Operator terminal in a process control system

A method of enabling an operator to make control or protection related decisions in a process control system, where process data points providing process data values are presented on a display of an operator terminal, said method comprising the steps of:

• receiving in the operator terminal, an operator selection of at least one control object in the form of at least one process control element presented in a view of system elements interconnected in a control structure, where each control object is related to at least one corresponding data point and said selected process control element is related to more than one data point;
• selecting by the operator terminal, a number of data points for a group of control objects including said operator selected process control element according to a data point selection criterion;
• fetching by the operator terminal, process data values associated with the selected data points and with different control aspects, where the fetched process data values are process control data values associated with the process control element;
• presenting said process data values of the data points on the display, where each selected data point receives one corresponding presentation axis on which data values of this data point are presented and data values of data points that are associated with a common attribute are being linked together with a line between the values on the various parallel axes in the presentation;
• receiving in the operator terminal, an operator selection of at least one further control object in the form of an alarm and event object, fetching by the operator terminal, data values of data points associated with the selected alarm and event object;
• and
• presenting the data values of the data points of the alarm and event object on a number of parallel axes and each alarm or event object is represented by a corresponding line through each axis,
• wherein the common attribute is time and said method further comprises the step of linking the alarm and event data point values to corresponding process control data point values via a common time axis.

An operator terminal in a process control system including a display, a user input unit and a control unit, said control unit being configured to:

• receive, via the user input unit, an operator selection of at least one control object in the form of at least one process control element presented in a view of system elements interconnected in a control structure, where each control object is related to at least one corresponding data point and said selected process control element is related to more than one data point;
• select a number of data points for a group of control objects including said operator selected process control element according to a data point selection criterion;
• fetch process data values associated with the selected data points and with different control aspects, where the fetched process data values are process control data values associated with the process control element;
• present said process data values of the data points on the display, where each selected data point receives one corresponding presentation axis on which data values of this data point are presented and data values of data points that are associated with a common attribute are being linked together with a line between the values on the various parallel axes in the presentation;
• receive, via the user input unit, an operator selection of at least one further control object in the form of an alarm and event object;
• fetch data values of data points associated with the selected alarm and event object;
• and
• present the data values of the data points of the alarm and event object on a number of parallel axes, where each alarm or event object is represented by a corresponding line through each axis,
• wherein the common attribute is time and the control unit is further configured to link the alarm and event data point values to corresponding process control data point values via a common time axis.

A computer program product on a non-transitory data carrier comprising computer program code configured to cause an operator terminal provided in a process control system to, when said computer program code is loaded into said operator terminal:

• receive an operator selection of at least one control object in the form of at least one process control element presented in a view of system elements interconnected in a control structure, where each control object is related to at least one corresponding data point and said selected process control element is related to more than one data point;
• select a number of data points for a group of control objects including said operator selected process control element according to a data point selection criterion;
• fetch process data values associated with the selected data points and with different control aspects, where the fetched process data values are process control data values associated with the process control element;
• present said process data values of the data points on the display, where each selected data point receives one corresponding presentation axis on which data values of this data point are presented and data values of data points that are associated with a common attribute are being linked together with a line between the values on the various parallel axes in the presentation;
• receive an operator selection of at least one further control object in the form of an alarm and event object;
• fetch data values of data points associated with the selected alarm and event object;
• and
• present the data values of the data points of the alarm and event object on a number of parallel axes, where each alarm or event object is represented by a corresponding line through each axis,
• wherein that the common attribute is time and the computer program code is further configured to cause an operator terminal to link the alarm and event data point values to corresponding process control data point values via a common time axis.