METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MAINTENANCE OF AT LEAST ONE OF A PLURALITY OF FIELD DEVICES IN A PLANT OF AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The invention describes a method and a system for maintenance of at least one of a plurality of field devices in a plant of automation technology, comprising a plurality of field devices; a database for storing particular device types of the plurality of field devices, diagnostic reports of the plurality of field devices, failure pictures, measures applied in the past for removing a failure, which has occurred, and success evaluations for the particular, stored measures; and a computing unit, which accesses the database and can read out, store and/or associate data there, as well as creates success evaluations and compares new diagnostic reports with the failure pictures stored in the database and displays a proposal of a measure appropriate therefor and its success evaluation.

Claims

1-8. (canceled)

9. A method for maintenance of at least one field device in a plant of automation technology, comprising: storing a process location of the at least one field device in a database; associating a process application to the process location in the database; registering a device type of the at least one field device and storing the device type in the database; registering diagnostic reports of the at least one field device, associating the diagnostic reports with the device type, and storing the diagnostic reports in the database; creating from the stored diagnostic reports failure pictures correlating the stored diagnostic reports with a failure, and storing the failure pictures in the database; collecting applied measures for curing the failure, associating the applied measures with failure pictures associated with the failure, and storing the applied measures in the database; creating a success evaluation for each stored applied measure, wherein the success evaluation provides a measure for the effectiveness of the respective stored applied measure, and storing the success evaluation in the database; upon an occurrence of a newly arising diagnostic report from the at least one field device, comparing the newly arising diagnostic report with failure pictures stored in the database, and displaying a proposal of at least one applied measure appropriate for the newly arising diagnostic report and a corresponding success evaluation.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising: predicting a possible failure of the at least one field device based on the comparing of the newly arising diagnostic report with failure pictures stored in the database.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising: predicting a probable timeframe of the occurrence of the possible failure of the at least one field device.

12. The method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising: ascertaining and displaying together the success evaluations of all applied measures for a particular failure picture.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the success evaluations of all applied measures for a particular failure picture are ascertained and displayed together for plants of a same application, plants of a customer, plants of an equal application, plants of an industry, and/or all available plants.

14. The method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising: the at least one field device applying automatically the at least one applied measure suitable for the newly arising diagnostic report.

15. A system for performing a method for maintenance of at least one field devices in a plant of automation technology, comprising: a plurality of field devices; a database configured to store a device type of the at least one field device, diagnostic reports of the at least one field device, failure pictures, measures previously applied for removing a failure, and success evaluations for the stored, previously applied measures; a computing unit configured to access the database and read out, store and/or associate data in the database, create success evaluations, compare new diagnostic reports with failure pictures stored in the database, and display a proposal of a measure appropriate the new diagnostic reports and a success evaluation of the proposal.

16. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the database is reachable using cloud computing web services.

Description

[0034] The invention will now be explained in greater detail based on the appended drawing, the sole FIGURE of which shows as follows:

[0035] FIG. 1 an embodiment of the method of the invention for maintenance of a plurality of field devices.

[0036] FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the method of the invention for maintenance of a plurality of field devices F. Registered and stored in a database 2 for a certain automation application and its process locations are the device types 1 of each of the plurality of field devices F. The database 2 is located in a cloud, which the plurality of field devices F can access. The transmission of the device types of the plurality of field devices F, and later also the transmission of the diagnostic reports D.sub.1, D.sub.2, D.sub.3, D.sub.4, D.sub.5, D.sub.6, occurs via one or more networks, to which the plurality of field devices F is connected. In principle, used for this can be any protocol of a WAN- or LAN network. However, also a fieldbus network of automation technology, such as Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus, HART, ModBus, etc., can be used.

[0037] After the storing of the device types 1, diagnostic reports D.sub.1, D.sub.2, D.sub.3, D.sub.4, D.sub.5, D.sub.6 from each of the plurality of field devices F are registered, associated with the particular device type 1 and likewise stored in the database 2.

[0038] Then, the data stored in the database 2, composed of the diagnostic reports D.sub.1, D.sub.2, D.sub.3, D.sub.4, D.sub.5, D.sub.6 associated with the device types 1, are analyzed. In the example of an embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the axis t is a timeline, which shows the occurrence of diagnostic reports D.sub.1, D.sub.2, D.sub.3, D.sub.4, D.sub.5, D.sub.6 of a certain field device type 1 in a plant. The arising diagnostic reports D.sub.1, D.sub.2, D.sub.3, D.sub.4, D.sub.5, D.sub.6 are analyzed, examined for patterns and, when suitable, summarized in failure pictures 4.

[0039] Following this, already applied measures M.sub.1, M.sub.2, M.sub.3 are collected, which have been applied for curing the particular failure. These measures are likewise stored in the database 2. A computing unit creates success evaluations for the applied measures M.sub.1, M.sub.2, M.sub.3, wherein a success evaluation shows a measure for the effectiveness of the particular, stored, applied measure (M.sub.1, M.sub.2, M.sub.3).

[0040] If a new diagnostic report D.sub.x issues, then a comparison with the failure pictures 4 stored in the database 2 occurs. If at least one match is found, then this is displayed 3 to the plant operator 5. The plant operator 5 receives information concerning a suitable measure M.sub.x, which can be performed for removing the problem, and, supplementally, a success evaluation of such measure M.sub.x.

[0041] An example of a diagnostic report D.sub.x is a report of a flow measuring device, which reports that the measured volume flows are steadily lessening over a longer period of time. One or more failure pictures 4 contain this diagnostic report D.sub.x and are relevant for the plant operator. A measure M.sub.x, which is associated with one of the failure pictures, is cleaning the pipe or tube, through which the flow is occurring. An embodiment of the method of the invention permits a prediction of possible failure, in this case, the forming of deposits in the pipe or tube.

[0042] In an embodiment of the method of the invention, the success probabilities of all measures (M.sub.1, M.sub.2, M.sub.3) applied for a particular failure picture (4) are ascertained for the plant and displayed together to the plant operator 5. With approval of a plant operator, the information registered in the database can also be combined with additional information. In this way, the experience based measure proposals can be supplementally expanded, for example, to other plants of the plant operator, to other plants of an industry and/or to all available plants, in order to obtain an as large as possible, accumulated experience.

LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS

[0043] 1 field device type [0044] 2 database [0045] 3 display of a proposed measure [0046] 4 failure picture [0047] D.sub.1, D.sub.2, D.sub.3, D.sub.4, D.sub.5, D.sub.6 diagnostic reports [0048] D.sub.x newly arisen diagnostic report [0049] F field device [0050] M.sub.1, M.sub.2, M.sub.3 applied measures [0051] M.sub.x measure suitable for newly arisen diagnostic report [0052] t time axis