초록 ▼

Digital processing methods and apparatus for monitoring, controlling, and simulating industrial processes operate on data signals representative of process parameter values and generate response values representative of desired or requested process parameter values. A knowledge base stores knowledge

Digital processing methods and apparatus for monitoring, controlling, and simulating industrial processes operate on data signals representative of process parameter values and generate response values representative of desired or requested process parameter values. A knowledge base stores knowledge of the industrial process in the form of rules, and an inference engine applied the rules to calculate the response values. A time-stamp value is assigned to each data signal, representing the time of receipt of each signal. Currency evaluation elements, responsive to user-selected currency range values and the time-stamp signals, assign an expiration-time value to the data signals and disregard data signals having an expiration-time value outside a corresponding user-selected currency range value.

대표청구항 ▼

Digital processing apparatus for monitoring and controlling an industrial process, the apparatus comprising processing means for processing a set of data signals representative of a corresponding set of periodically sensed process parameter values, and for generating in real-time, in response to sai

Digital processing apparatus for monitoring and controlling an industrial process, the apparatus comprising processing means for processing a set of data signals representative of a corresponding set of periodically sensed process parameter values, and for generating in real-time, in response to said data signals, a set of calculated response values representative of requested process parameter values, said processing means including knowledge base means for providing knowledge relating to the industrial process, to enable said processing means to process said data signals in accordance with said knowledge, said knowledge base means including rule base means for providing a set of rules representative of said knowledge, inference engine means for calculating intermediate data values in response to said data signals and said rules, and for calculating, in real-time, said response values, in response to any of said data signals, said intermediate data values, and said rules, said inference engine means including expression evaluation means for evaluating logical expressions representative of any of said data signals, said intermediate data values, and said rules, each said logical expression including a set of variables corresponding to said data signals, time-stamp means, for determining and assigning a time-stamp value to each said data signal, said time-stamp values being representative of a time at which each said process parameter value is generated, and currency evaluation means, responsive to said time-stamp signals and to user-selected currency range values, for assigning an expiration-time value for each data signal, intermediate data value, and variable, and for discarding data signals having an expiration-time value outside a corresponding user-selected currency range value.