Controlling industrial processes
AssigneeSchlumberger Malco, Inc.
InventorsScott B. Guthery, Michael A. Montgomery
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Smart (integrated circuit) card supervisory control and data acquisition. Industrial processes may be controlled by one or more smart cards. Signals may be received from an industrial process by the smart card, the signals may be processed by the smart card, and control signals may be sent from the smart card to the industrial process in response to the processed signals. The smart card may provide security/tamper resistance for proprietary information associated with the industrial process. Control of the industrial process may be distributed among one or more smart cards at particular process points to receive sensed process parameters and to send control signals to implement process actions.
Claims14
A system for process control, comprising:
- a process comprising sources and actuators, the sources configured to sense process parameters and the actuators configured to implement process actions;
- a card reader coupled to the process;
- and
- an integrated circuit card coupled to the card reader to acquire the sensed process parameters and to control the implementation of process actions.
A system for gathering data associated with a controlled process, comprising:
- a controlled process comprising sources, the sources configured to sense process parameters;
- a card reader coupled to the process;
- and
- an integrated circuit card coupled to the card reader and configured to acquire and to provide tamper resistance to the sensed process parameters.
A method for use in controlling a process, comprising:
- receiving, in an integrated circuit card, process information from sources in the process;
- providing tamper resistance to process control information with the integrated circuit card;
- and
- sending some of the process control information to the process from the integrated circuit card in response to some of the received process information.
A method of distributing control of a process, comprising:
- providing two or more integrated circuit cards for control and data acquisition;
- sensing process parameters;
- distributing the sensed process parameters to the integrated circuit cards;
- and
- in response to some of the sensed process parameters, sending control information to the process from some of the integrated circuit cards.
A system for process control, comprising:
- a process comprising sources and actuators, the sources configured to sense process parameters and the actuators configured to implement process actions;
- card readers coupled to the process;
- and
- integrated circuit cards each coupled to the card readers, the integrated circuit cards being coupled to acquire the sensed process parameters and to control the implementation of process actions.
A system for process control, comprising:
- a process comprising sources, the sources configured to sense process parameters;
- a card reader coupled to the process;
- and
- an integrated circuit card coupled to the card reader to acquire the sensed process parameters.
A system for process control, comprising:
- a process comprising actuators, the actuators configured to implement process actions;
- a card reader coupled to the process;
- and
- an integrated circuit card coupled to the card reader to control the implementation of process actions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.