Industrial plant operator intervention system for use in an industrial plant

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12474700-B2
Application number	US-202217899856-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2022
Priority date	Sep 1, 2021
Publication date	Nov 18, 2025
Grant date	Nov 18, 2025

Abstract

An industrial plant operator intervention system for use in an industrial plant includes a processing unit configured to monitor and analyze industrial plant operation data to detect an anomaly in the industrial plant operation data that warrants initiating an operator intervention, and in response to detecting the anomaly, automatically determine a user interface configuration of a user interface to be presented to a designated operator who is to perform the operator intervention. The user interface configuration is determined on the basis of technical context data, including industrial plant operation data associated with the anomaly, and on the basis of operator data pertaining to the designated operator, in such a manner that an anomaly-related and operator-specific user interface configuration is obtained.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An industrial plant operator intervention system for use in an industrial plant, the system comprising:
a processing unit, the processing unit being programmed and configured to:
monitor and analyze industrial plant operation data to detect an anomaly in the industrial plant operation data that warrants initiating an operator intervention; and
automatically determine a user interface configuration of a user interface to be presented to a designated operator who is to perform the operator intervention when the anomaly is detected,
wherein the user interface configuration is determined on the basis of technical context data, including industrial plant operation data associated with the anomaly; and,
on the basis of operator data pertaining to the designated operator, obtain an anomaly-related and operator-specific user interface configuration, wherein the operator data pertaining to the designated operator includes operator attributes indicating a skill set, area of operation, level of experience, and past involvement in industrial plant operation, of the designated operator, and a match score calculated based on the operator attributes and a type of the detected anomaly, wherein the match score indicates a match between the operator attributes and the type of anomaly, a part of the industrial plant affected by the anomaly, and pieces of equipment affected by the anomaly, and in response to detecting the anomaly, identifying a match score from a plurality of match scores, corresponding to a potential anomaly that is most similar to the detected anomaly as the match score to be used to automatically determine the user interface configuration to be presented to the designated operator.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the operator data pertaining to the designated operator include at least one of:
the match score calculated based on a part of the industrial plant affected by the anomaly, and pieces of equipment affected by the anomaly; preferences set by the designated operator and/or automatically derived from preceding operator behavior of the designated operator, including previous operator interactions of the designated operator with the system; data indicating one or more display devices the designated operator is currently using or is expected to use for displaying the user interface; and data pertaining to preceding operator behavior of the designated operator and/or current operator behavior of the designated operator including behavior patterns of the designated operator.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to determine and monitor current operator behavior of the designated operator and to store as the data pertaining to preceding operator behavior, data pertaining to the current operator behavior of the designated operator.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to determine the configuration of the user interface also based on data pertaining to preceding operator behavior of another operator sharing operator attributes with the designated operator and/or based on technical data of one or more display devices the designated operator is currently using or is expected to use for displaying the user interface.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to prompt the designated operator to provide feedback indicating the suitability of the user interface configuration for the operator intervention and/or to set the user interface configuration as a candidate or default user interface configuration for future use.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the system is configured to automatically generate feedback indicating the suitability of the user interface configuration for the operator intervention by monitoring the current operator behavior of the designated operator and/or indicators as to how much time was required to perform the operator intervention.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to, in response to detecting the anomaly that warrants initiating an operator intervention, automatically determine the designated operator based on availability and/or a suitability ranking of candidate operators for the detected anomaly.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to adapt the user interface configuration in real time in response to the current operator behavior of the designated operator and/or in response to changes in the technical context data for the industrial plant operation data.

9 . A computer-implemented method, particularly carried out by a system, the system comprising a processing unit, the method comprising:
using the processing unit to monitor and analyze industrial plant operation data to detect an anomaly in the industrial plant operation data that warrants initiating an operator intervention; and in response to detecting the anomaly, automatically determining a user interface configuration of a user interface to be presented to a designated operator who is to perform the operator intervention, wherein the user interface configuration is determined on the basis of technical context data, including industrial plant operation data associated with the anomaly, and on the basis of operator data pertaining to the designated operator, in such a manner that an anomaly-related and operator-specific user interface configuration is obtained, wherein the operator data pertaining to the designated operator includes operator attributes indicating a skill set, area of operation, level of experience, and past involvement in industrial plant operation, of the designated operator, and a match score calculated based on the operator attributes and a type of the detected anomaly, wherein the match score indicates a match between the operator attributes and the type of anomaly, a part of the industrial plant affected by the anomaly, and pieces of equipment affected by the anomaly, and in response to detecting the anomaly, identifying a match score from a plurality of match scores, corresponding to a potential anomaly that is most similar to the detected anomaly as the match score to be used to automatically determine the user interface configuration to be presented to the designated operator.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the operator data pertaining to the designated operator include at least one of:
the match score calculated based on a part of the industrial plant affected by the anomaly and/or pieces of equipment affected by the anomaly; preferences set by the designated operator and/or automatically derived from preceding operator behavior of the designated operator; data indicating one or more display devices the designated operator is currently using or is expected to use for displaying the user interface; and data pertaining to preceding operator behavior of the designated operator and/or current operator behavior of the designated operator including behavior patterns of the designated operator.

11 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising determining current operator behavior of the designated operator and storing as the data pertaining to preceding operator behavior, data pertaining to the current operator behavior of the designated operator.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining of the current operator behavior is accomplished by monitoring the designated operator.

13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the configuration of the user interface is also determined based on data pertaining to preceding operator behavior of another operator sharing operator attributes with the designated operator and/or based on technical data of one or more display devices the

Assignees

• Abb Schweiz Ag

Inventors

• Macauda Andrea
• Sivalingam Raja
• K R Chandrika
• Berning Matthias
• Ziobro Dawid
• Maczey Sylvia
• Rodriguez Pablo
• Kloepper Benjamin
• Borrison Reuben
• Dix Marcel
• Schmidt Benedikt
• Abukwaik Hadil
• Kotriwala Arzam Muzaffar
• Sharma Divyasheel
• Gopalakrishnan Gayathri
• Linge Simon
• Gaertler Marco
• Doppelhamer Jens

Classifications

• G05B23/0275

  Fault isolation and identification, e.g. classify fault; estimate cause or root of failure · CPC title

• G05B23/0267

  Fault communication, e.g. human machine interface [HMI] · CPC title

• G05B23/0272 Primary

  Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user · CPC title