WO2020064712A1

WO2020064712A1 - Method for improving the prioritization of messages, software component, operating and observation system, and automation system

Info

Publication number: WO2020064712A1
Application number: PCT/EP2019/075674
Authority: WO
Inventors: Benjamin Lutz
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 2018-09-28
Filing date: 2019-09-24
Publication date: 2020-04-02

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for improving the prioritization of messages which are generated during the operation of an automation system when controlling a process in a technical installation. According to the invention, at least one process value which triggers a message is analysed by calculating indicators (I1, I2, I3) for indicating the criticality of a message by relating the current process value (PW1, PW2) to a threshold value (SW1, SW2) and/or historical process values. At least one indicator (I1, I2, I3) for indicating the criticality of a message is then dynamically calculated at the runtime on the basis of the analysis of the process values, and corresponding graphical symbols are output and displayed on a user interface of a display unit in order to assist the operator with operating and observing the process. The method allows clearer prioritization of apparently equivalent messages, for example alarms in an alarm sequence display.

Description

description

Process for improving the prioritization of messages, software component, operating and monitoring system and automation system

The invention relates to a method for improving the prioritization of messages that are generated during the operation of an automation system when controlling a process in a technical system, and a corresponding software component. It further relates to an operating and monitoring system for an automation system and an automation system, which are designed to carry out a method for improving the prioritization of messages.

Modern process control systems, such as those usually used in highly automated process plants such as power plants or plants in the process industry, form the interface between a technical process running in a technical plant and the operating personnel, who should control and / or monitor the technical process. Using the control and monitoring system of the automation system, an operator can access all relevant process data and, if necessary, influence the process in the form of control actions.

Especially when monitoring comparatively complex technical systems, abnormal states that indicate, for example, malfunctions of individual components or also in the form of warning messages or alarms characterize a need for action for the operating personnel, are output in the form of corresponding status messages on the respective display unit so that the information can be perceived by the operator. Status messages of this type, which are usually output as message windows using conventional display or display technologies, generally include a plurality of individual messages or individual information items, which in their entirety correspond to the information Play content of the respective status message. The messages that occur are tabulated, among other things, to the operators in so-called message sequence displays, where the operator can sort them according to various criteria (alarm class, time stamp, etc.) for prioritization. For example, if the operator sorts according to an alarm class marked "Error", he can limit and prioritize the number of alarms. The problem here is that even after this sorting or preselection, a list of supposedly "equivalent" alarms is still displayed and further prioritization often has to be based on experience alone.

The invention is therefore based on the object to provide an improved method for monitoring a technical system, which permits more efficiently managed management of messages and provides the operator with more support in prioritizing messages in message sequence displays. Furthermore, an operating and monitoring system that is particularly suitable for carrying out the method and a corresponding automation system for a technical system are to be specified.

This object is achieved by a method with the features of claim 1. In addition, the object is achieved by a corresponding software component according to claim 7, by an operator control and monitoring system according to claim 8 and an automation system according to claim 11. Advantageous further developments result from the dependent claims.

The invention is based on the consideration that, particularly in view of the usually high complexity and variety of the system-relevant information, a particularly high level of user-friendliness and user-friendliness can be achieved when monitoring a technical system, in that the operating personnel make the best possible decisions Receives support, in particular with which priority a message is to be processed. The inventive method for improving the prioritization of messages that occur during the Operation of an automation system when controlling a process in a technical system therefore provides for an analysis of at least one process value triggering a message to be carried out by calculating indicators for identifying the criticality of a message by comparing the current process value with a

Threshold and / or historical process values is set. Then, based on the analysis of the process values, at least one indicator for identifying the criticality of a message is calculated dynamically at runtime and corresponding graphic symbols are output and displayed on a user interface of a display unit to assist the operator in operating and observing the process. The method according to the invention can be carried out in particular in an operating and monitoring system of an automation system with at least one client and one server or can be designed as a software component which can be loaded into the memory of a server and can be executed there.

For all the categories claimed, there is the advantage that the features of the invention make it possible for the operators to better and more clearly prioritize apparently “equivalent” messages and alarms. Critical messages and alarms can be processed faster and more efficiently in this way, what leads to increased plant safety and leads to significantly improved operability and observability of process engineering plants.

In order to facilitate the decision as to which message should be dealt with first, in a particularly advantageous embodiment variant, additional information about a message or an alarm is determined and characteristic values are calculated. The following criticality indicators are determined: a current relative value with respect to a threshold value, such as an alarm threshold, a maximum relative value with respect to a threshold value, such as an alarm threshold, and / or a relative trend with respect to a threshold value. On the basis of the additional information determined in this way, the operator is reliably supported in prioritizing the alarms based on the currently and historically determined process values. The prioritization of messages is therefore not only static and using pre-configured information structures, but rather dynamic, because current and historical trends are also used to calculate the criticality indicators.

In a further advantageous embodiment variant, the analysis is event-driven. The moment a process value changes and runs into a value range that causes a message to be displayed, the criticality of the message is calculated on the basis of this process value and the predetermined threshold value. Each new change in the process value calls up a re-evaluation of the criticality indicators, and the calculated values are displayed in the message sequence display using suitable symbols. In this respect, the recalculation of the indicators according to the invention advantageously does not have to be carried out with every cycle of the automation system, but only in the event of a newly occurring event. The processors of the Opera tor station servers are therefore not unnecessarily loaded.

In an advantageous embodiment variant, the analysis is triggered as soon as a message is displayed on a message sequence display of a user interface. The display of a message accordingly triggers the calculation of the criticality indicators in an advantageous manner. In this way, the surgeon is informed particularly early about the change in a process value.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment variant, at least one criticality indicator is displayed per column of a message sequence display, and sorting according to the individual indicators is also possible. The pre-filtering of the available information can be carried out in a particularly targeted and focused manner. The invention and its embodiments are described and explained in more detail below with reference to the figures in which an embodiment of the invention is shown.

Show it:

FIG. 1 shows a functional diagram of an automation system for controlling a process with indicated software architecture for implementing the method according to the invention,

2 shows an embodiment of a display with the indicators according to the invention and corresponding symbols, and

FIG. 3 shows a screen representation of a message window with a message sequence display, which is expanded by a column with the indicators according to the invention and corresponding symbols.

Figure 1 shows a simplified schematic representation of an example of an automation system A, by means of which a mostly process-related process in a technical system, for example a technical manufacturing, production or energy generation system, is controlled, regulated and monitored. The automation system A has a large number of process-related components (field devices, not shown) which perform predetermined measurement, control and regulation functions at the field level, that is to say in the process. The field devices exchange process, function and / or device-relevant data with each other and with the higher-level control and control levels via a communication system (not shown). The field level communication system is connected to a large number of AS automation devices such as programmable logic controllers (PLC). The automation devices AS (only one shown here: AS1) are in turn connected to a higher-level computer system via a further communication system PB, the plant bus, which is usually designed as Industrial Ethernet. This um- In the present exemplary embodiment, an operating and monitoring system comprises a number of operator station servers OS (abbreviated OS server, shown is a single server OS1) and at least one client computer OS (referred to here as operator station client, abbreviated OSO). consists. The OS client OSO exchanges information and data with the OS servers via another bus system, which is referred to here as terminal bus TB.

In the event of a malfunction or another abnormal state of the monitored process or one of the components of the automation system A, the process values responsible for this malfunction are fed to the automation system A.

The term process value primarily includes measured values, e.g. that detected by a flow sensor

The amount of steam and the steam pressure detected by a pressure sensor and the pump speed detected by a speed sensor. In response to the measurement values arriving in the automation system, control signals for opening or closing the valves at the field level are calculated and output, for example, in the automation device AS1. A process value can therefore also be a control signal, setpoint, a control parameter or values that are linked to device data, such as the health index of a server. For visualization and analysis, the process values are passed on to the operator control and monitoring level, here the operator station server OS1, via the plant bus PB.

In addition to parts of the hardware configuration of the automation system just described, FIG. 1 also shows the software architecture for implementing the method according to the invention in a simplified form.

Each OS server contains software modules or software components with different functions for operating the automation system. For example, each OS server includes a web server, via which the communication active connection with a client's web browser. A process image component PI contains data and commands in connection with the display of the process image. For this purpose, all variables of the function blocks (= automation control software) are also held in this software component. Each time a variable is changed in the control software of the automation device, the driver component ASD, which is responsible for communication with lower layers of the automation system, compares the variables of the function block and the variables of the process image component PI instead. The most important variables for operator control and monitoring include messages that are also recorded by the process image component PI. The "Distribution" component ensures that the process image calculated on OS1 is distributed to all existing operator station servers.

Messages have a special meaning for the operator. Messages are intended to actively inform the operating personnel of certain states in the technical system and are displayed on the operator station client OSC via a message sequence display. Depending on the meaning of the messages for the security of the process, the messages are assigned to different message classes, such as alarms, warnings or tolerances. This division is related to the prioritization of the messages. The highest priority reporting class is the class of alarms. All messages that require immediate action by the operating personnel are divided into this message class. Unimportant messages are therefore low-priority messages that do not require a reaction from the plant operator and only contain information without immediate action.

Messages are taken from the component of the Process Image PI by the component of the Event Manager EM and processed in it. The different message classes, in particular the alarms, are presented together with other variables, such as the process values, to the Visualization service VS passed on, where further processing in other logics, such as alarm management, can take place.

This invention relates to a method and an architecture with which an improved prioritization of messages is achieved which are generated during the operation of an automation system when controlling a process in a technical system.

In one embodiment variant, as shown in FIG. 1, the algorithm according to the invention becomes part of a software component "Alarm Control" AC, which in turn can include a further software component CE for determining indicators on the basis of which the criticality of a message can be calculated. Other software Architectures are also conceivable.

The Alarm Control AC component according to the invention uses the event manager EM to access all messages opened in a message window in accordance with a predetermined filter criterion. This means that depending on the selection, for example, the alarms of a category are taken into account. For this selection of alarms, the associated process values are examined in a next step. These can be found in the so-called tags. Structured variables are referred to as tags, which contain a process value PW in the first place, followed by associated values. The associated values can e.g. deal with units of measurement, time stamps or quality features. So-called trend curves can be calculated and displayed using the tags, i.e. Dependencies of certain variables, in particular the process variables, on time.

Static and dynamic message attributes, which are referred to as criticality indicators, can now be mathematically determined on the basis of the current process values and the historical profiles of the process value on which a message is based: - Current relative process value with regard to the threshold value (e.g. alarm threshold)

- Absolute maximum relative value with regard to the threshold value (e.g. alarm threshold)

- Relative trend (mean value of the slope of the value curve from the first derivative) with regard to the threshold value (e.g. alarm threshold)

According to the invention, the criticality indicators are calculated for each report. The evaluation is limited to the messages that can be seen in an open message sequence display and begins with the opening of the message in the message sequence display. The time period for the evaluation of the process value triggering the message is therefore limited from the occurrence of the message up to the current point in time. The prioritization according to the invention is therefore event-controlled. The criticality is only evaluated if the value of a process value changes.

FIG. 2 shows two exemplary symbolic outputs with the criticality indicators I 1 to 13 calculated dynamically at runtime by the component “Criticaly Evaluation” CE

In this exemplary embodiment, the current relative process value with respect to of the threshold value. With

12 is the absolute maximum relative value with respect to of the threshold value. With 13 the relative trend regarding of the threshold value.

The upper, rectangular symbol in Figure 2 shows an alarm of the alarm class Error (often marked in red in a message sequence display), which is caused by the exceeding (bold bar above) of a threshold value SW1 of 100 ° C by a process value PW1, whereby the process value PW1 is currently at 120 ° C - the threshold is therefore exceeded by 20% (I 1 = 20%). The relative trend 13 is displayed below the current process value PW1 and - indicated by your arrow pointing downwards - is falling. The mean of the slope of the values _V erlaufs from the first line from the process value with respect. of the threshold falls (Down arrow for decreasing criticality). The maximum relative exceeding of the threshold is 30% (= 12).

The lower, rectangular symbol in Figure 2 also shows an alarm of the alarm class Error, which is undershot (bar below) of the e.g. 50 ° C threshold value of the process value PW2 is caused, whereby the process value PW2 is currently at 45 ° C - therefore the threshold has just fallen below II = 10% - whereby the undershoot of the threshold continues to increase (arrow up for increasing criticality, 13). The maximum relative undershoot of the threshold is 12 = 20%. Accordingly, it can be deduced immediately that the shortfall has been more critical, has temporarily improved and is now becoming more critical.

FIG. 3 shows a screen display which contains a message sequence display which has been expanded by the invention to include criticality indicators and criticality symbols and by means of which the operator can now carry out an improved and more qualified prioritization of the alarms. In a conventional state-of-the-art message display, the alarms marked dark gray in FIG. 3 with the line numbers 11, 13 and 14 would look the same except for the time stamp (Date / Time), and the operator would have difficulty assessing which one Alarm he has to take care of first. With the assessment of criticality introduced in accordance with this invention and the criticality indicators derived therefrom, which are clearly recognizable on the basis of graphic outputs and symbols in the message sequence indicators, the operator can easily decide which alarm has to be treated as a priority. Since all criticality indicators can be output in separate columns of a message sequence display, they can also be sorted according to these, e.g. according to the criticality trend of the relative deviation from the alarm threshold (current relative value regarding the alarm threshold, column CurDev), according to the absolute maximum relative value regarding the Alarm threshold, according to the temporal behavior of the process value (trend), etc.

Claims

1. A method for improving the prioritization of messages generated during the operation of an automation system (A) when controlling a process in a technical system, wherein

- An analysis of at least one process value (PW1) triggering a message is carried out by calculating indicators (II, 12, 13) for identifying the criticality of a message by the current process value (PW1) in relation to a threshold value (SW1) and / or historical process values is set, and

- at least based on the analysis of the process values

Indicator (II, 12, 13) for identifying the criticality of a message is calculated dynamically at runtime and corresponding graphic symbols are output and displayed on a user interface of a display unit to support the operator in operating and monitoring the process.

2. The method according to claim 1,

at least one current relative value (II) with regard to a threshold value (SW1, SW2), an absolute maximum relative value (12) with respect to the threshold value (SW1, SW2) and / or a relative trend ( 13) can be calculated with respect to the threshold value (SW1, SW2).

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

whereby the analysis is event-driven.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

the analysis being triggered as soon as a message is displayed on a message sequence display of a user interface.

5. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one indicator (II, 12, 13) is displayed per column of a message sequence display and after the indicators can be sorted (II, 12, 13).

6. Software component (CE) to improve the prioritization of messages that are generated in a tech engineering facility during operation of an automation ^¬ assurance system (A) when controlling a process, comprising program code for performing ^¬ of the process steps, according to one of claims 1 to 5 if the computer program is running on a computer.

7. Operator control and monitoring system for an automation system (A) which controls a process in an industrial plant, with at least one client (OSC) and at least egg ^¬ NEM server (OS1, OS2 ...), which via at least one communica ^¬ agent (TB) are interconnected,

at least one server (OS1)

- contains at least one component (AC), the thus be ^¬ is staltet, relating to generate

- Contains at least one analysis component (CE) which is designed such that an analysis of at least one process value (PW1) triggering a message is carried out by calculating indicators (II, 12, 13) to identify the criticality of a message by the aktuel ^¬ le process value (PW1) is set in relation with a threshold value (SW1) and / or historical process values, and

- containing a component for visualization (VS), which is designed in the art ^¬ that at least one indicator (II,

12, 13) for identifying the criticality of a message and corresponding graphic icons on a user ^¬ surface of a display unit of a client (OSC) to support the operator control and monitoring of the process is displayed.

8. operating and monitoring system according to claim 7,

wherein the analysis component (CE) is also designed to serve as an indicator for identifying the criticality of a message at least one current relative value (II) with respect to a threshold value (SW !, SW2), an absolute maximum to calculate latent value (12) with respect to the threshold value (SW1, SW2) and / or a relative trend (13) with regard to the threshold value (SW1, SW2).

9. Operating and monitoring system according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the analysis component (CE) is event-controlled.

10. operating and monitoring system according to one of claims 7 to 9,

wherein the analysis component (CE) is connected to the component for visualization (VS) in such a way that the analysis is only triggered when a message is displayed on a message sequence display of a user interface of a client (OSC).

11. Operating and monitoring system according to one of claims 7 to 10,

at least one indicator (II,) on a user interface of a client (OSC) per column of a message sequence display

12. 13) is displayed and can be sorted according to the indicators (II, 12, 13).

12. Automation system (A) for controlling a process in a technical system, which has an operating and monitoring system according to one of claims 7 to 10.