic schematics
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2113/14 Pipes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/12 characterised by design entry means specially adapted for CAD, e.g. graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for CAD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 : Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 : Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/00 : Animation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/4026 : Bus for use in automation systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 : Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 : Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 : Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 10/40 : Controlling or monitoring, e.g. of flood or hurricane; Forecasting, e.g. risk assessment or mapping
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/40 : Minimising material used in manufacturing processes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 : Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 : Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 : Management or planning
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/84 : Greenhouse gas [GHG] management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 : Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/965 : for process control and configuration

Abstract

Graphic elements and graphic displays are provided for use in a process environment to display information to one or more users about the process environment, such as the current state of device within a process plant. The graphic elements and display may be associated with various logical and physical elements within the process plant during configuration of the process plant, and may be configured and downloaded to the hardware within the process plant along with other configuration items, such as control routines. In particular, the graphic elements and graphic displays may be created and stored in a library, and may then be configured by being associated with various logical or physical entities within the plant. During the configuration process, the graphic elements and graphic displays may be associated with areas, equipment, process modules, control routines or control strategies of the plant as defined elsewhere in the plant configuration, or may be associated with interfaces or display devices, to define the hardware on which the graphic displays will execute during runtime, as well as to define the process entities to which these displays will be bound for display purposes. Still further, each of the graphic displays may be defined with a role or a functional use, such as an operator view, a maintenance view, etc., and these roles may be used to defined the proper access and use of the graphic displays within the runtime environment.

Claims

1. A configuration system for use in a process plant having a plurality of physical and logical process entities which operate together to perform a process and a process controller communicatively connected to the plurality of physical and logical process entities to implement a control routine to control the operation of the process plant, the configuration system comprising:

an executable graphic display that includes one or more visual depictions to be displayed on a display device when the graphic display is executed, a parameter memory adapted to store a value of a parameter and a binding memory adapted to store a reference for communicatively connecting the parameter memory to a data source within the process plant;

a configuration database that stores an indication of the physical and logical process entities and an indication of the executable graphic display; and

a configuration engine that enables a user to configure the operation of the graphic display by producing a screen depicting the indications of the plurality of physical and logical process entities and the indication of the executable graphic display and enables a user to configure the operation of the executable graphic display by dragging the indication of the executable graphic display to one of the indications of the plurality of physical and logical process entities and dropping the indication of the executable graphic display on the one of the indications of the plurality of physical and logical process entities.

2. A configuration system for use in a process plant having a plurality of physical and logical process entities which operate together to perform a process and a process controller communicatively connected to the plurality of physical and logical process entities to implement a control routine to control the operation of the process plant, the configuration system comprising:

an executable graphic display that includes one or more visual depictions to be displayed on a display device when the graphic display is executed, a parameter memory adapted to store a value of a parameter and a binding memory adapted to store a reference for communicatively connecting the parameter memory to a data source within the process plant;

a configuration database that stores an indication of the physical and logical process entities and an indication of the executable graphic display; and

a configuration engine that enables a user to configure the operation of the graphic display by producing a screen depicting the indications of the plurality of physical and logical process entities and the indication of the executable graphic display and producing an indication that the executable graphic display needs to be downloaded to a display device within the process plant after the executable graphic display is associated with one of the physical and logical process entities.

3. A method of configuring a process plant to include graphic displays for execution on one or more display devices within the process plant, the method comprising:

defining one or more executable graphic displays for use in the process plant;

storing an indication of one or more physical and logical process entities within a configuration database;

storing an indication of the one or more executable graphic displays in the configuration database;

enabling a user to configure the operation of the executable graphic displays by associating the indications of the one or more executable graphic displays within the configuration database with the indications of the one or more physical and logical process entities within the configuration database; and

downloading the one or more executable graphic displays according to the manner in which the indications of the one or more executable graphic displays are associated with the indications of the one or more physical and logical process entities within the configuration database.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein defining the one or more executable graphic displays includes defining one executable graphic display by identifying one or more visual depictions to be displayed on a display device when the one executable graphic display is executed and defining a parameter associated with the one executable graphic display, the parameter to be bound to the process plant during execution of the one executable graphic display.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein defining the one or more executable graphic displays includes defining the one or more executable graphic displays as having parameters unbound to the process plant, and wherein enabling a user to configure the operation of the executable graphic displays includes binding the parameters within the one or more executable graphic displays to one or more physical and logical process entities within the process plant.

6. The method of claim 5, including storing the indications of the executable graphic displays in a library section indicating that the executable graphic displays are not bound to data sources within the process plant and storing the indications of the physical and logical process entities in the configuration database in a manner that indicates the manner in which these physical and logical process entities are configured in the process plant.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the indications of the physical and logical process entities include an indication of a control routine and wherein enabling the user to configure the operation of the executable graphic displays includes allowing the user to associate one of the executable graphic displays with the control routine.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the indications of the physical and logical process entities include an indication of a plant area and wherein enabling the user to configure the operation of the executable graphic displays includes allowing the user to associate one of the executable graphic displays with the plant area.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the indications of the physical and logical process entities include an indication of an equipment entity and wherein enabling the user to configure the operation of the executable graphic display includes allowing the user to associate one of the executable graphic displays with the equipment entity.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the indications of the physical and logical process entities include an indication of a display device and wherein enabling the user to configure the operation of the executable graphic displays includes allowing the user to associate one of the executable graphic displays with the display device.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the indications of the physical and logical process entities include an indication of a display device having one or more functional subsystems and wherein enabling the user to configure the operation of the executable graphic displays includes allowing the user to associate one of the executable graphic displays with one of the functional subsystems of the display device.

12. The method of claim 3, further including enabling a user to associate a role with one or more of the executable graphic displays and wherein enabling a user to configure the operation of the executable graphic displays includes using the role of one of the executable graphic displays to assign the one of the executable graphic displays within the process plant.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein storing an indication of one or more physical and logical process entities within a configuration database includes storing an indication of a first logical entity in the configuration database, and wherein enabling the user to configure the operation of the executable graphic displays includes assigning one of the executable graphic displays to a display device associated with the first logical entity when the one of the executable graphic displays is associated with the first logical entity.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first logical entity is a control area or a control module.

15. The method of claim 3, including storing one or more unassigned executable graphic displays in one section of the configuration database and storing one or more assigned executable graphic displays in another section of the configuration database based on the manner in which the assigned executable graphic displays are associated with the indications of the one or more physical and logical process entities within the configuration database.

16. The method of claim 3, further including producing a configuration screen depicting the indications of the plurality of physical and logical process entities and the indications of the one or more executable graphic displays and producing an indication that one of the executable graphic displays needs to be downloaded to a display device within the process plant after the one of the executable graphic displays is associated with one of the physical and logical process entities.

17. The method of claim 3, further including storing one of the executable graphic displays according a role defined for the one of the executable graphic displays.

18. The method of claim 3, further including defining each of the one or more executable graphic displays to include visual depictions to be displayed on a display device when the executable graphic display is executed and to include bindings to one or more data sources within the process plant and including managing the visual depictions of the executable graphic displays separately from the bindings of the executable graphic displays.

19. A method of using executable graphic displays within a process environment, the method comprising:

creating one or more executable graphic displays to include one or more visual depictions and one or more parameters to be bound to data sources within the process plant;

storing a role for each of the one or more executable graphic displays;

assigning the one or more executable graphic displays to display devices according to the defined roles for the one or more executable graphic displays; and

downloading the one or more executable graphic displays according to the manner in which the one or more executable graphic displays are assigned to the display devices.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein storing a role for each of the executable graphic displays includes storing an operator interface role for one of the executable graphic displays.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein storing a role for each of the executable graphic displays includes storing a maintenance interface role for one of the executable graphic displays.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein storing a role for each of the executable graphic displays includes storing a simulation interface role for one of the executable graphic displays.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein assigning the one or more executable graphic displays to display devices including assigning the one or more executable graphic displays to one or more functional subsystems of the display devices according to the roles stored for the one or more executable graphic displays.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein assigning the one or more executable graphic displays to display devices including assigning the one or more executable graphic displays to a display device according to the equipment associated with that display device.