Background to the invention

The present invention relates to a method and a user interface with a display device and an input device configured for controlling, by an operator, an industrial process.

A control system conventionally comprises a device or set of devices to manage, command, direct or regulate the behaviour of other devices or systems and is operated by a user or operator by means of a user interface.

Conventional operator stations for process control systems include a user interface comprising a multitude of displays on which is represented the physical plant and processes of the system (such as pipes, boilers, valves etc) together with measurement value displays, trend curves (showing historical data), and status indicators. Although there may be hundreds of variables which can be controlled by the user via the user interface, typically only a small subset of values are observed and regulated by the user when the control system is operating under normal accepted conditions. The remaining values may only be consulted or relied on by the operator in the event of a deviation from the normal accepted operating parameters. These conventional user centred design techniques provide a bridge between the operator and the control system environment.

The document WO 00/49475 A2 relates to interactive virtual reality process control. The virtual reality including processing variables may be displayed by a conventional display device (LCD monitor) or a virtual reality device (Head mounted display). The process control system also includes input devices such as a keyboard, mouse, touch screen or virtual reality glove.

The document US 2003/005486 discloses a display system representing, in an organized and easily understandable manner, parameter data relating to health monitoring information for a complex plant. The display system includes a single enterprise level health condition display supplemented with multiple tiers of detail information. A user can interactively interrogate the display to establish the status of a desired parameter. The plant can be controlled by a user in dependence upon the parameter information retrieved.

An alternative to conventional user centred design is Ecological Interface Design (EID). EID focuses on the work domain or environment and seeks to represent the constraints and relationships of the work environment perceptually through the user interface in order to shape user behavior. For example, an aircraft operator typically uses an artificial horizon representation on a display when landing an aircraft rather than relying on historical data of engine pressure, temperature etc and numerical representation of orientation data. In other words, physical placement of the aircraft is being presented as a task oriented (safely landing the airplane) rather than a physical status (present position and condition) oriented operation by the user.

EID allows the operation of a user interface in an intuitive way by an operator. This is particularly useful when the system is a power plant, nuclear plant, petrochemical refinery etc. The operator can react to unanticipated events by proactively working with the interface representation to return the display (and therefore the system) to within normal acceptable parameters. In other words, the operator's capabilities are being used to instinctively react to a situation presented in a way that allows the operator to comprehend intuitively i.e. by using good visuals instead of written text commands and information that would first require interpretation by the brain of the operator before a series of possible reactions could be formulated and assessed then implemented.

However, the control of complex systems using EID is difficult due to the inter-relation between all the different parameters of the system and there is therefore a need for a user interface that allows the control of a complex system by an operator without the need for the operator to have a complete understanding of how the entire complex system works. Summary of the Invention

The present invention seeks to address the problems of the prior art. In particular, it is an objective of the present invention to enable control of a complex industrial process without the need for an operator to consult a multitude of computer screens or equivalent sources of process operation information.

Accordingly, a general aspect of the present invention provides a method of controlling an industrial process, the method comprising receiving, or obtaining, parameter data relating to operational parameters of an industrial plant, defining, or generating, a parameter space relating to, or respective of, possible values of such operational parameters, and displaying a process state defined by the received parameter data in the parameter space. Allowed or accepted values of the operational parameters are all located or comprised within a volume delimited by boundaries indicative of a safe or preferred operation range of the process. Consolidating and displaying process parameter data in a suitable parameter space by means of a single display device ultimately enables the operator to control the industrial process, at least under normal conditions, at a single glance and without gathering and assembling information from different sources in a first step.

In detail, a method of controlling an industrial process or system, i.e. an industrial plant, a utility, or a part or sub-system there of comprises the following steps.

- Determining or measuring, repeatedly and by means of sensors attached to the industrial process or system, process parameter data, or values, relating to process parameters, or output variables, of the industrial process, such as position, temperature, and steam flow.

- Defining a number N of consolidated, or derived, parameters based on, i.e. as a suitable combination of, at least two of the process parameters. The consolidated parameters may represent a process-wide or process-average quantity such as climate gas emission or material cost, or may be considered abstract or meta parameters conceived in order to meet the intuition of the operator, e.g. process efficiency, performance index, plant health, product quality.

- Determining a present process state of the industrial process as a set, or vector, of N consolidated parameter values for the N consolidated parameters, corresponding to and obtained from the most recently determined process parameter data.

- Representing, in a consolidated parameter space defined by the N consolidated parameters, the present process state, e.g. as an icon located at a position given by at least some of the N consolidated parameter values. In addition to the position of the icon, a shape, color, size of the icon may serve as visual indicators of further consolidated parameters. Likewise, the present process state may be represented by means of acoustic, haptic, or olfactory feedback mechanisms.

- Displaying, in the N-dimensional consolidated parameter space, a process state tolerance volume or subspace delimited by consolidated parameter boundaries or operating constraints and enclosing the optimal, or target, process states. The consolidated parameter boundaries may take the form of road borders or of an artificial horizon.

- Applying occasional control commands issued by the human operator to discrete or continuous actuators of the industrial process. It is to be noted that the present invention proposes to transform the individually measured or otherwise accessible process parameters into consolidated parameters that may be part of a meta space that is better understood by the operator. Hence the invention does not involve a virtual reality depicting an exact image such as an aerial view of the plant and its actuators on behalf of an operator, nor does the invention track the above-mentioned individual process parameters in a representation where one of the coordinates is time. It is also to be noted that the present invention is directed to manual control of the industrial process based on hand-eye control actions that can be the object of an operator's intuition, and thus is not concerned with e.g. set-point definition for automated closed loop control. In a preferred variant, the process state target tolerance volume is determined based on, i.e. by superposing, target ranges of the consolidated parameters. The latter in turn are consolidated based on preferred and/or excluded process parameter values. According to a further aspect of the present invention, the parameter space comprises an interactive environment in which the received parameter data is presented as graphic element. The interactive environment may be inspired by popular interactive electronic games, including both the visual and acoustic representation of a plant state as well as the various ways of interaction or user intervention therewith. For example, where the interactive environment is a car racing gaming environment, the plant state may be represented by the position of the car within a road. For example, one or more of the process boundaries may be represented as the road borders. For example, decision points requiring operator input may be represented as forks in the road. The industrial plant parameters being controlled by an operator via the operation of a vehicle within the interactive environment such that steering of the vehicle within the interactive environment influences the plant control parameters and the plant dynamics are shown as movement of the car within the road.

Alternatively, the plant status or plant parameter data may be mapped to an artificial environment such as a flight simulation, space invader environment or the like instead of a car driving scenario as detailed above. It will be appreciated that any other suitable interactive environment may be used which relies on the hand-eye control loop of the operator to respond to the interactive environment in order to influence the plant control parameters and play dynamics.

In detail, the method of controlling an industrial process or system in this case comprises the following additional steps:

- Defining, and enabling the operator to issue, a limited number of consolidated commands based on, i.e. as a coordinated combination of, individual control commands directed to distinct actuators. Hence, issuing a consolidated command such as turning a steering wheel to the left by one unit translates, or maps, to various actions executed by distinct actuators in a coordinated way, such a opening a valve then powering a heater, or accelerating all objects moving in a certain direction. In exceptional circumstances, consolidated commands may correspond to consolidated parameters in the sense that a consolidated command causes a particular consolidated parameter value of the process state to change.

- Applying, upon operator issuance of a consolidated command via a suitable input device, a corresponding plurality of control commands to the actuators, i.e. the valves, heaters, drives/motors or any other process input variables. The suitable input device enables the operator interaction at the user interface to be translated into a consolidated command, and may include one or more of the group comprising joystick, wireless remote such as a Wiimote ^® , airmouse, steering wheel or any other suitable haptic user interface. It should be noted that to directly interact with the plant may be dangerous and may not, in all cases, make optimal use of the intuition of the operator. Preferably, in order to make use of operator intuition in hand-eye control actions, the time constants of the process should be within a few seconds in order to coincide with the hand movement of the operator (e.g. the driver in a car driving plant control environment using a few consolidated commands to steer the process state position indicator through the consolidated parameter space).

According to still another aspect of the present invention, the parameter data relating to the past operational state of the process may be represented by a trace representation, or trajectory, within the consolidated parameter space. Furthermore, a gradient derived by extrapolating the most recent process states may be represented as well, indicating to a human operator a most likely direction of process state evolution.

According to a still further aspect of the present invention, the plant may be run in simulation mode by depicting the plant state and control parameters within a game-like environment (as previously described) and the operator movements monitored and/or recorded for subsequent analysis. The optimally control the dynamics of the game-like environment, the plant time constants may be shifted in the game-like environment model to allow for more interactive operation. It will be appreciated that the plant time constants may vary depending on the skill of the operator, the complexity of the plant and the nature of the game-like environment with which the operator is interacting.

By assigning a score to each simulated action, the simulation that achieved the highest score i.e. achieved the most desired or favourable outcome may be identified. The highest scoring control action may then be selectively run on the actual plant when required.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a diagrammatic representation of a pendulum process, and

Fig. 2 shows a projection of a three-dimensional consolidated parameter space.

Detailed Description of the Invention

One embodiment illustrating the present invention is, for example, an instable process area, such as a processing area where a small degradation of the process performance may inherently result in a worsening of the situation. Any small initial movement of a process variable may not be initially readily apparent to an operator. For example, in an operator environment where process variables are displayed using numbers only, the rate of change may not be immediately visible, and sometime even the direction of change may be difficult to observe. In addition, if the initial small movement of a process variable goes unnoticed, when the change in process variable does become apparent to an operator and action taken, the action taken may be too late or the action taken insufficient/too strong, to accurately correct the situation. In Fig.l , the process state is represented as an upright pendulum 10, where the process variable is represented by the position of the pendulum 10 (the pathway of possible position change of pendulum 10 indicated by arrow A), and the control action acts on the position of the cart 20 (the pathway of movement of cart 20 indicated by arrow B). It is intuitively obvious to an operator that the position of the pendulum 10 will alter from the upright even if the position of the cart 20 changes only slightly. Thus, if the position of the pendulum 10 alters from the upright, it will be obvious to an operator that immediate action is required in order to stabilise the process in time before the pendulum 10 falls.

Fig.2 is a two-dimensional projection of a cubic part of a three-dimensional Cartesian consolidated parameter space. The three axes CP1 , CP2, CP3 of the consolidated parameter space are consolidated or meta parameters, such as overall plant efficiency, KPI, waste production. The instantaneous process state is depicted as an icon 30 located close to the centre of the cubic part. A trajectory 31 of past process states is traced and ends at the instantaneous process state. Likewise depicted are the boundaries 40, 41 of a process state target tolerance volume enclosing a preferred volume of optimum process states at two distinct moments in time. The target tolerance volume boundary could also be a soft type instead of a constraint that is to be followed imperatively, implying a more gradual or smooth transition into a less preferred area. Notably, even if the process state does not change for some time, the target tolerance boundaries themselves may do so, and corrective action may be required in order to maintain the process within safe limits. In other words, the relative movement of process state and the boundaries has to be observed by the operator. The target tolerance volume may actually comprise two distinct parts corresponding to two modes of operation such as full load and part load, with a narrow channel or hose interconnecting them and guiding the operator in steering the process from one part to the other.