WO2013170875A1

WO2013170875A1 - Method and mobile terminal for industrial process equipment maintenance

Info

Publication number: WO2013170875A1
Application number: PCT/EP2012/058888
Authority: WO
Inventors: Elina Vartiainen; Martin Olausson; Jonas BRÖNMARK
Original assignee: Abb Research Ltd
Priority date: 2012-05-14
Filing date: 2012-05-14
Publication date: 2013-11-21

Abstract

It is presented a method for facilitating the maintenance of a process component of an industrial process by means of a mobile terminal. The method comprises receiving (S1) data for identifying a process component; obtaining (S2) an identity of the process component based on the data; obtaining (S3) process component information of the identified process component; and projecting (S4) the process component information by means of the mobile terminal. A computer program product and a mobile terminal are also presented herein.

Description

METHOD AND MOBILE TERMINAL FOR INDUSTRIAL PROCESS EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to industrial process maintenance and in particular to a method and a mobile terminal for facilitating

maintenance operations of process components of an industrial process.

BACKGROUND

Industrial processes in fields such as pulp and paper, oil and gas, heat and power generation, and the chemical industry generally comprise a plurality of process components, i.e. process equipment, for carrying out the various process steps.

Typically, one or more operators supervise the process, for example in an operator room, by means of monitoring displays and controllers. In case of maintenance work of a process component is necessary, the operator may send a maintenance engineer to the process component to carry out the maintenance work. For this purpose, the maintenance engineer may carry with him or her a printed paper with information concerning the

maintenance work of a specific process component. Further developments in maintenance work are presented in

US2006/0152478 which discloses a mobile terminal which has a camera module for recording images from an environment, a processor for

processing image and a projection unit. The camera image is analysed using digital image processing, generally including pattern recognition methods so that the imaged process components can be identified. A three-dimensional model of an installation can be used as a basis for calculating the position at which, for example, an arrow is projected onto a real environment by means of the projection unit. However, image processing, especially constant image processing for compensating any movement of the mobile terminal, puts a heavy load on the processor of the mobile terminal. Moreover, maintenance work may still not be sufficiently simplified for a maintenance engineer.

SUMMARY

In view of the above, a general object of the present disclosure is to provide a method and a mobile terminal that facilitates maintenance operations of a process component in an industrial process.

Another object is to reduce the processor loads while facilitating the maintenance operations.

Hence, according to a first aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method for facilitating the maintenance of a process component of an industrial process by means of a mobile terminal, wherein the method comprises: receiving data for identifying a process component; obtaining an identity of the process component based on the data; obtaining process component information of the identified process component; and projecting the process component information by means of the mobile terminal. By means of the present method, maintenance work carried out by a maintenance engineer may be facilitated. To that end, depending on the process component information projected, even novice maintenance engineers may be able to perform maintenance work, even without being accompanied by a senior maintenance engineer. One embodiment comprises, based on the data, determining a location of the mobile terminal, and determining a direction in which the mobile terminal is directed. By determining the location of and direction in which the mobile terminal is oriented, the process component may easily be identified, for example by comparing the coordinates of the mobile terminal and the direction thereof with a diagram with coordinates and directions of process components arranged in an industrial process.

According to one embodiment the determining of the location is based on any of GPS, a Wi-Fi based positioning system or Bluetooth®. According to one embodiment the determining of the direction utilises a gyroscope.

According to one embodiment the data is barcode data associated with the process component. The data may be read from a barcode arranged on the process component, comprising identification information of the process component.

According to one embodiment the data is RFID data associated with the process component. For this purpose, each process component may be provided with an RFID tag. According to one embodiment the process component information is projected onto the process component. Thus, while directing the mobile terminal in the direction of the process component, the process component information is projected onto the process component associated with the process component information. If the mobile terminal is directed towards a second process component, process component information pertaining to the second process component is projected onto the second process component.

According to one embodiment the projecting comprises projecting the process component information onto a portion of the process component which is associated with the process component information. Thereby, that specific portion may be identified, further facilitating the work of the maintenance engineer.

According to one embodiment the projected process component information comprises an identifier which visually identifies the process component. Thereby, the maintenance engineer is able to identify the process component. According to one embodiment the projecting comprises displaying the process component information as stepwise instructions for performing maintenance of the process component. Hence, the steps to be carried out during maintenance work are clearly visualised to the maintenance engineer, thereby facilitating the maintenance work. One embodiment comprises receiving the process component information of stepwise instructions for performing maintenance in real-time from an industrial control system based on a previously performed maintenance action. Hence, the maintenance engineer will immediately receive input or feedback as to the previous step having been carried out by the maintenance engineer, further improving the efficiency and quality of the maintenance work.

According to one embodiment the process component information comprises a status of at least one process variable associated with the process

component.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a computer program product comprising computer-executable components for causing a device to perform the steps according to the first aspect presented herein when the computer-executable components are run on a processing unit included in the device.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a mobile terminal for facilitating the maintenance of a process component of an industrial process, wherein the mobile terminal comprises: a data acquisitor arranged to receive data for identifying a process component; a processor arranged to obtain an identity of the process component based on the data; a memory arranged to store process component information of the process component; and a projector; wherein the mobile terminal is arranged to obtain process component information of the identified process

component from the memory, and wherein the projector is arranged to project the process component information.

According to one embodiment the process component information comprises an identifier which provides a visual identification of the process component when the projector projects the process component information.

According to one embodiment the process component information comprises stepwise instructions for performing maintenance of the process component. According to one embodiment the process component information comprises a status of at least one process variable associated with the process

component.

Generally, all terms used in the claims are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless explicitly defined otherwise herein. All references to "a/an/the element, apparatus, component, means, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. Moreover, any step in a method need not necessarily have to be carried out in the presented order, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The specific embodiments of the inventive concept will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a schematic diagram of an industrial process and a therewith associated industrial control system;

Fig. 2 depicts a mobile terminal for facilitating maintenance work in an industrial process;

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for facilitating the maintenance of a process component of an industrial process by means of the mobile terminal in Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a schematic view of a maintenance engineer using the mobile terminal in Fig. 2 in an industrial process environment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventive concept will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplifying

embodiments are shown. The inventive concept may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the inventive concept to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description.

Fig. l schematically shows an example of an industrial process 3 and an industrial control system 1 for monitoring and controlling the industrial process 3. The industrial process 3 usually involves various process steps carried out by one or more process component 5-A, 5-B, 5-C and 5-D. The process flow according to the example of Fig. 1 is in a direction from left to right, as indicated by arrows A. The industrial control system 1 may, for example, be a distributed industrial control system (DCS). The industrial control system may also be of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) type or a combination of SCADA and DCS. An example of an industrial control system in this context is the ABB® 8ooxA control system.

An industrial process is to be understood to mean a procedure that involves chemical, electrical or mechanical steps to aid in manufacturing, production, power generation, fabrication, or refining. Examples of such industrial processes are processes relating to the refining of oil and gas, the

petrochemical industry, power generation, power transmission, power distribution, metals and mining, chemical industry, pulp and paper, or automation in e.g. the manufacturing industry or food industry. It is to be noted that the present inventive concept can be utilised for maintenance of many different types of industrial processes, with only a few examples having been given above.

A process component may for instance be a tank, a valve, a turbine, a roller or a cluster or rollers for a pulp and paper mill, drying equipment, a refiner, a generator, a motor, a transformer or a boiler. The proper functioning of process components is typically the responsibility of one or more operators and maintenance engineers supervising the industrial process via an industrial control system for example in a control room. To that end, the industrial control system 1 may comprise a plurality of control units 7-1, 7-2, 7-3 , 7-4 such as Remote Terminal Units (RTU) or Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), and a plurality of sensors 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4 associated with a respective control unit 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, 7-4. Each sensor may be comprised in a respective control unit, or alternatively, the control units and sensors may be physically separate units. Each sensor 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4 of the plurality of sensors is arranged to measure one or more process variable(s) of a process component 5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D. Each control unit 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, 7-4 is arranged to control a process component 5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D according to a respective setpoint value which can be set by means of the industrial control system 1.

A process variable is to be construed as a measurable quantity, such as pressure, temperature or voltage, associated with a process component.

The exemplified industrial control system 1 of Fig. 1 further comprises a communications network N and a data communications unit 11 which provides an interface between the industrial process 3 and an operator supervising the industrial process 3. The communications network N may be a wireless system, or a combination of a wired and wireless system. The communications network N is arranged to enable data communication between the control units 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, 7-4 and the data communications unit 11.

The data communications unit 11 is connectable to an input unit 13 such as a keyboard, mouse or a touch screen, which input unit 13 is arranged to receive input commands from a user of the industrial control system 1, e.g. a process operator. The data communications unit 11 is further connectable to a display device 15 for displaying industrial process data, e.g. process variable values, received by the data communications unit 11. Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a mobile terminal 17. According to one embodiment, the mobile terminal 17 is arranged to communicate with the communications unit 11 via the communications network N. It is to be noted that it is envisaged that the mobile terminal may also be able to send data to and receive data from other devices than the communications unit 11. The mobile terminal 17 comprises a data acquisitor 19, a processor 21, a memory 23, and a projector 25. The data acquisitor 19 typically comprises an antenna 20, and in some embodiments also a camera unit 27.

The mobile terminal 17 is via the data acquisitor 19 arranged to receive data for identifying a process component. The processor 21 is arranged to obtain the identity of the process component based on the data. The data may be received by the antenna 20 in embodiments of the mobile terminal where GPS, a Wi-Fi based positioning system, Bluetooth®, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or any other similar communications standard may be used for obtaining the identity of a process component. Alternatively, the camera unit 27 may receive the data in the form of an image, for example if barcode technology is used for obtaining the identity of a process component, for example by means of matrix barcodes such as Quick Response (QR) codes. The term data, as used herein, refers to positioning data in embodiments where a positioning system is used. In this case the data is received by the antenna. The data may further comprise directional information as to the direction in which the mobile terminal 17 is oriented. By means of the position of the mobile device and the direction in which it is oriented, the identity of a process component in the vicinity of the mobile terminal and in the direction in which the mobile terminal is oriented may be determined, for example by comparison with coordinate information concerning the topology of the industrial process.

For embodiments involving RFID, data refers to identification data which identifies a process component. In embodiments where the camera unit is used for obtaining the identity of a process component, the data relates to an image taken by the camera unit, for example the image of a barcode.

According to any variation of the present method, the process of obtaining the identity of a process component may be carried out by the processor 21 in the mobile terminal 17 based on the data received by the mobile terminal 17. Alternatively, the data received by the mobile terminal 17 for identifying a process component may be sent from the mobile terminal to, for example, the industrial control system 1 for identification, wherein the determined process component identity is sent to the mobile terminal 17 via the communications network N.

The mobile terminal 17 may be a dedicated mobile terminal especially manufactured for the purpose of use in an industrial process, and the projector may be integrated with or attachable to the mobile terminal, e.g. a pico projector. Alternatively, the mobile terminal may comprise a mobile device and a projector which is either integrated with or attachable to the mobile device, the mobile device and the projector thus forming the mobile terminal. In the latter case, the mobile device may for example be a smart phone or a tablet computer, and the software carrying out the method disclosed herein may be an application that has been downloaded to the mobile device.

Methods of facilitating the maintenance of process components in an industrial process by means of the mobile device 17 will now be described in more detail with reference to Figs 3 and 4.

In a step Si data for identifying a process component is received by the mobile terminal 17. As mentioned hereabove, the data is received by the data acquisitor 19, either by the antenna 20 or the camera unit 27. In case the data relates to positioning data, the location of the mobile terminal 17 is determined based on the data. Furthermore, the direction in which the mobile terminal 17 is oriented is also determined based on the data. The direction can for example be determined by means of a gyroscope function in the mobile device 17.

In a step S2 an identity of the process component is obtained based on the data received in step Si. In case the data relates to identification data, for example if the data was obtained by the camera unit 27 or via RFID, the identity of the process component may for example be obtained via matching of the received data with identity information in a database. Such a database may for example be stored in a server in the industrial control system, or in the memory 23 of the mobile terminal. If the information is stored in a server in the industrial control system, i.e. externally with respect to the mobile terminal, communication between the mobile terminal 17 and the server may be provided via the communications network N.

In case the data relates to positioning and directional data, the identity of the process component may be established by comparing the determined coordinates and direction of the mobile terminal 17 with topological information of the industrial process 3. The comparison may be carried out in the mobile terminal 17 or externally, for example by the industrial control system 1.

In a step S3, process component information of the identified process component is obtained. The process component information may be obtained from e.g. the industrial control system 1, for example by sending a request of process component information for the identified process component. The thereby received process component information may be loaded into the memory 23 to be retrieved therefrom. Alternatively, the process component information may have been stored in the memory 23 in the mobile terminal 23 at an earlier time, in which case the process component information does not need to be obtained from an eternal source when the method is carried out.

In a step S4, the process component information is projected by means of the mobile terminal. The process component information is projected in the direction in which the mobile terminal 17 is oriented, and in particular the direction in which the projector 25 is oriented. This direction is typically essentially the same direction in which the mobile terminal 17 was oriented when receiving the data for identifying the process component. According to one embodiment the step S4 of projecting typically comprises projecting the process component information onto a portion of the process component which is associated with the process component information.

Process component information may for example be information pertaining to the maintenance of the process component, e.g. stepwise instructions of how to perform maintenance actions on the process component. Hereto Fig. 4 shows an example where the mobile terminal 17 projects a maintenance instruction onto a surface of process component 5-A. One instruction at a time may for example be projected onto a portion of a process component. Thus, when one instruction has been carried out, the next instruction may be projected onto the process component. Thereby, the maintenance engineer may easily follow the steps and properly carry out maintenance work of the process component. Furthermore, according to one embodiment the process component information may be received in real-time from industrial control system based on a previously performed maintenance action. To this end, each subsequent instruction projected by the mobile terminal may be a direct consequence of a previous maintenance step. This interaction between the industrial control system and the mobile terminal may be achieved for example by video monitoring of the maintenance work wherein an operator is able to provide feedback or instructions adapted to the previous maintenance step, by means of sensors arranged at the process component, or by means of audio communication between the maintenance engineer carrying our the maintenance work and an operator in a control room.

According to one embodiment, the process component information

comprises an identifier which visually identifies the process component when the process component information is projected onto the process component. Thus, the process component may easily be identified by a maintenance engineer searching for a specific process component among a great plurality of process components. According to one embodiment, the process component information

comprises a status of at least one process variable associated with the process component. Thus, the maintenance engineer carrying out maintenance work on the process component may see process variable values associated with the process component, for example in real-time, without having to inspect the panel of a process component thus facilitating the work of the

maintenance engineer.

In one embodiment, the process component information projected by the projector 25 in step S4 may be a visualisation of the real-life appearance of a process variable of the process component, projected onto the process component. For example, the process component information projected by the projector onto a tank may provide an augmented reality view of the level of liquid in the tank.

The inventive concept has mainly been described above with reference to a few examples. However, as is readily appreciated by a person skilled in the art, other embodiments than the ones disclosed above are equally possible within the scope of the inventive concept, as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating the maintenance of a process component (5-A, 5- B, 5-C, 5-D) of an industrial process (3) by means of a mobile terminal (17), wherein the method comprises: receiving (Si) data for identifying a process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5- D), obtaining (S2) an identity of the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D) based on the data, obtaining (S3) process component information of the identified process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D), and projecting (S4) the process component information by means of the mobile terminal (17).

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, comprising, based on the data, determining a location of the mobile terminal, and determining a direction in which the mobile terminal is directed.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the determining of the location is based on any of GPS, a Wi-Fi based positioning system or

Bluetooth®.

4. The method as claimed in any of claims 2 or 3, wherein the determining of the direction utilises a gyroscope.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data is barcode data associated with the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D).

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data is RFID data associated with the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D).

7. The method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the process component information is projected onto the process component (5- A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D).

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the projecting (S4) comprises projecting the process component information onto a portion of the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D) which is associated with the process component information.

9. The method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the projected process component information comprises an identifier which visually identifies the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D).

10. The method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the projecting (S4) comprises displaying the process component information as stepwise instructions for performing maintenance of the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D).

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, comprising receiving the process component information of stepwise instructions for performing maintenance in real-time from an industrial control system based on a previously performed maintenance action.

12. The method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the process component information comprises a status of at least one process variable associated with the process component.

13. A computer program product comprising computer-executable components for causing a device to perform the steps recited in any one of claims 1-12 when the computer-executable components are run on a processing unit included in the device.

14. A mobile terminal (17) for facilitating the maintenance of a process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D) of an industrial process (3), wherein the mobile terminal (17) comprises: a data acquisitor (19) arranged to receive data for identifying a process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D), a processor (21) arranged to obtain an identity of the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D) based on the data, a memory (23) arranged to store process component information of the process component, and a projector (25), wherein the mobile terminal (17) is arranged to obtain process component information of the identified process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D) from the memory (23), and wherein the projector is arranged to project (25) the process component information.

15. The mobile terminal (17) as claimed in claim 14, wherein the process component information comprises an identifier which provides a visual identification of the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D) when the projector (25) projects the process component information.

16. The mobile terminal (17) as claimed in claim 14 or 15, wherein the process component information comprises stepwise instructions for performing maintenance of the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D).

17. The mobile terminal (17) as claimed in any of claims 14-16, wherein the process component information comprises a status of at least one process variable associated with the process component (5-A, 5-B, 5-C, 5-D).