Methods and apparatus to configure a process control system using an electronic description language script

• US 9,354,629 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2009
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Balentine, James Randall, Law, Gary Keith, Nixon, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam, Tuan Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wei, Zheng
• Application Number:
  US12/389,026
• Publication Number:
  US 20100211197A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,658 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41845 characterised by system universality, reconfigurability, modularity
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31334 Database with devices, configuration, of plant
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32142 Define device, module description using xml format file
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

Example methods and apparatus to configure a process control system using an electronic description language (EDL) script are disclosed. A disclosed example method comprises loading a first script representative of a process plant, the first script comprising an interpretive system-level script structured in accordance with an electronic description language, and compiling the first script to form a second script, the second script structured in accordance with a vendor-specific configuration language associated with a particular process control system for the process plant.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

loading an interpretable system-level vendor-independent first script defining a physical topology and control of a process control system including multiple process controllers and process control devices, the first script including tokens that have a type and value to define attributes of the multiple process controllers and process control devices, the topology representing physical communicative couplings between the multiple process controllers and the process control devices; and

compiling the first script to form a second script with vendor-specific configuration language by identifying one or more lexemes contained in the first script, identifying the tokens contained in the first script based on the identified one or more lexemes, identifying one or more first expressions based on grammatical relationships between the identified tokens, identifying vendor-specific information associated with the process control system from a device database associated with the process control system, and forming the second script based on the identified one or more first expressions and the identified vendor-specific information, to configure the multiple process controllers and process control devices for control.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first script is to be compiled to form a third script structured in accordance with a second vendor-specific configuration language associated with a second process control system.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first script is constructed in accordance with an extensible markup language.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising importing the second script into a process control system configuration database associated with the process control system.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

generating a process control system operation database based on the second script; and

configuring the process control system based on the operation database.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first script defines a process controller, a process control element, an input/output gateway, an input/output card of the input/output gateway, a first communication path between the process controller and the input/output gateway, and a second communication path between the input/output card of the input/output gateway and the process control element.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein a first of the physical communicative couplings comprises at least one of a wired or a wireless communication path.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the tokens include classifiable lexemes comprising at least one of a string of letters, a string of numbers, a punctuation mark, a mathematical operator, or any combination thereof, and the vendor-specific information includes vendor-specific configuration language expressions corresponding to the first expressions.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing machine-readable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to implement;

an editor useable to create a first script defining a physical topology and control of a process control system including multiple process controllers and process control devices, the first script including tokens that have a type and value to define attributes of the multiple process controllers and process control devices, the topology representing physical communicative couplings between the multiple process controllers and the process control devices, the first script comprising an interpretable system-level vendor-independent schema; and

a compiler including;

a parser to identify one or more first expressions based on grammatical relationships between the tokens contained in the first script; and

an interpreter to;

retrieve vendor-specific information associated with the process control system from a device database associated with the process control system; and

form a second script based on the identified one or more first expressions and the retrieved vendor-specific information, the second script to configure the multiple process controllers and process control devices and structured in accordance with a first vendor-specific configuration language associated with the process control system.

10. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the first script is to be compiled to form a third script, the third script structured in accordance with a second vendor-specific configuration language associated with a second process control system.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the first script is constructed in accordance with an extensible markup language.

12. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

a database populator to populate a process control system configuration database based on the second script; and

a database server to configure the process control system based on the process control system configuration database.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the first script defines a process controller, a process control element, a input/output gateway, an input/output card of the input/output gateway, a first communication path between the process controller and the input/output gateway, and a second communication path between the input/output card of the input/output gateway and the process control element.

14. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein a first of the physical communicative couplings comprises at least one of a wired or a wireless communication path.

15. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the tokens include classifiable lexemes including at least one of a string of letters, a string of numbers, a punctuation mark, a mathematical operator, or any combination thereof, and the vendor-specific information includes vendor-specific configuration language expressions corresponding to the first expressions.

16. A tangible article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable memory or storage disk storing machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to:

load a first script defining physical interconnections and control of process control devices, power supplies, and network components of a process control system, the first script comprising an interpretable system-level vendor-independent schema including tokens that have a type and value to define attributes of the process control devices, power supplies, and network components of the process control system; and

compile the first script to form a second script by identifying one or more first expressions based on the tokens in the first script, identifying vendor-specific information associated with the process control system from a device database, the device database including vendor-specific information associated with the process control devices, power supplies, and network components of the process control system, and forming the second script based on the identified one or more first expressions and the identified vendor-specific information, the second script structured in accordance with a vendor-specific configuration language associated with the process control system to configure the process control devices, power supplies, and network components of the process control system.

17. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 16, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to compile the first script to form a third script structured in accordance with a second vendor-specific configuration language associated with a second process control system.

18. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 16, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to import the second script into a process control system configuration database associated with the process control system.

19. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 16, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to:

generate a process control system operation database based on the second script; and

configure the process control system based on the operation database.

20. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 16, wherein the first script defines a process controller, a process control element, a input/output gateway, an input/output card of the input/output gateway, a first communication path between the process controller and the input/output gateway, and a second communication path between the input/output card of the input/output gateway and the process control element.

21. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 16, wherein a first of the physical interconnections comprises at least one of a wired or a wireless communication path.

22. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 16, wherein the first expressions include at least one of a string of letters, a string of numbers, a punctuation mark, a mathematical operator, a value, a type, or any combination thereof, and the vendor-specific information includes vendor-specific configuration language expressions corresponding to the first expressions.