Patent Application
20140341563
The disclosure relates generally to process controllers and optical sensing.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Many industrial processes require process control systems that can provide accurate and repeatable temperature control in extremely high voltage environments. Traditional electrical sensors that are commonly applied to measure process variables are not well suited to high voltage environments because they are adversely affected by electromagnetic interference from the high voltage.
In one form, a system for process control is provided that comprises a process controller having a plurality of process inputs, a plurality of communication ports, and at least one optical sensor integrated in the process controller, wherein data of the optical sensor is resident within the process controller. A control unit is in communication with the plurality of communication ports and the at least one optical sensor.
In another form, an integrated process control device is provided that comprises a controller, a plurality of communication ports, and a plurality of optical sensors. The plurality of communication ports and the optical sensors are in communication with the controller, and the controller is configured to receive a first optical signal and a second optical signal from the plurality of optical sensors and transmit at least one control signal to a controlled device corresponding to the first optical signal or the second optical signal.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. It should be understood that the description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
In order that the disclosure may be well understood, there will now be described various forms thereof, given by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.
The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses. It should be understood that throughout the drawings, corresponding reference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and features.
Referring to
The system 101 may be especially beneficial for measuring temperatures in environments having elevated radio frequency (RF) activity. Some environments may comprise processes that require extremely high voltages, such as by way of example, plasma enhanced chemical and physical reactions, high voltage transformers, high field strength medical devices, industrial heaters, electronics, motors, and other high voltage equipment generating elevated RF levels. These environments adversely affect the operation of conventional electrical measurement devices due to electromagnetic (EM) interference produced by nearby, high-field components, wires, and sensors (electrically conducted). Conventional controllers rely on electrical connections that may not be capable of accurately measuring temperatures due to RF interference. The disclosed controller 102 may provide for accurate and repeatable measurement and control of various processes that require measurements of environmental factors in the high-field environments due to the integration of optical sensors. The integration of optical sensors 104 may further provide for the integration of high level information from the optical sensors that may not otherwise be possible.
Unlike conventional electrical temperature measurement devices, the optical sensors 104 are not affected by the electric or magnetic fields as set forth above. This system 101 may provide for continuous temperature measurement where it would otherwise not be possible with other systems. By routing light through a fiber optic cable 110, the temperature signal can be established in the actual environment because the fiber optic cable is not electrically conductive.
To measure the temperature of each probe 112, the optical sensors may apply pulses of light from each optical source 106 (e.g. pumping light or LED) through the fiber optic cables 110. The light from the pulses then travels down the fiber optic cable 110 to the temperature probe 112. The temperature probe 112 may comprise a temperature sensitive material, such as a gel or crystal, that absorbs and reflects the light from the pulses based on its temperature. The light is then absorbed and re-emitted through the fiber optic cable to the optical detector 108, where a returned light profile is interpreted by the controller. This interpretation is accomplished through algorithms, which may widely vary depending on the application and controller design. One skilled in the art can readily appreciate and understand the specifics of such algorithms for their application without going into the details herein.
The electrical signal from the optical detector 108 may comprise a variety of digital or analog signals depending on the specific operation of the detector. The temperature may then be applied to determine the temperature at each of the temperature zones 114, 116 and applied to control the temperature of a heater 120, or a process, device, or object.
Referring to
The optical sensors 206 may be implemented to supply and detect electronic temperature signals in the environment to avoid the adverse effects associated with high-intensity EM fields. The optical sensors 206 may be implemented to measure a variety of temperature related processes, and in some implementations, may further be applied to measure pressure and strain, or gas concentrations, among other conditions such as corrosion by way of example, by implementing related optical devices. By integrating the optical sensors 206 into the environment, the process controller 202 provides improved optical sensing through improved monitoring of a variety of optical signals that may be measured by the optical sensors 206. For example, the improved sensing may include a streamlined data path, sample rate, improved speed versus accuracy, and managed reliability. Improved monitoring thus results in improved process control due to additional process information that may be recorded through the integrated optical sensors 206.
The controller 204 may generally comprise a processing device and in some instances may comprise a micro-controller or a plurality of processors integrated through a variety of circuits. The controller 204 may be configured to control and sample temperature signals from the optical sensors 206. As the controller 204 samples the optical sensor 206 measurements, in this case the temperature measurements, the measurements may be stored in memory that may be incorporated in the controller 204. The temperature measurements may then be applied to calculate and adjust at least one output passed through the I/O circuitry 208. The at least one output may then be transmitted to a heater or any other system being controlled (controlled system) as a process control input.
In an exemplary implementation, the temperature measurements may be interpreted over time through a PID control method. The PID control method may calculate an error from the temperature measurements compared to a target temperature in the controlled system. The error may be monitored proportionally based on the present error, integrally based on the accumulation of past errors, and derivatively to predict future errors. In this implementation, the process may be configured to monitor the temperature measurements and calculate the error from the target temperature for a plurality of optical sensors 206. Upon calculating the error, the controller may output one or more control signals to the controlled system to correct the error while continuing to monitor the temperature measurements and calculating future control signals.
The process controller 202 may further be configured to communicate the control performance, measurement data, and statistical information to a reporting server. Reporting functionality may provide additional benefits of applying the process controller 202. By reporting information about one or more controlled systems, the performance of the controller may be monitored. Faults in a specific process or operation may be provided to supervisory or safety systems through the I/O circuitry 208. Such safety systems may be implemented to prevent improper operation of the controlled system.
In some cases, a combination of optical sensors and electrical measurement sources may be supplied as inputs to the controller 202. The number of measurement sources, electrical and optical, may be adjusted through modular circuit design. The process controller may provide for a broad range of control applications, each requiring diverse processing and communications requirements. The specific sampling rate by the controller of the data from the optical sensors 206 may also vary widely depending on the process being monitored and controlled. Memory as discussed herein may comprise random access memory (RAM), volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, and/or any device that stores digital information.
The I/O circuitry 208 discussed herein may comprise a plurality of communication standards. The controller may monitor, control, and report process operation through a variety of methods, some examples of which may include: RS-232 or RS-485 transceivers, serial communication (FPGA, ASIC), CANbus, Modbus, CIP, CC-Link and BACnet, local bus, PCI, Ethernet, wireless 802.1(a, b, g, n), EtherCAT, Device Net, Bluetooth, and/or DALI, or other known and future communication standards. It should be understood that these communications protocols are merely exemplary and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.
Referring to
With the temperature data, the process controller may calculate the error in the measured temperature compared to the set-point or desired temperature 316. In response to a temperature error, a first 318 and a second 320 heat control output from the process controller may be adjusted for the first zone 322 and the second zone 324 to offset the temperature error independently for the first 322 and the second 324 zones. While the PID temperature control is active 326, the method may continue to measure the temperature of the each zone 308 through each optical sensor. By integrating the capability to implement optical sensors, the controller provides for an integrated process controller that may safely and accurately control the temperature of a process in highly elevated radio frequency (RF) environments, in addition to monitoring and acting on other process/environment information as set forth above. In other forms, additional circuits may be employed in the controller to receive input from devices other than an optical sensor, including by way of example, thermocouples, RTDs, and thermistors.
Referring to
The process controller may further comprise a plurality of ports including a serial communication port 408, a plurality of parallel ports 410, an Ethernet port 412, and a USB port 414. The I/O ports may be applied to communicate instructions from the process controller 402 to a plurality of controlled devices or systems. The various communication ports may further provide for reporting system performance, measurement data, and statistical information to a reporting server. By reporting information related to the operation of one or more of the controlled systems, the performance of the systems and the controller 402 may be monitored. Also, faults in specific processes or operations may be detected by the controller 402 and reported to supervisory or safety systems that may be implemented to prevent improper operation.
Referring to
The process controller 502 may further comprise a plurality of communications (I/O) ports including serial communication ports 508, a plurality of parallel ports 510, an Ethernet port 512, and a USB port 514. In this implementation, the process controller further comprises a Micro-USB port 516 and device address dials 518 to identify communication channels among one or more devices of the controlled system. The I/O ports may also be applied to communicate instructions from the process controller 402 to a plurality of controlled devices or systems similar to the process controller 402 introduced in
Referring to
Yet another form is shown in
It is noted that the various modules and/or circuitries (e.g., controller, microcontroller, processors, etc.) described herein may be a single processing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such a processing device may be a microprocessor, micro-controller, digital signal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals (analog and/or digital) based on operational instructions. The operational instructions may be stored in a memory. The memory may be a single memory device or a plurality of memory devices. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, and/or any device that stores digital information. It is also noted that when the processing module implements one or more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory storing the corresponding operational instructions may be embedded with the circuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry. In such an embodiment, a memory stores, and a processing module coupled thereto executes, operational instructions corresponding to at least some of the steps and/or functions illustrated and/or described herein.
The description of the disclosure is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations that do not depart from the substance of the disclosure are intended to be within the scope of the disclosure. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
This application claims the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 61/812,625 filed on Apr. 16, 2013. The disclosure of the above application is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61812625 | Apr 2013 | US |
