Physical presence verification by an industrial control system controller

• US 9,645,566 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2013
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Mohan, Apurva, Khurana, Himanshu
• Primary Examiner(s): Laughlin, Nathan L
• Application Number:
  US14/086,685
• Publication Number:
  US 20150142138A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,265 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/048 Monitoring; Safety
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24168 Identify connected programmer to allow control, program entry

Abstract

Physical presence verification by an industrial control system controller is described herein. One industrial control system controller includes a mechanism configured to verify that a user of the industrial control system controller is physically present at a location of the controller, a memory, and a processor configured to execute executable instructions stored in the memory to permit the user to perform industrial control operations using the controller only if the user is physically present at the location of the controller.

Claims

1. An industrial control system controller, comprising:

a mechanism configured to verify that a user of the industrial control system controller is physically present at a location of the controller;

a memory; and

a processor configured to execute executable instructions stored in the memory to;

permit the user to perform safety critical industrial control operations on a plurality of physical components of an industrial control system that are to be performed using the controller only if the user is physically present at the location of the controller; and

permit the user to perform additional non-safety critical industrial control operations on the plurality of physical components of the industrial control system that may be performed using the controller regardless of whether any user is physically present at the location of the controller at any time while the additional industrial control operations are being performed, wherein the determination of whether the industrial control operations are safety critical or non-safety critical is made by performing a fault tree analysis on the operations.

2. The controller of claim 1, wherein the fault tree analysis analyzes operations that can cause safety incidents.

3. The controller of claim 1, wherein fault tree is condensed to build the minimum set of non-repetitive industrial control operations that can result in safety incidents.

4. The controller of claim 1, wherein the mechanism is a button.

5. The controller of claim 1, wherein the mechanism is a switch.

6. The controller of claim 1, wherein the mechanism is a biometric scanner.

7. The controller of claim 1, wherein the mechanism is a fingerprint scanner.

8. The controller of claim 1, wherein the mechanism is an interface configured to receive a password from the user.

9. A method of operating an industrial control system controller, comprising:

verifying, by the industrial control system controller, that a user of the controller is physically present at a location of the controller;

preventing, by the controller, the user from performing safety critical industrial control operations on a plurality of physical components of an industrial control system that are to be performed only if the user is physically present at the location of the controller using the controller if the user is not physically present at the location of the controller; and

permitting, by the controller, the user to perform additional non-safety critical industrial control operations on the plurality of physical components of the industrial control system that may be performed using the controller regardless of whether any user is physically present at the location of the controller at any time while the additional industrial control operations are being performed, wherein the determination of whether the industrial control operations are safety critical or non-safety critical is made by performing a fault tree analysis on the operations.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the method includes permitting, by the controller, the user to perform the industrial control operations using the controller if the user is physically present at the location of the controller.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the method includes identifying the industrial control operations before the user attempts to use the controller to perform the industrial control operations.

12. An industrial control system, comprising:

a number of controllers, wherein;

each of the number of controllers includes a mechanism configured to verify that a user of that respective controller is physically present at a location of that respective controller;

one of the number of controllers is configured to permit the user to perform safety critical industrial control operations on a plurality of physical components of the industrial control system that are to be performed only if the user is physically present at the location of the controller using that one controller only if the user is physically present at the location of that one controller; and

one of the number of controllers is configured to permit the user to perform non-safety critical industrial control operations on a plurality of physical components of the industrial control system that may be performed using that one controller regardless of whether any user is physically present at the location of that one controller at any time while the non-safety critical industrial control operations are being performed, wherein the determination of whether the industrial control operations are safety critical or non-safety critical is made by performing a fault tree analysis on the operations.

13. The industrial control system of claim 12, wherein:

the safety critical industrial control operations include operations that could result in loss of life, injury, property damage, or environmental damage; and

the non-safety critical industrial control operations include operations that would not result in loss of life, injury, property damage, or environmental damage.

14. The industrial control system of claim 12, wherein one of the number of controllers is configured to permit the user to perform both safety critical and non-safety critical industrial control operations on a particular physical component of the industrial control system.

15. The industrial control system of claim 12, wherein one of the number of controllers is configured to permit the user to perform only safety critical industrial control operations on a particular physical component of the industrial control system.

16. The industrial control system of claim 12, wherein one of the number of controllers is configured to permit the user to perform industrial control operations on a single physical component of the industrial control system.

17. The industrial control system of claim 12, wherein at least two of the number of controllers are at a same location.

18. The industrial control system of claim 12, wherein at least two of the number of controllers are at different locations.