Navigating within graphical depiction of process control plant

Abstract

A process control monitoring method uses a navigation pane for navigating within a graphical depiction of a process control plant. The navigation pane that includes a unit selection area and an equipment selection area, wherein (i) the unit selection area includes one or more unit selector icons that correspond to one or more units in the graphical depiction of the process control plant, (ii) the equipment selection area includes one or more equipment selector icons that correspond to one or more equipment in the graphical depiction of the process control plant, (iii) each unit in the process control plant includes one or more equipment in the process control plant, and (iv)each unit selector icon is associated with one or more equipment items selector icons based on the included one or more equipment in the process control plant associated with the unit that corresponds to the unit selector icon. In response to receiving a selection of a first unit selector icon, one or more equipment selector icons in the equipment area associated with a first unit in the process control plant that corresponds to the selected first unit selector icon are displayed, wherein (i) the one or more equipment selector icons associated with the selected first unit selector icon are displayed in the equipment selection area and (ii) the one or more non-selected unit selector icons remain displayed in the unit selection area. Moreover, one or more equipment in the graphical depiction of the process control corresponding to the first unit selector icon is displayed.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure relates generally to process control systems and, more particularly, to monitoring trends of process variables and hierarchical, graphical navigation of process control plants. Background technique [0002] Process plants such as those used in the chemical, petroleum, or other industries typically include one or more centralized or decentralized process controllers communicatively coupled via an analog, digital, or combined analog / digital bus to at least one A host or operator workstation and one or more process control and instrumentation devices, such as field devices. Field devices, which may be, for example, valves, valve positioners, switches, transmitters, and sensors (eg, temperature, pressure, and flow rate sensors) perform functions such as increasing or decreasing fluid flow and measuring process parameters in a process. The process controller receives signals indicative of process measurements or process variables mad...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

At too high a level of detail, the operator may only have very little process control information when viewing the P&ID

Alternatively, the operator may have too much detail looking at multiple process variable trend graphs, trying to compare current process variable values ​​to set point information, etc.

Additionally, detailed information sources may not be integrated with the P&ID, and may require controlling operators to view information at various levels of detail distributed across multiple separate windows or screens

Having too little or too much detail can lead to incomplete or slow decision-making by control operators respectively, with serious consequences during critical events or periods

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