Control system for a technical installation

Abstract

The invention proposes a control system for a technical installation, in particular a production or process installation, which is designed to capture process values of components of the technical installation by means of automation components of the control system and to display said process values for operation and observation in installation images and image windows on graphical user interfaces, wherein contents from external devices or services which are not part of the control system are embedded in the installation images in dedicated process environments and are displayed in dedicated image windows. The control system is characterized in that it is designed to capture data relating to the contents from external devices or services that are embedded in the process environments via at least one interface, to convert said data into process values for the control system, and to integrate said data in terms of process engineering in such a way that said data are subject to the same functionalities as process values for the automation components of the control system. This results in improved and homogeneous operation and observation of devices and services which are not part of the control system.

Description

[0001] Control system for a technical facility

[0002] Note: All personal formulations in this document are to be understood as gender-neutral.

[0003] The invention relates to a control system for a technical plant, in particular a manufacturing or processing plant. Furthermore, the invention relates to the use of a control system for operating a technical plant.

[0004] Modern control systems, such as those commonly used in highly automated technical systems such as process engineering systems in the process industry, manufacturing or production systems in the automotive industry, power plants, etc., form the interface between a technical process running within the system and the operating personnel who are responsible for controlling and / or monitoring the technical process. Using automation components and an operating and monitoring system within a control system, the operating personnel can access all relevant process values ​​and, if necessary, influence the process through operator actions.

[0005] For the operation and monitoring of process engineering plants, symbolic plant panels are created. These panels provide an abstract representation of the process engineering relationships, particularly between the process objects of the components of the technical plant. Plant panels are configured during engineering, i.e., the operating and display elements of the plant panels are positioned and their properties defined. The various operating and display elements include: static symbols (e.g., lines, rectangles, etc.), dynamic symbols (e.g., lines with color changes depending on process values, rectangles with fill levels, etc.), block symbols (for the dynamic visualization of process engineering process objects), complex control displays (e.g., trend displays, message sequence displays, etc.).) and so-called containers, which represent self-contained image units for visualizing content from independent and autonomous sources that are not part of the control system. Examples include webcams or other IoT devices, plant images of modular plant components (package units), software applications (e.g., apps for controller optimization, KPI calculations), etc.

[0006] Containers in plant diagrams are implemented using a variety of technologies – in modern web-oriented control systems, for example, using so-called iFrames or based on the iFrame-based SWAC technology (SWAC = Siemens Web Application Collaboration). SWAC technology is a mechanism that promotes interoperability between user and provider applications (hereinafter referred to as services). SWAC technology is a mechanism that promotes interoperability between user and provider applications (hereinafter referred to as services). It is becoming increasingly necessary to integrate various applications into a system, for example, an application from a customer site or one provided by a service provider. SWAC technology offers the possibility of accessing applications via the Internet and integrating third-party websites, and provides appropriate interfaces for this purpose: web-based interfaces or API interfaces (API = Application Programming Interface) or other communication interfaces.

[0007] The "external content" hosted in such containers is generally integrated into a plant diagram for observation purposes only, without interaction with the control system, in a kind of sandbox. It is only loaded and executed when the plant diagram is opened. Collaboration with other basic functions of the control system is not possible in this way. Plant diagrams therefore contain operating and display elements from decoupled applications and external devices and are therefore highly heterogeneous. Modularity is sensible and necessary to address Industry 4.0 (Industrial Internet of Things, abbreviated to lloT) requirements for flexible, modular, dynamic, and reconfigurable plants. However, this heterogeneity poses corresponding challenges for visualization in the operator station clients with regard to stability, reliability, and performance.The operation and monitoring of data from external devices and services is inadequate. Therefore, there is a need to homogenize the plant images, i.e., to better integrate the data from external devices and services into the control system.

[0008] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a control system by means of which an efficient, homogeneous and more flexible operation and monitoring of a technical system to be controlled is achieved and which in particular allows an improved integration of external content into the control system.

[0009] This object is achieved by a control system for a technical installation having the features of claim 1. Furthermore, the object is achieved by using the control system for operating a technical installation according to claim 7. Advantageous further developments emerge from the dependent claims.

[0010] The control system according to the invention for a technical plant, in particular a production or process plant, is designed to record process values ​​of components of the technical plant by means of automation components of the control system and to display them for operation and monitoring on graphical user interfaces in plant images and image windows, wherein contents of external devices or services which are not part of the control system and have a web-based frontend are embedded in the plant images in their own process environments and displayed in their own image windows.The control system is characterized in that it is further designed to access the web-based frontend of the contents of external devices or services embedded in the runtime environments via at least one correspondingly configured interface, that data of the contents of external devices or services embedded in the runtime environments are acquired via this at least one interface, converted into process values ​​of the control system, and integrated in terms of process technology in such a way that these data are subject to the same functionalities as process values ​​of the automation components of the control system.

[0011] The term "process value" refers to a measurable quantity that describes the state or properties of an ongoing process in a technical plant. The process value in a process plant can include, for example, temperature, pressure, fill level, flow, or other relevant parameters. In this description, the term "process value" refers to values ​​that are recorded by measuring transducers in sync with the automation system and fed to the control system via an automation component, where they are further processed by the control system.

[0012] A technical facility can be a facility in the process industry, such as a chemical, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, or food and beverages industry. This also includes any facility in the manufacturing industry, such as factories where cars or goods of any kind are produced. Furthermore, the term "technical facility" also includes energy generation facilities such as wind turbines, solar power plants, or power plants of any kind.

[0013] In this context, a control system is understood to be a computer-aided, technical system that includes functionalities for operating, monitoring, controlling, and regulating the technical system. The control system may also include sensors for determining measured values, as well as various actuators. Furthermore, the control system may include process- or production-related components, usually referred to as automation components, which serve to control the actuators or sensors. Furthermore, the control system may, among other things, include means for visualizing the technical system and for engineering. The control system may optionally also include additional processing units for more complex control systems and systems for data storage and processing.The control system is preferably designed so that during configuration of the control system, it is possible to select and specify whether individual data acquired via the interface is to be integrated using symbols in a plant image editor. The interface data is then transferred to a process image in accordance with the configuration specifications. In this process image, a separate data structure is created for the external devices or services, which corresponds to a data structure for the process values ​​of automation components of the control system. Ultimately, this also creates a process object for the external devices and services. By having the same data structure for the process objects of components of the control system and for those of a device or service outside the control system in the process image, the same further processing in the control system is advantageously achieved for both “types” of data.The control system's software components no longer differentiate between external and internal data, but only view process values ​​derived from the process image. The invention processes data from external devices and services in the same software as process values ​​from the technical system itself. This enables consistent handling of data originating from outside the control system, which also results in consistent visualization.

[0014] This advantageously leads to the data from external devices or services being integrated in such a way that collaboration with control system services is also included, which includes at least a display of trend curves of the data from external devices and services and / or a dynamization of the data in symbols in the plant diagram and / or the triggering of process-related alarms. Collaboration means that the data from external devices or services can interact with and be processed by a variety of software components of the control system's software architecture. This can include functionalities such as archiving, data management, the alarm service, the visualization service, or an event manager. Problems that arise during the operation of the technical system can be recorded better and faster in this way. The operation of the external devices or services thus becomes significantly more efficient.

[0015] Within the scope of a preferred development of the invention, the control system is designed such that, during configuration, it is possible to select which data from external devices or services are to be included in the process image. This allows for particular flexibility in the configuration of the technical system. The selection is made during configuration in a dedicated configuration unit. In a preferred embodiment, the data from external devices or services relevant for the process image is selected in an editor on the graphical user interface of the configuration unit using specially provided symbols. This is particularly user-friendly and simple.

[0016] Within the scope of a further preferred development of the invention, the control system is designed in such a way that during the configuration it can be selected in which cycles of the control system the data of the external devices or services are to be displayed.

[0017] In this version, the configuration unit is designed in such a way that, when configuring the runtime environment and selecting the data from external devices or services to be integrated, it is possible to specify the control system cycles in which the data in a process image should be updated. This can be done, for example, using checkboxes in the editor. In this way, information overload in the control system can be reduced. Optimizing system performance is also conceivable. Furthermore, it may be useful to display data only when certain events occur or certain states are reached. Operators can then react specifically to important events and act more quickly.

[0018] The control system is advantageously designed such that the data from external devices or services is transmitted to at least one proxy module before being transmitted to the process image. The proxy module thus has the function of retrieving the data from the external device or service during operation of the control system. It thus serves as an intermediate layer between the runtime environment of the external device or service and the process image. The latter can be located, for example, on a server or in a cloud, while the runtime environment is on a client or a mobile device. The proxy module can thus provide an additional security layer for monitoring, analyzing, filtering, and controlling incoming data traffic.

[0019] The control system is advantageously designed such that it has a configuration unit that is connected to the control system via an interface, and the corresponding configuration of the runtime environment, including the associated process image of the external devices or services, can be transferred to a dedicated database of the control system. In this way, the configuration of each plant image with the runtime environments of the external devices and services configured according to the invention is stored in the control system via the process image, so that this configuration can be accessed during ongoing operation. The previously formulated problem is also solved by using a control system—as explained above—to operate a technical plant, in particular a production or process plant.

[0020] The above-described properties, features, and advantages of this invention, as well as the manner in which they are achieved, will become clearer and more readily understood in connection with the following description of exemplary embodiments, which are explained in more detail in conjunction with the drawings.

[0021] FIG 1 shows a graphical user interface of a project planning unit during the engineering phase according to an embodiment of this invention and

[0022] FIG 2 shows a functional diagram of an embodiment of the control system according to the invention with associated software architecture.

[0023] Figure 1 shows an example of a graphical user interface Ul 1 of a configuration unit ES_S. As already mentioned, plant diagrams are configured in engineering phases, either before commissioning of a technical plant or in parallel with ongoing operation, i.e. all image elements, symbols, dynamizations, complex control displays, containers, etc. that are related to components of the technical plant are positioned in the plant diagram and their properties are defined. The functional diagram in Fig. 2 shows an engineering server ES_S with some of the software components required for generating plant diagrams (here in the form of rectangles, abbreviated to SW components) as an example. The engineering server ES_S is connected to the control system L via a communication bus TB.

[0024] The PD_E software component in the ES_S engineering server is responsible for preconfiguring the plant displays. The PD_E plant display editor stores which display element of which category is present in a specific plant display. The PD_E software component is connected to a DB database in which all project planning data and plant display configurations are stored. The engineering server contains, in particular, the CFC (Continuous Function Chart) function charts, which are used for graphically programming control sequences in the control system, along with their configurations, for example, for controlling automation components. After configuring the plant displays or programming the function charts, these are compiled using the C&L component and loaded as configuration files into a Config configuration database on the OS_S operation station server.In general, the engineering server ES_S is a variant of a configuration unit. A distinction can be made between central configuration units, which are located centrally in one location, for example in a control room, and decentralized configuration units. In the latter case, there are several configuration units, which are distributed, for example, across the technical system. Each unit is responsible for a specific area or part of the system. In some cases, configuration units can be mobile, for example as a tablet or smartphone, which means that they can be physically moved. With advancing technology, configuration units can also be virtual, i.e. they exist as software instances on a computer or server. This enables flexible management and scaling of the configuration units as required.

[0025] A configuration unit comprises or is connected to a display device such as a monitor or a client computer. On this display unit, the plant images and image windows can be designed and configured via a graphical user interface U11. In the example shown in Fig. 1, a plant image editor PD_E is used for configuration. The plant image PD to be configured is shown on the left side of the user interface U11, and a property sidebar SB (English: "Property Sidebar") with graphical symbols for specifying the properties and configuring the image elements displayed in the plant image PD is shown on the right side.

[0026] The plant image editor shown in Fig. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment for the inventive engineering of devices or services that are not part of the control system. These can be any HoT devices or software applications. The prerequisite is that such devices or services can offer a web-based frontend. A web-based frontend is a web page called up via a web browser that allows users to interact with an application or system. A web-based frontend can be accessed via a URL. URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator." It is therefore the address or link used to access a specific resource on the Internet. To embed an IoT device in a web container of the control system, for example, the URL of the SD property bar in Fig.1 The corresponding URL must be entered. This URL can be a combination of the protocol (e.g., "http: / / " or "https: / / "), the domain name or IP address of the server, and a specific path to the desired page or function. The web-based frontend can then be accessed via an appropriately configured interface, allowing all the functions and content it offers to be used. This means that the web-based frontend can also collect data linked to an associated device or service, which constitutes "external content" that does not originate from the control system. Standard interfaces such as those provided by iFrame or SWAC technology, which can be used to embed external web pages in web containers, are suitable as interfaces.

[0027] By using the web-based frontend in the engineering context, data from external devices and services can be integrated into the control system. In the exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the data associated with the mixer unit, a first pressure p1, a temperature T, a second pressure p2, a flow rate F, and a state value S, are acquired via the web-based frontend of the modular mixer unit MME after entering the corresponding URL. This data (p1, T, p2, F, S) is then displayed in a table in the properties bar SB as properties of the associated web container. In this exemplary embodiment, checkboxes can be used to specify for each determined property of the interface whether it should be adopted as process values ​​in a process image of the control system.If properties are to be transferred to the process image as process values, the cycles in which the process values ​​in the process image should be updated can also be specified. Using drag & drop (d&d) functionality, trend curves, for example, can now be created for selected properties (data from the external device). During such a move operation, the project engineer, after selecting the property in the property bar, drags the cursor to an area of ​​the plant image and selects a display format provided by the control system (in this case, a trend display).

[0028] Fig. 2 shows a functional diagram of an embodiment of a control system L according to the invention with an associated software architecture.

[0029] In the present exemplary embodiment, the control system L comprises an operator station client OS_C, an operator station server OS_S and an automation component AS1. The control system can of course have a large number of operator station clients, servers and automation components. The automation components are connected on the one hand to the operator station servers via a plant bus PB and on the other hand to the field level via at least one further bus (not shown here) with decentralized peripherals to which a large number of field devices (sensors, actuators, not shown here) are connected. An operator control and monitoring system, which can be understood as part of a control system, generally consists of a large number of operator station servers and at least one client computer OS_C.The operator station client OS_C exchanges information and data with the operator station servers via another bus system TB, referred to here as the terminal bus. The control system is often configured to include another component, an engineering workstation ES_S. In this exemplary embodiment, this is a stationary or mobile computer or server that is connected to at least one of the communication systems TB and PB for data transmission and can also be accessed via a client of the operator control and monitoring system. If required, additional computers or servers can be connected to the communication systems TB and PB.

[0030] In Fig. 2, in addition to the hardware components of the control system, a webcam WC is shown as a representative of components that are not part of the control system. According to the objective of the present invention, the data and functionality of the webcam should not only be integrated into the control system, but should also be fully integrated into the process.

[0031] In Fig. 2, in addition to parts of the control system's hardware components just described, parts of the software architecture are also shown in simplified form. Software components are represented as rectangles. Interactions between software components relevant to the invention are indicated by arrows.

[0032] A visualization service VS is integrated into the Operator Station Server OS_S. This visualization service is responsible for the visualization of the process running in a technical plant at runtime, i.e. during operation, and is used to transfer (visualization) data from the Operator Station Server OS_S to the Operator Station Client OS_C. The visualization service VS uses various logic components to provide the plant image AB with all its static and dynamic image elements. Each logic component in the visualization service of the Operator Station Server has a corresponding display component in the Operator Station Client. For example, a trend diagram service TD_BL (Trend Display Business Logic) in the visualization service VS creates a trend diagram (TD_BL) that incorporates all process values ​​from the process image PI."Trend") TD_V, which is transmitted to the operator station client for visual display. An alarm summary display service ASD_BL ("Alarm Summary Display Business Logic") in the visualization service VS creates an alarm summary display (Alarm Summary Display") ASD_V, including all process values ​​from the process image PI, which is transmitted to the operator station client for visual display. The plant image AB from the embodiment shown in Fig. 2 also includes an image from the webcam WC. The camera represents devices and services (software applications) that can offer a web-based frontend with a suitable interface. This includes all edge devices or IoT devices. These are usually embedded in so-called web containers (here web container WC_V) to display their data.

[0033] A web container, in software engineering, is a runtime environment that enables the execution of web applications. The main function of a web container is to isolate web applications and provide them with a secure and controlled environment for execution. It enables the execution of server-side code and the execution of servlets written as Java classes that can process HTTP requests. Such a container can therefore be used to integrate objects into a control panel, i.e., the graphical user interface of a control system.

[0034] According to the invention, after embedding the external device or service in the web container (here, the web camera WC in the web container WC_V), a so-called web container proxy service (English: "Web Container Proxy Business Logic") is created in the visualization service. A web container proxy acts as an intermediary and enables the efficient forwarding of requests to the corresponding web container. The main function of a web container proxy is to retrieve incoming data traffic, monitor it, and forward requests. Based on the default settings in the engineering (see Fig. 1) in the plant image editor, the properties present in the interface of the web frontend of the device or service integrated in the container are now converted into process values ​​of the process image PI of the operator station server in order to be able to use the transferred data for further expansion of the plant image (trend curves, etc.).If parts of the data from the interface are transferred to the PI process image, a data structure is created for the web container containing the data from the external devices and services (here, WCP Monitor). After the data structure is created in the PI process image, this data is treated like process values ​​originating from automation components (here, AS1) of the control system. This means that this data from the external devices and services is archived in the local archive (LA) like other process values. Furthermore, with further configuration, alarms can also be generated from these process values ​​via the AS alarm service.

[0035] The WCP Monitor data structure created in this way now has the same structure as the process object POI: pidcons_1 in the process image PI, which is operatively connected to the function block pidcons_1 of the automation component AS1. In a conventional manner, the image elements displayed in the plant images are fed or dynamized by process values ​​from so-called process objects POIs, which are located in a process image (PI, see Fig. 2) of the operator station server OS_S of the control system. The term "dynamized" is used here to represent a temporal change in the process values ​​and thus also the temporal change in the visualization of the technical component. This temporal change can be caused either by the process itself (temperature measured value of a container changes) or by an operator (input: "Heat the container to a temperature of 100°C").The computer-implemented process object located in the process image PI is always assigned to a technical component of the technical system and is operatively connected to it. According to this invention, however, the WCP data structure, which is filled with data from an external device or service, is structured exactly like the process object of a technical component of the technical system. In this way, collaboration with other software components of the control system can take place between this data structure of an external device or service: with the data management DM, the event manager EM, or the distribution component D. The described integration of the data from the external devices and services has the particular effect that alarms and messages are extracted by the event manager EM component from the component of the process image PI and processed there.The various message classes, especially alarms, are forwarded along with other variables to be displayed, such as process values, to the Visualization Service (VS), where further processing can take place in the other logic modules. This enables alarm management that is otherwise only possible with "real" process values ​​from the control system. This achieves complete process integration, which also allows collaboration with the other software components of the Operator Station Server.

[0036] If the relevant property data of the external devices and services integrated in the web container have been transferred to the process image PI, these data of the external devices and services are not only archived as process values, but are also reused for the purpose of improved operation and monitoring, e.g.

[0037] • configure a trend curve,

[0038] • to graphically dynamize other symbols in the system image (e.g. color change of a pressure vessel at high pressure),

[0039] • or even to trigger process-related alarms when a process value exceeds a certain value (e.g. when the pressure exceeds a threshold). Devices or services with a web frontend embedded in web containers are thus fully integrable in a process-related sense and can participate in other functions of the control system.

Claims

Patent claims 1. A control system for a technical plant, in particular a manufacturing or process plant, which is designed to record process values ​​from components of the technical plant by means of automation components of the control system and to display them for operation and monitoring on graphical user interfaces in plant images and image windows, wherein contents of external devices or services which are not part of the control system and have a web-based frontend are embedded in the plant images in their own runtime environments and displayed in their own image windows, characterized in that the control system is further designed to access the web-based frontend of the contents of external devices or services embedded in the runtime environments via at least one correspondingly configured interface, and to record data from the contents of external devices or services embedded in the runtime environments via this at least one interface,to be converted into process values ​​of the control system and to be integrated in such a way that this data is subject to the same functionalities as process values ​​of the automation components of the control system.

2. Control system according to claim 1, which is further designed so that during configuration of the control system, it can be selected and determined via symbols in a plant image editor for individual data acquired via the interface whether this data is to be integrated, and then the data of the interface are transferred into a process image according to the specifications of the configuration, in which a data structure specific to the external devices or services is created, which corresponds to a data structure for the process values ​​of automation components of the control system.

3. Control system according to claim 1 or 2, which is further designed to integrate the data of external devices or services in such a way that collaboration with services of the control system is also included, wherein this includes at least a representation of trend curves of the data and / or a dynamization of the data in symbols in the plant image and / or a triggering of process-related alarms.

4. Control system according to one of the preceding claims, which is designed in such a way that during the configuration it can be selected in which cycles of the control system the data of the external devices or services are to be displayed.

5. Control system according to one of the preceding claims, which is designed such that the data of the external devices or services are transmitted to at least one proxy module before they are transmitted to the process image.

6. Control system according to one of the preceding claims, which is designed such that a configuration unit is provided which is designed such that the configuration unit is connected to the control system via an interface and the corresponding configuration of the runtime environment together with the associated process image of the external devices or services can be transferred to a database of the control system provided for this purpose.

7. Use of a control system according to one of claims 1 to 6 for operating a technical plant, in particular a manufacturing or processing plant.

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