Yokogawa and Shell jointly develop Platform for Advanced Control and Estimation R5.03, a software suite that brings together Shell's advanced plant process control technology and Yokogawa's real-time control technology to help customers improve productivity by increasing product yield and reducing energy consumption. The version upgrade supports Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA), the latest version of a communication standard that improves plant systems interoperability and security and provides the basis for digital transformation to help customers transition to industrial autonomy. The platform is an offering under the OpreX Asset Operations and Optimization family.
- Multivariable model predictive control (the control of multiple variables based on predictions made using models of the dynamic characteristics of plant responses)
- Soft sensing for estimating quality in real-time based on temperature, flow rate, pressure, and other process values
- Customization of calculations
Yokogawa continues to enhance this suite in response to changing customer requirements. The release of version R5.03 reportedly meets urgent industry needs for enhanced plant systems interoperability and security. Enhancements include:
Feature expansion
- Support for OPC UA - Version 5.03 conforms to OPC UA, the latest version of the OPC communication standard. OPC is the prevailing data exchange standard in the industrial automation field. Support of the latest OPC version enables users to securely exchange data with OPC UA devices and work with data from a wider range of sources.
- Addition of new Base Layer Control (BLC) model - A new BLC model that employs proportional integral differential (PID) control logic is added. This model uses the PID parameters of a distributed control system (DCS) to represent the dynamics of a PID loop. This improves control by reducing mismatches with the process described by the BLC model.
- Expansion of Shed Logic to Event Logic - Shed Logic is a function that customizes how applications operate. It gives users the freedom to customize the behavior of their applications to suit the operating conditions of a plant. Shed Logic is now called Event Logic, with expanded functionalities that eliminate the need for custom code and enable event-based processing for measurement validation, model change, etc.
Improvement of maintenance features
- Design-Time advisor - This function verifies the parameter values for applications, processors and variables that have been set using Design-Time and displays a warning message for any invalid parameter settings. By making it easier to identify and correct configuration errors, this helps to improve applications.
- Automatic trend scaling - The scale of the trend pen (upper and lower limits of the trend display) can now be adjusted automatically. This feature reduces the time and effort required for setting the trend scale.
- Visualization of OPC performance data - It is now possible to view OPC performance metrics such as read time when accessing data from an OPC data access/unified architecture (DA/UA) server. In addition, a list can be displayed that shows all accessible OPC items. This feature makes the diagnosis of OPC DA/UA access easier.
