WO2016184508A1 - Gestion d'alarmes ayant un dépendance causale - Google Patents

Gestion d'alarmes ayant un dépendance causale Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2016184508A1
WO2016184508A1 PCT/EP2015/061041 EP2015061041W WO2016184508A1 WO 2016184508 A1 WO2016184508 A1 WO 2016184508A1 EP 2015061041 W EP2015061041 W EP 2015061041W WO 2016184508 A1 WO2016184508 A1 WO 2016184508A1
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WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
alarm
process control
alarms
chain
display object
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PCT/EP2015/061041
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English (en)
Inventor
Mikhail MOROZOV
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Abb Technology Ltd
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Application filed by Abb Technology Ltd filed Critical Abb Technology Ltd
Priority to PCT/EP2015/061041 priority Critical patent/WO2016184508A1/fr
Publication of WO2016184508A1 publication Critical patent/WO2016184508A1/fr

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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
    • G05B23/00—Testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof
    • G05B23/02—Electric testing or monitoring
    • G05B23/0205—Electric testing or monitoring by means of a monitoring system capable of detecting and responding to faults
    • G05B23/0208—Electric testing or monitoring by means of a monitoring system capable of detecting and responding to faults characterized by the configuration of the monitoring system
    • G05B23/0216—Human interface functionality, e.g. monitoring system providing help to the user in the selection of tests or in its configuration
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
    • G05B2219/00—Program-control systems
    • G05B2219/20—Pc systems
    • G05B2219/24—Pc safety
    • G05B2219/24103—Graphical display of proces as function of detected alarm signals
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
    • G05B2219/00—Program-control systems
    • G05B2219/30—Nc systems
    • G05B2219/31—From computer integrated manufacturing till monitoring
    • G05B2219/31469—Graphical display of process as function of detected alarm signals

Definitions

  • the present invention generally relates to process control systems. More particularly the present invention relates to an alarm handling
  • a process control system may be provided in an industrial plant. Such a system normally comprises a number of process control devices involved in the control of the process. The operation of these devices is typically monitored by plant operators via operator terminals of the system.
  • Alarms may then be displayed to the operator in an alarm list or table.
  • Alarms are typically presented on lines in the table, where colour may be used to indicate the severity.
  • a warning limit For a physical property being monitored there may for instance exist a warning limit and a critical limit. For instance, if a pressure level surpasses a warning limit, an alarm may be triggered through a yellow line "Pressure HI" appearing. If the pressure level grows further and surpasses the critical limit, another alarm may be triggered where a red line "Pressure HIHI" may appear for instance together with the playing of a disturbing sound. When an alarm is triggered, the operator has to acknowledge it. When the problem is fixed, the alarm line may then disappear. In computerised process control systems, the configuring and deployment of alarms is simple.
  • An alarm may as an example be implemented through typing in a location, a measurement value to alarm on and then setting the alarm to an active state. This has led to a situation that in many cases is undesirable in that too many alarms may have been set.
  • Initial installers may have routinely set an alarm at 8o% and 20% of the operating range of any variable. In such a situation alarms may be generated all over the process control system. Thereby incidents could accrue as a combination of too much data collided with too little useful information. Meaningless to operator at their majority, alarms occur just because someone has configured them. Because of such misconfiguration and a number of other reasons, operators often ignore the alarm system as a whole. This may be problematic in some situations, such as when there is an "alarm flood".
  • An "alarm flood” is a case, when there are a great number of alarms, such as hundreds of alarms, occurring as a consequence of one or a few root alarms. In this case only the root one is meaningful, but it may be hard to locate it, because it may be directly pushed far down in the list by less relevant alarms. This may lead to the operator being distracted, stressed and not being able to act properly. This multitude of alarms may make it harder to identify the root cause and consequently also make it harder to implement appropriate countermeasures.
  • each box may represent one or more alarm clusters of different failure situations in a process.
  • One box can thus be seen as comprising a number of alarms according to a category.
  • an operator is said to be able to determine the status of the alarms by looking at the color, luminance and pattern of the bounding boxes as well as being allowed to use pattern recognition to determine a cause of groups of alarms.
  • WO 2008/124677 is in turn related to the field of monitoring faults in a computer network.
  • a rectangle may be used to represent an IO terminal, which is grouped into a box representing a plant, which in turn is a part of a higher level element in the form of a controller.
  • WO 2008/124677 there is thus a hierarchical alarm structure.
  • the present invention addresses the problem of providing improved alarm handling.
  • This object is according to a first aspect of the invention solved through an alarm handling arrangement in a process control system, the arrangement comprising: - at least one alarm generating device configured to generate alarms based on sensor measurements in the process control system,
  • an alarm summary screen comprising a number of display objects, each display object representing a process control entity and comprising a number of alarm indicators, each alarm indicator being assigned a specific position in the display object, having an off state and being able to occupy at least one on-state if triggered by a corresponding alarm generated for the process control entity by at least one alarm generating device, where the alarms of at least some of the process control entities have a causal dependency on each other, thereby providing an alarm flow through these process control entities forming at least one process control entity chain of linked process control entities,
  • This object is according to a second aspect of the invention solved through a method for handling alarms in a process control system, the method being performed by an alarm handling arrangement and comprising the step of:
  • an alarm summary screen comprising a number of display objects, each display object representing a process control entity and comprising a number of alarm indicators, each alarm indicator being assigned a specific position in the display object, having an off state and being able to occupy at least one on-state if triggered by a
  • the display objects associated with the process control entities of said process control entity chain are organized on the alarm summary screen in a display object chain with display objects that border each other, where the order of the display objects in the display object chain follows the order of the process control entities in the process control entity chain.
  • This object is according to a third aspect of the invention solved through an alarm summary screen generating device for generating an alarm summary screen in a process control system, the device comprising:
  • control unit configured to
  • an alarm summary screen comprising a number of display objects, each display object representing a process control entity and comprising a number of alarm indicators, each alarm indicator being assigned a specific position in the display object, having an off state and being able to occupy at least one on-state if triggered by a corresponding alarm generated for the process control entity by at least one alarm generating device of the process control system, where the alarms of at least some of the process control entities have a causal dependency on each other, thereby providing an alarm flow through these process control entities forming at least one process control entity chain of linked process control entities, wherein the display objects associated with the process control entities of said process control entity chain are organized on the alarm summary screen in a display object chain with display objects that border each other, where the order of the display objects in the display object chain follows the order of the process control entities in the process control entity chain.
  • This object is according to a fourth aspect of the invention solved through a computer program product for handling alarms in a process control system, said computer program product being provided on a data carrier comprising computer program code configured to cause an alarm handling arrangement to, when said computer program code is loaded into said alarm handling arrangement,
  • each display object representing a process control entity and comprising a number of alarm indicators, each alarm indicator being assigned a specific position in the display object, having an off state and being able to occupy at least one on-state if triggered by a
  • the display objects associated with the process control entities of said process control entity chain are organized on the alarm summary screen in a display object chain with display objects that border each other, where the order of the display objects in the display object chain follows the order of the process control entities in the process control entity chain.
  • the present invention has a number of advantages. It provides improved overview without reducing the number of alarms. The overview may also be obtained in a simple, fast and effortless way. The visualization makes scrolling unnecessary. The operator may thus perceive a complete alarm picture all at once, which increases situational awareness. The design also allows meaningful relationships between alarms to be shown such as similarities and clusters. Through the provided overview the operator performance may also be improved. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
  • Fig. l schematically shows an industrial plant with a process control system operating an industrial process using process control devices
  • Fig. 2 schematically shows a process flow through a number of the process control devices
  • Fig. 3 schematically shows an alarm list together with an alarm summary screen comprising display objects representing the process control devices
  • Fig. 4 shows the alarm list and alarm summary screen as a few alarms are being generated
  • Fig. 5 shows the alarm list and alarm summary screen when there is an alarm flood
  • Fig. 6 schematically shows the obtaining of additional information in relation to an alarm indicator in the alarm summary screen
  • Fig. 7 schematically shows an alarm summary screen generating device for providing the alarm summary screen
  • Fig. 8 schematically shows a flow chart of a number of method steps in a method of providing the alarm summary screen being performed by the alarm summary screen generating device
  • Fig. 9 schematically shows a flow chart of a number of method steps for operating the alarm summary screen
  • Fig. 10 shows a data carrier with computer program code, in the form of a CD-ROM disc, for performing the steps of the method.
  • Fig. l schematically shows a process control system 10, which may be provided in an industrial plant.
  • the process control system 10 is a computerized process control system for controlling an industrial process P.
  • industrial processes that may be controlled are electrical power generation, transmission and distribution processes as well as water purification and distribution processes, oil and gas production and distribution processes, petrochemical, chemical, pharmaceutical and food processes, and pulp and paper production processes. These are just some examples of processes where the system can be applied. There exist countless other industrial processes. The processes may also be other types of industrial processes such as the manufacturing of goods.
  • a process may be monitored through one or more process monitoring computers, which communicate with a computer or server handling monitoring and control of the process.
  • the process control system 10 therefore includes a number of process monitoring computers 12 and 14. These computers may here also be considered to form operator terminals and are connected to a first data bus Bi. Between this first data bus Bi and a second data bus B2 there is connected a first control computer 16, a second control computer 18 and a database 20.
  • a field device is typically an interface via which measurements of the process are being made and to which control commands are given.
  • a field device may as an example be a tank and another as an example a centrifuge.
  • the first computer 16 may be involved in controlling the process P based on inputs from field devices, such as from sensors of field devices, and actuating the same or other field devices, such as valves, based on the inputs.
  • the field devices and computers are all examples of process control devices.
  • the field devices may also be used by the second computer 18 for protecting the system.
  • the various process control devices may also be set to generate alarms based on sensor measurements.
  • a field device that generates alarms may therefore also be an alarm generating device.
  • other devices such as computers, like the first and the second computer or the operator terminals, may be alarm generating devices.
  • An alarm generating device may therefore also generate alarms based on inputs from process control devices. Generated alarms may then be displayed to an operator and may therefore also be submitted from alarm generating devices to alarm subscribing devices like the operator terminals. Alarm generating devices may also be used for triggering on-states of alarm indicators, which will be described in more detail later. Generated alarms may also be stored in the database 20.
  • the control being performed, for instance by the first computer 16, may furthermore follow a process flow PF, which is an order in which a number of process control devices operate on the process.
  • the process control devices are also connected in the process in a process flow order, i.e. in an order in which the process flow passes them.
  • Fig. 2 shows one example of a process flow PF employing the field devices in fig. 1. In the example given here only field devices are considered as a part of the process flow PF. It should however be realized that also control devices such as the first computer 16, the second computer 18 and possible controllers in the system may be considered to be a part of the process flow.
  • the flow PF starts at a first process control device, which is implemented through the first field device 22.
  • a second process control device 32 which as an example is the second field device 34.
  • the process flow splits into three subflows, a first subflow leading to a third process control device implemented via the third field device 26, a second subflow to a fourth process control device implemented through the fourth field device 28 and a third subflow to a fifth process control device in the form of the fifth field device 30.
  • the subflows are then joined at a sixth process control device in the form of the sixth field device 32.
  • a seventh process control device in the form of the seventh field device 34 that in turn leads the flow to an eighth process control device in the form of the eighth field device 36.
  • the process flow from the eight field device 36 is finally divided into nine further subflows, where a first further subflow leads to a ninth process control device in the form of the ninth field device 38, a second further subflow leads to a tenth process control device in the form of the tenth field device 40, a third further subflow leads to an eleventh process control device in the form of the eleventh field device 42, a fourth further subflow leads to a twelfth process control device in the form of the twelfth field device 44, a fifth further subflow leads to a thirteenth process control device in the form of the thirteenth field device 46, a sixth further subflow leads to a fourteenth process control device in the form of the fourteenth field device 48, a seventh further subflow leads to a fifteenth process control device in the form of the fifteenth field device
  • a field device that provides a sensor measurement or that influences the process P is considered as being a process control device.
  • a process control device acting as process interface may more particularly be a physical device where one or more properties of the process are sensed. It is furthermore possible that process control is performed via such a process control device.
  • the process control device acting as a process interface may therefore also or instead perform one or more types of influences on the process P.
  • the first field device 22 may be a tank comprising a sensor sensing one or more properties of the process P, such as a pressure, which is submitted to the first computer 16.
  • the first computer 16 may in turn operate the second field device 24, which may be a valve in a conduit being placed downstream from the first process control device, which operation may be based on one or more sensed properties.
  • the second field device 24 may then be connected via a manifold to the third, fourth and fifth field devices 26, 28, 30, which may be mixers.
  • sixth field device 32 which may be another tank, at which one or more properties may be measured, such as temperature, and submitted to a control computer or controller, such as the first computer 16, which may in turn provide some control of the seventh field device 34, which may for instance be a further valve.
  • This field device is in turn connected to the eighth field device 36 from which the flow is divided into the nine further subflows leading to the ninth - seventeenth field devices 38 - 52.
  • a process control entity is a process control device and a link is a physical connection between process control devices, where furthermore the connection points may form interfaces between the process control devices.
  • process flow PF passing the field devices 22 - 54 is merely exemplifying. It should therefore be realized that a field device is not necessary followed by a field device in the process flow.
  • a control computer influences the process, it is also possible to consider a control or protection computer or controller to be a part of a process flow. It can therefore be seen that it is just as well possible that a field device is followed by a controller or computer. It is also possible that a controller or computer is followed by another controller or computer in the process flow. It is furthermore possible that the process flow may pass a process control device more than once.
  • An alarm may as an example be implemented through typing in a location, a measurement value to alarm on and then setting the alarm to an active state. This has led to a situation that in many cases is undesirable in that too many alarms may have been set.
  • Initial installers may have routinely set an alarm at 8o% and 20% of the operating range of any variable. In such a situation alarms may be generated all over the process control system. This may lead to an excessive number of possible alarms being present in the process control system.
  • An alarm may be a list of sequential alarms according to the point in time when they occur. Examples of alarms are shown in an alarm list AL on the left hand side of fig. 4.
  • the alarm list has a visible section, which is the part of the alarm list that is visible to an operator, for instance when being displayed on an operator terminal.
  • alarms are presented in a table, where the lines are coloured by the alarm severity. If for instance a pressure level surpasses a warning limit, an alarm is triggered and a yellow line appears, perhaps also comprising text indicating that the warning limit has been exceeded.
  • Alarms having the same root cause are typically linked to each other according to a logical alarm flow. They do thus have a causal dependency on each other in that one alarm is generated after another based on the occurrence of a root cause alarm that forms an alarm flow through the process control devices. This alarm flow is often also related to the above described process flow through the process control devices. This means that the alarms may follow the previously described process flow through the process control devices.
  • fig. 3 - 5 show the previously mentioned alarm list AL together with an alarm summary screen ASS displayed on an operator terminal, such as the first operator terminal 12, when there is no alarm (fig. 3), when there are a limited number of alarms (fig. 4) and when there is an alarm flood (fig. 5).
  • the alarm list AL and alarm summary screen ASS may be shown on one or more operator terminals or operator control room screens.
  • the alarm list AL there is a column “ACK” for acknowledgements to be made by the control room operator, a column “P” where the priority of the alarm is indicated, a column “Source”, where an indication of from or for which process control device the alarm is generated, a column “Condition” which is an indication of alarm type and finally a column “Description” that comprises a short description of the alarm.
  • the alarm summary screen is provided as an alarm array that may feature 6144 alarms.
  • a process control entity may, as was described above, be a single process control device. However, it may also be a higher level element of the process control system, such as a process control section comprising a number of process control devices generating alarms. It is also possible with display objects that are a combination of display objects representing higher and lower level elements in the same alarm summary screen.
  • a process control entity for which alarms are generated is thus represented by a display object.
  • the display objects correspond respectively to a defined area of the alarm summary screen.
  • the display objects may as an example have four sides and each side of at least one display object may face one or more neighbouring display objects.
  • Each display object furthermore comprises one or more alarm indicators, where one alarm indicator is associated with a corresponding alarm which may be triggered for the corresponding process control entity.
  • the alarm indicators indicate the state of the corresponding alarms.
  • the corresponding display object may be a vector of serially provided alarm indicators or a two-dimensional array with alarm indicators. It can be seen in fig.
  • the first process control device i.e. the process control entity exemplified by the first field device 22
  • the first display object 56 is here represented by a first display object 56 having four sides, only two of which borders other display objects. It has a left side adjacent to and bordering one other display object and a right side, adjacent to and bordering no less than twelve display objects, where a sixth object from the top is a second display object 58 corresponding to the second process control device exemplified by the second field device 24.
  • the second display object 58 also has four sides, where a left side borders the first display object 56.
  • the third display object 60 has an upper side that borders another display object and a lower side that borders the upper side of the fourth display object 62.
  • the lower side of the fourth display object 62 borders an upper side of the fifth display object 64 and a lower side of the fifth display object 64 borders another display object.
  • the left side of the sixth display object 66 thus borders each of the third, fourth and fifth display objects 60, 62 and 64, while the right side of the sixth display object 66 borders a left side of a seventh display object 68 representing the seventh process control device, which in this case is the seventh field device 34.
  • the upper and lower sides of the sixth and seventh display objects 66 and 68 each border a display object which is the same for them.
  • the right side of the seventh display object 68 borders a left side of an eighth display object 70 representing the eighth process control device, which was exemplified by the eighth field device 36.
  • the right side of the eighth display object 70 borders one display object, while each of the upper and lower sides border to no less than nine different display objects.
  • the upper side of the eighth display object 70 more particularly borders a ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth display object 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86 and 88, each representing a corresponding of the ninth to seventeenth field devices 38 - 54.
  • an eighteenth display object 90 is indicated separately from the first to seventeenth display objects 56 - 88.
  • the first to seventeenth display objects 56 - 88 are linked to each other in the order in which the corresponding process control devices appear in the process flow. They are thus interconnected in the order in which the process control devices are connected to each other in the process flow. Thereby they are organized in a display object chain that is similar to the process control entity chain with display objects that border each other. It can furthermore be seen that display objects in the display object chain follow the order of the process control entities in the process control entity chain. This organization may be obtained
  • Each alarm indicator has at least two states: an off-state which indicates that the alarm with which the alarm indicator is associated is not triggered, and one or more on-states indicating that the alarm with which the alarm indicator is associated is triggered.
  • the alarm indicator may have different on-states for reflecting such different degrees of severity.
  • the different states of the alarm indicators may be indicated by different colours or patterns and may be triggered by the generation of the corresponding alarm.
  • alarm indicators which are in the off- state are configured to blend with the background. As can be seen in fig. 3 there are no triggered alarms yet and therefore no alarms can be seen in the alarm list AL. Consequently the alarm indicators are in the off-state in the alarm summary screen ASS.
  • the triggered alarms will appear as lines in the alarm list AL.
  • indicators AI of the alarms will appear in the on-state in the display objects in the alarm summary screen ASS.
  • An alarm indicator AI may thus be arranged as a little point or a group of elements inside a 2D graphical array forming the display object
  • the group of elements forming an alarm indicator may have a shape adapted to the shape of the display object, so that the display object may be completely filled with alarm indicators.
  • the alarm indicator may as an example have rectangular or even quadratic shape. A certain position in a display object may thus be assigned to a specific alarm. An alarm indicator may thus be assigned a specific position in a display object.
  • One colour may here represent one on-state and another colour may represent another on-state.
  • the off-state may be represented by yet another colour, which e.g. may transparent or the same as the background colour of the display.
  • the alarm indicators may additionally have the same size.
  • the list may be automatically scrolled so that the alarm enters the visible section. This allows a quick identification of an alarm in the alarm list even when the number of alarms is so great that they cannot all be seen simultaneously. The operator may then easily proceed to quickly acknowledge the identified alarm and initiate an appropriate control action in response to the identified alarm.
  • the alarms in a process control device may furthermore be generated in respect of different parts of the process control device.
  • a certain process control device may, in the process flow, have a first interface to a first neighbouring process control device and a second interface to a second neighbouring process control device, where the first neighbour may be a preceding process control device in the alarm or process flow and the second neighbour may be a following process control device in the alarm or process flow.
  • An alarm in respect of the process control device may also have differently close relationships to the first interface and to the second interface.
  • the alarms of the alarm flow may thereby also have an order of flow within a certain process control device from a link or first interface to a first neighbouring process control device to a link or second interface to a second neighbouring process control device.
  • an alarm of said certain process control device is more closely related to the first neighbouring process control device than the second neighbouring process control device in the alarm flow or process flow, i.e. has a closer relationship or stronger connection to the first interface than to the second interface
  • the corresponding alarm indicator is provided closer to the first border than the second border.
  • an alarm in or for the seventh field device 34 closer to a connection point to the sixth field device 32 than to a connection point to the eighth field device 36 will be signalled through an alarm indicator in the seventh display object 68 that is provided closer to the border to the sixth display object 66 than the border to the eighth display object 70. If the alarm is generated at the physical interface between the process control devices then the position of the alarm indicator may also be provided at the border or interface between the two display objects representing the process control devices.
  • the process control object and the alarm indicators in them are placed in the alarm summary screen ASS based on knowledge of the process architecture and how the process control objects are organized in the system as well as where in the process control object alarms are generated.
  • Such knowledge can be used to automatically arrange all the possible alarm indicators in the display objects, so that neighbouring or adjacent alarm indicators within one display object would represent elements in the process control device that can produce alarms and that have similar relationship to one or more process control device interfaces. This means that the location of an alarm in a process control device can be easily recognized and identified. It is also possible to visually identify clusters of alarms stretching between neighbouring process control devices in the process flow.
  • This type of mapping can be used with great advantage, in such a way that visual patterns which are formed of alarms become meaningful. It is thereby possible to identify alarm indicator clusters, which may be used to identify alarms having the same origin. It is also possible to identify similarities in different display objects, such as a row of 9 alarm indicators, see fig. 4 and the nine neighbouring display objects at the lower side of the eighth display object 70.
  • the alarm flood overview may be obtained without the need for computational intense data mining.
  • the alarm flood overview may thus be obtained in a simple, fast and effortless way. No active interaction is required. It may also be possible to see how the alarm flood changes over time.
  • the operator may also obtain further information about alarms in the alarm summary screen ASS through selecting a certain alarm indicator, which may be done through hovering over or marking the alarm indicator. In such further information more data about the alarm and alarm flow as well as the time stamp of the alarm may be obtained, which may further simplify for the operator in making the correct decision.
  • an alarm flow history i.e. statistics of previous alarm flows through the process control entity chain, comprising alarms of one or more previous alarm flows, which previous alarm flows include alarm floods, compare the investigated alarm and current alarm flow through the process control entity chain with the same alarm(s) and alarm flow(s) of the alarm flow history in order to determine the position of the
  • Another possible use of statistics is to compare a current alarm flow with historic alarm floods and if the current alarm flow is found to correspond to a historic alarm flood, then a root cause alarm of the current alarm flow may be identified as an alarm in the current alarm flow that corresponds to a known root cause alarm in the historic alarm flood. This can be used for early indication of an alarm flood and allows correct counter-measures to be performed faster.
  • the increased data density of the 2D visualization makes scrolling unnecessary. The operator may thus perceive the complete alarm picture all at once, which increases situational awareness.
  • the visualization of the alarm summary screen provides overview first, then details may be obtained on demand, which is how the visualizations are supposed to be designed.
  • the design of the alarm summary screen is based on pre- attentive capabilities of human perception, rather than attentive capabilities (reading), which also speeds up the transfer of information.
  • the provision of the alarm summary screen ASS is made using an alarm summary screen generating device.
  • the device 93 comprises a control unit 96 and optionally also a user interface 94.
  • the control unit 96 is with advantage implemented through a processor 98 with accompanying computer program memory 100 comprising computer program code which provides the alarm summary screen ASS and possibly also the alarm list for display on a display of the user interface 94.
  • the control unit 96 may be implemented in a computer of the process control system such as the first or the second computer. As an alternative it may also be provided through an operator terminal or a central control room computer.
  • the user interface 94 is with advantage a user interface of an operator terminal.
  • the alarm summary screen generating device may more particularly form an alarm handling arrangement together with one or more alarm generating devices of the process control system.
  • the alarm handling arrangement may furthermore also comprise the process control devices for which the alarms are generated.
  • Fig. 8 shows a flow chart of a number of method steps in a corresponding method of generating an alarm summary screen and being performed by the control unit 96 of the alarm summary screen generating device 93.
  • the method may start with the optional step of collecting alarm data, step 102.
  • the alarm data may be collected from alarm generating devices, where, as was described earlier, an alarm generating device may be a field device, a control or protection computer or an operator terminal. However the alarm data from an alarm generating device may also be stored in the database 20. Therefore the control unit 96 of the alarm summary screen generating device 93 may collect the alarm data from the database 20 instead.
  • an alarm source may be a process control device. This may be done through analysing which alarms from which alarm sources cause alarms in other sources as well as which alarm in some sources causes alarms at other location within the same source.
  • a causal dependency or statistical dependency may be determined to exist if an alarm in one point of an alarm source is consistently followed closely in time by an alarm at another point of the same or a different source.
  • control unit 96 determines the links between process control entities and thereby forms at least one process control entity chain, step 106.
  • the control unit 96 also determines the alarm flow within the process control entities based on the analysis, step 108.
  • the causal dependency may be known in advance based on knowledge of the process flow and the behaviour of the process control devices in it.
  • the links between the process control entities and the alarm flow within them may already be known or considered as known. It is also possible that a combination of process flow knowledge and alarm data analysis is used.
  • control unit 96 determines the bordering between the display objects, step 110. It thus uses the knowledge of links between process control entities in order to decide which display objects are to be placed next to each other. It also determines the alarm indicator placing within the display objects, step 112, which may be done using the knowledge of alarm flow within the process control entities. Thereafter the control unit 96 forms display objects and links them to each other based on the determined bordering, step 114, i.e. places the objects adjacent each other on the alarm summary screen according to the determined
  • a process control entity may, as was previously mentioned, be a process control device or a higher linked element, such as an industrial plant section with a number of process control devices. It is here also possible that the sections may operate completely separate subprocesses for which no causal dependency is known to exist beforehand.
  • control unit 94 forms the alarm indicators within each process control entity and links them to each other according to the determined alarm indicator placing, step 116, i.e. places the alarm indicators adjacent each other in the display object according to the determined alarm indicator placing.
  • the alarms that may occur closer to the interfaces of process control devices at neighbouring process control entities may here furthermore be placed close to the border between the display objects.
  • control unit 96 provides the alarm summary screen ASS with the linked display objects comprising the placed alarm indicators, step 118. The providing may be performed through displaying the alarm summary screen ASS on the display 94, with advantage together with an alarm list AL.
  • the providing of the alarm summary screen may more particularly also comprise placing alarm indicators within a certain display object in the display object chain from a border with a first neighbouring display object to a border with a second neighbouring display object in the order of flow of the corresponding alarms in the process control entity chain from a link of the corresponding control entity to a first neighbouring control entity to a link of the control entity to a second neighbouring control entity.
  • the control unit 96 may also monitor the generation of alarms that an operator subscribes to and display the alarms in the alarm list and the corresponding alarm indicators when these alarms occurs in the process control system.
  • a flow chart in fig. 9 shows a number of method steps of operating the alarm summary screen.
  • the control unit 96 receives alarms from the alarm generating devices, step 120. It causes the alarm indicators to occupy on-states corresponding to the alarms, step 122. For a specific alarm this may involve causing the corresponding alarm indicator to occupy an on-state corresponding to the type of alarm, which may be done through displaying the alarm indicator using a dedicated on-state colour or pattern. Thereby the on-state is also triggered by the alarm.
  • the control unit 96 also displays the alarms in the alarm list AL, step 124.
  • the control unit 96 may also monitor any inputs of the operator via the operator interface with regard to an alarm indicator.
  • control unit 96 When the control unit 96 detects a selection of a specific alarm indicator, step 126, it investigates if the corresponding alarm is in the visible section of the alarm list AL. If it is not, step 128, the control unit 96 scrolls the alarm list AL so that the alarm enters the visible section, step 130, and when the alarm is in the visible section or if it was there all the time, the alarm is emphasized, step 132, such as through being highlighted.
  • the operator may in this case identify the root alarm in the alarm flood in the alarm summary screen through looking at the pattern of the alarm flow. By selecting the alarm indicator of the root alarm, the alarm is moved into the visible section of the alarm list and then emphasized.
  • control unit may also determine the actual progress of the current alarm flow, predict the future progress of the current alarm flow and show to the current location of an alarm corresponding to a second alarm indicator in the progress of the total alarm flow. This may be done by showing the position of the alarm corresponding to the operator selected alarm indicator in the curve of the alarm flow over time.
  • control unit may identify a root cause alarm in a current alarm flow.
  • the operator may look at the alarm summary screen and notice that there seems to be a flow of alarms that is a potential alarm flood. He or she may then select an alarm flood detecting function.
  • the control unit may in this case receive the user selection of alarm flood detection. It then compares the current alarm flow with historic alarm floods. It may more particularly compare the pattern of alarms in the current alarm flow with the patterns of one or more historic alarm floods. If no match is found, the control unit then informs the user. However, if a match is found, i.e. if the current alarm flow is found to be an alarm flood, the control unit then identifies a root cause alarm in the current alarm flow. The control unit may identify the root cause alarm as an alarm in the current alarm flow that corresponds to a known root cause alarm in the historic alarm flood.
  • control unit informs the user about the root cause alarm.
  • This may with advantage be done through indicating the alarm in alarm summary screen, for instance with a special colour. It may additionally involve indicating the root cause alarm in the alarm list, where scrolling may be performed in case the root cause alarm is not present in the visible section.
  • the control unit of the alarm summary screen generating device may, as was previously mentioned, be provided in the form of one or more processors together with computer program memory including computer program code for performing its functions. As an alternative it may be provided in the form of an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).
  • ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit
  • FPGA Field-Programmable Gate Array
  • This computer program code may also be provided on one or more data carriers which perform the functionality of the control unit when the program code is being loaded into a computer forming the summary screen generating device.
  • One such data carrier 134 with computer program code 136 in the form of a CD ROM disc, is schematically shown in fig. 10.
  • Such computer program may as an alternative be provided on another server and downloaded therefrom into the summary screen generating device.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
  • Testing And Monitoring For Control Systems (AREA)

Abstract

Un système de traitement d'alarmes comprend un écran de résumé d'alarmes (ASS) comprenant un nombre d'objets d'affichage (90) qui représentent chacun une entité de commande de processus et comprend des indicateurs d'alarme (AI) dont chacun est attribué à une position spécifique dans l'objet d'affichage, a un état désactivé et peut occuper un état passant s'il est déclenché par une alarme correspondante. Les alarmes d'au moins certaines des entités de commande de processus ayant une dépendance causale mutuelle, un flux d'alarmes s'écoule à travers ces entités de commande de processus pour former au moins une chaîne d'entités de commande de processus d'entités de commande de processus liées. Les objets d'affichage associés aux entités de commande de processus de la chaîne d'entités de commande de processus sont organisés sur l'écran de résumé d'alarmes en une chaîne d'objets d'affichage avec des objets d'affichage qui sont mutuellement adjacents, et dont l'ordre suit l'ordre des entités de commande de processus dans la chaîne d'entités de commande de processus.
PCT/EP2015/061041 2015-05-20 2015-05-20 Gestion d'alarmes ayant un dépendance causale WO2016184508A1 (fr)

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Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN113553240A (zh) * 2021-07-29 2021-10-26 湖南快乐阳光互动娱乐传媒有限公司 报警数据处理方法及装置

Citations (4)

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US6690274B1 (en) * 1998-05-01 2004-02-10 Invensys Systems, Inc. Alarm analysis tools method and apparatus
WO2008124677A2 (fr) 2007-04-10 2008-10-16 Honeywell International Inc. Système de carte d'informations
US7646294B2 (en) 2006-05-22 2010-01-12 Honeywell International Inc. Alarm maps to facilitate root cause analysis through spatial and pattern recognition
US20130099916A1 (en) * 2011-10-24 2013-04-25 Kim Ordean Van Camp Timeline presentations of process control system alarms

Patent Citations (4)

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6690274B1 (en) * 1998-05-01 2004-02-10 Invensys Systems, Inc. Alarm analysis tools method and apparatus
US7646294B2 (en) 2006-05-22 2010-01-12 Honeywell International Inc. Alarm maps to facilitate root cause analysis through spatial and pattern recognition
WO2008124677A2 (fr) 2007-04-10 2008-10-16 Honeywell International Inc. Système de carte d'informations
US20130099916A1 (en) * 2011-10-24 2013-04-25 Kim Ordean Van Camp Timeline presentations of process control system alarms

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN113553240A (zh) * 2021-07-29 2021-10-26 湖南快乐阳光互动娱乐传媒有限公司 报警数据处理方法及装置
CN113553240B (zh) * 2021-07-29 2022-04-19 湖南快乐阳光互动娱乐传媒有限公司 报警数据处理方法及装置

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