Semantic Model Integration for Process Control Engineering

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional process control systems in plants face inefficiencies in sharing and reusing design drawings and specifications among engineers, leading to cumbersome engineering processes and difficulties in understanding and updating design documents due to variations in engineering tools and individual engineer expertise.

Innovation Solution

An engineering support system that transforms design drawings into semantic models, generates combined semantic models based on similarity, and extracts necessary information to create usable design documents, utilizing databases for transformation and similarity calculation rules to improve information sharing and integration.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If design drawings and specifications are shared among engineers using various engineering tools, then information availability improves, but understanding and updating becomes difficult due to tool variations and individual expertise differences

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation availabilityVSAvoidunderstanding and updating difficulty
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a semantic model as an intermediary layer between diverse design drawings and engineering specifications. This semantic model standardizes the representation of engineering information, enabling different engineering tools and formats to be integrated through a common semantic framework, thereby improving information availability while maintaining ease of understanding and updating

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent transforms design drawings and specifications into a standardized semantic parameter format. By converting various engineering document types into unified semantic parameters, the system enables consistent information representation across different tools and formats, resolving the contradiction between information availability and operational ease

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Productivity

If design drawings are transformed into semantic models and combined based on similarity, then information integration improves, but processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveengineering efficiencyVSAvoidsystem processing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates semantic model copies from original design drawings, allowing the system to work with standardized representations rather than the complex original formats. This copying approach enables efficient information integration while reducing processing complexity, as the semantic models serve as simplified, standardized versions of the source documents

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The transformation process converts diverse design drawings into unified semantic parameters, and the combination process merges these parameters based on similarity metrics. This parameter-based approach improves engineering productivity by enabling automated information integration while managing processing complexity through systematic parameter transformation and merging

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS11467560B2Engineering support system and engineering support method
Publication Date: 2022.10.11 YOKOGAWA ELECTRIC CORP
  • US11467560B2 patent drawing
  • US11467560B2 patent drawing
  • US11467560B2 patent drawing

AI summary

An engineering support system that supports engineering of a process control system, includes: a storage; and a processor connected to the storage and that: transforms design drawings into semantic models and outputs the semantic models to the storage; and generates a combined semantic model by combining the semantic models based on a degree of similarity among the semantic models and outputs the combined semantic model to the storage, wherein each of the semantic models is expressed by first information indicating elements included in the design drawings and second information indicating a relationship between the elements.