JP2001255931A - Device and method for supporting operation - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently perform monitor and control operation of a plant or the like. SOLUTION: This device is provided with an operation recording means 3 equipped for each control terminal 2 for recording the control operation of an object 8 to be controlled performed by at least one operator through his or her own operation terminal as operation recording, a relevant information defining means 5 for defining and outputting the relevance of the operation recording recorded by the operations recording means 3 and the state of the object 8 to be controlled as relevant information, based on the operation recording and the state of the object 8 to be controlled, and a relevant information storing means 6 for storing the outputted relevant information and outputting the stored relevant information to the operator side at the origin of a request, based on the request of the operator.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an operation support system for automatically acquiring an operator's operation as know-how or knowledge in a control system for controlling a plant or the like, and supporting the operator's operation based on the acquired information. The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Usually, in control of a plant or the like, an operation manual is determined in advance, and an operation support method in which an operator is operated according to the operation manual is adopted.

[0003] By such an operation support method based on the operation manual, the operator can perform an appropriate operation even when the operation is changed or when an abnormality occurs, as well as during the normal operation.

However, since an operation manual is often described only roughly, an optimum operation is sometimes performed based on only the information described in the operation manual in accordance with the state of a plant that changes to various states. Difficult to do.

[0005] Therefore, in such an operation support method, an operation situation that cannot be dealt with only by the description of the operation manual is dealt with with the experience and knowledge of the operator.

For this reason, when monitoring and controlling a plant, an unexpected situation can be dealt with by forming a group of a plurality of operators and monitoring and controlling each other while assisting each other. Many. In this group, including experts who are experienced operators, the instructions and operations of these experts are positioned as optimal operations and efficient abnormal avoidance operations.

[0007]

However, such a conventional operation support method has the following problems.

In other words, know-how relating to plant operation is generally difficult to formulate and classify, and is difficult to organize. Almost. Expert know-how backed by a wealth of driving experience is no exception.

For this reason, even in the same operating condition, the operation method differs for each operator, or the operator does not know an appropriate operation method, and as a result of trial and error, a large amount of time is spent on the operation processing. There is a problem that the operation may fall into an inefficient operation.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and automatically creates operation know-how based on operation records made during control operations of a plant or the like performed by an operator, and utilizes this know-how. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an operation support device and a method thereof that can efficiently perform a control operation of a plant or the like.

[0011]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, the present invention takes the following measures.

That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, at least one operator records, as an operation record, a control operation of a controlled object performed through his / her own operation terminal as operation recording means, provided for each operation terminal. Related information defining means for defining and outputting the relationship between the operation record and the state of the controlled object as related information based on the operation record recorded by the operation recording means and the state of the controlled object; Related information storage means for storing the related information and outputting the stored related information to the requesting operator based on the operator's request.

Therefore, in the operation support apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, by taking the above-described means, the control operation associated with the state of the controlled object can be stored from the normal control operations. Can be. Then, by using the result, it is possible to efficiently control the controlled object.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the transmission line is connected to
An operation terminal provided for each operator for receiving an input relating to a control operation of the controlled object by the operator, and operation recording means connected to the transmission path and recording the control operation input via each operation terminal as an operation record And related information defining means for defining and outputting the relationship between the operation record and the state of the controlled object as related information based on the operation record recorded by the operation recording means and the state of the controlled object, and outputting Related information storage means for storing the related information thus stored and outputting the stored related information to the requesting operator based on the operator's request.

Therefore, in the operation support apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, by taking the above-described means, the normal control operation performed by a plurality of operators is associated with the state of the controlled object. Control operations can be stored. Then, by using the result, it is possible to efficiently control the controlled object.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the operation support apparatus according to the first or second aspect, when the related information is output from the related information defining means, the output related information and the related information storage means are provided. Determining whether to store the output related information in the related information storage unit based on the related information already stored in the storage unit, and outputting the related information determined to be stored to the related information storage unit. An information storage determination unit is provided.

Therefore, in the operation support apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention, by taking the above-described means, unnecessary related information and duplicated related information are not stored.
Only necessary related information can be stored and accumulated.

As a result, it is possible to store related information corresponding to more states of the controlled object and to use the information.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the operation support device according to any one of the first to third aspects of the present invention, the state determination means for determining the state of the controlled object and the object to be determined determined by the state determination means. A related information search unit that searches the related information storage unit for related information defined as a state of the controlled body similar to the state of the control body and outputs the related information.

Therefore, in the operation support apparatus according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, by taking the above-described means, it is possible to search the related information accumulated in the past for the related information on the similar event.

As a result, the controlled object can be controlled more efficiently by utilizing the related information.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the operation support device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, the control operation in the event of changing the state of the controlled object is defined as event control operation information. Event control operation information recording means for recording in association with the event control operation information recorded in the event control operation information recording means when an event occurs,
Event control operation search means for searching and outputting event control operation information associated with the event.

Therefore, in the operation support apparatus according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, by taking the above means, it is possible to record a control operation corresponding to an event that changes the state of the controlled object.

As a result, by using the control operation, it is possible to efficiently control the controlled object when an event occurs.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, at least one operator records the control operation of the controlled object performed through his / her own operation terminal as an operation record, and records the recorded operation record and the state of the controlled object. Based on the relationship, the relationship between the operation record and the state of the controlled object is defined and output as relevance information, the output relevance information is stored, and the stored relevance information is requested based on the operator's request. Output to the original operator.

Therefore, in the operation supporting method according to the present invention, by taking the above means, the control operation associated with the state of the controlled object can be stored from the normal control operations. Can be. Then, by using the result, it is possible to efficiently control the controlled object.

[0027]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an operation support apparatus to which the operation support method according to the first embodiment is applied.

An operation support apparatus 1 to which the operation support method according to the present embodiment is applied includes an operation / display screen 2, an operation recording unit 3, a plant state classification unit 4, a relevance extraction unit 5, and know-how accumulation. A section 6 and a know-how display section 7 are provided.

The operation / display screen 2 displays the plant 8 to be operated.
The operation data is acquired from the plant 8 and displayed. Further, it receives an operation input from an operator, and controls the plant 8 based on the operation input. The operation record, which is a record of the operation input, includes an operation recording unit 3
The data is output to the relevance extracting unit 5.

The operation recording unit 3 records the operation record output from the operation / display screen 2 and outputs it to the relevance extracting unit 5.

The operation / display screen 2 and the operation recording section 3 are provided for each operator. In FIG. 1, the operation / display screen 2 (#a) for the operator a and the operation recording section 3 (#
a), an operation / display screen 2 (#b) for operator b,
The operation recording unit 3 (#b) is representatively described.

The plant state classification section 4 stores classification reference data for classifying the operation state of the plant 8. The classification reference data is obtained by classifying the operation state of the plant 8 based on the characteristic event of the process data and the value of the process data as well as the alarm issuance criterion.

The relevancy extracting unit 5 performs a plant operation based on the operation record output from the operation / display screen 2, the operation record output from the operation recording unit 3, and the classification reference data stored in the plant state classification unit 4. The association between the state and the operation record is extracted as related information and output to the know-how accumulation unit 6.

The know-how accumulating section 6 derives information from the relation information between the plant state and the operation record output from the relation extracting section 5.
Related information with high relevance is classified for each plant state and accumulated and stored as know-how. The method of accumulating know-how is not only a method of accumulating related information relating a plant state and an operation record made by a certain operator corresponding thereto as one know-how, but also a method of accumulating the plant state and corresponding thereto. It is also possible to accumulate all or a part of the group, that is, all or a part of the related information that is associated with the operation records of a plurality of operators as one know-how.

In practice, the operation method may be different even in the same plant condition depending on the number of operators to be operated and other process data, and so on. Also, if necessary, information can be added or unnecessary information can be deleted and updated.

As an example of a method of updating the know-how accumulated once, an operation commonly performed from a plurality of operation methods accumulated as know-how for the same plant state is taken as highly reliable know-how. With respect to the method of extraction and accumulation, and various process data obtained from the plant 8, the plant state is newly defined based on the correlation amount between the data, and the operation record made for the newly defined plant state is recorded. There is a method of extracting and accumulating as know-how.

When the related information is output from the relevance extracting section 5, the output related information is compared with the already stored related information, and the output of the related information is included in the already stored related information. When there is the same information as the related information, it is not stored.

The know-how display unit 7 can receive a request for know-how display from the operator. When the operator inputs a know-how display request, the know-how display unit 7 acquires and displays the relevant know-how from the know-how storage unit 6. I do. The know-how display section 7 is also provided for each of the plurality of operators. In FIG. 1, the know-how display section 7 (#a) for the operator a and the know-how display section 7 for the operator b are provided.
(#B).

Next, the operation of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The control operation of the plant 8 is performed by an operator's operation input through the operation / display screen 2. In this case, the operation input (S1a) from the operator a via the operation / display screen 2 (#a) is changed to the operation input (S1a) from the operator b via the operation / display screen 2 (#b).
1b) is input.

The operations at this time are recorded in time series by the operation recording unit 3 corresponding to each operation / display screen 2. That is, the operation from the operation / display screen 2 (#a) is recorded in the operation recording unit 3 (#a), and the operation from the operation / display screen 2 (#b) is recorded in the operation recording unit 3 (##).
b) (S2a, S2b).

Each operation input recorded in the operation recording unit 3 is output to the relevance extracting unit 5 as an operation record.
Then, the operation records output from each operation recording unit 3 are combined in the relevance extraction unit 5 and recorded as operation records on the same time axis (S3).

Further, the relevance extracting unit 5 determines the relevance between the plant state and the operation record based on the classification reference data obtained from the plant state classification unit 4 and the operation record synthesized and recorded on the same time axis. Is extracted as related information (S4).

This related information is output to the know-how accumulating section 6, and the know-how accumulating section 6 outputs only the new relevant information determined to be highly relevant to the plant state among the output relevant information. The information is classified for each state and accumulated as know-how (S5).

The know-how accumulated in the know-how accumulating section 6 is appropriately displayed from the know-how display section 7 of the requesting operator based on the request from the operator.

The operator refers to this know-how information,
By performing an appropriate operation, the control operation of the plant 8 is efficiently performed.

The operation terminal in the claims is the operation / display screen 2 in the present embodiment, the operation recording means in the claims is the operation recording section 3 in the present embodiment, and the related information defining means in the claims is the In the embodiment, the relevance extraction unit 5 includes the related information storage unit, the related information storage determination unit, and the event control operation recording unit in the claims in the know-how storage unit 6 in the present embodiment. In the embodiment, the plant state classification unit 4
The related information search means and the event control operation search means in the claims respectively correspond to the know-how display section 7 in the present embodiment.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the operation record is automatically recorded without the operator's consciousness by the above-described operation, and further, the know-how relating this operation record to the plant state is provided. Can be accumulated as

An operator refers to the accumulated know-how in this manner, so that it can be appropriately used even in an operation state not described in the operation manual (for example, an operation to avoid an abnormality or a recovery operation when an abnormality occurs). The operation can be performed, and the control operation of the plant 8 can be efficiently performed.

(Second Embodiment) A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of an operation support apparatus to which the operation support method according to the second embodiment is applied. The same parts as those in FIG. Here, only the different parts will be described.

An operation support apparatus 1 to which the operation support method according to the second embodiment is applied is constructed as a client-server system using a transmission line 9, and includes a client computer 10, an interface 11, and a server 12. And a controller 13.

The client computer 10 is an input / output terminal provided for each operator, and is connected to the transmission line 9 via the interface 11. This client computer 10 includes an operation recording unit 3 and a know-how display unit 7.

The interface 11 is inserted between the client computer 10 and the transmission line 9 and has an operation / display screen 2. The interface 11 has a user authentication function, and before operation, first, a login process is imposed on an operator to be operated for authentication, and only an operation input by the authenticated operator is accepted.

The server 12 is connected to the transmission line 9 and has a plant status classifying unit 4, a relevancy extracting unit 5, a know-how storing unit 6
It has.

The controller 13 is interposed between the plant 8 and the transmission line 9, acquires process data and the like from the plant 8, and extracts the acquired process data and the like via the transmission line 9 to extract the relevance of the server 12. Output to section 5. Further, it receives operation input information from the operator input via the operation / display screen 2 of the client computer 10 and outputs it to the plant 8 side.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, the operator a who is an inexperienced operator is in charge of operation of the client computer 10 (#a), and the experienced person is in charge of operation of the client computer 10 (#b). It is assumed that the operator b is a simple operator, and an operation record performed in cooperation with these two operators is accumulated as know-how.

First, the operator a sets the interface 11
By performing an operation input via the operation / display screen 2 (#a) of (#a), operation information necessary for controlling the plant 8 is output. The operation information is input to the controller 13 via the transmission line 9 and then to the plant 8 to control the plant 8.

The operator b operates the interface 11
By performing an operation input via the operation / display screen 2 (#b) of (#b), operation information necessary for controlling the plant 8 is output. This operation information is similarly input to the controller 13 via the transmission line 9 and then transmitted to the plant 8.
, The plant 8 is controlled.

On the other hand, each operation / display screen 2 (#a, #b)
The operation record of each operation information output from is output together with the information of the operated operator to the association extracting unit 5 provided in the server 12 via the transmission line 9.
Therefore, the operation records are combined as operation records on the same time axis, and information of the operated operator and time data are associated with each other and recorded as related information.

In the relevance extracting section 5, the operation information of the plant 8 (for example, an alarm issuance period, a process data value, etc.) acquired by the controller 13 is also output from the controller 13. Then, this driving information is also recorded in association with the related information, and is output to the know-how accumulation unit 6.

Then, in the know-how accumulating section 6, only new relevant information determined to be highly relevant to the plant state among the relevant information output from the relevance extracting section 5 is accumulated as know-how. An example of this know-how accumulation method will be described with reference to the time chart of FIG.

The time chart shown in FIG. 4 is a diagram in which the display screens (〜) of the operation / display screen 2 used by the operators a and b for the operation control are linked to the alarm timing.

When the operation of the plant 8 is started, the operation of displaying the operation / display screen 2 is performed by the operators a and b. Thereafter, the operation / display screen 2 (#b) is changed from the screen to the screen by the operator b, while the operation / display screen 2 (#a) is changed from the screen to the screen by the operator a, and the respective operations are performed. ing.

Thereafter, the client computer 10
Since the alarm A has occurred on the (#a) side, in order to cope with this, the operator a operates and displays the operation / display screen 2 (#
The screen of a) is changed from the screen to the screen, and the alarm A
Operation was performed.

The operator a tries various operations, but since the alarm A continues to be issued, the operator b changes the operation / display screen 2 (#b) from the screen to the screen, and the operator b Has been started.

This canceling operation, that is, an operation performed by changing the screen from the screen to the screen by the operator b,
Further, the alarm A was canceled by the operation performed after returning the screen to the screen. Therefore, the operation performed in the time zone T1 indicated by the oblique lines in FIG. 4 is stored in the know-how storage unit 6 as know-how for canceling the alarm A, which cannot be noticed unless the operator is an experienced operator b.

Similarly, the operation performed in the time zone T2 for canceling the alarm B is also regarded as know-how for canceling the alarm B, and is accumulated in the know-how accumulation unit 6.

When a similar alarm occurs again, the know-how relating to the relevant event stored in the know-how storage unit 6 is referred to in the know-how display unit 7, and the know-how is used to deal with the relevant event. Is used as an efficient processing method.

Note that, even if the operation is performed by the experienced operator b, the operation method may be different even for the same event depending on the operation content of the operator a and other process data. Therefore, even know-how once accumulated is updated by adding information or deleting unnecessary information as needed.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the same effect as in the first embodiment can be obtained by the above-described operation.

As described above, the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. Within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims, those skilled in the art can come up with various modified examples and modified examples, and these modified examples and modified examples are also within the technical scope of the present invention. It is understood that it belongs to.

[0076]

As described above, according to the operation support apparatus and the method thereof of the present invention, the operation know-how is automatically created based on the operation record performed during the control operation of the plant or the like performed by the operator. be able to.

Further, by utilizing this know-how, it is possible to realize an operation support apparatus and a method thereof capable of efficiently performing a control operation of a plant or the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of an operation support device to which an operation support method according to a first embodiment is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the operation support device to which the operation support method according to the first embodiment is applied when know-how is accumulated.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing an example of an operation support device to which an operation support method according to a second embodiment is applied.

FIG. 4 is a time chart in which a display screen displayed by an operator is linked to an alarm timing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Operation support apparatus, 2 ... Operation / display screen, 3 ... Operation recording part, 4 ... Plant state classification part, 5 ... Relevance extraction part, 6 ... Know-how storage part, 7 ... Know-how display part, 8 ... Plant, 9 ... Transmission path, 10 ... Client computer, 11 ... Interface, 12 ... Server, 13 ... Controller.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An operation recording means provided for each operation terminal, wherein at least one operator records a control operation of a controlled object performed through his / her own operation terminal as an operation record; Related information defining means for defining and outputting the relationship between the operation record and the state of the controlled object as related information based on the recorded operation record and the state of the controlled object, And an associated information storage means for storing information and outputting the stored associated information to the requesting operator based on the operator's request. 2. An operation terminal connected to a transmission line and receiving an input relating to a control operation of a controlled object by an operator, provided for each operator; and an input terminal connected to the transmission line and inputting through each operation terminal. The control operation is performed as an operation record, an operation recording unit that records the operation record and the state of the controlled object based on the operation record recorded by the operation recording unit and the state of the controlled object. Related information defining means for defining and outputting the related information as related information, storing the output related information, and outputting the stored related information to the requesting operator based on the operator's request. An operation support device comprising: a related information storage unit. 3. The operation support device according to claim 1, wherein when the related information is output from the related information defining unit, the output related information and the related information storage unit are already stored in the related information storing unit. Based on the stored related information, it is determined whether to store the output related information in the related information storage unit, and the related information determined to be stored is output to the related information storage unit. An operation support device comprising a related information storage determination unit. 4. The operation support device according to claim 1, wherein a state determination unit that determines a state of the controlled object, and a state of the controlled object determined by the state determination unit. An operation support apparatus comprising: a related information search unit that searches the related information storage unit for related information defined as a state of a controlled object similar to a state and outputs the related information. 5. The operation support device according to claim 1, wherein a control operation in an event that changes a state of the controlled object is associated with the event as event control operation information. Event control operation information recording means for recording, and, when the event occurs, from the event control operation information recorded in the event control operation information recording means, the event control operation information associated with the event An operation support device comprising: an event control operation search means for searching and outputting. 6. At least one operator records a control operation of a controlled object performed through his / her own operation terminal as an operation record, based on the recorded operation record and a state of the controlled object, The relationship between the operation record and the state of the controlled object is defined and output as relevance information, and the output relevancy information is stored, and the stored relevance information is stored based on a request of the operator. And outputting the request to the requesting operator.