Abstract: A hyperconverged industrial process control architecture is disclosed for controlling an industrial process within a physical process environment using a software-defined distributed control system (DCS) environment. The software-defined DCS environment may be implemented by virtualizing the hardware components of a DCS architecture on a server group to enable both software-defined process controllers and back-end DCS applications to run within the server group. This software-defined DCS network architecture reduces the hardware requirements of the process control system and reduces configuration complexity by implementing control components and higher-level components within a common environment within the server group.

Abstract: A process control input/output (I/O) device provides traditional I/O support with direct physical layers or interfaces associated with traditional process control communication protocols while at the same time supporting an advanced physical layer or other IP based physical layer and the communication protocols that run on top of them. In addition, the new I/O device is able to nest protocols inside of other protocols for use when protocols, such as safety protocols, require additional handshaking, confirmations, etc. Still further, the new I/O device includes hardware configurable capabilities that enable easy configuration of a process control system that uses multiple different physical layers, including those used by traditional process control protocols such as HART and FOUNDATION Fieldbus protocols, and more advanced physical layers, including those that are used by IP-based, Ethernet based, packet based and other types of advanced communication protocols.

Abstract: An edge gateway system securely delivers and exposes data generated by and/or related to a process plant for consumption by external systems, and includes a field-facing component that stores interest lists indicating the particular data that is allowed to be exposed by the field-facing component. Each interest list is defined (e.g., manually and/or automatically) in accordance with an exposable data type system extracted from (in some cases, multiple different) configurations of the process plant, and may include multiple types of data (e.g., control, I/O, diagnostic, device, historical, etc.) that collectively represent a particular named entity of the plant. The field-facing component obtains the process plant-related data indicated by the interest lists, and provides the obtained field content data to an edge-facing component of the edge gateway system for exposure to external systems, for example, by streaming and/or publishing the obtained data to the edge-facing component.

Abstract: To provide a trusted, secure, and immutable record of transactions within a process plant, techniques are described for utilizing a distributed ledger in process control systems. The distributed ledger may be maintained by nodes which receive transactions broadcasted from field devices, controllers, operator workstations, or other devices operating within the process plant. The transactions may include process plant data, such as process parameter data, product parameter data, configuration data, user interaction data, maintenance data, commissioning data, plant network data, and product tracking data. The distributed ledgers may also be utilized to execute smart contracts to allow machines such as field devices to transact by themselves without human intervention. In this manner, recorded process parameter values and product parameter values may be retrieved to verify the quality of products.

Abstract: Drones (e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles, or “UAVs”) equipped with cameras and sensors may be configured to travel throughout the field environment of a process plant to monitor process plant conditions. Onboard computing devices associated with the drones control the movement of the drones through the field environment of the process plant. The onboard computing devices interface with the cameras and other sensors and communicate with user interface devices, controllers, servers and/or databases via a network. The onboard computing devices may receive drone commands from user interface devices and/or servers, or may access drone commands stored in one or more databases. The onboard computing devices may transmit data captured by the cameras and/or other sensors to UI devices, controllers, servers, etc. Accordingly, the user interface devices may display data (including live video feeds) captured by the drone cameras and/or drone sensors to an operator in a human machine interface application.