System and method for creating a graphical control programming environment

• US 9,058,029 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2011
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Radl, Brad
• Original Assignee: Radl, Brad
• Inventors: Radl, Brad
• Primary Examiner(s): Shechtman, Sean
• Assistant Examiner(s): STEVENS, THOMAS H
• Application Number:
  US13/076,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20120253479A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,538 Days
• Field of Search: 700/12, 700/18, 700/34, 700/103, 700/130, 702/25, 702/30, 702/31, 703/12
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/042 using digital processors G05B19/05 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23258 GUI graphical user interface, icon, function bloc editor, labview
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A system and method for generating modeling software for processing control, used in power plant control, cement plants or other industrial control applications, using models such as expert systems, fuzzy logic, genetic optimization algorithms, and neural networks to convert sensor data into actionable data, information and/or diagnostics. The present invention includes a graphical programming environment, graphical programming tools, graphical user interface (GUI), visual feedback, real-time refresh, run-time object swap, logic standby (safety recovery), modeling and optimization to allows a user to create a control system for an industrial process, and that allows the user to change the process without any manual compile, assemble or load steps other than a save and refresh pushbutton.

Claims

1. A method of generating a modeling system and supervisory control system for a real-time industrial control process comprising:

providing capability to define inputs from said real-time industrial control process;

providing capability to define control points into said real-time industrial control process;

providing capability to define a plurality of program threads in a modeling application driving said real-time industrial control process, each program thread defining a starting component of an associated logic stream and being assigned a sequence number representing an order in which the logic stream starts;

providing capability to define a plurality of models usable by said modeling application;

providing capability to use artificial intelligence tools in at least some of said plurality of models;

providing a plurality of programming objects capable of being graphically and operatively linked together by a user to form one or more logic streams having a user-defined operating flow, at least a portion of the programming objects being further capable of dynamically displaying intermediate and final results, each of said programming objects capable of being associated with any number of said plurality of program threads;

providing a user-selectable snapshot feature for recording a plurality of active variables at a given time in said real-time industrial control process;

providing capability to restore said real-time industrial control process based on the variables recorded in response to user-selection of said snapshot feature;

providing one or more user-selectable options to modify, save, and refresh a file, wherein user selection of the refresh option causes real-time updates to all logic and calculated values relating to that file on a next scheduled execution cycle, with resulting changes in control parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said real-time industrial process control is a power plant or cement plant.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing data links which permit any number and type of data links to be defined and used with said modeling application.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising allowing a plurality of modeling applications to run simultaneously.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising providing capability to independently start or stop each of said modeling applications.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling equipment at a cement mixing facility based on actual gas flow in the real-time industrial control process including controlling gas flow through raw mills, controlling tertiary air or primary air in coal pipes, bypass ducts, kiln exits or ball mills.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling equipment at a power plant facility based on air, fuel and other process parameters including temperatures and pressures for controlling oxides of nitrogen generated by a combustion process.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling equipment at a power plant facility based on air, fuel and other process parameters including temperatures and pressures for controlling LOI (Loss of Ignition) or CIA (Carbon in Ash) generated by a combustion process.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling equipment at a power plant facility based on air, fuel and other process parameters including temperatures and pressures for controlling generated carbon monoxide.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling equipment at a power plant facility based on air, fuel and other process parameters including temperatures and pressures for controlling emitted mercury species.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling equipment at a power plant facility based on air, fuel and other process parameters including temperatures and pressures for controlling heat loss and efficiency of a combustion process.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising controlling equipment at a power plant facility based on air, fuel and other process parameters including temperatures and pressures to control distribution or amount of parameters of oxygen, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, LOI, CIA and heat generated by a combustion process affecting performance of a Selective Catalytic Reduction system or a NonCatalytic Reduction System.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising the ability to control equipment at a power plant facility based on air, fuel and other process parameters including temperatures and pressures for purposes of controlling distribution and amount of one or more parameters of oxygen, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, LOI, CIA and heat generated by a combustion process as it interacts with S02 injection to affect performance of a precipitator.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising an ability to control equipment at a power plant facility based on air, fuel and other process parameter for purposes of controlling distribution and amount of one or more parameters of oxygen, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, LOI, CIA and heat (temperature and pressure distribution) generated by a combustion process as it impacts effectiveness of dust/ash collection of a baghouse and aging/deterioration rate of material in bag house collectors.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising an ability to control equipment at a power plant facility based on time between blowing events and duration of blowing events of water and/or steam injection and/or air injection from sootblowers including water injection temperature, air injection temperature, water injection pressure, air injection pressure for purposes of cleaning a boiler surface along with a path or surface designated to be cleaned with resulting impact on combustion products including carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, LOI, CIA and heat distribution.

16. The method of claim 1 comprising an ability to control equipment at a power plant facility that permits blending of fuel to optimize resulting emission profiles for NOx, CO, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, LOI, CIA.

17. A method of generating a modeling system and real-time supervisory control system for a power plant with a combustion process comprising:

providing capability to define inputs from said power plant including temperatures and pressures as well as oxides of nitrogen;

providing capability to define control points into said combustion process;

providing capability to define a plurality of program threads in a modeling application driving said combustion process, each program thread defining a starting component of an associated logic stream and being assigned a sequence number representing an order in which the logic stream starts;

providing capability to define a plurality of models usable by said modeling application;

providing capability to use artificial intelligence tools in at least some of said plurality of models;

providing plurality of programming objects capable of being graphically and operatively linked together to form one or more logic streams having a user-defined operating flow, the programming objects being further capable of dynamically displaying intermediate and final results, each of said programming objects capable of being associated with any number of said plurality of program threads;

providing a user-selectable snapshot feature for recording a plurality of active variables at a given time in said real-time supervisory control system;

providing capability to restore said real-time supervisory control system based on the variables recorded in response to user-selection of said snapshot feature;

providing one or more user-selectable options to modify, save, and refresh a file, wherein user selection of the refresh option causes real-time updates to all logic and calculated values relating to that file on a next scheduled execution cycle, with resulting changes in control parameters to said combustion process.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said inputs also include oxygen, carbon monoxide, LOI, CIA and heat.