Laboratory for Intelligent Systems in Processing Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachussets Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Abstract:
The diagnostic event analyser (DEA) is a system for automated diagnosis of malfunction in continuous processes. DEA interprets real-time sequences of abnormal events such as measurements out of normal ranges and violation of quantitative algebraic constraints. DEA can be used to supplement an existing alarm system, providing a higher-level interpretation of patterns of abnormal events for the process operator. To use DEA, the user must supply only standard ‘form’ inputs of the root causes and relationships between abnormal events. DEA is implemented using object- oriented programming, a technique which allows general rules and procedures to be applied to process-specific objects. This architecture facilities treatment of multiple malfunctions and robustness to variation in event sequences.