Alarm Trend Visualization for Priority-Aware Process Analysis
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Operators in industrial process control systems face challenges in efficiently correlating and analyzing process alarms with process data, as existing methods require manual filtering and mental correlation between trend curves and alarm sequences, leading to information overload and limited abstraction.
Innovation Solution
A visualization method where the alarm system integrates process alarms into trend curves with coding that indicates priority, allowing operators to directly identify high-priority alarms and select relevant areas, and automatically generates a message sequence display for further analysis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If process alarms are displayed separately from trend curves with manual filtering, then all alarm details are available to operators, but operators experience information overload and must mentally correlate between multiple displays
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges alarm information with trend curve visualization by integrating alarm icons directly onto the trend curve at the corresponding time positions. This allows operators to view both process data trends and alarm status in a single unified display, eliminating the need to mentally correlate between separate alarm lists and trend curves while preserving complete alarm information availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a visual dimension to alarm information by representing alarms as icons overlaid on the time-axis of the trend curve. This transforms alarm data from a separate tabular display into a spatially-integrated visual layer that operators can perceive immediately alongside process values, reducing cognitive load while maintaining information completeness.
2Loss of information
If all process alarm details are displayed to operators, then complete information is provided, but operators become overwhelmed and cannot quickly identify high-priority alarms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating alarm icons based on their priority level. High-priority alarms are displayed with distinct visual characteristics (such as different colors or icon types) compared to low-priority alarms. This allows operators to quickly scan the trend curve and immediately identify critical alarms without being overwhelmed by uniform alarm representations, while all alarm details remain accessible upon selection.
3Loss of information
If operators must view and mentally correlate trend curves and alarm sequences, then comprehensive analysis is possible, but operational efficiency and abstraction are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines trend curve visualization and alarm sequence display into a single integrated graphic interface. Alarm icons are positioned on the trend curve at their corresponding timestamps, allowing operators to perceive the temporal relationship between process changes and alarm events directly in the visual display, eliminating the need for separate displays and mental correlation efforts.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4
AI summary
A process control system (2) controls and monitors an industrial plant (1). The process control system (2) is aware of process objects (3) and the assignment of process data (x, x*, Pi) and process alarms (Aj) to the process objects (3). The process alarms (Aj) each have a priority. The process control system (2) automatically triggers a process alarm (Aj) when the process data (x, x*, Pi) meets a trigger condition. In this case, the process control system (2) transmits a corresponding alarm message (M) to an alarm system (5), which issues the corresponding process alarm (Aj) to an operator (4). The process control system (2) archives the process data (x, x*, Pi) and the triggered process alarms (Aj) at the time of recording in the form of a history.Based on the selection of a process data point (x, x*, Pi) and the specification of a display period by the operator (4), the alarm system (5) requests from the process control system (2) the history of the selected process data point (x, x*, Pi) and simultaneously the history of the process alarms (Aj) assigned to the respective process object (3) for the specified display period. The alarm system (5) outputs the corresponding time series of the process data point (x, x*, Pi) as a graph (8) to the operator (4). The graph (8) comprises a number of process data points (9) that the alarm system (5) determines based on the values of the selected process data point (x, x*, Pi) for a given recording period. The alarm system (5) displays the process data points (9) in the graph (8) using a code that indicates the highest priority with which process alarms (Aj) occurred during the respective recording period for each process data point (9).