Fisher-rosemount Systems, Inc

Fisher Controls International LLC

Larry Oscar Jundt

Mark J Nixon

Robert Burke Havekost

Michael George Ott

Dennis L Stevenson

Arthur Webb

Gary Keith Law

Julian Kevin Naidoo

Stephen Copps Gilbert

Stephen Gerard Hammack

Herschel Odis Koska, Ii

Kent Allan Burr

Daniel R Strinden

J Michael Lucas

Jian Li

Mike Lucas

Andrew Philip Dove

Neil J Peterson

Sergio Diaz

John Michael Lucas

Deborah R Colclazier

Cristopher Ian S Uy

Matthew Sullivan

Marty James Lewis

David R Denison

James Randall Balentine

Trevor Duncan Schleiss

Godfrey Roland Sherriff

Cindy Alsup Scott

Bruce Hubert Campney

Edward McDevitt

Matt Stoner

Ling Zhou

Prashant Joshi

Dan Dean Christensen

Vasiliki Tzovla

Steve Dienstbier

Molly Marie Firkins

J Clint Fletcher

Paul Kenneth Daly

Nancy Stevenson, Legal Representative

Ken J Beoughter

Daniel Dean Christensen

Ram Ramachandran

William George Irwin

Cristopher Ian Sarmiento Uy

Alper Turhan Enver

Brandon Hieb

Nathan W Pettus

Peter Wojsznis

Jon Dale Westbrock

Donald Robert Lattimer

John R Shepard

Hoa Van Lai

Ashish Mehta

Kenneth D Krivoshein

Tom Aneweer

Dawn M Marruchella

Michael J Lucas

Keith Richard Bellville

Andre Arthur Dicaire

Bryan Michael Jones

Ron Ottenbacher

Roy Faltesek

Brian Crandall

Marina Sokolova

Deeann Gates Del Guzzi

Roberta Coffman

James Hoffmaster

Stephen G Hammock

Ian James Nadas

Kenneth Schibler

Peter Wojsnis

Nathan Pettus

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

Flexible graphic element objects in a process plant are configurable both in a run-time operating environment in which a process is being controlled and in a configuration environment. An instantiated flexible graphic element object may be a display view or may be another graphic element included on a display view. A graphic element object may be linked to and/or derived from another graphic element object, and changes to a particular graphic element object may be propagated to its derivations, e.g., according to a distribution policy. Changes to definitions corresponding to a particular graphic element object (e.g., to the definition of a graphic element attribute such as a shape, animation, event handler or property) may be overridden or modified in another object derived from the particular graphic element object. The modified derived object may be renamed and saved separately from the particular graphic element object.

Derived and linked definitions with override

A configuration element is presented on a configuration display view for configuring a graphic element object. The graphic element object is to be instantiated on a process control display view, and corresponds to a process entity in a process plant. The configuration element object has a set of properties for an attributed of the graphic element object and includes a link to a configuration display object from which the configuration display view is instantiated. The instantiation of the configuration element object includes a visual representation of the set of properties for the attribute of the graphic element object, and a link to the graphic element object to send data corresponding to a property configured in the configuration element from the set of properties. The configured property corresponds to at least one configured attribute of the graphic element.

Configuration element for graphic elements

Disclosed herein are techniques for automatically distributing device identification amongst components of a process control loop in a process plant while the loop is communicatively disconnected from the plant's back-end environment or control room. A field device's identification is stored in a memory of a component of the loop (which may be the field device or a proxy) and is used for commissioning the field device. While the loop remains disconnected, the field device's identification is distributed to the memory of another component of the loop and used for commissioning a portion of the loop including the field device and the another component. Additional distribution to other components for commissioning other loop portions is possible. Distribution may be triggered by the completion of certain commissioning activities, the establishment of communicative connections between components, and/or other conditions. Other parameters and/or information descriptive of the field device may be similarly distributed.

Automatic distribution of device parameters for commissioning portions of a disconnected process control loop

An I/O-abstracted configuration is defined for a field device that has not yet been assigned or allocated to communicate via a particular I/O device or I/O network within a plant, and this configuration is stored in a device placeholder object in a back-end environment of the plant. Thereafter other objects, modules, applications, user interfaces, etc., that are to execute in the back-end environment of the plant to communicate with the field device during on-line operation of the plant may be designed, built, configured, and tested using the device placeholder object without any actual communications with the field device and without assigning the device placeholder object to a particular I/O channel or I/O network. A commissioning system which may create and store one or more device placeholder objects in a database within the back-end environment of the plant includes an execution engine that executes one or more other back-end environment objects to be commissioned and tested, and a communication interface that determines, from the device placeholder object if a field device is in an I/O-unallocated device state. If so, the communication interface uses the configuration data stored in the device placeholder object to verify that the form, format, and configuration of the object being tested is correct to properly communicate with the field device. Moreover, a simulation engine can generate simulated device signals to enable further testing of the object.

Configuration in process plant using I/O-abstracted field device configurations

Systems and methods of configuring process control systems for operating process plants including multi-variable devices are disclosed herein. Multi-variable devices generate data associated with primary parameters and subsequent parameters. To facilitate configuration and use of subsequent parameters within process control systems, new device objects may be generated to represent the subsequent parameters. The new device objects may be generated as child device objects of parent device objects representing the multi-variable devices. Each child device object may also have a unique tag to identify the new device object within the process control system. The subsequent parameters of the multi-variable devices may thus be used within the process control system by reference to the tags of the corresponding child device objects.

Method and apparatus for configuring access to multi-variable field devices signals

A system tag identifying a device of a process control loop is determined/derived from a unique identifier of the device while the loop is communicatively disconnected from a process plant's back-end environment or control room. The system tag may be stored at the device itself or at a proxy that is disposed in the field of the process plant (e.g., at another component of the loop). One or more commissioning activities that include the device are performed in the field using the device's system tag, and at least some of the field commissioning activities may be automatically triggered based on the derivation of system tag. Upon the loop being communicatively connected to the back-end environment of the plant, the device's system tag known to the loop in the field is synchronized with the device's system tag known to the back-end of the process plant.

Determining device system tags for commissioning portions of a disconnected process control loop

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.

Configurable user displays in a process control system

During commissioning activities of a process plant, a device placeholder object that stores an I/O-abstracted configuration of a particular field device within the plant is created and stored in a device in the back-end environment of the plant and a further configuration file is stored in or for the particular field device in the field equipment environment of the plant. The device placeholder object, which will eventually be associated with the particular field device, and the field device configuration file are used to perform separate commissioning activities in each of these plant environments before the field devices are configured to communicate with a process controller via a particular I/O network within the plant. Thereafter, a binding application performs a discovery process to detect the I/O communication path through which each field device is connected to the back-end environment. The discovery process traverses through the I/O network as built, and autosenses the devices within the I/O network until this process discovers a device placeholder object or a configuration file for a particular field device. The binding application then determines if the information within these two device configuration files match, and if so, binds the field device to the back-end by storing the detected communication path for the particular device in a configuration database, such as in the device placeholder object for the particular field device. If the configuration information in the device placeholder object does not match the configuration file for a discovered field device, the binding application may perform a reconciliation procedure to determine the correct configuration information for the particular field device.

Binding of devices in a process plant using I/O-abstracted field device configurations

An I/O-abstracted configuration is defined for a field device that has not yet been assigned or allocated to communicate via a particular I/O device, and the field device (and optionally portions of the process control loop of which the field device is a part) is commissioned based on contents of its I/O-abstracted configuration. The field device's I/O-abstracted configuration is stored in an instance of a device placeholder object, which may be common to multiple types of devices and multiple types of I/O. A property of the device placeholder object may be exposed based on the value entered for another property, and the device placeholder object may store abstracted values as well as explicit or discrete values that are descriptive of the field device and its behavior. Upon I/O-assignment or allocation, values held in the device's I/O-abstracted configuration may be transferred to or otherwise synchronized with the device's as-built configuration.

I/O-abstracted field device configurations

Techniques for automatically testing an entire process control loop, such as after components and portions of the loop have been commissioned separately, or after run-time operation begins, enable the process control loop to be tested without an operator in a back-end environment of a process plant coordinating with an operator in a field environment of the process plant to supply inputs and/or generate various conditions at the loop. Instead, a single operator performs a single operation to initiate an automatic loop test, or in some implementations, no user input is needed to initiate and/or perform the automatic loop test. Automatic loop testing includes automatically causing a field device to operate in a plurality of test states and determining whether resultant loop behaviors are expected behaviors. Multiple loops may be tested concurrently or distinct in time. An automatic loop test result is generated and may be presented via a user interface.

Automatic loop testing for a process control loop

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Round Rock, TX, United States of America

Larry Oscar Jundt