Source: http://www.google.cl/patents/US8788071
Timestamp: 2018-01-23 06:15:17
Document Index: 527160548

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 10', 'Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 2011', 'Application No. 2011', 'Application No. 2001101038178']

Patent US8788071 - Security for objects in a process plant configuration system - Google Patents
A configuration system uses process plant items that may represent, or be capable of representing, entities in a process plant to assist in configuring, organizing, and changing the control and display activities within the process plant. Access to the items may be controlled by associating access control...http://www.google.cl/patents/US8788071?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US8788071 - Security for objects in a process plant configuration system
Publication number US8788071 B2
Application number US 13/109,892
Also published as CN1702582A, CN103616868A, CN103616868B, DE102004038807A1, US7526347, US7971052, US20050027376, US20090287321, US20110224808
Publication number 109892, 13109892, US 8788071 B2, US 8788071B2, US-B2-8788071, US8788071 B2, US8788071B2
Patent Citations (139), Non-Patent Citations (39), Referenced by (2), Classifications (38), Legal Events (1)
US 8788071 B2
1. An object entity for use in configuring or viewing the operation of a process plant having multiple field devices connected to a process controller and operable to perform physical control and measurement functions within the process plant, the object entity comprising:
a programming object stored on the computer readable memory, the programming object representing a process entity within the process plant and including:
a first memory storage which, when executed on a processor, stores indications of one or more functions to be performed by the process entity during operation of the process plant; and
a second memory storage which, when executed on a processor:
stores a global security parameter indicating whether access to the programming object by a viewing or configuration application is to be limited, and
stores a plurality of sub-element security parameters corresponding to a plurality of sub-element objects included in the programming object, wherein:
each sub-element security parameter stored in the programming object representing the process entity indicates whether access to a respective sub-element object of the programming object is to be limited, and
a first sub-element security parameter stored in the programming object representing the process entity and corresponding to the first sub-element object and a second sub-element security parameter stored in the programming object representing the process entity and corresponding to the second sub-element object are each individually modifiable.
2. An object entity as defined in claim 1, wherein the programming object comprises a class object that generically represents a particular type of process entity within the process plant.
3. An object entity as defined in claim 1, wherein the programming object comprises a specific object that specifically represents a particular process entity within the process plant.
4. An object entity as defined in claim 1, wherein the programming object comprises a composite template.
5. An object entity as defined in claim 1, wherein the global security parameter comprises an indication of a level of security associated with the programming object.
6. An object entity as defined in claim 5, wherein the indication of the level of security comprises at least one of an indication that no access is to be permitted, an indication that no access by particular persons is to be permitted, an indication that no access by particular types of users is to be permitted, an indication of read-only access, an indication of read-only access by particular persons, or an indication of read-only access by particular types of users.
7. An object entity as defined in claim 1, wherein the first memory storage executes to store indications of the plurality of sub-element objects of the programming object, the plurality of sub-element objects corresponding to the one or more functions to be performed by the process entity during operation of the process plant.
8. An object entity as defined in claim 1, wherein the global security parameter indicates whether access to the programming object as a whole is to be limited.
9. An object entity for use in configuring or viewing the operation of a process plant having multiple field devices connected to a process controller and operable to perform physical control and measurement functions within the process plant, the object entity comprising:
a programming object stored on the computer readable memory, the programming object representing one or more steps capable of being performed by one or more process entities within the process plant and including:
a first memory storage which, when executed on a processor, stores indications of the one or more steps; and
each sub-element security parameter stored in the programming object representing the one or more steps capable of being performed by one or more process entities indicates whether access to a respective sub-element object of the programming object is to be limited, and
a first sub-element security parameter stored in the programming object representing the one or more steps capable of being performed by one or more process entities and corresponding to the first sub-element object and a second sub-element security parameter stored in the programming object representing the one or more steps capable of being performed by one or more process entities and corresponding to the second sub-element object are each individually modifiable.
10. An object entity as defined in claim 9, wherein the programming object represents one or more steps capable of being performed by each process entity in a set of process entities.
11. An object entity as defined in claim 10, wherein the programming object comprises a phase class object.
12. An object entity as defined in claim 9, wherein the programming object represents one or more steps to be performed by a specific process entity.
13. An object entity as defined in claim 12, wherein the programming object comprises a unit phase object.
14. An object entity as defined in claim 9, wherein the global security parameter comprises an indication of a level of security associated with the programming object, and wherein the each sub-element security parameter comprises an indication of a level of security associated with the respective sub-element object.
15. An object entity as defined in claim 14, wherein the indication of the level of security comprises at least one of an indication that no access is to be permitted, an indication that no access by particular persons is to be permitted, an indication that no access by particular types of users is to be permitted, an indication of read-only access, an indication of read-only access by particular persons, or an indication of read-only access by particular types of users.
16. An object entity as defined in claim 9, wherein the first memory storage executes to store indications of the plurality of sub-element objects of the programming object, the plurality of sub-element objects corresponding to the one or more steps to be performed by the one or more process entities during operation of the process plant.
The present application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/423,670, entitled “CONFIGURATION SYSTEM USING SECURITY OBJECTS IN A PROCESS PLANT,” filed Apr. 14, 2009, and which issued on Jun. 28, 2011 as U.S. Pat. No. 7,971,052, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/853,655, entitled “SECURITY FOR OBJECTS IN A PROCESS PLANT CONFIGURATION SYSTEM,” filed May 25, 2004, and which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,526,347 on Apr. 28, 2009, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/368,151, entitled “MODULE CLASS OBJECTS IN A PROCESS PLANT CONFIGURATION SYSTEM,” filed on Feb. 18, 2003, and which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,043,311 on May 9, 2009, the entire specification of each of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.
Similar to the control configuration application, a display creation application has template graphical display items, such as tanks, valves, sensors, operator control buttons like slide bars, on/off switches, etc. which may be placed on a screen in any desired configuration to create an operator display, maintenance display and the like. When placed onto the screen, individual graphic items may be interconnected on the screen in a manner that provides some information or display of the inner-workings of the process plant to different users. However, to animate the graphic display, the display creator must manually tie each of the graphical items to data generated within the process plant, such as data measured by sensors or indicative of valve positions, etc. by specifying a communication link between the graphic item and the relevant data source within the process plant. This process is tedious, time consuming and may be fraught with error.
If desired, the unit module class object 410 may control the manner in which changes made to the module class object 410 are propagated to the unit module objects 526 as well as the manner in which security access is set up in the unit module objects 526. One manner of providing this functionality is to set one or more flags or parameters within the unit module class object 410 to specify the manner in which changes are to be propagated to and security is to be handled in the unit module objects 526. In particular, one or more change propagation parameters may be set to specify whether or not changes made to the unit module class object 410 are to be automatically propagated to the one or more of the unit module objects 526. These change propagation parameters may be stored in the unit module objects 526 and may specify for the entire unit module object, or on a sub-element by sub-element basis, whether changes made to the unit module class object are to be reflected in the unit module object. For example, the unit module class object 410 may include a global change parameter 534 (marked “C”) which may be set in each unit module object created from the unit module class object 410 to enable or disable changes made to the unit module class object 410 from being automatically reflected in the unit module object Likewise, each sub-element or block, such as the blocks 501-505, 510, 520 and 522 may include a change parameter 536 specifying, for that block only, whether changes made to that block in the unit module class object 410 are to be reflected in the unit module object. Of course, the different blocks of a unit module object may be set differently so that, for example, changes made to the Acid block 501 of the unit module class object 410 will be propagated to the corresponding Acid block of a particular one of the module objects 526 but so that changes made to the Alkali block 502 of the unit module class object 410 will not be propagated to the Alkali block of the particular one of the unit module objects. Furthermore, the different unit module objects created from a unit module class object may have the change parameters set differently from one another so that changes to the Alkali block 502 within the unit module class object 410 are propagated to the corresponding Alkali block of a first one of the unit module objects 526 but not to the corresponding Alkali block of a second one of the unit module objects 526. Of course, the change management method of the unit module class object 410 may access and use the change parameters of the unit module objects 526 to make or not make a change within those objects when the change is made in the unit module class object 410.
When implemented, any of the software described herein may be stored in any computer readable memory such as on a magnetic disk, a laser disk, or other storage medium, in a RAM or ROM of a computer or processor, etc Likewise, this software may be delivered to a user, a process plant or an operator workstation using any known or desired delivery method including, for example, on a computer readable disk or other transportable computer storage mechanism or over a communication channel such as a telephone line, the Internet, the World Wide Web, any other local area network or wide area network, etc. (which delivery is viewed as being the same as or interchangeable with providing such software via a transportable storage medium). Furthermore, this software may be provided directly without modulation or encryption or may be modulated and/or encrypted using any suitable modulation carrier wave and/or encryption technique before being transmitted over a communication channel.
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U.S. Classification 700/79, 711/163, 711/167
International Classification G05B15/00, G06F21/22, G06F9/44, G05B19/042, G06F3/00, G05B19/05, G06F21/24, G05B9/02, G05B19/00, G06F12/14, G05B13/02, G06F21/00, G06F1/00, G06F3/048, H04L9/32, G06F9/06, G05B17/02, G06F17/30, G05B19/418, G05B11/01, G05B19/04, G06F13/10, G06F9/46, G05B13/00
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:LUCAS, J. MICHAEL;WEBB, ARTHUR;NIXON, MARK J.;AND OTHERS;SIGNING DATES FROM 20040817 TO 20041110;REEL/FRAME:032886/0304