Automatic extraction of assets data from engineering data sources for generating an HMI

A control system for an industrial plant, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• a storage unit communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and storing processor-executable instructions thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the control system to:
• perform a process that inputs data from a plurality of engineering data sources for the industrial plant;
• perform a process that extracts one or more assets of the industrial plant from the data;
• perform a process that creates an HMI (human-machine interface) asset model from the assets, the HMI asset model arranging the assets in a hierarchical structure;
• perform a process that generates an HMI display from the HMI asset model, the HMI display displaying symbols that represent the one or more assets of the industrial plant and lines that represent processes, connections, and data links between the assets;
• and
• perform a process that displays the HMI display to a user and allows the user to navigate vertically and horizontally along the display, wherein the HMI display dynamically changes which assets are displayed based on a change in position of the user on the HMI display, wherein
• asset relationships are established from the one or more assets of the industrial plant to create a plant asset registry and build an asset hierarchy,
• an ontological knowledge base is generated from the plant asset hierarchy, and
• the process to create the HMI asset model is for an HMI for controlling an industrial process, wherein the model is created from the one or more assets of the industrial plant, the plant asset hierarchy, and the ontological knowledge base.