Fisher-rosemount Systems, Inc

Gary Keith Law

Mark J Nixon

Godfrey Roland Sherriff

Kent Allan Burr

Anthony Amaro, Jr

John Mark Caldwell

Noel Howard Bell

Julian Kevin Naidoo

Sergio Diaz

Larry Oscar Jundt

Michael George Ott

David R Denison

Claudio Fayad

Brandon Hieb

Deborah R Colclazier

Daniel R Strinden

Neil J Peterson

Robert G Halgren, Iii

Cristopher Ian S Uy

Trevor Duncan Schleiss

David Mark Smith

Robert Burke Havekost

Cindy Alsup Scott

J Michael Lucas

Peter Hartmann

Marty James Lewis

James Randall Balentine

Doyle Eugene Broom

Cheyenne Hernandez

Eric Darrell Rotvold

Dennis L Stevenson

Stephen Copps Gilbert

Alper Turhan Enver

Kenneth D Krivoshein

Andrew E Cutchin

Matt Stoner

Edward McDevitt

Terrence L Blevins

Wilhelm K Wojsznis

Paul Noble-Campbell

Paul Richard Muston

Vincent Lam

Prashant Joshi

Tom Aneweer

James Stephen Cahill

Peter Zornio

Robert Kent Huba

Arlyn Earl Miller

Rusty Shepard

Kevin Sloan

Daniel Dean Christensen

Andrew Philip Dove

Ram Ramachandran

Mark William Foohey

Marcos Peluso

Bruce Hubert Campney

Scott Nels Hokeness

William George Irwin

David L Deitz

Cristopher Ian Sarmiento Uy

John Michael Lucas

Lee Allen Neitzel

Dan Dean Christensen

Duncan Schleiss

Keith Richard Bellville

Michael J Lucas

Tiong P Ong

Riyaz M Ali

Klaus Erni

Robert A Mixer

David Farrell Holmes

Ken D Krivoshein

Garrett R Lewis

Deeann Gates Del Guzzi

Michael L Marshall

Aaron Crews

Nina Golder

William McCormick

Nate Kube

Kent Allen Burr

Tim Forsythe

Laura Avery

Michael Wayne Ausen

Alan Joe Wysuph

Ronald Dean Eddie

Thomas W Snead

Michael Kessler

Robert Stock

Kenneth Marks

Juan Carlos Bravo

Kyle Tetmeyer

Godfrey Roland Sheriff

A Multi-Purpose Dynamic Simulation and run-time Control platform includes a virtual process environment coupled to a physical process environment, where components/nodes of the virtual and physical process environments cooperate to dynamically perform run-time process control of an industrial process plant and/or simulations thereof. Virtual components may include virtual run-time nodes and/or simulated nodes. The MPDSC includes an I/O Switch which delivers I/O data between virtual and/or physical nodes, e.g., by using publish/subscribe mechanisms, thereby virtualizing physical I/O process data delivery. Nodes serviced by the I/O Switch may include respective component behavior modules that are unaware as to whether or not they are being utilized on a virtual or physical node. Simulations may be performed in real-time and even in conjunction with run-time operations of the plant, and/or simulations may be manipulated as desired (speed, values, administration, etc.). The platform simultaneously supports simulation and run-time operations and interactions/intersections therebetween.

Automatic load balancing and performance leveling of virtual nodes running real-time control in process control systems

Techniques for physically removing and replacing a simplex I/O component include plant personnel placing the component into a 'REPLACEABLE' state via a user interface of the component. In response, the simplex I/O component informs the I/O subsystem thereof. The I/O subsystem stores a record of the component's REPLACEABLE state and begins to hold data values (e.g., field device values) most recently received from the component. When the I/O subsystem detects that the simplex I/O component is uncommunicative (e.g., due to being removed and replaced), based on the stored record of the “REPLACEABLE” state, the I/O subsystem retrieves the most recently received held data value and transmits it to a controller, thereby maintaining controlled (e.g., non-disruptive) execution of a control loop. When the replacement simplex I/O component initializes to an “IN-SERVICE” state, the I/O subsystem updates its state record accordingly, and resumes forwarding live field data values to the controller.

Apparatuses and methods for non-disruptive replacement of simplex I/O components

A set of discrete input/output (I/O) channels for one or more field devices may be grouped, organized, and connected to a field module device, which may connect to an electronic marshalling apparatus in a marshalling cabinet via an I/O channel. The field module acts as an intermediary, decoding messages received via the I/O channel to identify commands for discrete output (DO) channels that are then forwarded appropriately. The field module may also receive variable values carried by signals on discrete input (DI) channels and encode the values to a message that may be transmitted to the marshalling apparatus and controller, thus making the variable values on the DI channels available to the controller. The field module may store a profile including information that facilitates various smart commissioning techniques, including autosensing of tags, automatic tag binding, and automatic configuration of a control element corresponding to the field module.

Smart functionality for discrete field devices and signals

Industrial control system architecture for real-time simulation and process control

Process control systems for operating process plants are disclosed herein. The process control systems include control modules that are decoupled from the I/O architecture of the process plants using signal objects or generic shadow blocks. This decoupling is effected by using the signal objects or generic shadow blocks to manage at least part of the communication between the control modules and the field devices. Signal objects may convert between protocols used by control modules and field devices, thus decoupling the control modules from the I/O architecture. Generic shadow blocks may be automatically configured to mimic the operation of field devices within a controller executing the control modules, thus partially decoupling the control modules from the I/O architecture by using the shadow blocks to manage communication between the control modules and the field devices.

Architecture-independent process control

Publish/subscribe protocol for real-time process control

A two-wire routing device includes an upstream communication interface for communication with a controller, a two-wire communication and power interface configured to convey communication and power to a field device over a two-wire link, and a router electronic controller. The router electronic controller is coupled to the upstream communication interface and the two-wire communication and power interface. The router electronic controller receives, via the upstream communication interface, a safe state command from the controller, and transmits, via the two-wire communication and power interface, the safe state command to a field device over the two-wire link. The router electronic controller further executes a secondary de-energization scheme for the field device to control a power switch to cut power over the two-wire link to the field device.

Secondary control for de-energizing safety field devices with digital protocols

A highly versatile process control or factory automation field device is configured with an interface and communication connection structure that enables the field device to operate as a data server that communicates with and supports multiple different applications or clients, either directly or indirectly, while simultaneously performing standard process and factory automation control functions. Moreover, various different process control and factory automation network architectures and, in particular, communication architectures, support the versatile field device to enable the versatile field device to simultaneously communicate with multiple different client devices or applications (each associated with a different system) via a common communication network infrastructure, using the same or different communication protocols.

Highly-versatile field devices and communication networks for use in control and automation systems

Virtualized real-time I/O in process control systems

A system and method for visualizing safety events within a process plant includes accessing a cause and effect matrix (CEM) having a set of causes and a set of effects, wherein the set of causes and the set of effects are representative of a set of monitored safety events within the process plant. The system and method further includes receiving a selection of a monitored safety event of the set of monitored safety events. The system and method may also include displaying, in a user interface, (i) an indication of the monitored safety event, and (ii) a current status of the monitored safety event. The system and method may also include detecting a change in status to the monitored safety event. Further, the system and method may include displaying, in the user interface, an updated status of the monitored safety event according to the change in status.

System and method for providing a visualization of safety events of a process control system over time

A cybersecurity system for use in a process plant provides whitelisting of device specific and common practice HART read commands in process controllers and safety controllers to perform communications in a process plant that are very secure, but that still enable the implementation of advanced functionality provided in HART devices. A whitelist implementation application applies one or more whitelists in a security gateway device to determine if messages, such as HART messages, should be allowed or processed. A whitelist learning application automatically creates and configures whitelists, and a whitelist configuration application discovers Device Specific and Common Practice HART commands by issuing device description requests to specific devices, parsing the response, and communicating the whitelist configuration information with the parsed command types to the relevant process controllers and safety controllers for use in the whitelists. A user interface enables users to interact with and guide the configuration process.

Whitelisting for HART communications in a process control system

A software defined (SD) process control system (SDCS) implements controller and other process control-related business logic as logical abstractions (e.g., application layer services executing in containers, VMs, etc.) decoupled from hardware and software computing platform resources. An SD networking layer of the SDCS utilizes process control-specific operating system support services to manage the usage of the computing platform resources and the creation, deletion, modifications, and networking of application layer services with devices disposed in the field environment and with other services, responsive to the requirements and needs of the business logic and dynamically changing conditions of SDCS hardware and/or software assets during run-time of the process plant (such as performance, faults, addition/deletion of hardware and/or software assets, etc.). Thus, dynamic (re-)allocation of hardware/software resources is primarily, if not entirely, and continually governed in real-time by present requirements and needs of application layer services as well as dynamically changing SDCS conditions.

Software defined process control system and methods for industrial process plants

Centralized virtualization management node in process control systems

Ease of node switchovers in process control systems

Growing community of inventors

Georgetown, TX, United States of America

Gary Keith Law