Decision support in process control plants

Abstract

As process control plants become more complex, the demands on the operators increase. Operators need information about the process, such as the production goal, the history and ongoing maintenance tasks, as well as experience in operating a plant. It is common practice in most process plant control rooms to provide decision support systems for operators. These decision support systems help and support the operators in providing action decision help, state estimation and diagnosis. The chapter gives an introduction to decision support systems for use in process plants. Factors for designing useful systems for decision support, such as situations in which the operators need support and the different types of decision support, are discussed. The latter part of this chapter provides a presentation of a case-based reasoning approach for decision support that has been partly implemented with successful results. The proposed decision support system also integrates a three-dimensional (3D) visualisation to improve the operator's ability to diagnose and make decisions. Typically, new multimedia and visualisation techniques are used to improve existing decision support systems instead of designing new systems to utilise already existing knowledge such as individual experience and to present more intelligent information.