Dynamic user interface for configuring and managing a process control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10139812-B2
Application number	US-200913120634-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2009
Priority date	Sep 29, 2008
Publication date	Nov 27, 2018
Grant date	Nov 27, 2018

Abstract

A process control management method in a computer system for configuring and supervising a process plant includes providing an interactive user interface to manage a plurality of objects in the process plant, where each of the plurality of objects corresponds to a physical or logical entity in the process plant, including generating a navigation pane to display a set of selectable items, each in the set of selectable items corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of objects, and generating a command pane to display a set of selectable controls, each in the set of selectable controls corresponding to a task to be performed on at least one of the plurality of objects in the process plant; receiving a selection of one of an item in the set of selectable items via the navigation panel and a control in the set of selectable controls via the command panel; determining an operational context based on the received selection, wherein the operational context corresponds to one of a range of actions applicable to the selection if the selection is an item selection, or a range of items to which the selection is applicable if the selection is a control selection; and adjusting one of the navigation pane or the command pane according to the operational context, including displaying a subset of selectable items in the navigational pane, wherein each in the subset of selectable items is within the range applicable to the selection, if the selection is a control selection, and displaying a subset of selectable controls in the command pane, wherein each in the subset of selectable controls is within the range applicable to the selection, if the selection is an item selection.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process control management method in a computer system for configuring and supervising a process plant, comprising:
providing, by one or more processors, an interactive user interface to manage a plurality of objects in the process plant, wherein each of the plurality of objects corresponds to a physical or logical entity in the process plant, including:
generating, by one or more processors, a navigation pane displaying a set of selectable items, each in the set of selectable items corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of objects;
generating, by one or more processors, a content pane to display at least one item selected via the navigation pane;
generating, by one or more processors, a command pane to display a set of selectable controls logically grouped according to common application areas, each in the set of selectable controls corresponding to a task to be performed on at least one of the plurality of objects in the process plant,
wherein the command pane displays a plurality of controls prior to the at least one item being selected via the navigation pane;
wherein the navigation pane displays the set of selectable items prior to at least one control of the selectable controls being selected via the command pane;
wherein the navigation pane, the content pane, and the command pane are displayed in a common screen;
receiving, by one or more processors, (i) a selection of an item in the set of selectable items via the navigation pane, and (ii) a selection of a control in the set of selectable controls via the command pane;
adjusting, by one or more processors, the command pane to display selectable controls in the command pane that are applicable to the item selection in the navigation pane, and to remove selectable controls in the command pane that are not applicable to the item selection in the navigation pane,
adjusting, by one or more processors, the navigation pane to display selectable items in the navigation pane that are applicable to the control selection in the command pane, and to remove selectable items in the navigation pane that are not applicable to the control selection in the command pane;
adjusting, by one or more processors, the selectable items displayed within the navigation pane based upon a proximity of a cursor to the at least one item displayed within the content pane; and
generating, by one or more processors, an integrity history pane upon a user selecting items via the navigation pane and controls via the command pane, such that the integrity history pane includes a set of navigational indicators that reflect a history of selecting a particular item or control
wherein the at least one item displayed within the content pane is from among a plurality of items, each item from among the plurality of items being associated with a respective item selected via the navigation pane, and wherein the act of adjusting the selectable items displayed within the navigation pane includes adjusting the selectable items displayed within the navigation pane based upon which of the plurality of items displayed within the content pane the cursor is most proximate.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by one or more processors, a new command pane to display information related to the control selection in the command pane; and
adjusting a size of at least the content pane to accommodate the new command pane within the common screen.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of objects corresponds to one of a controller that implements at least a portion of process control logic in the process plant, a physical device that performs a physical function in the process plant, an input/output (I/O) card that processes input and output signals between physical devices in the process plant, or a workstation that implements a software to manage the process plant.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of objects corresponds to one of a control strategy implemented by one or several devices operating in the process plant, an event reportable from a device operating in the process plant, or an area in the process plant in which one or several devices operate.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the command pane includes:
displaying a plurality of regions of the command pane, each of the plurality of regions having a set of controls grouped according to at least one of a common category of functionality or use.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the navigation pane further comprises:
displaying at least one additional selectable item not included in the set of selectable items that were displayed in the navigation pane prior to the control selection from the command pane, and
wherein adjusting the command pane further comprises:
displaying at least one additional selectable control not included in the plurality of selectable controls that were displayed in the command pane prior to the item selection from the navigation pane.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the act of generating the integrity history pane further comprises:
generating the integrity history pane to include each navigational indicator as a control such that, when a navigational indicator is selected by a user, a path is restored to the particular selected item or control represented by the selected navigational indicator.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the path is restored to the particular selected item or control represented by the selected navigational indicator via restoration of a focus to one of the particular selected item or control.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the act of adjusting the selectable items displayed within the navigation pane includes one or more of adding, removing, or moving the selectable items.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, statistical data corresponding to a use of the interactive user interface, and wherein the act of adjusting the command pane further comprises:
removing one or more selectable controls in the command pane that are statistically unlikely to be invoked based upon a user's previous control selections in accordance with the received statistical data.

11. A user interface configuration method for use in a computer system for configuring and supervising a process plant, the method comprising:
generating, by one or more processors, a plurality of panes within a screen area, each of the plurality of panes being in a respective position and having a respective size, including:
generating, by one or more processors, a navigation pane to display a set of selectable items, each in the set of selectable items corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of objects;
generating, by one or more processors, a command pane to display a set of selectable controls, each in the set of selectable controls corresponding to a task to be performed on at least one of the plurality of objects in the process plant; and
generating a main content pane to perform at least one of configuring or editing one of the plurality of objects selected via the navigation pane;
generating, by one or more processors, an integrity history pane upon a user selecting items via the navigation pane and controls via the command pane,
wherein the command pane displays the set of selectable controls as controls prior to a selection of one or more of selectable items via the navigation pane,
wherein the navigation pane displays the set of selectable items prior to at least one control of the selectable controls being selected via the command pane, and
wherein the integrity history pane displays a set of navigational indicators t

Assignees

• Jones Bryan M
• Bellville Keith R
• Balentine James R
• Scott Cindy A
• Fellows Hubbard F
• Devlin Patricia
• Fisher Rosemount Systems Inc

Inventors

• Jones Bryan M
• Bellville Keith R
• Balentine James R
• Scott Cindy A
• Fellows Hubbard F

Classifications

• G05B2219/23258

  GUI graphical user interface, icon, function bloc editor, labview · CPC title

• G05B2219/31396

  Business management, production, document, asset, regulatory management, high level · CPC title

• G05B2219/32097

  Recipe programming for flexible batch · CPC title

• Y02P90/20

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G06F3/0484

  for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range · CPC title