Method to provide distributed equipment arbitration in a process control system

Abstract

A distributed process control equipment ownership arbitration system and method for arbitrating equipment ownership conflicts are disclosed. Individual control modules representing various process control entities within a process control system define a plurality of lists or queues for storing equipment arbitration information. Requests by one process control entity to acquire ownership over another process control entity are represented by an arbitration token that represents the ownership relationship sought by the acquiring process control entity. Copies of the arbitration token are communicated between the respective control modules and stored in the various arbitration queues defined by the control modules, depending on the status of the acquisition request. Upon receiving an acquisition request from another process control entity, the control module associated with the targeted process control entity decides whether the targeted process control entity is available to be acquired by the requesting control entity based on arbitration rules that are embedded within the control module itself. Once the targeted process control entity has been acquired by another process control entity it may not be acquired by any other process control entity until it has been released by the acquiring process control entity.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to equipment ownership arbitration in process control systems. More specifically, the present invention discloses a distributed arbitration system in which individual control modules associated with various process control devices arbitrate ownership issues among them. Background technique [0002] Modern processing plants use sophisticated control systems to control a wide variety of process control field devices and other process-related equipment. Process control systems—such as those used in chemical, petroleum, or other processes—generally include one or more centralized or decentralized process controllers connected via an analog bus, digital bus, or An analog / digital hybrid bus is communicatively coupled to at least one host or worker workstation, and to one or more process control and instrumentation devices (eg, field devices). Field devices may be, for example, valves, valve positioners, switches, transmitters,...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

A quorum decision made by one quorum manager may not be honored (or considered) by another quorum manager, which may result in a process control entity being inadvertently acquired by more than one other process control entity at the same time, which is the case for most process An unsustainable situation in a controlled environment

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