Services portal

• US 7,328,078 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2003
• Issued: 02/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Systems USA, Inc. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Invensys Systems Incorporated (Invensys PLC)
• Inventors: Culverhouse, Martin, Russell, Melanie, Barr, Russell, Martin, Peter, Bather, Robert, Sanford, Fred, Hasselbaum, Robert, Sikora, Walter
• Primary Examiner(s): Jarrett; Ryan A
• Application Number:
  US10/680,411
• Publication Number:
  US 20040186603A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,581 Days
• Field of Search: 700/108, 700/109, 702/81, 702/84, 702/182, 702/188, 709/217
• US Class Current: 700/108
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31457 Factory remote control, monitoring through internet
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2223/06 Remote monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0245 based on a qualitative model, e.g. rule based; if-then decisions
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0264 Control of logging system, e.g. decision on which data to store; time-stamping measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

An apparatus for monitoring performance of an industrial process includes a service portal for collecting, transmitting and analyzing parameter data from process field devices that includes a network connection that connects to a process control system of the industrial process, a remote collector that collects parameter data from process field devices, a processor that identifies, sorts, and stores the collected parameter data and a communications module for transmitting the stored parameter data to a remote monitoring station for analysis.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring performance of an industrial process comprising:

a block manager operable to configure a block processor and application objects; and

a service portal configured to communicate with the block manager, and to collect, transmit, and analyze parameter data from a process field device, the service portal comprising;

a network connection configured to connect the service portal to the process field device and a process control device of the industrial process, the process control device being associated with the process field device;

a remote collector configured to collect the application objects from the process field device and the block processor of the process control device using control blocks, the application objects including real-time and archived parameter data from the process field device;

a processor configured to perform a real-time loop analysis of the industrial process using the collected application objects;

a historian database configured to store the collected application objects;

a communications module configured to transmit the stored application objects to a remote monitoring station; and

a block configurator configured to;

save block types to a block database,

generate an application object file from the saved block types,

control the block manager to transfer the application object file to the block processor, and

control the block processor to create the application objects from the application object files.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the network connection is a wireless network connection.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the network connection is an optical network connection.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the network connection is a radio frequency network.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the process control device comprises a workstation.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor performs simple analysis of the parameter data.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor performs trends analysis of the parameter data.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor performs statistical analysis of the parameter data.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor models the parameter data.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor develops a simulation of the industrial process.

11. A system for monitoring performance of an industrial process comprising:

block manager operable to configure a block processor and application objects; and

at least one process control device for monitoring and controlling process field devices, the at least one process control device further comprising the block processor, the application objects and data probes associated with the application objects;

a process field operatively communicated with the at least one process control device; and

a service portal configured to communicate with the block manager, and to collect, transmit, and analyze parameter data from the process field device, the service portal comprising;

a network connection configured to connect the service portal to the process field device and the at least one process control device of the industrial process;

a remote collector configured to collect application objects from the process field device and the block processor using control blocks, the application objects including real-time and archived parameter data from the process field device;

a processor configured to perform a real-time loop analysis of the industrial process using the collected application objects;

a historian database configured to store the collected application objects;

a communications module configured to transmit the stored application objects to a remote monitoring station; and

a block configurator configured to;

save block types to a block database,

generate an application object file from the saved block types,

control the block manager to transfer of the application object file to the block processor, and

control the block processor to create the application objects from the application object files.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the network connection is a wireless network connection.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the network connection is an optical network connection.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the network connection is a radio frequency network.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the at least one process control device comprises a workstation.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the processor performs at least one of the group consisting of simple analysis of the parameter data;

trends analysis of the parameter data;

statistical analysis of the parameter data;

modeling of the parameter data; and

a simulation development of the industrial process.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein the at least one process control device comprises a host workstation and at least two local workstations operatively connected to respective process field devices.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the host workstation comprises the block manager, the block manager further operable to transfer the application object files to respective block processors of each local workstation.