Diagnostic tool and diagnostic method for determining an interruption in a plant
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorTobias Siegel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A diagnostic tool, a computer software program, and a method for determining an interruption in a plant with at least one device includes determining a plant status at a recording time by recording at least one plant status value and transmitting the plant status to the diagnostic tool, determining a device status at a recording time by recording at least one device status value and transmitting the device status to the diagnostic tool, assigning a shared time base to the transmitted device status and the transmitted plant status, and correlating the transmitted device status and the transmitted plant status by coordinating the device status and the plant status on the shared time base.
Claims19
A diagnostic tool having a computer software program stored thereon in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, said program including routines configured to determine whether or not an interruption of a device in a plant having a plant time base that is different from the device time base was a planned interruption when the routines are executed by a processor, said diagnostic tool comprising:
- a routine configured to determine a status of the plant by recording a plant status value at a recording time having a plant time stamp and to transmit the plant status value to the processor;
- a routine configured to determine a status of the device by recording a device status value at the recording time having a device time stamp and transmit the device status value to the processor;
- a routine configured to overwrite either the plant time stamp with the device time stamp or the device time stamp with the plant time stamp, depending on whether the device time stamp or the plant time stamp is already available, in order to assign a shared time base to the transmitted device status value and the transmitted plant status value;
- and
- a routine configured to correlate the transmitted device status value and the transmitted plant status value on the shared time base to determine whether the interruption in the plant is a planned interruption or an unplanned interruption.
A diagnostic method for determining whether or not an interruption of an automated process in a plant was a planned interruption, despite the plant having a plant time base that is different from the time base of a device used by the automated process, when the diagnostic method is implemented by a processor, comprising the steps of:
- determining a status of the plant by recording a plant status value at a recording time having a plant time stamp and transmitting the plant status value to the processor;
- determining a status of the at least one device by recording a device status value at the a recording time having a device time stamp and transmitting the device status value to the processor;
- overwriting either the plant time stamp with the device time stamp or the device time stamp with the plant time stamp, depending on whether the device time stamp or the plant time stamp is already available, in order to assign a shared time base to the transmitted device status value and the transmitted plant status value;
- and
- correlating the transmitted device status value and the transmitted plant status value on the shared time base to determine whether the interruption in the plant is a planned interruption or an unplanned interruption.
Diagnostic apparatus having a software program stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium therein, said program including routines configured to determine whether or not an interruption of a device in a plant having a plant time base that is different from the device time base was a planned interruption, said diagnostic apparatus comprising:
- a processor configured to execute the software program;
- and a software program configured to be executed by the configured to execute a software program processor, said software program including
- a routine configured to determine a status of the plant by recording a plant status value at a recording time having a plant time stamp and transmit the plant status value to the processor;
- a routine configured to determine a status of the device by recording a device status value at the recording time having a device time stamp and transmit the device status value to the processor;
- a routine configured to overwrite either the plant time stamp with the device time stamp or the device time stamp with the plant time stamp, depending on whether the device time stamp or the plant time stamp is already available, in order to assign a shared time base to the transmitted device status value and the transmitted plant status value;
- and
- a routine configured to correlate the transmitted device status value and the transmitted plant status value on the shared time base to determine whether the interruption in the plant is a planned interruption or an unplanned interruption.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.