(233b) Virtual Simulation Environments Using Online Control Software

One of the major challenges facing Japanese process manufacturing industries is that employees including operators and engineers are decreasing due to the declining population and ageing Japanese society. On the other hand, the population of Asia is increasing and the growth of Asian factory is one of pressing issues to Japanese manufacturing industries. How to improve the operation performance of Japanese industries while minimizing the environmental impact and keeping the priority of their products over the global market, is a big concern of not only managing people but also Japanese people.

Generally speaking, an approach to improve the productivity and to increase the profit consists of three aspects: technology, systems and human resources.

At first the cutting-edge technology based products and services upgrades the competitiveness of the products and increase the profits as the result. But the effect of a new product will fade soon. So the sustainable submission of new products to the market is required.

Secondly systems approaches including marketing, sales, engineering, manufacturing, operation and maintenance are important to promote the business. A new business model will strengthen the sales of new products. To a specific issue of customers, the integration of tools, products and people can provide with the customer centric solutions efficiently and effectively.

The third is human resources. To innovare the human resource, the expansion of IT use, the provision of studies, the education programs for engineers are expected. Technical library based on the amount of track records through the development, implementation, engineering can be re-used at various sites all over the world.

As to the first aspect, we already presented some solutions shown in the reference documents. As to the third aspect, we will present near future, especially the activities of education program and knowledge library. So in this paper, one of the systems integration approaches as to the industrial process control systems is presented, especially focusing on the re-use of multiple online software.

The current process control systems constitutes the hierarchy of field layer, control layer, MES layer including APC and optimizer, MIS layer including planning & scheduling, based on ISA Standards. Figure 1 is an example of control system architecture, where each functional unit is connected with each other using the plant network such as Internet or Intranet. The progress of each function unit makes it possible to reuse it not only for plant operation but also training and education purpose without additional development. Using the process simulators instead of actual plants, other instrumentation systems, control systems and operation support software, et al. are available as are the same operation environments. We call this environment as ?virtual simulation and engineering environment' shown in Fig. 1, which is effective to evaluate the system performance and effectiveness before applying to the actual manufacturing plant in advance. Suzuki presented in INCOM2001 an example of the application of the dynamic simulator to the risk analysis of the industrial process. Takatsu presented in INCOM2006 the evaluation of online optimization using virtual simulation environment. The multi-variable model predictive optimizing control and online optimizer packages were integrated step by step to study and verify the effectiveness of the predictive control and online optimizer from the viewpoint of the total plant operation.

Our approach is to use the above virtual simulation environment not only for industrial process operation and engineering but also for the training and education purposes.

In chapter 2, the functional requirements and specifications of each function unit are described at first. In chapter 3, a focus is put on the recent progress of interface technology, especially process interface and human-machine interface to integrate each function unit for industrial system. In chapter 4, some examples of education and training systems are introduced for validation purpose. Finally the concluding remarks are added on.

2. FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFICATIONS

To clarify the requirements of control systems, we should pay attention from the viewpoint of the total plant operation, the life cycle of the plant equipments, and user point of view. For example, Advanced Process Control (APC) should allow customers to operate its facilities with greater safety, cost effectiveness, reliability and compliance with environmental factors. Optimization is not a one-time event; it has to be a continuous effort to enhance operating performance in ever-changing conditions. Totally users should enjoy the benefits and improved profitability from the applied solutions. The next sessions show the requirements of each control function from users viewpoint.

2.1 Data Acquisition and Process Modeling

2.2 Stabilize Your Plant and Maximize Its Profit

2.3 Predict Product Quality for Better Control

2.4 Real-time Optimizer

2.5 Improve Control Performance via Monitoring and Diagnosis

3. INTEGRATION TECHNOOLOGIES

In order to integrate a variety functions to construct total systems, the communication interface is a key technology. It is required to be open, flexible and promising to application in all aspects. These days, OLE for Process Control (OPC), Web Interface have recognized as de-facto standards. Simulation technology has become commonly available in almost all fields of academy and industry. How to describe the simulation models and how to interface between simulator and other application should be standardized.

3.1 Process Interface

3.2 Human Interface

3.3 Simulator Interface

4. APPLICATIION EXAMPLES

Figure 6 is an example of Web based HMI. Multiple controller information from multiple servers is displayed in one window to realize ?operation anywhere'. Figure 7 is an example of monitoring and diagnosis report to manage the control performance of all the sites for ?information sharing'.

5. CONCLUSING REMARKS

Virtual simulation environments concept is proposed not only for process operation and engineering but also for the training and education purposes. By standardizing the interface parts, lots of existing online software are available beyond the difference of company and academy globally.