Architecture-Independent Process Control

• Main Authors: Jundt, Larry Oscar, Nixon, Mark J, McDevitt, Edward, Stoner, Matt, Lucas, J. Michael, Sherriff, Godfrey R, Balentine, James R, Law, Gary, Denison, David R, Gilbert, Stephen
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 24.09.2020
• Subjects: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; CONTROLLING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS ORELEMENTS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

Process control systems for operating process plants are disclosed herein. The process control systems include control modules that are decoupled from the I/O architecture of the process plants using signal objects or generic shadow blocks. This decoupling is effected by using the signal objects or generic shadow blocks to manage at least part of the communication between the control modules and the field devices. Signal objects may convert between protocols used by control modules and field devices, thus decoupling the control modules from the I/O architecture. Generic shadow blocks may be automatically configured to mimic the operation of field devices within a controller executing the control modules, thus partially decoupling the control modules from the I/O architecture by using the shadow blocks to manage communication between the control modules and the field devices.