WO2015169680A1

WO2015169680A1 - Control system with a graphical user interface integrating applications into a common display

Info

Publication number: WO2015169680A1
Application number: PCT/EP2015/059467
Authority: WO
Inventors: Elisabeth BURGHART; Hans-Christian OSTERTAG; Alexander Politiadis-Behrens; Thomas Schoch
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 2014-05-09
Filing date: 2015-04-30
Publication date: 2015-11-12

Abstract

Control system and graphical user interface The subject invention is a control system and a graphical user interface (12), wherein the graphical user interface (12) integrates multiple applications, information functions and control functions (14-16; 14'-16'), each pertaining to an entity, e.g. a subsystem, of a technical plant, for example a power plant, in one common display (20).

Description

Specification

CONTROL SYSTEM WITH A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE INTEGRATING APPLICATIONS INTO A COMMON DISPLAY The subject invention concerns a control system and a graph^¬ ical user interface for operating and monitoring an industrial process in a technical plant, for example a power plant.

The subsequent specification will continue on the basis of a power plant as one example for a technical plant. However, the use of a power plant as an example for any technical plant must not be construed as limiting the scope of the pre^¬ sent invention. Moreover, each subsequent mention of a power plant is to be read in the sense of a power plant or any oth- er technical plant.

It is well known, that the operation of a power plant re^¬ quires a full and concise overview over a multitude of sys^¬ tems, subsystems and functions comprised in the relevant plant or associated therewith. Only the most thorough overview allows an operator to access the relevant information and/or operation guidelines necessary for operating the plant and/or for addressing or mending any issues, such as critical states of the plant.

When a critical state of a power plant occurs, the predomi^¬ nant objective is to safely startup or shutdown or continue to operate the relevant generating unit, depending on the op^¬ erating stage of the plant and/or the relevant unit, i.e.

continuing start-up when in start-up phase, continuing shut^¬ down when in shut-down phase, or continuing operation when in operating phase. However, an operator is often presented with numerous data stemming from the aforementioned systems, sub^¬ systems and functions. Moreover, particularly where the plant is a multi-unit plant, the operator is often required to deal with different systems and/or varying operating philosophy approaches, which renders obtaining critical information cumbersome, time-consuming and error-prone. Accordingly, up to now, the overview of the status of the plant is not optimal and a comprehensive overview is not easy and often not suffi^¬ ciently swift to be had.

On the other hand, consolidated operation and monitoring is increasingly important. It saves costs and it uses the opera^¬ tor's skill more efficiently. Furthermore, it improves the deployment of increasingly rare human resources.

Therefore there is a need for a control system and a graph- ical user interface which will better aid a plant operator, more particularly a control system and a graphical user in^¬ terface allowing to supervise a single unit of the plant and/or multiple units as well as status data and potential alarm messages from each unit simultaneously.

One aspect of the present invention is a control system and a graphical user interface capable of integrating the various applications and data necessary for operating the plant. An^¬ other aspect of the present invention is a method for operat- ing a control system for the plant, wherein the method in^¬ volves the use of said graphical user interface.

The said control system for operating and monitoring an industrial process and/or a technical plant implementing said industrial process comprises a graphical user interface. The graphical user interface is adapted to integrate multiple ap^¬ plications, information and control functions in one common display. Any such application, information function and control function is communicatively and operatively connected with an entity or a subsystem of the plant.

A preferred embodiment of the control system provides a graphical user interface wherein the display shows several elements simultaneously, thus allowing fast and easy access to the elements displayed. The elements displayed include a central frame with a two-dimensional matrix of tiles wherein each tile is adapted to present graphics and/or data received from one of the applications, information and control func^¬ tions, integrated by the control system and into the graph- ical user interface. The elements further include at least one bar of a group of bars, each bar being arranged on one side of the central frame, said group of bars comprising an alarm bar comprising alarm buttons, for example alarm buttons in the form of tabs displayed on the bar, navigation buttons and other operational buttons, a favorites bar, comprising a configurable selection of buttons, an application collection bar comprising buttons linked to applications concerning the plant and/or buttons provided as shortcuts to applications, information functions and control functions.

The benefit of the control system here proposed is the inte^¬ gration of several data sources and/or control systems per^¬ taining to the plant, plant units or subunits, wherein any such data source or control system can be perceived as being overlaid by the subject control system. Data from and/or for any such overlaid entity can be uniformly processed and pre^¬ sented, by means of the subject control system and its graph^¬ ical user interface. The subject controls system and its user interface thus not only provide the integration of the over^¬ laid entities in the sense of every entity being accessible via the subject control system and its graphical user inter^¬ face but provides a uniform look and feel, that is, varying operating philosophy approaches are transferred into one uni- form operating philosophy. The operator, once familiar with accessing one entity of the plant, will realize that access^¬ ing any other entity functions along the lines of the now ac^¬ customed accessing methodology. The uniform operating philos^¬ ophy provided by the subject control system and its graphical user interface thus facilitate quick and easy access of the multitude of data and functions pertaining to the plant or any unit or subunit of the plant. The uniform operating phi^¬ losophy provided by the subject control system and its graph^¬ ical user interface prevents operational errors stemming from operator mistakes. The uniform operating philosophy provided by the subject control system and its graphical user inter^¬ face finally facilitates a steeper learning curve for an op^¬ erator being trained on the control system. Further aspects, features and advantages of the present in^¬ vention will become apparent from the drawings and detailed description of the following preferred embodiments. The above-mentioned and other concepts of the present inven^¬ tion will therefore now be addressed with reference to the drawings of the preferred embodiments of the present inven^¬ tion. The shown embodiments are intended to illustrate, but not to limit the invention. The drawings contain the follow- ing figures, in which like numbers refer to like parts throughout the description and drawings:

FIG 1 shows an integrated workbench program, FIG 2 shows a graphical user interface displayed by the in^¬ tegrated workbench program,

FIG 3 shows an alarm bar displayed by the graphical user interface,

FIG 4 shows an application bar displayed by the graphical user interface and

FIG 5 shows a favorites bar displayed by the graphical user interface.

FIG 1 shows a schematic diagram of a control system 10. The control system 10 functions as an integrated workbench pro^¬ gram 10 and is the material basis of a graphical user inter- face 12 schematically shown in FIG 2. The control system 10 - hereinafter also termed workbench program or workbench in short - provides a comprehensive framework for present, fu^¬ ture and legacy control systems or distributed control sys^¬ tems 14, 15, 16 and the relevant human machine interfaces (HMI) 14', 15', 16'.

The control system 10 allows the integration of multiple ap^¬ plications, e.g. HMIs 14' -16', as mentioned above, in one common screen. The control system 10 is an autonomous, possi- bly distributed application and comprises interfaces 18 for receiving data from and/or sending data to applications 14'- 16' allocated to the said workbench 10 or integrated into said workbench 10. The said interface 18 or interfaces 18 can range from parser-like interfaces capable of processing for^¬ matted and/or tokenized data such as XML-data or the like to soft-coded interfaces capable of processing data sent or re^¬ ceived in a predefined format. The integration of multiple applications and functions 14-16, 14' -16' into the workbench 10 or the association of such applications and functions 14-16, 14' -16' with the workbench 10 can be perceived as overlaying such applications and func^¬ tions 14-16, 14' -16' with the workbench 10, wherein the work- bench 10 functions as topmost layer allowing access to appli^¬ cations and functions 14-16, 14' -16' in overlaid layers (low^¬ er layers; underlying layers). Consequently, when referring to said applications and functions 14-16, 14' -16' integrated into or associated with the workbench 10, these applications and functions 14-16, 14' -16' are thus termed as overlaid ap^¬ plications and functions 14-16, 14' -16'.

The integrated workbench 10, by means of employing the rele^¬ vant input-interfaces 18, is capable of e.g. displaying data which else would have been displayed by the overlaid human machine interface 14' -16' or of displaying a soft copy of any view generated by the overlaid human machine interface 14'- 16' in one central frame 20 (FIG 2) . The integrated workbench 10 is furthermore capable, by means of employing the relevant output-interfaces 18, of sending data entered via the inte^¬ grated workbench 10 to at least one of the overlaid human ma^¬ chine interfaces 14' -16'. That is, the integrated workbench 10 can incorporate data received from one or plural applica^¬ tions 14-16 and the integrated workbench 10 can alternatively visualize displays and content received from one or plural human machine interfaces 14' -16'. The data received is dis^¬ played in tiles 22 (FIG 2), said tiles 22 preferably being arranged in the central frame 20 in a two-dimensional matrix, more particularly in a matrix comprising at least two rows of tiles 22.

The display generated by the integrated workbench 10 is the aforementioned graphical user interface 12 proposed here and FIG 2 shows a simplified exemplary form of the graphical user interface 12 comprising the aforementioned tiled central frame 20 with multiple tiled displays "inherited" from over^¬ laid human machine interfaces 14' -16'.

The graphical user interface 12 functions as the control hub for operating and monitoring the relevant industrial plant. The content of the graphical user interface 12 is configura^¬ ble, that is, the size and the position of each tile 22 can be adjusted and furthermore, the number of tiles 22 and the arrangement of the tiles 22 can be adapted, too.

As shown in FIG 2 the tiles 22 are framed by other elements of the graphical user interface 12 although these elements, some of them being described with further details below, must not necessarily be positioned on one side of the central frame 20 and can be positioned anywhere on the graphical user interface 12. However, the specification will continue on the basis of the exemplary arrangement shown in FIG 2 where a headline section of the graphical user interface 12 comprises an alarm bar 24. The alarm bar 24 is also shown in FIG 3 with further details.

The alarm bar 24 is always visible and is preferably located at the top of the central frame 20. The alarm bar 24 can show multiple alarms notified to the workbench 10 by any one of the overlaid human machine interfaces 14' -16'. A multitude of alarms can be visualized in a predefined order, e.g. depend^¬ ing on the application 14-16 where the alarm originates or in an order reflecting the relevance of each alarm, wherein the most critical alarm will be displayed in the first position.

The integrated workbench 10 is thus capable of displaying alarms notified by any one of the overlaid human machine in- terfaces 14' -16' and furthermore able to aggregate alarms from multiple systems and applications 12-16. Accordingly, the integrated workbench 10 provides both a consistent and a reliable alarm notification mechanism including an alarm acknowledgement and optionally a means for fast and easy nav^¬ igation to the alarm source.

An application collection bar 26 (application bar) of the graphical user interface 12 and a favorites bar 28 are avail- able for e.g. placing icons provided for invoking functions of the graphical user interface 12 or applications within the graphical user interface 12 or interfacing with the graphical user interface 12. Any such icon is freely positionable ac^¬ cording to the operator' s preferences and provides a shortcut for quickly and easily accessing any function or application made available via the graphical user interface 12. Addition^¬ ally or alternatively the application bar 26 and/or the fa^¬ vorites bar 28 can accommodate message windows for displaying information provided from any one of the underlying human ma- chine interfaces 14' -16'.

In combination the central frame 20 and its tiled displays, the alarm bar 24, the application bar 26 and the favorites bar 28 provide a fast and reliable means for monitoring and accessing all data required for power plant operations. Im^¬ portant functions can be invoked with a single user-action or very few user-actions, such as a single mouse-click or very few mouse-clicks. Important data is either always visible or can be called into the front with a single user-action or very few user-actions. Moreover, elements of the graphical user interface 12, particularly one of the tiles 22, can be moved from one screen to another screen showing basically the same graphical user interface 12 as the originating screen. The graphical user interface 12 can be a distributed graph- ical user interface 12 dispersed over two or more screens, wherein one screen can be a large screen, e.g. allowing each display 20 to be shown in a size that results when the over^¬ laid human machine interface 14' -16' outputs the relevant display on a single screen. The tiles 22 can be freely arranged in the central frame 20 as per the operator's preferences. Any tile 22 can be en^¬ larged so that the resulting height of the enlarged tile 22 corresponds to the combined height of two tiles in adjacent rows. Generally, whenever a tile 22 is moved to another screen or another area of the originating screen, the relevant tile 22 is automatically adjusted to the size of the target area, i.e. a tile 22 can be moved to e.g. the applica^¬ tion bar 26 or the favorites bar 28 and is automatically iconized and an iconized display is automatically enlarged when moved to the central frame 20 of the graphical user in^¬ terface 12.

FIG 3 shows an exemplary view of the alarm bar 24 with multi- pie alarm tabs on the left-hand side, wherein each tab repre^¬ sents an individual alarm category. The relevant alarm cate^¬ gory is displayed in textual or abbreviated form on each tab for ease of reference and a counter indicates the number of pending alarms in each category. Whenever a new alarm occurs the operator is prompted by a visual indication, e.g. the relevant tab being displayed in a different color and/or be^¬ ing displayed in a flashing mode.

The alarms shown on the alarm bar 24 are an aggregation of alarms from different sources, e.g. the overlaid human ma^¬ chine interfaces 14' -16' or the foundation applications 14- 16. Visualization of alarms stemming from hierarchically sub^¬ ordinate applications 14-16, 14' -16' via the integrated work^¬ bench 10 is enabled by means of the aforementioned interfaces 18 provided for exchanging data to and from the integrated workbench 10.

More information on the alarms in each category and each alarm individually is available for the operator via a single user-action, e.g. by clicking on the relevant alarm tab, or very few user-actions. Clicking on an alarm tab may for example result in a list of all alarms or the n most recent alarms in the relevant category being displayed. An order of the alarm display can be based on the time at which the alarm occurred with the most recent alarms being displayed on top of the list and/or the relevance of the alarm. Within any such list each alarm is normally displayed in a shortened form with an emphasis on the most relevant details in a sin- gle line or only a few lines. Each alarm is selectable by means of a user-action, e.g. by clicking on the relevant line. Any such selection of an alarm will result in further details concerning the alarm being displayed via the graphical user interface 12. Displaying such information may re- quire that the integrated workbench 10 actively pulls data from the underlying application 14-16, 14' -16' by means of the relevant interfaces 18. Any such further detail may com^¬ prise information on the cause of the alarm and/or suggested measures, e.g. repair or maintenance. Any such suggested measure is given in a textual or any other appropriate form and the text or the data is predefined on the basis of expert knowledge and associated with the relevant alarm. Additional^¬ ly or alternatively an expert system can output the suggested measures in textual or any other appropriate form based on input data received from the application 14-16 in whose realm the alarm occurs. In a preferred embodiment selecting (click^¬ ing) a specific alarm results in the related tile automati^¬ cally being opened in the graphical user interface 12. A generic alarm tab (captioned as "ASD" in FIG 3) is provided for quickly and easily accessing every pending alarm concerning the plant. The alarms will be sorted by occurrence, time and/or priority. In a preferred embodiment the alarm bar 24 comprises an icon captioned "Trip Stop" or the like which allows the operator to call a predefined configuration 32 of one or more tiles 22 into the front on the graphical user interface 12 overlaying or substituting some or all previously displayed tiles 22, as described with further details in the applicant's counterpart application "Graphical user interface for a control system and method of operation for a control system" (official ap^¬ plication number: 14 167 742.7), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. In an alternative or complemental embodiment the workbench 10 allows for certain alarms, e.g. critical alarms, to be pro^¬ cessed similarly to what is described in applicant's afore^¬ mentioned counterpart application, that is, certain alarms are associated with a predefined configuration of one or more tiles 22 to be displayed via the graphical user interface 12. Whenever the operator selects an alarm associated with such a predefined configuration the latter is shown via the graphical user interface 12 to aid the operator when addressing the alarm.

In case of multiple such alarms the text of the first alarm is shown with the relevant information as short text. When selecting the alarm a reduced alarm sequence display ASD will be opened showing findings pertaining to the alarm. Upon selecting one of those findings a predefined configuration of one or more tiles 22 will automatically open in the graphical user interface 12, showing a project-specific engineered sce^¬ nario with instructions aimed at aiding the operator when fixing the situation.

The alarm bar 24 further comprises a button which is for example captioned "View". Said button can be located on the right-hand side of the alarm bar 24 or next to the alarm bar 24. As has been mentioned before the content of the central frame 20 regarding number and/or size of the tiles 22 is configurable and such configuration is accessible via the afore^¬ mentioned button. The said button furthermore allows the op^¬ erator to access and to toggle between multiple predefined screen settings for the graphical user interface 12, more particularly for the central frame 20.

Further buttons can also be included in the alarm bar 24 arranged on top of the central frame 20, for example a button captioned "Acknowledged" can be configured according to the applicable philosophy for acknowledging an alarm. A menu button allows accessing a freely configurable menu, for example a menu for accessing support information, including e.g. con- tact information to a hotline, a link to a customer portal or sending an email for issuing a service request.

FIG 4 shows an exemplary view of the application bar 26 with multiple icons, each pertaining to a function or application accessible via the application bar 26.

FIG 5 shows an exemplary view of the favorites bar 28 with multiple icons, each pertaining to a function accessible via the favorites bar 28. Some of the functions available via the favorites bar 28 will be explained with further details be^¬ low. For example an icon captioned "Home" or the like shows a predefined personalized configuration of the graphical user interface 12, e.g. a predefined personalized configuration of tiles 22 and/or icons comprised in the application bar 26 and/or icons comprised in the favorites bar 28. For distin^¬ guishing such personalized configurations an operator can log into the workbench 10, for example by means of providing a name and a password. Once logged into the workbench 10 any action within the user interface 12 pertaining to personalized data or personalized configurations automatically refers to an operator database (not shown) and the relevant records stored therein. When the control system 10 employs multiple screens each showing the user interface 12, the operator, once logged into the workbench 10, can use the personalized configuration on all available screens.

An icon captioned "Unit Control" or the like shows a unit control configuration which can be personally configured on all available screens for each operator.

An icon captioned "Favorites" or the like shows a pop-up list of favorites (e.g. links to the intranet, internet or other information sources) . The contents of the list can be person- ally configured by each operator but the choice can be prede^¬ fined or restricted by an administrator according to security guidelines applicable for the relevant plant. An icon captioned "Shift Schedule / Handover" or the like shows a predefined set of tiles 22 and/or tiles 22 and other elements displayed via the graphical user interface 12 ac^¬ cording to the relevant operator's personalized view. The relevant tiles 22 and/or other elements may include but are not limited to e.g. a shift book, one or more plant displays, alarms, a schedule, etc.

An icon captioned "Workbench" or the like toggles a display of window frames and/or a title bar with or without control buttons on each tile 22 in the central frame 20. Said

frame (s), title bar or control buttons allow the aforemen^¬ tioned movement, resize and other functions available for each tile. Once these additional properties of each tile 22 have been switched on via a single activation of the afore^¬ mentioned icon another activation of the same icon will turn these properties off again.

An icon captioned "Back" or the like allows the operator to use a temporary configuration of tiles 22 in the central frame 20 and then switch back to a previous tile configura^¬ tion. For example, the operator uses a specific unit control function and then opens an application pertaining to an optimization function. The aforementioned icon on the favorites bar 28 allows the operator to switch back from any temporary view to the previous view, e.g. to the tiles 22 previously displayed in the central frame 20.

An icon captioned "Settings" or the like allows settings, such as colors, language, font and font size etc. to be con^¬ figured according to the operator's preferences. Content of shortcuts to applications, a configuration and content of predefined settings for the "View button" or the "Unit con^¬ trol" function can also be specified.

Summarizing the above, this application proposes a control system, a method for operating the control system and a graphical user interface 12, wherein the graphical user in^¬ terface 12 integrates multiple applications, information functions and control functions 14-16; 14' -16', each pertain^¬ ing to an entity, e.g. a subsystem, of a technical plant, for example a power plant, in one common display 20, thus allow^¬ ing a plant operator to quickly and safely access functions and/or to quickly and safely conceive data relevant for con^¬ trolling the plant.

Reference numerals

10 control system / workbench program / workbench

12 graphical user interface

14-16 control system / application

14' -16' human machine interface (HMI)

18 interface

20 central frame

22 tile

24 alarm bar

26 application bar

28 favorites bar

Claims

1. Control system for operating and monitoring an industrial process and/or a technical plant implementing said industrial process,

said control system comprising a graphical user interface (12) being adapted to integrate multiple applications (14- 16), information and control functions (14' -16') in one com^¬ mon display (20),

wherein each application, information function and control function (14-16; 14' -16') is communicatively and operatively connected with an entity or a subsystem of the plant.

2. The control system according to claim 1,

wherein the display (20) shows several elements (22, 24,

26, 28) simultaneously, including

a central frame (20) with a two-dimensional matrix of tiles (22), each tile (22) being adapted to present graphics received from one of said applications (14-16), information and control functions (14' -16')/

several bars (24, 26, 28), each being arranged on one side of the central frame (20), including

an alarm bar (24), comprising alarm buttons,

a favorites bar (28), comprising a configurable selection of buttons,

an application collection bar (26), comprising buttons, linked to applications (14-16) concerning the plant and/or buttons provided as shortcuts to applications, information functions and control functions (14-16; 14' -16').