Human Machine Interface Prototyping and Application for Advanced Control of Offshore Topside Separation Processes

This paper establishes an implementation framework, as a proof of concept, of how to reduce the uncertainty of deploying advanced control offshore. The majority of process research tends to consider improvements in performance, but with less emphasis on how to realize implementation. For control methods to be successfully applied offshore, the methods must be sufficiently simple, trustworthy, and transparent. This is mainly due to the severe consequence of incidences offshore. As it is ultimately the operators that decide which control methods are toggled on/off, the operators need to be aware of the control's behavior. The focus of this paper is not process performance, nor control theory, but rather how to convey the status, state, and action of the controllers to the offshore operators. A design approach is given for displaying and explaining the control for the operators. The is based on uniting the fast prototyping capability of Simulink Real-Time with the graphical capabilities of a Human Machine Interface system. As a case study, experiments are carried out to compare Model Predictive Control to conventional Proportional Integral Derivative control on a scaled offshore pilot-plant, which can emulate different separation processes at the topside of offshore oil & gas installations. The results show that the established connection makes it possible to investigate and compare control systems real-time, which data should be available to an operator and how to represent it.