Fisher-rosemount Systems, Inc

Michael J Lucas

Mark J Nixon

Terrence L Blevins

Arthur Webb

Ken J Beoughter

Dennis L Stevenson

Ram Ramachandran

Duncan Schleiss

Gary Keith Law

Larry Oscar Jundt

Wilhelm K Wojsznis

Robert Burke Havekost

Jian Li

Eric Darrell Rotvold

Michael George Ott

Stephen Copps Gilbert

Paul Richard Muston

Herschel Odis Koska, Ii

Peter Zornio

Tennyson Hao

A data pipeline is used as a fundamental processing element for implementing techniques that automatically or autonomously perform signal processing-based learning in a process plant or monitoring system. Each data pipeline includes a set of communicatively interconnected data processing blocks that perform processing on one or more sources of data in a predetermined order to, for example, clean the data, filter the data, select data for further processing, perform supervised or unsupervised learning on the data, etc. The individual processing blocks or modules within a data pipeline may be stored and executed at different devices in a plant network to perform distributed data processing. Moreover, each data pipeline can be integrated into one or more higher level analytic modules that perform higher level analytics, such as quality prediction, fault detection, etc. on the processed data. The use of data pipelines within a plant network enables data collected within a plant control or monitoring system to be processed automatically and used in various higher level analytic modules within the plant during ongoing operation of the plant.

Data pipeline for process control system analytics

Smart process objects, which have both graphical and simulation elements, may be used to create one or more graphic displays and one or more process simulation modules, each having elements which may communicate with one another and with devices within a process plant to model and depict the operation of a process plant. The smart process objects may include one or more device objects, which represent physical devices within the process plant, and may include one or more smart connection objects which represent and model the flow of a material, such as a gas, a liquid, a composition of solid, electricity, etc., through a connection between entities within the process plant. The smart process objects may also include one or more smart stream objects, which also may represent and model the flow of a material at a particular point in the process plant. The smart device, connection, and stream objects may be interconnected to model the flow of material through the actual physical devices within the process plant thereby enabling enhanced simulation and modeling capabilities with the smart connection and stream objects providing a convenient manner of enabling different entities and sections of a process model to be tied to one another.

Smart process objects used in a process plant modeling system

An operator interface within a process plant includes an execution engine that implements process flow modules made up of interconnected smart process objects that are aware of devices and other entities within the plant and that can perform methods to detect conditions within the plant, especially on a system-level basis. The smart process objects include a display element to be displayed to the operator, data storage for storing data pertaining to and/or received from an associated entity within a plant, inputs and outputs for communicating with other smart process objects and methods that may be executed on the stored and received data to detect plant conditions, including system-level conditions, such as leaks, errors and other conditions. Process flow modules, which may be made up of numerous interconnected smart process objects, may also include flow algorithms associated therewith to calculate mass balances, flows, etc. for the process elements within the process flow modules.

Smart process modules and objects in process plants

A simulation system attaches to a configuration database for one or more fully configured nodes of a process control system and copies the modules within those nodes into one or more simulation computers as simulation modules. The simulation system includes an algorithm that automatically creates a reference parameter module for each of the copied nodes that stores a reference parameter for each of the inputs, outputs or other references to signals external to the nodes. In the case of the Fieldbus function blocks, the simulation system automatically creates a function block within the simulation workstation in the protocol of the controller node which mimics the operation of the Fieldbus function block, and then creates the simulation system having those mimicked Fieldbus function blocks operating as if they had originally been configured to be in the controller being simulated, instead of within a field device external to the controller.

Simulation system for multi-node process control systems

Graphic displays, which display information about process elements and the manner in which these elements are connected within a process, process modules, which simulate the operation of the elements depicted within the graphic displays and control modules, which perform on-line control activities within a process, may be communicatively connected together to provide a combined control, simulation and display environment that enables enhanced control, simulation and display activities. Smart process objects, which have both graphical and simulation elements, may used to create one or more graphic displays and one or more process simulation modules, each having elements which may communicate with one another to share data between the graphic displays and the process modules. Additionally, function blocks within control modules executed in the process plant may reference the elements within the graphic displays and the process modules (and vice versa) so that control modules may use simulated data developed by the process modules to perform better control, so that process modules may perform better simulation using actual pant data from the control modules, and so that the graphic displays may be used to illustrate actual process data and/or simulated process data as developed by the control modules and the process modules.

Integration of graphic display elements, process modules and control modules in process plants

A configuration system for a process plant uses module class objects to assist in configuring, organizing and changing the control and display activities within the process plant. Each module class object generically models or represents a process entity, such as a unit, a piece of equipment, a control activity, etc., and may be used to create instances of the object, called module objects, which represent and are tied to specific equipment within the process plant. The module class objects may represent process entities of any desired scope, which means that a single module class object may be used to configure the control and display activities of process entities of any desired scope within the process plant, instead of just at a control module level. In particular, module class objects of a large scope may be used to configure large sections or portions of the process plant, which makes configuration of the process plant easier and less time consuming. A module class object may be a unit module class object reflecting a physical unit within the process plant, an equipment module class object reflecting a physical piece of equipment within the process plant, a control module class object reflecting a control module or scheme within the process plant, or a display module class object reflecting a display routine that provides information to a user within the process plant.

Module class objects in a process plant configuration system

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Michael J Lucas