Alarm Tag Association for Industrial Control Latency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing industrial control systems face challenges in efficiently managing alarms, as configuring and evaluating alarms within the control application can impact real-time control latency and require editing of the control program, making it difficult to add or remove alarm conditions without disrupting system operations.
Innovation Solution
An industrial control device with a tag database, program execution component, and alarm processing component that allows alarm conditions to be associated with controller tags, enabling independent evaluation and notification, thus separating alarm management from the control program execution and reducing latency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If alarms are configured within the control application, then alarm management is integrated with control logic, but real-time control latency increases and control program editing is required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments alarm management from control program execution by creating a separate alarm configuration interface and independent alarm evaluation logic. This allows alarm conditions to be monitored and processed independently from the real-time control cycle, eliminating the latency that would result from embedding alarm evaluation within the control program while maintaining integrated alarm management capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary alarm processing layer that sits between the control application and the alarm notification system. This intermediary component receives control data, evaluates alarm conditions independently, and generates alarm notifications without requiring control program editing or disrupting the real-time control cycle, thus resolving the contradiction between integrated management and latency.
2Adaptability or versatility
If alarm conditions are added or removed from the control program, then alarm management flexibility improves, but system operation disruption occurs
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting alarm configuration from control program execution, the patent enables independent modification of alarm conditions through a separate configuration interface. This allows users to add, remove, or modify alarm conditions without touching the control program, thereby maintaining system operation continuity while achieving the desired flexibility in alarm management.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by allowing alarm conditions to be pre-configured and stored in a database before system operation begins. This pre-configuration capability enables users to set up alarm conditions offline, and the system automatically loads and monitors them without requiring changes during runtime, thus preventing operational disruptions while maintaining flexibility.
3Device complexity
If alarms are evaluated within the control application, then alarm processing is centralized, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary alarm processing component that centralizes alarm evaluation logic while presenting a simplified configuration interface to users. This intermediary layer handles the complexity of centralized processing internally, while the user interacts with a straightforward configuration system that does not require understanding of the underlying complex architecture, thus resolving the contradiction between centralization and ease of operation.
Data Source
AI summary
An alarm configuration system simplifies alarm management in industrial control systems by improving scalability and capacity of alarms. A control system device allows alarms to be configured by associating the alarm conditions with controller tags or other components of a control system. Properties of these alarm conditions can be referenced by external systems as well as programmatically as extensions of the associated controller tag or component. The alarm conditions are evaluated independently of the control program executed by the control device. A development system allows association of reusable user-defined alarm conditions with selected data types, such that the alarm conditions are automatically applied to controller tags of the selected data type. Selected alarm conditions can also be grouped into alarm sets, allowing operations to be performed collectively on the set of alarms. The system can also generate collective alarm statistics for the alarm conditions included in an alarm set.