Fisher-rosemount Systems, Inc

Prashant Joshi

Julian Kevin Naidoo

Daniel R Strinden

Cristopher Ian Sarmiento Uy

Mark J Nixon

Cindy Alsup Scott

Gary Keith Law

Larry Oscar Jundt

Ram Ramachandran

Godfrey Roland Sherriff

Kent Allan Burr

Neil J Peterson

Bruce Hubert Campney

Sergio Diaz

Deborah R Colclazier

Cristopher Ian S Uy

Kyle Bancroft

Erika Joy Bumatay

Racquel C Perdiguerra

Joel D Kaiser

Federico Jose Guerrero Aragon

Edmar Ahmil Oñas Abraham

Christopher Ian Sarmiento Uy

Danny Strinden

Ian Uy

Techniques for configuring layouts and display view hierarchies and presenting display views in an operating environment of a process plant according to the layouts and display view hierarchies include providing graphical user controls at a graphical display configuration application for defining a layout. The layouts indicate a manner in which divide one or several display screens into one or several display regions, where each display region presents a display view that includes indications of process control elements. The graphical display configuration application also includes graphical user controls for defining a display view hierarchy of the display views by assigning levels of detail to the display views and designating some of the display views as subviews of other display views. An operator application obtains the defined layout and display view hierarchy and presents the display views at an operator workstation according to the obtained layout and/or display view hierarchy.

Systems and methods for configuring and presenting a display navigation hierarchy in a process plant

The described techniques enable plant personnel to avoid the time and labor-intensive process associated with traditional design systems by enabling users to design, test, and 'preview' control logic for controlling a process before downloading the control logic to a configuration database or process controller in the plant. This enables the quick testing and improvement of control logic during the design phase, avoiding the time-consuming iterative process of designing, downloading to a database, propagating to a live controller, and testing on the physical controller. It also separates testing of logic and non-logic aspects of a controller configuration, enabling a user to finish designing the control logic before downloading the configuration to the controller, where she only needs to test non-logic aspects of the configuration.

Preview mode for configuration logic

Techniques for reconciling discrepancies between the runtime operation of a process plant and the configuration for the process plant allow for the process plant to be operated in a predictable and consistent manner. Additionally, techniques for reconciling discrepancies in the process plant enable inappropriate parameter values to be detected and reconciled efficiently and before such inappropriate values are included into configuration. Such techniques reduce the risk of downtime for online operation of the process plant to troubleshoot object configuration. A configuration engineer may provide one or more reconciliation instructions to reconcile the discrepancy. A configuration application then updates the process control environment of the process plant in accordance with the one or more reconciliation instructions. In some cases, the discrepancy is resolved by updating a configuration file for the object. In other cases, the discrepancy is resolved by updating the runtime instantiation of the object.

Reconciliation of run-time and configuration discrepancies

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

The described methods and systems give users situational awareness regarding control loops in a process control system. The user can utilize the loop interface described herein to quickly understand how a given element (e.g., a device or function block) relates to other elements of the control loop. This enables the user to appreciate how modifying a parameter or device, for example, may impact control of the process. The user need not be intimately familiar with the logic associated with a control loop to understand the status of the control loop and its constituent elements. Further, in an embodiment, the user can easily correct certain statuses (e.g., unusual conditions) that arise with respect to the control loop.

Loop interface

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

Module-based systems and methods are described for controlled roll-out of module classes for configuring a process plant. In various aspects the module-based systems and methods generate a second version of a module class based on a modification to a first version of the module class, where the module class is associated with one or more module instances that are each associated with a process control element of the process plant. The module-based systems and methods execute a roll-out instruction to update an upgraded process control element, where the upgraded process control element is associated with a new module instance based on the second version of the module class. The roll-out instruction is also designed to ignore or skip a non-upgraded process control element, where the non-upgraded process control element remains associated with a previous module instance based on the first version of the module class.

Controlled roll-out of module classes

Techniques for previewing an operator display of a process section in a process plant include presenting a process section on a user interface device, where the process section includes a user control for presenting and/or displaying another process section on the process plant display. In response to receiving user input indicative of a request to display a preview of the other process section via the user control, the user interface device presents the other process section while simultaneously presenting the process section in a preview mode. The process sections in the preview mode may be presented side-by-side, above and below each other, in separate display windows, etc.

Operator display switching preview

Techniques for synchronizing configuration changes in a process plant allow for intelligent and efficient updates to objects and related dependent objects. Additionally, techniques for synchronizing minor configuration changes in a process plant enable real-time updates to objects during run-time. Such techniques reduce the amount of downtime for online operation of the process plant and reduce the amount of information transmitted over the process control network. Each object may correspond to a process entity and dependent objects may be referenced by or may reference the object. In some cases, when an engineer modifies an object, dependent objects with respect to the modified object that have pending modifications are identified and displayed to the engineer. The engineer then selects the dependent objects to sync with the modified object and the dependent objects and modified object are synced and executed by a corresponding device in the run-time system.

Synchronization of configuration changes in a process plant

Methods, apparatus and systems are disclosed for multi-module process control management. A multi-module view is presented, via a user interface, including a plurality of control modules corresponding to functions of a control process. The multi-module view provides a first set of configuration capabilities associated with the control modules, including the capability to logically connect respective ones of the control modules. In response to the selection of one of the control modules of the multi-module view, a single-module view is presented, via the user interface, including a functional block associated with the selected one of the control modules of the multi-module view. The single-module view provides a second set of configuration capabilities associated with the functional block, including the capability to logically connect the functional block to a respective one of the control modules.

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Leicester, United Kingdom

Prashant Joshi