Intent-based process control configuration models

Abstract

Process control application engineering would be substantially less expensive if supported with readable self-documentation. An important advance would be models and languages designed to more clearly represent application Intent (as formalized herein), without the usual implementation obscurity. This paper analyzes how Intent, in the sense later defined, can be usefully defined and expressed. Process control has traditionally been defined in terms of a number of automation levels. This supports the intended Intent concept in one way, defining the implementation of higher application goals in terms of lower level ones. But a different, even more useful model is the leveling of physical sciences where each level of problem is best addressed by an appropriate kind of theory, itself dependent on lower level theories. Each theory must be proved by more fundamental theories even though those theories are much too complex to address the higher level problem directly. But more than leveling is needed. At each application level, the associated language should support concepts that make its normal usages clear. It should ensure that appropriate application practices can be expressed transparently in terms of their Intent. It should allow the engineer to clearly relate the result to the expected implementation, allowing him full control over the application. The paper will expand on prior papers to show more generally how these concepts can be developed.