JPH1195830A - Plant operation support device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To share and store operation technology information on a plant and to improve man-machine performance by allowing an operation support client to provide operation support information from an operation support server in the form of a hypertext. SOLUTION: Controllers 3a and 3n which control process devices 2a to 2n such as a valve and a pump are connected to plant operation monitor devices 4a to 4m through a transmission part 11. The operation support server 9 and operation support client 10 are connected to those plant operation monitor devices 4a to 4m through the transmission part 11. Then the operation support client 10 calls operation support information from the operation support server 9 by a computer 15 and displays it on a display device 16, and an operator is supported to operate according to the hypertext data of the operation support information. Consequently, necessary information is speedily fetched and utilized.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plant operation support device for supporting operation control of a power plant or a chemical industrial plant.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, plant operation control is performed by a plant operation monitoring device using a computer. The driving operation by an operator is often performed using a man-machine interface using a display device (such as a CRT) or an input device (such as a mouse or a keyboard).

[0003] In a plant operation monitoring device in which monitoring and control are performed by a man-machine interface via such a display device or an input device, an operator performs an operation operation in accordance with operation technical information such as an operation procedure manual for printed matter. . In this case, in order to smoothly perform the driving operation of the operator, driving assistance for automatically displaying information such as a driving procedure that is assumed in advance to the operator by various methods has been attempted.

[0004]

However, when an operation is performed in accordance with operation technical information such as an operation procedure manual using printed matter, the operator's line of sight moves between the operation procedure manual and the display device of the plant operation monitoring device. Because
There are problems with man-machine characteristics such as skipping operation procedures and losing the operation target.

In the case of an experimental plant having a new technology or a plant in the early stage of operation, it is necessary to obtain information such as process behavior data from the start of plant operation and to accumulate operation technology information. It is necessary to frequently revise and publish operation procedures and other documents. Furthermore, when accumulating operation technical information of a plant by printed matter, there is a problem in operation management of operation technical information, such as an increase in information in a disorderly manner, making it difficult to immediately find target information.

[0006] On the other hand, in the case of driving assistance in which information such as the operating procedure that is assumed in advance is automatically presented to the operator by various methods, a system for plant operation assistance has been comprehensively constructed. Special technicians are required for smooth operation. Therefore, it may not be possible at the user level. That is, the accumulation of driving technology information and the advancement of the system make it difficult to perform driving support quickly and at low cost. Further, if the automation of the driving support is too advanced for the operator, the efficiency of the driving operation of the operator may be reduced.

[0007] An object of the present invention is to provide a plant operation support apparatus capable of sharing and accumulating operation technical information of a plant and improving the man-machine property to smoothly support the operation.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plant operation support apparatus for managing operation technical information and operation support information of a plant as hypertext data including characters and image information. A driving support client that provides driving support information from the driving support server in hypertext.

In the plant operation support apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, the operation support server manages the operation technical information and the operation support information of the plant as hypertext data including characters and image information. Then, the driving support client provides the driving support information from the driving support server in hypertext.

[0010] The plant operation support device according to the second aspect of the present invention is the plant operation monitoring device according to the first aspect, wherein the plant operation monitoring device has the function of the operation support client, and the operation support information is displayed on the operation monitoring screen in a multi-window display. They are displayed at the same time.

[0011] In the plant operation support apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, instead of the operation of the first aspect, the operation support information by the operation support client function is displayed in a multi-window on the operation monitoring screen of the plant operation monitoring apparatus. To display.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plant operation support system according to the first or second aspect.
The driving support server or the driving support client has a function of editing the hypertext, and can update the driving support information provided by the hypertext.

[0013] In the plant operation support system according to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the operation of the first or second aspect of the invention, when adding new operation support information, a drive support server or a drive support client is added. The driving support information provided by the hypertext is updated by the hypertext editing function.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the plant operation support system according to the third aspect, the driving support server or the driving support client is adapted to update existing driving support information provided by hypertext.
It has a security management function to authenticate the plant manager.

In the plant operation support system according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the operation of the third aspect, the operation support server or the operation support client updates the existing operation support information provided by the hypertext. At this time, the security management function updates the plant after obtaining the certification of the person in charge of the plant.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram in which the plant operation support device according to the first embodiment of the present invention is incorporated in a plant monitoring and control system.

The plant operation monitoring system 1 comprises control devices 3a to 3n for controlling process devices 2a to 2n such as valves and pumps, and plant operation monitoring devices 4a to 4m for monitoring and controlling the plant. . The control devices 3a to 3n are connected to the plant operation monitoring devices 4a to 4m via the transmission unit 11. The plant operation monitoring devices 4a to 4m include computers 5a to 5m for managing the operation of the entire plant, display devices 6a to 6m for performing a man-machine interface, and an input device 7a.
To 7 m. As the display devices 6a to 6m, for example, CRT display devices are used, and the input device 7a
A mouse, a keyboard, or the like is used for the length of 7 m.

The operator operates the plant operation monitoring device 5a.
Display devices 6a to 6m and input devices 7a to 7m
The operation of the plant is controlled via the man-machine interface composed of. That is, the display devices 6a to 6a
The plant is monitored while looking at the operation monitoring screen displayed in m, and necessary operation operations are performed through a man-machine interface, or operation operations are performed by operating operation switches attached to the monitoring control panel.

The operation monitoring devices 5a to 5m incorporate a plant operation support device 8 for supporting the operation of the operation. The plant operation support device 8 includes an operation support server 9 that manages plant operation technology information and operation support information as hypertext data including characters and image information, and converts the operation support information from the operation support server 9 into hypertext. And a driving support client 10 to provide the service.

That is, the plant operation monitoring devices 4a to 4a
The driving support server 9 and the driving support client 10 are connected to m via the transmission unit 11. The driving support server 9 includes a computer 12 for managing driving technical information and driving support information such as driving procedure manuals stored as hypertext data, and a display device 13 as a man-machine interface used when managing these. And an input device 14. On the other hand, the driving support client 10 includes a computer 15 for calling the driving support information from the driving support server 9, a display device 16 for displaying the called driving support information, and a display device 16 for the displayed driving support information. And an input device 17 for performing operations.

Here, the hypertext is a text having a structure in which an anchor capable of linking to another text is embedded in the text, and the text can be jumped to another text by clicking the anchor. The operation technical information includes an operation procedure manual, a plant design document, past process behavior data, a diary, a past case, and the like. In addition, driving support information is formed from information that is selected to be effective in operating a plant from a population of accumulated driving technology information, and utilizes hypertext links. This is information provided to the operator. A function for calling operation technical information related to a plant state is added to an operation procedure hierarchized by a link.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a driving support screen displayed on the display device 16 of the driving support client 10, showing a case where the driving support procedure is developed in hypertext.

Now, a driving support screen 18 is displayed on the screen of the display device 16 of the driving support client 10, and, for example, as shown in FIG. Operation procedure screen 1
Assume that 9 is displayed.

The operator performs operation A1, operation A2, operation A3,... Operation An in accordance with the operation procedure A. Here, when the operation procedure A has only a general description of starting a certain process device as higher-level information, an operation for which a more detailed operation procedure of the operations A1 to An is desired to be known by the input device 17 is performed. Click on Ai. That is, what operation timing is used to operate each operation target for starting the process device,
Or what kind of monitoring items are there during operation, etc.
Jump to a more detailed operating procedure.

For example, when the more detailed operation procedure of the process equipment is the operation A2, the operator clicks and selects the operation A2 using the input device 17, and selects the operation A2 shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), the detailed operation procedure screen 20 of the operation A2 is called by a link as lower-level information. Then, operation A21, operation A22, operation A23,..., Operation A2n in the detailed operation procedure screen 20 are sequentially performed. As described above, the operator obtains the necessary driving technique information by repeating the operation of using the hypertext to extract the related information with the link.

For example, if the state of the process equipment should be visually checked during the operation A2 if possible, the image 21 of the process equipment from the CCD camera installed at the plant site is called by a link. , On the detailed operation procedure screen 20 of the driving support screen 18. In this way, the video is provided as driving support information. Furthermore, voice can also be provided as driving support information.

As described above, the driving support client 10 calls the driving support information from the driving support server 9 and displays it on the display device 16, and the operator receives driving support based on the hypertext data of the driving support information.

In the above description, one driving support server 9
However, a plurality of driving support servers 9 are prepared, and the driving technical information to be provided is divided and managed by the plurality of driving support servers 9 for each type of information as needed. Can also.

The driving support client 10 and the driving support server 9 may be any devices capable of processing information with a microprocessor, a workstation, and a personal computer, and the media is not limited. The connection between the driving support client 10 and the driving support server 9
As shown in FIG. 1, instead of the transmission unit 11 connected to the control devices 3 a to 3 n as the plant monitoring and control system 1, a separate transmission unit between the driving support client 10 and the driving support server 9 may be used. good. Further, the driving support client 10 and the driving support server 9 may be configured by the same computer.

As described above, in the first embodiment, the driving technical information is provided by the hypertext, so that the operator can quickly extract and utilize the driving technical information. In addition, by collectively managing the driving technical information in the driving support server 9, the driving technical information can be shared, and even when a plurality of driving support clients 10 are prepared, the same information can be extracted from any of the driving support clients 10. Can be. Further, the update of the driving technical information can be dealt with only by updating the data of the driving support server 9 without changing the driving support client 10, which is advantageous in the operation management of the driving technical information.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram in which the plant operation support device according to the second embodiment of the present invention is incorporated in a plant monitoring and control system. The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in that the function of the driving support client 10 is provided in the plant operation monitoring device 4 and the driving support information is displayed in a multi-window display on the operation monitoring screen. It is designed to be displayed simultaneously on the top.

In FIG. 3, the driving support client 10
Are provided to the plant operation monitoring devices 4a to 4n, and the display devices 6a to 6n are used as the plant operation monitoring devices 4a to 4n.
n is a hypertext driving support screen 1 shown in FIG.
8 is displayed.

As described above, by displaying the operation monitoring screen and the hypertext operation support screen 18 on one of the display devices 6a to 6n, it is possible to operate the plant while referring to the operation manual of the printed matter. In this way, the line of sight of the operator does not move between the printed operation procedure manual and the display devices 6a to 6n of the plant operation monitoring devices 4a to 4n. Therefore, it is possible to solve problems such as skipping the operation procedure and losing the operation target on the display devices 6a to 6n. In addition, by effectively utilizing the existing plant operation monitoring devices 4a to 4n, it is possible to save space and cost by reducing the number of devices.

Next, the driving support server 9 or the driving support client 10 is provided with a function of editing hypertext so that the driving support information provided by the hypertext can be updated, and the driving support information of a new driving operation can be updated. Add.

For example, when the operation procedure A shown in FIG. 2 is prepared as a normal operation, the operation procedure screen 1
It is assumed that a new plant state B occurs due to the occurrence of an unexpected abnormal event at the stage where the operation A4 is being performed on 9. Then, it is assumed that the operation procedure B for the plant state B is not prepared.

In this case, the operator performs an operation based on other existing operation technology information at the discretion of the operator to restore the plant to the normal state. The operation procedure at that time is additionally registered in the plant operation support device 8 as the operation procedure B of the new operation support information. That is, the operation support server 9 or the operation support client 10 of the plant operation support device 8 has a function of changing an existing operation procedure created by hypertext. With this function, the driving support information is immediately updated to the latest one.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a case where the operating procedure B in that case is incorporated on the driving support screen 18 to change the driving support information. When the operation procedure B in the plant state B is newly incorporated into the procedure A4 of the existing operation procedure A created by the hypertext, as shown in FIG. 4B, the operation procedure B of the new operation technology information is performed. Is prepared in hypertext.

Then, in order to utilize the operation procedure B, which is new driving assistance information, for driving assistance, it is incorporated after the operation A4 of the driving procedure A on the driving procedure screen 19 as shown in FIG. That is, the link source 22 in the case of the plant state B is added to the operation procedure screen 19, and a change is made to call the return operation procedure screen 23 in which the operation procedure B for returning to the normal state is described as the link destination.

This is an HTML (Hyper Text Makeup Lang)
uage) can be provided by preparing a dedicated editor as an application in the driving support server 9 or the driving support client 10 of the plant operation supporting device 8.

As a result, even if it is not an expert engineer who has constructed the system, an operator having a certain degree of knowledge can quickly accumulate and share driving technology information. In addition, even in the case of a plant having a new technology, such as an experimental plant, or an initial plant for operation, effective operation support can be performed.

The function of the plant operation support device 8 is as follows.
Since the functions other than the display function are independent of the plant operation monitoring device 4, there is no fear that a change in the plant operation support device 8 directly affects the function of the plant operation monitoring device 4 and puts the plant in danger. Also, without providing excessively automated driving assistance, by calling the driving assistance information required by the judgment of the operator and updating the driving assistance information,
The effect of maintaining and improving the operator's knowledge of the plant and the operating ability can also be expected.

Here, when a function capable of updating the driving support information at the user level is provided, it is not preferable that the driving support information can be changed without limitation. In other words, making a change to the driving support information without confirmation at the discretion of a large number of users may cause a problem in operation management. Therefore, when updating the existing driving support information provided by the hypertext, the update can be performed after obtaining the authentication of the plant manager by the security management function.

The general user who uses the plant operation support apparatus 8 of the present invention is not given the authority to change the operation support information, and only the person (super user) who supervises and manages the plant state is provided with operation support. Gives authority to change information. The plant operation support device 8
Confirm the password to distinguish between the general user and the super user. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the plant operation support device 8 in that case.

In FIG. 5, the general users edit the new driving technology information obtained by themselves in hypertext, and transmit the edited hypertext data to the driving support server 9.
(S1). The new driving technology information here is
This corresponds to the operation procedure B described above. Plant operation support device 8
Automatically notifies the super user that the new driving technology information has been saved, and further presents the contents of the new driving technology information (S2), and authenticates that the new driving technology information is to be added to the driving support information. Obtain (S3). The super user checks the contents of the new driving technology information, and determines whether or not to add the driving technology information to the plant operation support device 8 (S
3). If the user does not understand the addition, the new driving technology information is stored as one of the driving technology information without being used as the driving support information, and is separately used.

On the other hand, the plant operation support device 8 that has received the notification of the approval of the addition releases the security of the editing protection of the operation support information (S4), and in response, the super user updates the operation support information (S4). S5). As a result, the problem of operation management can be solved without impairing the expandability of the plant operation support device 8.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention, according to the first aspect of the present invention, by converting the driving technique information into hypertext, the operator can quickly extract and utilize necessary information. Further, by having the driving support server supervise and manage the driving technology information, all the operators can share the driving technology information, and can transmit the driving technology. In addition, it is possible to simply update the driving technique information.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, plant operation monitoring and operation support can be provided on one display device.
The man-machine property of the plant is improved, and erroneous operation can be prevented. Further, space saving and cost reduction can be achieved by reducing the number of devices.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, a function for making a change to the hypertext is added to the plant operation support device, so that the plant operation support device can be provided with sufficient expandability, and the actual condition of the plant can be changed by the user. In this way, it is possible to quickly accumulate driving technology information in accordance with the requirements and to enhance driving support.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a security management function for authenticating a plant manager when updating existing operation support information is provided. Can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram in which a plant operation support device according to a first embodiment of the present invention is incorporated in a plant monitoring and control system.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a driving support screen displayed on a display device of the driving support client according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram in which a plant operation support device according to a second embodiment of the present invention is incorporated in a plant monitoring control system.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram in a case where driving support information is updated on a driving support screen according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation for updating existing driving support information when a security management function is provided in the plant operation supporting device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Plant monitoring and control system 2 Process equipment 3 Control device 4 Plant operation monitoring device 5, 12, 15 Computer 6, 13, 16 Display device 7, 14, 17 Input device 8 Plant operation support device 9 Operation support server 10 Operation support client 11 Transmission unit 18 Driving support screen 19 Operation procedure screen 20 Detailed operation procedure screen 21 Video 22 Link source 23 Return operation procedure screen

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plant operation support device for assisting the operation of a plant while monitoring the operation monitoring screen of the plant operation monitoring device for monitoring and controlling the plant. A driving support server that manages driving support information as hypertext data composed of characters and image information, and a driving support client that provides driving support information from the driving support server in hypertext. Plant operation support device. 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the function of the operation support client is provided in the plant operation monitoring device, and the operation support information is simultaneously displayed on an operation monitoring screen in a multi-window display. The plant operation support device according to any one of the preceding claims. 3. The driving support server or the driving support client has a function of editing a hypertext, and can update the driving support information provided by the hypertext. The plant operation support device according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The driving support server or the driving support client has a security management function for authenticating a plant manager when updating existing driving support information provided by hypertext. The plant operation support device according to claim 3, wherein: