Industrial Process Control System with Automated Image Cycling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing industrial control systems have non-intuitive user interfaces that cause strain injuries to operators and fail to promptly alert them to abnormal situations within industrial processes.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that displays user-selected, process-related images in succession on a control system's display device, with predetermined durations, to monitor and control industrial processes, highlighting abnormal situations and allowing operators to control variables directly without manual browsing, and sorting images by relevance based on process variable data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If operators manually browse through different process related images using an input unit, then they can monitor all parts of the industrial process, but the operation becomes complex and causes strain injuries to operators
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically cycles through displaying different process related images in succession at predetermined intervals without requiring operator interaction. This periodic automatic display eliminates the need for manual browsing while ensuring all process parts are monitored in a systematic sequence, thereby reducing interface complexity and operator strain.
2Reliability
If the system displays all process related images manually, then complete process monitoring is achieved, but the time to detect abnormal situations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously receives process variable data and compares it against predetermined accepted ranges. When an abnormal condition is detected (status value outside accepted range), the system immediately provides feedback by displaying the relevant process related image, enabling rapid response to abnormal situations while maintaining complete process monitoring coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-establishes acceptance ranges for process variables and prepares the display sequence of all process related images in advance. This preliminary configuration allows the system to quickly identify and display abnormal conditions without requiring real-time analysis or manual intervention, thereby reducing response time while maintaining detection reliability.
3Ease of operation
If the system displays process related images in succession automatically, then operator workload is reduced, but the ability to prioritize abnormal situations is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different display priorities to different process related images based on their current status. When abnormal conditions are detected, the corresponding images are displayed with higher priority (interrupting the normal succession sequence), while normal process images continue with standard timing. This local differentiation of display quality ensures abnormal situations are immediately noticed while maintaining automatic operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of monitoring and controlling an industrial process associated with a plurality of process variables by a control system including displaying a set of process related images which are user-selected on a display device of the control system, each process related image of the set of process related images being associated with a process variable of the plurality of process variables; receiving process variable data of the plurality of process variables while the step of displaying is carried out, and when process variable data is received indicating that a process variable has a status value outside a predetermined accepted range; and displaying, on the display device, a process related image which is associated with the process variable with the status value outside the predetermined accepted range, receiving an input command for controlling the process variable, and controlling the process variable based on the input command.