Distributed industrial performance monitoring and analytics platform

• US 10,386,827 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2016
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Enver, Alper Turhan, Nixon, Mark John, Bell, Noel Howard, Kidd, Joshua Brian, Muston, Paul R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fennema, Robert E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Monty, Marzia T
• Application Number:
  US15/274,207
• Publication Number:
  US 20170102694A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0428 Safety, monitoring G05B19/0423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/418 Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] or computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4184 characterised by fault tolerance, reliability of production system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41865 characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41875 characterised by quality surveillance of production
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31343 Design of factory, manufacturing system control
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31395 Process management, specification, process and production data, middle level
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32191 Real time statistical process monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/12 Usage or charge determination
• 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 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

A system for monitoring and analyzing data in a distributed process control system is provided. The system includes a user interface having a set of user controls for selecting and configuring data blocks to create a data diagram representing a data model. The data blocks are associated with data operations, such as data analytics functions, and may be configured by the user for particular instances of general blocks. The data blocks are interconnected by wires conveying outputs or inputs of the blocks, which may also connect data sources to the data blocks. The data sources may include on-line data (i.e., data streams) or off-line data (i.e., stored data) from the process control system. Additional user controls may be used to evaluate the data diagram or convert the data diagram from an off-line to an on-line version.

Claims

1. A performance monitoring and analytics system for industrial process control, the system comprising:

a platform including;

a canvas;

a graphical user interface via which a user is able to graphically create a data diagram on the canvas of a data model by graphically arranging on the canvas a set of graphically depicted data blocks and graphically depicted interconnections to form the graphical data diagram of the data model; and

a compiler to compile the data diagram to execute on an input data set to generate output data, the input data set comprising time-series data resulting from an on-line process plant controlling a process,

wherein;

the data diagram comprises the set of data blocks interconnected by the interconnections via which data is transferred between data blocks;

each data block of the set of data blocks corresponds to a respective data operation and includes an input connector via which respective input data is received at the data block and at least one output connector providing respective output data resulting from the data block performing a respective data operation on the respective input data;

the input data set is received at the input connector of a first data block of the set of data blocks,

the respective data operation of at least one data block of the set of data blocks includes a data analytic function, and

a first portion of the data diagram including a data block of the set of data blocks is asynchronously and separately compilable and executable apart from a second portion of the data diagram including another data block of the set of data blocks.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each data block is asynchronously and separately compilable apart from each other data bock of the set of data blocks.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the output data generated by the data model comprises at least one value that is descriptive or characteristic of the input data set.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the output data generated by the data model comprises at least one predictive value.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the at least one predictive value is indicative of at least one of:

a predicted level of performance of at least a portion of the on-line process plant, is indicative of a predicted fault or failure of at least a portion of the on-line process plant, or is indicative of a predicted interval of time.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the output data generated by the data model comprises at least one value that is prescriptive and corresponds to a change to the on-line process plant, wherein the change to the on-line process plant comprises a change to at least one of:

a set point, a value, a control loop, a configuration, a process model, a connection, a component, or a piece of equipment.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface includes a first user control to access a data block definition library storing a plurality of data block definitions corresponding to a plurality of data operations, and wherein each of one or more of the data blocks of the set of data blocks of the data diagram is a particular instance of a particular data block definition stored in the data block definition library.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the particular instance of the particular data block definition comprises an assigned name or identity of the particular instance.

9. The system of claim 7, where the particular instance of the particular data block definition comprises a user modification to a value of a property of the particular data block definition.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface includes a first user control to access a data block definition library storing a plurality of data block definitions corresponding to a plurality of data operations, and wherein each of at least some of the data block definitions stored in the data block definition library includes one or more respective properties.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein a value of at least one of the one or more respective properties is a default value.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein one or more of the one or more respective properties is an optional property.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein a first user control of the graphical user interface, when activated, causes an evaluation of at least a part of the data diagram.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least the part of the data diagram is selected by the user.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the evaluation of the at least the part of the data diagram comprises a compilation of the at least the part of the data diagram and an execution of the compilation of the at least the part of the data diagram.

16. The system of claim 1,

wherein the set of data blocks of the data diagram comprises one or more of the following:

a data source data block, a filter data block, a transformers data block, a visualizations data block, a data consumer data block, or another type of data block; and

wherein at least one of;

the respective data operation of the data source data block corresponds to obtaining the input data set;

the respective data operation of the filter data block comprises filtering the respective input data of the filter data block;

the respective data operation of the transformers data block comprises at least one of;

cleaning the respective input data of the transformers data block, manipulating contents of the respective input data of the transformers data block, aligning the contents of the respective input data of the transformers data block, or performing one or more analytic techniques on the respective input data of the transformers data block;

the respective data operation of the visualizations data block comprises presenting a particular visual representation of the respective input data of the visualizations data block on the graphical user interface of the platform;

or

the respective data operation of the data consumer data block comprises performing an action on the output data of the data model, the action corresponding to a consumer of the output data of the data model.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the consumer of the output data of the data model comprises at least one of:

an analytics application, another type of application, a distributed data engine (DDE), a data historian, a file, a database, the graphical user interface of the platform, or another user interface.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein:

the another type of data block comprises an explore data block;

the explore data block includes a first input connector to receive a predicted value from a first other data block and a second input connector to receive an actual value from a second other data block; and

the respective operation performed by the explore data block comprises a comparison of the predicted value and the actual value.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one interconnect of the interconnects of the data diagram connects a respective data block to an off-line data source in which the time-series data is stored, the off-line data source comprises at least one of:

a file, a process control database, and analytics database, or another type of database.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein each data block of the data diagram includes an indication of a respective block state of the respective data block, an indication of an identity of the respective data block, and an indication of a result of an evaluation of the respective data block, and wherein the evaluation of the respective data block comprises a compilation of the respective data block and an execution of the compilation of the respective data block.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the indication of the result of the evaluation of at least one data block of the set of data blocks comprises one or more graphical visualizations.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the indication of the result of the evaluation of at least one data block of the set of data blocks comprises a respective set of computed statistics.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein each data block of the data diagram performs a time alignment of respective received input data of the respective data block.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the respective output data provided by each data block of the data diagram includes at least one of:

a single data value, a set of data values, or another data diagram.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the data diagram is an off-line data diagram, and

a first user control of the graphical user interface, when activated, causes a transformation of the off-line data diagram of the data model into an on-line data diagram of the data model, the on-line data diagram of the data model configured to communicatively connect to the on-line process plant.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein another set of data blocks and additional interconnects of the on-line data diagram are different from the set of data blocks and the interconnects of the off-line data diagram.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein:

an activation of a second user control of the graphical user interface causes a deployment of the on-line data diagram, and

the deployment of the on-line data diagram comprises a compilation of the on-line data diagram and an execution of the compilation of the on-line data diagram to generate an on-line data analytics module of the data model.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the on-line data analytics module is executed by one or more distributed data engines (DDEs) of a plurality of DDEs of a data analytics network of the on-line process plant.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the configuration of the on-line data diagram to communicatively connect to the on-line process plant comprises a binding of the on-line data diagram to a live data source that generates the time-series data resulting from the on-line process plant controlling the process.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the platform automatically binds the on-line data diagram to the live data source.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the on-line data diagram is bound to the live data source based upon an activation of a second user control of the graphical user interface.

32. The system of claim 29, wherein the live data source is a process control device operating to control the process.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the process control device operates to control the process by receiving an input signal, determining an output signal based on the received input signal, and transmitting the output signal over a process control communication network to another process control device.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein the process control device operates to control the process by receiving an input signal and performing a physical function corresponding to a flow of the on-line process plant based on the received input signal.

35. The system of claim 29, wherein the time-series data generated by the live data source comprises a continuous data stream that is continuously received at an on-line data analytics module in real-time via a data analytics network of the on-line process plant, the on-line data analytics module generated from a compilation of the on-line data diagram of the data model.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the data analytics network is overlaid over all process control communication networks of the on-line process plant.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the continuous data stream is continuously received at the on-line data analytics module from a distributed data engine (DDE) of a plurality of DDEs of the data analytics network.

38. The system of claim 35, wherein the on-line data analytics module continuously performs, in real-time, one or more analytics functions on the continuously received data stream, and generates, in real-time, a continuous output.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the continuous output generated by the on-line data analytics module comprises one or more predictive values.

40. The system of claim 38, wherein the continuous output generated by the on-line data analytics module is displayed in real-time on the graphical user interface as a graphical visualization.

41. The system of claim 38, wherein the continuous output generated by the on-line data analytics module is displayed in real-time on the graphical user interface in conjunction with a stream of actual values.

42. The system of claim 38, wherein an indication of an accuracy of the data model is displayed on the graphical user interface in conjunction with the continuous output of the on-line data analytics module corresponding to the data model, and wherein the accuracy of the data model is based on a comparison of the continuous output of the on-line data analytics module and one or more actual values generated by the on-line process plant.

43. The system of claim 38, wherein the one or more analytics functions performed on the continuous data stream comprise a predictive analytics function or a prescriptive analytics function.

44. The system of claim 38, wherein the continuously received data stream is cleaned prior to the on-line data analytics module performing the one or more analytics functions thereon.

45. The system of claim 38, wherein at least some of the contents of the continuously received data stream are manipulated prior to the on-line data analytics module performing the one or more analytics functions thereon.

46. The system of claim 38, wherein the on-line data analytics module continuously performs, in real-time, the one or more analytics functions on the continuously received data stream and another data stream, and wherein the another data stream is generated by at least one other data source as a result of the on-line process plant controlling the process.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein the online data analytics module time-aligns the continuously received data stream and the another data stream.

48. The system of claim 35, wherein the continuous data stream is a selected data stream based on a user selection.

49. The system of claim 35, wherein the continuous data stream is generated based on a query issued by the on-line data analytics module indicating one or more particular portions of data that is generated in real-time by the live data source and that is to be included in the continuous data stream.