Modular Plant Control Configuration for Vendor-Neutral Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Plant owners typically design, create, and calibrate their own modules individually, leading to significant effort in assembly and high investment costs due to vendor dependency and the need for specific control systems.
Innovation Solution
A method for providing a control software configuration for a modular plant module, involving user definition reception and automatic generation of a controller-agnostic configuration file during the module engineering phase, allowing for flexible binding to hardware controllers during plant engineering.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If plant owners design, create, and calibrate modules individually with vendor-specific control systems, then modules can be customized for specific target systems, but investment costs increase and vendor dependency arises
Solution Approach 1:
The control software configuration is segmented into two distinct parts: a controller-agnostic configuration file generated automatically during module engineering, and controller-specific software bound later during plant engineering. This segmentation allows the module to be designed independently of any specific controller vendor, reducing vendor dependency while maintaining customization capability.
Solution Approach 2:
An automatic configuration generation system acts as an intermediary between module design and controller binding. This intermediary automatically generates the controller-agnostic configuration file based on module specifications, eliminating the need for manual vendor-specific configuration work and reducing both cost and complexity.
2Reliability
If modules are designed individually by plant owners, then specific control requirements can be met, but time and material efforts increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The controller-agnostic configuration file is prepared in advance during module engineering, before any specific controller is selected or plant assembly begins. This preliminary configuration generation captures all necessary control logic and parameters in a vendor-neutral format, eliminating repetitive configuration work during later plant engineering phases and significantly improving engineering efficiency.
3Reliability
If vendor-specific control systems are used for each module, then reliable operation is achieved, but software reusability decreases and adaptation costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The controller-agnostic configuration file serves as a universal interface that can be bound to multiple different controller vendors and types. By designing the configuration to be vendor-neutral while maintaining full control functionality, the same module configuration can be reused across different target systems and controllers, enhancing software reusability without compromising operational reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of providing a control software configuration for a module of a modular plant, the method including, in a module engineering phase: receiving a user definition for the module; and automatically generating the control software configuration for the module based on the user definition, the automatically generating including: specifying parameters for the module that are not specific to any target system; and providing the control software configuration as a controller-agnostic configuration file for subsequent binding of controller software instantiated according to the controller-agnostic configuration file to a hardware controller of the module when the module is integrated into a target system during a plant engineering phase.