22 Yokogawa Technical Report English Edition, No. 31 (2001)

CENTUM CS 3000 OPERATOR

TRAINING SYSTEM

KUMAGAI Hiroshi*

WAKASUGI Hiroshi*

As industrial plant systems have increased in scale and their automatic

control algorithms advanced, the need for plant simulator systems for training plant

operators has been increasing. To meet this need, we have developed a software

package that facilitates configuration of a plant operator training simulator system

using Extended Test Functions for the CENTUM CS 3000. By connecting

Extended Test Functions to a plant model using the features of this package, the

user can easily configure an operator training system on a personal computer

allowing the same operations to be performed by trainees as would be at an actual

HIS.

INTRODUCTION

s industrial plant systems have increased in scale and their

automatic control algorithms advanced, today’s operators

are required to have more advanced skills and knowledge of

theplant systems and to learn the actions to be taken in response to

any possible situations including emergencies. Nevertheless,

obtaining such knowledge and learning such operations on a real

plant carries with it risks and doing so without jeopardizing the

plant requires years of experience. This has been increasing the

necessity for operator training with a simulator that has the look

and feel of the actual plant control system.

In a training system, not merely the steady state of the user

plant but also abnormal states that cannot be realized in the actual

control system can be easily simulated, allowing the skills of the

plant operators to be improved within a short period. With the

new software package we have developed, the user can

effortlessly configure an operator training system for the actual

plant controlled by the user’s CENTUM CS 3000 system, on a

personal computer using the operator training interface and

Extended Test Functions for the CENTUM CS 3000.

This paper introduces the major features of an operator

training system that uses data of a CENTUM CS 3000 system

controlling an actual plant.

OPERATOR TRAINING SYSTEM

CONFIGURATION

A CENTUM CS 3000-based operator training system does

not require special hardware and can be configured with ordinary

personal computers meeting the following general requirements

(note that these specifications may vary depending on the scale of

the training system):

• Operating system: Windows NT 4.0

• CPU: Pentium 300 MHz or higher

• Memory: 128 MB or larger

• Free space on hard disk: At least 2 GB

• Ethernet connectivity: 100 Mbps Ethernet

Figure 1 illustrates the configuration of a CENTUM CS 3000

system for an actual plant, and Figure 2 shows for comparison the

configuration of an operator training system. HISs of the

CENTUM CS 3000 are available in three styles: console,

industrial PC, or ordinary PC. Regardless of the style of the HISs

used for an actual plant, the training system can use ordinary PCs.

Control Bus Emulation

Communications between an operator station (HIS) and field

control stations (FCSs) in a CENTUM CS system for actual plant

control are performed via the Vnet control bus. While, in a

training system, communications between the virtual HIS and

FCS simulator within the same PC are performed via the virtual

Vnet, and communications between virtual HISs and FCS

simulators over different PCs are via Ethernet. This feature of

emulating Vnet on Ethernet has enabled inter-station data

*1 Systems Development Center, Industrial Automation Systems

Business Div.

*2 Omega Simulation Co., Ltd.

CENTUM CS 3000 Operator Training System 23

communications to be performed in

the same way as in an actual plant

control system.

FCS Simulator

A training system uses an FCS

simulator in place of an actual FCS.

Since multiple FCS simulators can

run on a PC, two or more FCSs can

be simulated on a single PC.

Virtual HIS

In place of an actual HIS, a

training system uses a virtual HIS

having exactly the same features as

an HIS used for actual plant control.

A virtual HIS can be run on a PC that

also runs the aforesaid FCS

simulators and on an independent

PC, whichever is preferred.

Engineering Functions

–

Builders

Engineering functions (Builders)

used for configuring and modifying a

CENTUM CS 3000 system for

actual plant control can be installed

and are run in an operator training

system without any change. Thus,

most applications that are running in

an actual plant control system, such

as graphic windows, can also be run

in an operator training system

without change.

Plant Model and Training Control

To configure an operator training

system, a plant model that simulates

dynamic, physical characteristics of

a target plant, such as characteristics

of temperatures and pressures, is a

requisite. Although it is possible to

build a model by simply defining

necessary loop-back functions, many

dynamic simulators that can repro-

Ethernet

Process

Operator station (HIS)

Engineering station

(with Builders installed)

Vnet (control bus)

Field control station

(FCS)

Field control station

(FCS)

Field control station

(FCS)

Process simulator

PC PC PC

Ethernet

Operator station features

(virtual HIS)

Field control

station features

(FCS simulator)

Field control

station features

(FCS simulator)

Operator training

interface

Operator training

interface

Operator station features

(virtual HIS)

Engineering station

(with Builders installed)

PC or workstation

Plant model and training

control functions

• The virtual HIS and FCS simulators are

functions provided by Expanded Test

Functions for CENTUM CS 3000.

• The plant model and training control functions

need to be purchased separately.

Figure 1 CENTUM CS 3000 System Configuration for Actual Plant Control

Figure 2 Configuration of Operator Training System

duce changes in physical properties and the physical causalities at

high fidelity have already been embodied to date. Besides, train-

ing control functions for starting and stopping training, reproduc-

ing a status quo, etc. are also needed.

For a small-scale plant control system, all the aforementioned

features can be packed in a single PC to configure an operator

training system in it as shown in Figure 3.

FEATURES OF OPERATOR TRAINING

INTERFACE

A request from the training control or process simulator to an

FCS simulator is issued via the operator training interface.

Complex actions to an FCS simulator are performed within the

operator training interface so that a request for an action can be

easily invoked via the training control or process simulator. The

operator training interface features the following functions

required for a training system.

Data Exchange (



in Figure 4)

The operator training interface performs high-speed, mass

data exchange between process input/output data that reside in an

FCS simulator and used for control computations by function

blocks in the FCS simulator, and process simulation data