Configurable User Displays in a Process Control System

• US 20140108985A1
• Filed: 10/08/2013
• Published: 04/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Scott, Cindy Alsup, Del Guzzi, Deeann Gates, Hammack, Stephen Gerard, Jundt, Larry Oscar, Firkins, Molly Marie, Daly, Paul Kenneth, Lai, Hoa Van
• Granted Patent: US 10,444,949 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/771
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4188 characterised by CIM planning or realisation
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25067 Graphic configuration control system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31418 NC program management, support, storage, distribution, version, update
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31467 Display of operating conditions of machines, workcells, selected programs
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31472 Graphical display of process
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32128 Gui graphical user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A display configuration system enables plant operators to create their own process displays called dashboards during run-time of the plant and in the same interface that these operators use to view operation of the process plant. This display configuration system makes the operators more productive because the operators can quickly create and implement their own specialized dashboards, as these operators determine these dashboards are needed. Each dashboard has a defined layout specifying locations or regions at which display elements can be shown in the dashboard, and this layout is operator modifiable. Operators can easily create content on their own dashboards using predefined but configurable display building blocks called gadgets, which can be pre-stored in a library and can be made available for the operator during dashboard creation activities. A gadget can be dragged and dropped onto a dashboard at one of the regions or locations of the dashboard to be installed in that region or location of the dashboard. The display configuration system may automatically size the gadgets based on the selected dashboard layout, and operators can modify an existing dashboard by adding, modifying, moving, minimizing or deleting gadgets on the dashboard.

Claims

1. A user display system, comprising:

a first library stored on a tangible computer readable medium that executes using one or more computer processors to store one or more executable graphical elements, each executable graphical element including informational indicia and links to data within a process control system to be displayed using the informational indicia;

a second library stored on a tangible computer-readable medium that executes using one or more computer processors to store one or more executable user interface display forms, at least one of the executable user interface display forms defining a display region for a user display device and one or more sub-regions within the display region, each of the one or more sub-regions being associated with a different executable graphical element that is to be used to present information within the sub-region, each executable user interface display form including a link between each of the one or more of the sub-regions and a corresponding one of the executable graphical elements; and

a user display execution routine stored on a tangible computer readable medium that executes on one or more processors to present visual information on a user display device using one of the executable user interface display forms and one or more of the executable graphical elements.

2. The user display system of claim 1, wherein the one of the executable user interface display forms includes a fixed region in the display region not associated with any executable graphical elements, wherein the executable user interface display form includes fixed informational indicia and fixed links to process control data to be presented in the fixed display region during runtime of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

3. The user display system of claim 2, wherein the fixed informational indicia includes a piping and instrument diagram for a portion of a process.

4. The user display system of claim 1, wherein the one of the executable user interface display forms is configurable, so that different executable graphical elements may be associated one of the sub-regions during runtime of the executable user interface display form.

5. The user display system of claim 1, wherein the one of the executable user interface display forms is configurable so that a user may cause one of the executable graphic elements associated with a first one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms to be associated with a second one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

6. The user display system of claim 1, wherein the one of the executable user interface display forms is configurable so that a user may change the location or number of one or more of the sub-regions associated with the display region.

7. The user display system of claim 1, wherein the informational indicia of at least one of the executable graphical elements includes a piping and instrument diagram for a portion of a process.

8. The user display system of claim 1, wherein the informational indicia of at least one of the executable graphical elements includes a graph.

9. The user display system of claim 1, wherein the informational indicia of at least one of the executable graphical elements includes a trend graph and the link to data within a process control system includes a link to process data being trended in the trend graph.

10. The user display system of claim 1, wherein the one of the user interface display forms is configurable to enable sub-regions on the user interface display form to be changed in size.

11. The user display system of claim 1, further including an executable graphical element creation routine stored on a tangible computer-readable medium that executes on one or more processors to enable a user to create or alter one or more of the executable graphical elements and to store the created or altered one or more of the executable graphical elements in the computer readable medium of the first library as new executable graphical elements.

12. The user display system of claim 1, wherein one of the executable graphical elements may be associated with one of the sub-regions by dragging an indication of the executable graphical element to an indication of the sub-region on a user interface display form as displayed on a user display device.

13. The user display system of claim 1, further including a display routine stored on a tangible computer readable medium and that executes on a computer processor to present one or more folders including references to one or more of the executable user interface display forms as stored in the second library in an organized manner.

14. The user display system of claim 13, wherein one of the one or more folders stores references to executable user interface display forms associated with a particular user.

15. The user display system of claim 13, wherein one of the one or more folders stores references to executable user interface display forms associated with a particular region of a process plant.

16. The user display system of claim 13, wherein one of the one or more folders stores references to executable user interface display forms associated with a particular task.

17. The user display system of claim 13, wherein one of the one or more folders stores references to executable user interface display forms accessible by multiple users.

18. The user display system of claim 13, wherein one of the one or more folders stores references to executable user interface display forms associated with a particular user and accessible only via security procedures implemented for the particular user.

19. A user display configuration system, comprising:

a first library stored on a tangible computer readable medium that includes one or more executable graphical elements, each executable graphical element including informational indicia to be presented as part of a user interface and one or more links to data within a process control system related to the informational indicia to be used to obtain data to be displayed using the informational indicia;

a second library stored on a tangible computer-readable medium that stores one or more executable user interface displays forms, at least one of the executable user interface display forms defining a display region for a user display device and one or more sub-regions within the display region, each of the one or more sub-regions capable of being associated with a different executable graphical element that is to be used to present information within the display sub-region, each of the one or more executable user interface display forms including a link between each of the one or more of the sub-regions of that executable user interface form and an executable graphical element; and

a configuration engine stored on a tangible computer-readable medium that executes on one or more processors to enable a user, during execution of the one of the executable user interface display forms, to alter the configuration of the one of the executable user interface display forms with respect to the manner in which one or more of the executable graphical elements are used during runtime of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

20. The user display configuration system of claim 19, wherein the configuration engine enables a user to specify a link between one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms and one of the executable graphical display elements, to have the one of the executable graphical display elements execute to display information in the one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

21. The user display configuration system of claim 20, wherein the configuration engine enables a user to specify a link between one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms and one of the executable graphical display elements by enabling the user to drag an indication of the one of the executable graphical display elements to a region on a user display associated with the one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms and to drop the indication of the one of the executable graphical display element at the region on the user display associated with the one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms, to thereby create a link between the one of the executable graphical elements and the one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

22. The user display configuration system of claim 19, wherein the configuration engine enables a user to specify the number of sub-regions associated with the display region of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

23. The user display configuration system of claim 19, wherein the configuration engine enables a user to specify a location of at least one of the sub-regions within the display region of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

24. The user display configuration system of claim 19, wherein the configuration engine enables a user to specify the size of at least one of the sub-regions within the display region of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

25. The user display configuration system of claim 19, wherein the configuration engine enables a user to configure one of the executable graphical elements.

26. The user display configuration system of claim 25, wherein the configuration engine enables a user to configure the one of the executable graphical elements by specifying the one or more links to data within the process control system to be used by the one of the executable graphical elements.

27. The user display configuration system of claim 25, wherein the configuration engine enables a user to configure the one of the executable graphical elements by specifying the informational indicia to be used by the one of the executable graphical elements.

28. The user display configuration system of claim 19, wherein the configuration system associates one or more of the executable graphical elements with one of the sub-regions so that a visual display created by the one or more executable graphical elements is automatically sized to fit within the one of the sub-regions.

29. The user display configuration system of claim 19, wherein the configuration engine stores an executable user interface display form that has been configured by a user in the second library as a new executable user interface form.

30. The user display configuration system of claim 29, wherein the configuration engine stores the executable user interface display form that has been configured by a user in the second library as being associated with the user to enable the executable user interface display form that has been configured by the user to be organized and viewable to the user in one or more user folders associated with the user.

31. The user display configuration system of claim 29, wherein the configuration engine stores the executable user interface display form that has been configured by the user in the second library as being associated with multiple different users, to enable the executable user interface display form that has been configured by the user to be organized and viewable to multiple different users in one or more folders accessible by the multiple different users.

32. The user display configuration system of claim 29, wherein the configuration engine stores the executable user interface display form that has been configured by the user in the second library as an executable user interface display form that is configurable by other users.

33. The user display configuration system of claim 29, wherein the configuration engine stores the executable user interface display form that has been configured by the user in the second library as an executable user interface display form as a system display that is not configurable by other users.

34. A user display system for use in a process plant that includes process control devices connected to control a process, comprising:

a user interface device including a processor;

a first library database implemented on a tangible computer readable medium that includes one or more executable graphical elements, each executable graphical element including informational indicia to be presented as part of a user interface and one or more links to data within a process control system related to the informational indicia to be used to obtain data to be displayed using the informational indicia;

a second library database stored on a tangible computer-readable medium that stores one or more executable user interface displays forms, at least one of the executable user interface display forms defining a display region for a user display device and one or more sub-regions within the display region, each of the one or more sub-regions capable of being associated with a different executable graphical element that is to be used to present information within the display sub-region, each of the one or more executable user interface display forms including a link between each of the one or more of the sub-regions of that executable user interface form and an executable graphical element; and

a user display engine stored on a tangible computer-readable medium that executes on a processor communicatively coupled to the user interface device, to the first and second libraries and to one or more of the process control devices, to execute one of the executable user interface display forms to present a display to the user using the one of the executable user interface display forms and to enable a user at the user interface device, during execution of the one of the executable user interface display forms, to alter the one of the executable user interface display forms with respect to the manner in which one or more of the executable graphical elements are used during runtime of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

35. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine enables a user to specify a link between one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms and one of the executable graphical display elements, the link indicating the one of the executable graphical display elements that will execute to display information in the one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

36. The user display system of claim 35, wherein the user display engine enables a user to specify a link between one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms and one of the executable graphical display elements by enabling the user to drag an indication of the one of the executable graphical display elements to a region on the user display device associated with the one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms and to drop the indication of the one of the executable graphical display elements on the user display device associated with the one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms, to thereby create the link between the one of the executable graphical elements and the one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

37. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine enables a user to specify the number of sub-regions associated with the display region of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

38. The user display system of claim 37, wherein the user display engine enables a user to specify a location of at least one of the sub-regions within the display region of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

39. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine enables a user to configure one of the executable graphical elements by specifying the one or more links to data within the process control system to be used by the one of the executable graphical elements.

40. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine enables a user to configure the one of the executable graphical elements by specifying the informational indicia to be used by one of the executable graphical elements.

41. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine implements one or more of the executable graphical elements within one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable interface user interface display forms during runtime execution of the one of the executable user interface display forms so that a visual display created by the one or more executable graphical elements is automatically sized to fit within the one of the sub-regions of the one of the executable user interface display forms when the one of the executable display forms is executed by the user display engine.

42. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine stores an executable user interface display form, that has been configured by a user, in the second library in a manner as being associated with the user to enable the executable user interface display form that has been configured by the user to be organized and viewable to the user in one or more user folders associated with the user.

43. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine stores the executable user interface display form, that has been configured by the user, in the second library as being associated with multiple different users, to enable the executable user interface display form that has been configured by the user to be organized and viewable to multiple different users in one or more folders accessible by the multiple different users.

44. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine stores the executable user interface display form, that has been configured by the user, in the second library as being associated with a task, to enable the executable user interface display form that has been configured by the user to be organized and viewable to multiple different users in one or more folders associated with the task.

45. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine stores the executable user interface display form, that has been configured by the user, in the second library as being associated with particular process control devices, to enable the executable user interface display form that has been configured by the user to be organized and viewable to multiple different users in one or more folders associated with the particular process control devices.

46. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine is executed in a computer device communicatively connected to the user interface device.

47. The user display system of claim 46, wherein the user display engine is executed in a computer device communicatively connected to the user interface device via a communication network having a firewall device disposed between the computer device and the user interface device.

48. The user display system of claim 46, wherein the user display engine is executed in a computer device communicatively connected to the user interface device via a communication network and communicates with the user interface device via a web browser.

49. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the user display engine is executed on the processor of the user interface device.

50. The user display system of claim 34, wherein the one of the executable user interface forms enables a user to change the operation of the process control devices via interaction with the one of the executable user interface display forms during runtime of the one of the executable user interface display forms to effect the product produced by the process control devices.

51. The user display system of claim 50, wherein the one of the executable user interface display forms includes a fixed region in the display region not associated with any executable graphical elements, wherein the executable user interface display form includes fixed informational indicia and fixed links to process data generated by the process control devices within the process plant to be presented in the fixed display region during runtime of the one of the executable user interface display forms.

52. The user display system of claim 51, wherein the fixed informational indicia includes a piping and instrument diagram for a portion of the process plant.