DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Discenzo,
US Patent No. 6,646,397 (hereinafter Discenzo).
Regarding claims 1-20, Discenzo discloses al the claimed limitations, as outlined below:
Claim 1. A computer-implemented method for recommending an operational command, which is able to control at least one actuator of an industrial plant, the method comprising: receiving an alarm from at least one sensor and/or from an operator of the industrial plant, wherein the alarm is related to a current state of the industrial plant; obtaining the current state of the industrial plant, the current state comprising at least one current process value and/or at least one current operational command related to the industrial plant; comparing the current state of the industrial plant to a list of historic states of the industrial plant, each historic state comprising a plurality of historic process values and/or at least one historic operational command related to the industrial plant; when the current state matches a subset of at least one of the historic states, starting a simulation based on a simulation model of the industrial plant and the matching historic state as a starting state; running a plurality of simulations, each of the plurality of simulations being based on a variation of at least one of the historic operational commands; determining, for each simulation of the plurality of simulations, a quality value based on at least one quality criterion; and recommending a variation of the operational command, which resulted in the simulation with the highest quality value (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising implementing the variation of the operational command to control the at least one actuator of the industrial plant (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining the list of historic states of the industrial plant, each historic state comprising a plurality of historic process values and/or at least one historic operational command related to the industrial plant; and storing the list of historic states (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of at least one of the historic states is selected based on an algorithmic, a heuristic and/or an ANN-based sensitivity analysis of the plurality of historic process values, and/or on a random selection from the plurality of historic process values and/or the at least one current process value (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing comprises to use a similarity function (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching of the current state to the subset of at least one of the historic states is based on a similarity analysis of elements of the current state compared to corresponding elements of the historic states (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarm is at least one of: a critical situation, characterized by exceeding of a predefined threshold of at least one current process value, and/or by a current operational command, an alarm of an alarm system of the industrial plant, a tripping of a predefined actuator, a starting of a subsystem, and/or a stopping of a subsystem (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing the current state of the plant to a list of historic states comprises to compare one state or a sequence of states (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 9. The method of claim 1, wherein each simulation of the plurality of simulations is based on a variation of waiting times, setpoint value ranges, and/or random removal of steps (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 10. The method of claim 1, wherein each one of the simulations is terminated when one of following criteria is reached: when the simulated process values are below a predefined threshold; when a composed alarm of the plant’s alarm system is deactivated; and/or when a composed signal for normal plant operation is set (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the quality criterion for determining the quality value comprises at least one of: a duration of a time period to deactivate the alarm, a number of processing steps to deactivate the alarm, a number of involved actuators, and/or a predefined operation range for process variables (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 12. A control unit for an industrial plant, the control unit configured for executing a series of processes, each of the series of processes expressed by computer-executable instructions, the series of processes comprising recommending an operational command, which is able to control at least one actuator of an industrial plant, the series of processes further comprising: receiving an alarm from at least one sensor and/or from an operator of the industrial plant, wherein the alarm is related to a current state of the industrial plant; obtaining the current state of the industrial plant, the current state comprising at least one current process value and/or at least one current operational command related to the industrial plant; comparing the current state of the industrial plant to a list of historic states of the industrial plant, each historic state comprising a plurality of historic process values and/or at least one historic operational command related to the industrial plant; when the current state matches a subset of at least one of the historic states, starting a simulation based on a simulation model of the industrial plant and the matching historic state as a starting state; running a plurality of simulations, each of the plurality of simulations being based on a variation of at least one of the historic operational commands; determining, for each simulation of the plurality of simulations, a quality value based on at least one quality criterion; and recommending a variation of the operational command, which resulted in the simulation with the highest quality value (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 13. The control unit of claim 12, further comprising implementing the variation of the operational command to control the at least one actuator of the industrial plant (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 14. The control unit of claim 12, further comprising: obtaining the list of historic states of the industrial plant, each historic state comprising a plurality of historic process values and/or at least one historic operational command related to the industrial plant; and storing the list of historic states (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 15. The control unit of claim 12, wherein the subset of at least one of the historic states is selected based on an algorithmic, a heuristic and/or an ANN-based sensitivity analysis of the plurality of historic process values, and/or on a random selection from the plurality of historic process values and/or the at least one current process value (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 16. The control unit of claim 12, wherein the matching of the current state to the subset of at least one of the historic states is based on a similarity analysis of elements of the current state compared to corresponding elements of the historic states (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 17. The control unit of claim 12, wherein the alarm is at least one of: a critical situation, characterized by exceeding of a predefined threshold of at least one current process value, and/or by a current operational command, an alarm of an alarm system of the industrial plant, a tripping of a predefined actuator, a starting of a subsystem, and/or a stopping of a subsystem (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 18. The control unit of claim 12, wherein the comparing the current state of the plant to a list of historic states comprises to compare one state or a sequence of states (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 19. The control unit of claim 12, wherein each simulation of the plurality of simulations is based on a variation of waiting times, setpoint value ranges, and/or random removal of steps (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Claim 20. The control unit of claim 12, wherein each one of the simulations is terminated when one of following criteria is reached: when the simulated process values are below a predefined threshold; when a composed alarm of the plant’s alarm system is deactivated; and/or when a composed signal for normal plant operation is set; and wherein the quality criterion for determining the quality value comprises at least one of: a duration of a time period to deactivate the alarm, a number of processing steps to deactivate the alarm, a number of involved actuators, and/or a predefined operation range for process variables (C9 L18-25 and C14 L17-42 - - integrating a diagnostic system and an alarm system with centralized supervisory system 112. The supervisory system 112 includes simulation capabilities for recommendation purposes. The optimization system utilizes historic data in order to generate optimized control commands).
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
1. Iino, US Patent No. 5,873,251 – relates to plant operation control systema and simulation system.
Conclusion
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/CARLOS R ORTIZ RODRIGUEZ/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2119
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