Fisher-rosemount Systems, Inc

John R Shepard

Mark J Nixon

Joe Nelson

Ken J Beoughter

Robert Burke Havekost

Deji Chen

Tom Aneweer

William E Bennett

Aloysius K Mok

Dwight D Jennings

Shenling Yang

Larry Oscar Jundt

Cindy Alsup Scott

Donald Robert Lattimer

Dan Dean Christensen

Duncan Schleiss

James Randall Balentine

Andre Arthur Dicaire

Ken D Krivoshein

Kenneth Schibler

A wireless communication system for use in a process environment uses mesh and possibly a combination of mesh and point-to-point communications to produce a wireless communication network that can be easily set up, configured, changed and monitored, thereby making a wireless communication network that is less expensive, and more robust and reliable. The wireless communication system allows virtual communication paths to be established and used within the process control system in a manner that is independent of the manner in which the wireless signals are sent between different wireless transmitting and receiving devices within the process plant. Still further, communication analysis tools are provided to enable a user or operator to view the operation of the wireless communication network to thereby analyze the ongoing operation of the wireless communications within the wireless communication network.

Wireless architecture and support for process control systems

A process control system coordinates with an associated asset management system to implement a plant safety mechanism and, in particular, to prevent unintended changes to, or otherwise undesired operation of, one or more process control equipment resources in a process plant. A maintenance technician uses the asset management system to request access to one or more of the process control equipment resources. A process operator receives the request via the process control system and grants or denies the request. Process control equipment resources for which a process operator grants a request are inoperable, in part or in whole, by the process control system. Upon completion of the maintenance task, the maintenance technician requests to return control of the process control equipment resource to the process operator. The return is complete when the process operator acknowledges the return of the resource to the process control system.

Software lockout coordination between a process control system and an asset management system

A method and system of communicating between a wireless network and a process control system communicatively coupled to a server, such as OPC. The server receives data from the wireless network, where the data is generated from an input/output data point within the wireless network. The server maps the data between the input/output data point and a data point placeholder within the process control system. The server writes the mapped data to the corresponding data point placeholder of the process control system via a process control interface, and the mapped data is provided to the process control system as process control data native to the process control system. Process control data may also be provided to the server, mapped between a data point placeholder of the process control system and an input/output data point of the wireless network, and written to the corresponding input/output data point.

System for merging wireless data into an established process control system

An application programming interface schema, method and system for communicating between first and second application programming interfaces within a process control system includes processing a call from a first application programming interface for a data request, translating the data request from the first application programming interface into one or more methods of a unified application programming interface, and implementing the one or more methods of the unified application programming interface with a second application programming interface. A first unified layer receives a transmission request from a proprietary application programming interface, and translates the transmission request into one or more methods of a unified application programming interface. A second unified layer implements methods of the unified application programming interface with the wireless network application programming interface.

Unified application programming interface for a process control system network

A wireless communication system for use in a process environment uses mesh and possibly a combination of mesh and point-to-point communications to produce a wireless communication network that can be easily set up, configured, changed and monitored, thereby making a wireless communication network that is less expensive, and more robust and reliable. The wireless communication system allows virtual communication paths to be established and used within the process control system in a manner that is independent of the manner in which the wireless signals are sent between different wireless transmitting and receiving devices within the process plant, to thereby operate in a manner that is independent of the specific messages or virtual communication paths within the process plant. Still further, communication analysis tools are provided to enable a user or operator to view the operation of the wireless communication network to thereby analyze the ongoing operation of the wireless communications within the wireless communication network.

A method and system of communicating between a wireless network and a process control system communicatively coupled to a server via a process control system interface, such as OPC or a proprietary API. The wireless network may be a mesh network and the server may be a mesh server. The server receives data from the wireless network, where the data is generated from an input/output data point within the wireless network. The server maps the data between the input/output data point and a data point placeholder within the process control system. The server writes the mapped data to the corresponding data point placeholder of the process control system via the process control interface, and the mapped data is provided to the process control system as process control data native to the process control system. Process control data may also be provided to the server, mapped between a data point placeholder of the process control system and an input/output data point of the wireless network, and the mapped process control data is written to the corresponding input/output data point.

Apparatus and method for merging wireless data into an established process control system

A communication technique enables the efficient transmission of data through a low bandwidth and/or time delayed communication link and minimizes the idle time of the communication link by using a deferred acknowledgment of message bundles to temporally pack the communication link. The transmitting system stores messages to be transmitted in a pending message queue and applies a dynamic window to the pending message queue to define a message bundle to be sent through the slow communication link. The transmitting system requests an acknowledgment for at least one message within the bundle, but does not require an acknowledgment for every message within the bundle. Transmitted messages are temporarily stored as outstanding messages in a retransmission queue until the transmitted messages are acknowledged or until a time-out period associated with the messages has lapsed. When the transmitting station receives a timely acknowledgment in response to a requested acknowledgment, the transmitting station removes all outstanding messages associated with that acknowledgment from the retransmission queue.

Deferred acknowledgment communications and alarm management

A digital control system automatically senses when a new controller is attached to a network and determines the number and types of I/O Ports that are attached to the new controller. The digital control system formats and displays the I/O Port information upon request by a user. The digital control system program also includes an automatic configuration program that responds to sensing of a new controller by automatically configuring the input/output (I/O) subsystem. The user adds a new controller without setting any physical switches or nodes. A user optionally supplies configuration information for a device into a database, prior to connection of a device. Upon connection of the device, the device is automatically sensed and configured using the database configuration information, without setting of physical switches or node address information on the devices.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

John R Shepard