Patent ID: 11880192
Assignee: ABB SCHWEIZ AG
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A computer-implemented method for determining an interdependency between a plurality of elements in an industrial processing system, the elements comprising actuators and sensors of the industrial processing system, the method comprising:
providing a process flow diagram (PFD) of a topology of the processing system, the PFD being a piping and instrumentation (P&ID) diagram;
transforming the PFD into a directed graph, each element of the plurality of elements being transformed into a node and each relation between the plurality of elements being transformed into a directed edge, the relation between the plurality of elements representing a material flow and/or an energy flow;
selecting one node of the plurality of nodes as a starting node;
constructing a subgraph, the subgraph comprising all the nodes that are forward-connected from the starting node so as to show at least one interdependency between the plurality of elements in the subgraph;
for the subgraph, outputting all nodes and all relations of the subgraph;
searching, in the subgraph, for a cyclic interdependency; and
outputting affected elements and detected cycles as a visualization of a cause and effect relationship inside the industrial processing system.