Industrial process control system as a data center of an industrial process plant

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11875236-B2
Application number	US-202017077888-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 22, 2020
Priority date	Oct 22, 2020
Publication date	Jan 16, 2024
Grant date	Jan 16, 2024

Abstract

A distributed control system (DCS) of an industrial process plant includes a data center storing a plant information model that includes a description of physical components, the control framework, and the control network of the plant using a modeling language. A set of exposed APIs provides DCS applications access to the model, and to an optional generic framework of the data center which stores basic structures and functions from which the DCS may automatically generate other structures and functions to populate the model and to automatically create various applications and routines utilized during run-time operations of the DCS and plant. Upon initialization, the DCS may automatically sense the I/O types of its interface ports, detect communicatively connected physical components within the plant, and automatically populate the plant information model accordingly. The DCS may optionally automatically generate related control routines and/or I/O data delivery mechanisms, HMI routines, and the like.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. An industrial distributed process control system of an industrial process plant, the industrial distributed process control system (DCS) comprising a set of pluggable, interchangeable DCS hardware modules, and each pluggable, interchangeable DCS hardware module of the set including:
a plurality of interface ports configured to deliver one or more types of I/O data utilized for industrial process control;
one or more processors;
one or more tangible, non-transitory memories;
a discovery engine comprising first computer-executable instructions that are stored on the one or more tangible, non-transitory memories and that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the each pluggable DCS hardware module to automatically:
sense, upon a powering up of the each pluggable DCS hardware module, a respective I/O type of each interface port included in the plurality of interface ports;
bind, to the each interface port, a respective I/O data delivery mechanism corresponding to the respective I/O type;
discover one or more physical components of the industrial process plant to which the each pluggable DCS hardware module is communicatively connected via the plurality of interface ports, the one or more physical components including a field device configured to perform a physical function to control an industrial process during run-time operations of the industrial process plant; and
populate, based on the discovery of the one or more physical components, at least a portion of a plant information model of the DCS, the plant information model including:
a description of a control framework of the industrial process plant, the control framework defining respective logical control identifiers of control components of the DCS and hierarchical relationships among the control components, the control components including the field device; and
a description of a control network of the industrial process plant utilized to control the industrial process during the run-time operations of the industrial process plant, the control network including the field device, a respective interface port via which the field device is communicatively connected to the each pluggable DCS hardware module, and a control routine provided at the each pluggable DCS hardware module; and

an execution engine comprising second computer-executable instructions that are stored on the one or more tangible, non-transitory memories and that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the each pluggable DCS hardware module to execute the control routine and the respective I/O data delivery mechanism bound to the respective interface port to deliver data between the field device and the control routine to thereby control the industrial process.

2. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 1 , wherein the each pluggable DCS hardware module of the set of pluggable, interchangeable DCS hardware modules is enclosed in a respective housing.

3. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 1 , wherein:
the each pluggable DCS hardware module is configured to detect, via at least one of the plurality of interface ports, that a particular physical component of the one or more physical components has been newly communicatively connected to the each pluggable DCS hardware module;
a discovery of the particular physical component is automatically initiated by the DCS based on the detection of the new communicative connection; and
the plurality of interface ports includes at least one of: an Advanced Physical Layer port, an analog I/O port, a discrete I/O port, a serial port, a motion port, a near-infrared port, a Railbus port, a Wi-Fi port, an Ethernet port, a HART port, a WirelessHART port, a Fieldbus port, a Profibus port, or another type of interface port.

4. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 1 , wherein the discovered one or more physical components include at least one of a physical process controller or a physical I/O device disposed between the respective interface port and the field device, wherein the field device communicates process data with the control routine to control the industrial process during the run-time operations via the physical I/O device.

5. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 1 , wherein:
the DCS further includes an initial set of control functions that has been stored on the one or more tangible, non-transitory memories of the set of pluggable DCS hardware modules prior to an initialization of the DCS;
the initial set of control functions includes one or more of: an adaptive control function, an event-based control function, an advanced control function, a regulatory control function, a batch control function, a sequencing function, an interlock function, a safety shutdown function, a state detection function, a real-time virtualized control function, a back-up virtualized control function, or another type of control function; and
the DCS is configured to automatically generate the control routine corresponding to the field device based on one or more control functions included in the initial set of control functions and the plant information model.

6. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 5 , wherein the set of pluggable DCS hardware modules is a plurality of pluggable DCS hardware modules, and the DCS is further configured to automatically assign the control routine to execute on a particular pluggable DCS hardware module of the plurality of pluggable DCS hardware modules.

7. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 6 , wherein the control routine is packaged into a container that is assigned to execute on the particular pluggable DCS hardware module.

8. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 7 , wherein the DCS is further configured to automatically re-assign the container into which the control routine is packaged to execute on another pluggable DCS hardware module based on a predicted or detected change in at least one of a load, a size, a performance metric, or a fault of at least one of the pluggable DCS hardware modules.

9. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 5 , wherein:
the DCS further includes an initial set of I/O data delivery functions that has been stored on the one or more tangible, non-transitory memories of the set of pluggable DCS hardware modules prior to an initialization of the DCS, the initial set of I/O data delivery functions including one or more of: an analog I/O function, a discrete I/O function, a motion I/O function, a near-infrared (NIR) I/O function, another type of I/O transport function, a sampling function, or a signal conditioning function; and
the respective I/O data delivery mechanism is based on the initial set of I/O data delivery functions.

10. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 9 , wherein the DCS is configured to automatically generate at least some of the respective I/O data delivery mechanisms corresponding to the plurality of interface ports based on the initial set of I/O data delivery functions and the sensed I/O types corresponding to the set of pluggable DCS hardware modules.

11. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 10 , wherein the set of pluggable DCS hardware modules is a plurality of pluggable DCS hardware modules, and the DCS is further configured to automatically assign the generated at least some of the respective I/O data delivery mechanisms to execute on respective pluggable DCS hardware modules.

12. The industrial distributed process control system of claim 11 , wherein the generated at least some of the respe

Assignees

• Fisher Rosemount Systems Inc

Inventors

• Nixon Mark J
• Fayad Claudio
• Halgren Iii Robert G
• Amaro Jr Anthony
• Hartmann Peter
• Schleiss Trevor Duncan
• Natarajan Seshatre

Classifications

• G05B19/042

  using digital processors (G05B19/05 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G05B19/41885 Primary

  characterised by modeling, simulation of the manufacturing system · CPC title

• G06N20/00 Primary

  Machine learning · CPC title

• G05B19/4155

  characterised by program execution, i.e. part program or machine function execution, e.g. selection of a program · CPC title

• G06F13/38 Primary

  Information transfer, e.g. on bus (G06F13/14 takes precedence) · CPC title