An extensible manufacturing resource model for process integration

Driven by industrial needs and enabled by process technology and information technology, enterprise integration is rapidly shifting from information integration to process integration to improve overall performance of enterprises. Traditional resource models are established based on the needs of individual applications. They cannot effectively serve process integration which needs resources to be represented in a unified, comprehensive and flexible way to meet the needs of various applications for different business processes. This paper looks into this issue and presents a configurable and extensible resource model which can be rapidly reconfigured and extended to serve for different applications. To achieve generality, the presented resource model is established from macro level and micro level. A semantic representation method is developed to improve the flexibility and extensibility of the model

XML in Motion from Genome to Drug

Information technology (IT) has emerged as a central to the solution of contemporary genomics and drug discovery problems. Researchers involved in genomics, proteomics, transcriptional profiling, high throughput structure determination, and in other sub-disciplines of bioinformatics have direct impact on this IT revolution. As the full genome sequences of many species, data from structural genomics, micro-arrays, and proteomics became available, integration of these data to a common platform require sophisticated bioinformatics tools. Organizing these data into knowledgeable databases and developing appropriate software tools for analyzing the same are going to be major challenges. XML (eXtensible Markup Language) forms the backbone of biological data representation and exchange over the internet, enabling researchers to aggregate data from various heterogeneous data resources. The present article covers a comprehensive idea of the integration of XML on particular type of biological databases mainly dealing with sequence-structure-function relationship and its application towards drug discovery. This e-medical science approach should be applied to other scientific domains and the latest trend in semantic web applications is also highlighted

Exploring 3D Chemical Plant Using VRML

The research project focused on how virtual reality could create an immersive environment and improve in designing a chemical plant. The main problem is the difficulties in designing chemical plant since 2D plant layout cannot provide the real walking-through. The aim of this project is to develop and design 3D Chemical Plant which allows users to explore the virtual plant environment freely. The objectives of this project are to design and develop 3D Chemical Plant in the virtual environment; to enable user to walkthrough the chemical plant; and at the same time evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of 3D Chemical Plant. In completion the project, the framework used is based on the waterfall modeling theory. This study also examines the structure and existing use of VRML (International standard for 3D modelling on the internet) in constmction and architectural practice as a means of investigating its role and potential for extensible construction information visualization in chemical plant. The phases involved in the framework used for project development is the initiation phase, design specification, project development, integration and testing and lastly project implementation. Developments tools have been used in the project are VRML and 3D Max 6. As a result from the evaluation conducted, the mean of 3.5 from level of satisfaction ranking shows that mostly the evaluators are satisfied with the project and feel that the realism of 3D chemical plant and suitability of color and textures will improve the designing of chemical plant in virtual environment. As conclusion, the research project show that VR!VE are very useful and give a good impact for the chemical Engineer in designing a chemical plant

Development of a Systems Engineering Model of the Chemical Separations Process: Final Report

The whole chemical separation process is complex to the point that definitely requires certain level of systematic coordination. To perform smoothly and meet the target extraction rates among those processes, this research proposed a general-purpose systems engineering model. A general purposed systems engineering model, Transmutation Research Program System Engineering Model Project (TRPSEMPro), was developed based on the above design concept. The system model includes four main parts: System Manager, Model Integration, Study Plan, and Solution Viewer. TRPSEMPro can apply not only to chemical separation process, but also a general system model. Software engineering and Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA&D) play a critical role during our software development. Through the application of OOA&D, the user can define objects and concepts from our problem domain that is quantitatively described by Unified Modeling Language (UML). The logical software objects were created from the previous definition. Meanwhile, different design patterns were also applied during the detailed design phase. Finally, those designed components were implemented by using MicrosoftTM.Net, the most up-to-date object-oriented programming language framework from Microsoft. Currently, only the UREX process module is available and ready to be implemented. Since extraction modules can be developed from various agencies with different development concepts and programming conventions, an intermediate bridge or interpreter is generally required. The system connects the only available process, UREX and with the TRPSEMPro system model from the AMUSESimulator interface. The AMUSESimulator communicates with the calculation engine AMUSE macros designed for the UREX process. A user-friendly GUI in AMUSESimulator allows the user to efficiently define the UREX process – flowsheet, input streams, sections, and stages

Development of a context-specific search engine, an executive information system, and a novel www ready external cost model

NJPIES is associated with Information Ecology and Sustainability, a holistic approach to environmental data collection, compilation, integration and provision that puts people, not technology, at the center of the environmental information world. The first main goal of this project was to develop an algorithm and associated computer-based tool that could perform a lifecycle cost analysis for a model system. The application developed solved the primary problem associated with the lifecycle cost analysis of a product: it accounted for all costs (e.g., environmental costs such as ecological costs and health costs associated with emissions) of the activity. A lifecycle cost analysis attempts to identify, measure, and quantify the social costs of human activities such as manufacturing that are not considered with traditional accounting systems. The application developed will quantify, monetize, and rank the damage or external costs to the environment of certain types of emissions. We developed a preliminary algorithm and software and implemented it at two plants: load assembly pack operation at Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAAP) and Armtec, a manufacturer of combustible cartridge cases. The second main goal of this project is to act as a credible information-clearing house in pollution prevention (P2) and related environmental matters, and to educate the public and keep them aware of facts taking place in the environmental/manufacturing world. Intelligent search engines have been built to access these huge databases in human readable format and correlate the data to various reports providing information on the environmentally hazardous chemicals, releases, and facilities in different regions. The third main goal is the enhancement of EnviroDaemon with a hierarchical information search interface. This project describes some approaches that locate information according to syntactic criteria, augmented by pragmatic aspects like the utilization of information in a certain context. The main emphasis of this project lies in the treatment of structured knowledge, where essential aspects about the topic of interest are encoded not only by the individual items, but also by their relationships among each other. Benefits of this approach are enhanced precision and approximate search in an already focused, context specific search engine for the environment

Komponenttien luokittelu ja parhaat käytännöt tuotantosimulaation mallinnuksessa

Production simulation software plays a major role in validation, optimization and illustration of production systems. Operation of production simulation is generally based on components and their interaction. Components typically represent factory floor devices, but in addition, there can be components to provide visualization, statistics, control or other input to simulation. The demand for having high-quality, easy-to-use and compatible components emphasizes the importance of component modelling. The objectives of this thesis were to develop component classes based on industrial devices, to standardize component modelling solutions and best practices in component modelling. Other objectives were to identify and analyse future prospects of production simulation. This focuses on the concept of digital twin, which could be described as reflective real-time simulation model from the physical system. In addition, focus is also set on formal modelling languages. The outcome of this thesis presents component classes and best practices in component modelling. In component classification, the focus was set to development of generic components, which can be controlled with signal-based logic. This enables components from the software to be externally controlled. In addition, automatic model creation tool wizard, is implemented to instantly generate components based on the defined component classes. Best practices were based on the selected modelling fields that are most relevant for general use. In the development of best practices, interviewing method was utilized to receive input from simulation experts.Tuotantosimulaatio on tärkeässä osassa tuotantojärjestelmien validoinnissa, optimoinnissa ja visualisoinnissa. Tuotantosimulaation toiminta perustuu yleisesti komponentteihin ja niiden väliseen vuorovaikutukseen. Komponentit esittävät tyypillisesti tehtaasta löytyviä laitteita ja esineitä, mutta komponentteja voidaan käyttää myös visualisointiin, statistiikan keräämiseen, järjestelmän ohjaukseen tai muuhun tarpeeseen simuloinnissa. Tämän diplomityön tavoitteita oli kehittää komponenttiluokkia teollisuudesta valittujen laitteiden perusteella, mikä mahdollistaa mallinnusratkaisujen standardoinnin. Sen lisäksi tavoitteena oli kehittää parhaat käytännöt komponenttimallinnukseen. Muita tavoitteita oli tunnistaa ja analysoida tulevaisuuden näkymiä tuotantosimulaatiolle. Tämä keskittyi pääosin digitaaliseen kaksoseen, jota voidaan kuvata reaaliaikaisesti peilautuvaksi simulaatiomalliksi todellisesta järjestelmästä. Tämän lisäksi työssä keskityttiin formaaleihin mallinnuskieliin. Diplomityön lopputulos esittää kehitetyt komponenttiluokat ja parhaat käytännöt komponenttimallinnuksessa. Komponenttien luokittelussa keskityttiin kehittämään geneerisiä komponentteja, joita voidaan ohjata signaalipohjaisilla komennoilla. Tämä mahdollistaa komponentin ohjaamisen myös simulointiohjelman ulkopuolelta. Tämän lisäksi automaattista komponenttien luomistyökalua käytettiin luokiteltujen komponenttien luomisessa. Parhaat käytännöt komponenttimallinnuksessa pohjautuivat mallinnuksen oleellisimpiin osa-alueisiin tavanomaisissa mallinnustilanteissa. Parhaiden käytäntöjen kehityksessä haastateltiin simulointiammattilaisia, joiden mielipiteistä muodostettiin perusta käytäntöjen kehitykselle

Plant-Wide Diagnosis: Cause-and-Effect Analysis Using Process Connectivity and Directionality Information

Production plants used in modern process industry must produce products that meet stringent environmental, quality and profitability constraints. In such integrated plants, non-linearity and strong process dynamic interactions among process units complicate root-cause diagnosis of plant-wide disturbances because disturbances may propagate to units at some distance away from the primary source of the upset. Similarly, implemented advanced process control strategies, backup and recovery systems, use of recycle streams and heat integration may hamper detection and diagnostic efforts. It is important to track down the root-cause of a plant-wide disturbance because once corrective action is taken at the source, secondary propagated effects can be quickly eliminated with minimum effort and reduced down time with the resultant positive impact on process efficiency, productivity and profitability. In order to diagnose the root-cause of disturbances that manifest plant-wide, it is crucial to incorporate and utilize knowledge about the overall process topology or interrelated physical structure of the plant, such as is contained in Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs). Traditionally, process control engineers have intuitively referred to the physical structure of the plant by visual inspection and manual tracing of fault propagation paths within the process structures, such as the process drawings on printed P&IDs, in order to make logical conclusions based on the results from data-driven analysis. This manual approach, however, is prone to various sources of errors and can quickly become complicated in real processes. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to establish innovative techniques for the electronic capture and manipulation of process schematic information from large plants such as refineries in order to provide an automated means of diagnosing plant-wide performance problems. This report also describes the design and implementation of a computer application program that integrates: (i) process connectivity and directionality information from intelligent P&IDs (ii) results from data-driven cause-and-effect analysis of process measurements and (iii) process know-how to aid process control engineers and plant operators gain process insight. This work explored process intelligent P&IDs, created with AVEVA® P&ID, a Computer Aided Design (CAD) tool, and exported as an ISO 15926 compliant platform and vendor independent text-based XML description of the plant. The XML output was processed by a software tool developed in Microsoft® .NET environment in this research project to computationally generate connectivity matrix that shows plant items and their connections. The connectivity matrix produced can be exported to Excel® spreadsheet application as a basis for other application and has served as precursor to other research work. The final version of the developed software tool links statistical results of cause-and-effect analysis of process data with the connectivity matrix to simplify and gain insights into the cause and effect analysis using the connectivity information. Process knowhow and understanding is incorporated to generate logical conclusions. The thesis presents a case study in an atmospheric crude heating unit as an illustrative example to drive home key concepts and also describes an industrial case study involving refinery operations. In the industrial case study, in addition to confirming the root-cause candidate, the developed software tool was set the task to determine the physical sequence of fault propagation path within the plant. This was then compared with the hypothesis about disturbance propagation sequence generated by pure data-driven method. The results show a high degree of overlap which helps to validate statistical data-driven technique and easily identify any spurious results from the data-driven multivariable analysis. This significantly increase control engineers confidence in data-driven method being used for root-cause diagnosis. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the approach and presents ideas for further development of the methods

Komponenttien luokittelu ja parhaat käytännöt tuotantosimulaation mallinnuksessa

Production simulation software plays a major role in validation, optimization and illustration of production systems. Operation of production simulation is generally based on components and their interaction. Components typically represent factory floor devices, but in addition, there can be components to provide visualization, statistics, control or other input to simulation. The demand for having high-quality, easy-to-use and compatible components emphasizes the importance of component modelling. The objectives of this thesis were to develop component classes based on industrial devices, to standardize component modelling solutions and best practices in component modelling. Other objectives were to identify and analyse future prospects of production simulation. This focuses on the concept of digital twin, which could be described as reflective real-time simulation model from the physical system. In addition, focus is also set on formal modelling languages. The outcome of this thesis presents component classes and best practices in component modelling. In component classification, the focus was set to development of generic components, which can be controlled with signal-based logic. This enables components from the software to be externally controlled. In addition, automatic model creation tool wizard, is implemented to instantly generate components based on the defined component classes. Best practices were based on the selected modelling fields that are most relevant for general use. In the development of best practices, interviewing method was utilized to receive input from simulation experts.Tuotantosimulaatio on tärkeässä osassa tuotantojärjestelmien validoinnissa, optimoinnissa ja visualisoinnissa. Tuotantosimulaation toiminta perustuu yleisesti komponentteihin ja niiden väliseen vuorovaikutukseen. Komponentit esittävät tyypillisesti tehtaasta löytyviä laitteita ja esineitä, mutta komponentteja voidaan käyttää myös visualisointiin, statistiikan keräämiseen, järjestelmän ohjaukseen tai muuhun tarpeeseen simuloinnissa. Tämän diplomityön tavoitteita oli kehittää komponenttiluokkia teollisuudesta valittujen laitteiden perusteella, mikä mahdollistaa mallinnusratkaisujen standardoinnin. Sen lisäksi tavoitteena oli kehittää parhaat käytännöt komponenttimallinnukseen. Muita tavoitteita oli tunnistaa ja analysoida tulevaisuuden näkymiä tuotantosimulaatiolle. Tämä keskittyi pääosin digitaaliseen kaksoseen, jota voidaan kuvata reaaliaikaisesti peilautuvaksi simulaatiomalliksi todellisesta järjestelmästä. Tämän lisäksi työssä keskityttiin formaaleihin mallinnuskieliin. Diplomityön lopputulos esittää kehitetyt komponenttiluokat ja parhaat käytännöt komponenttimallinnuksessa. Komponenttien luokittelussa keskityttiin kehittämään geneerisiä komponentteja, joita voidaan ohjata signaalipohjaisilla komennoilla. Tämä mahdollistaa komponentin ohjaamisen myös simulointiohjelman ulkopuolelta. Tämän lisäksi automaattista komponenttien luomistyökalua käytettiin luokiteltujen komponenttien luomisessa. Parhaat käytännöt komponenttimallinnuksessa pohjautuivat mallinnuksen oleellisimpiin osa-alueisiin tavanomaisissa mallinnustilanteissa. Parhaiden käytäntöjen kehityksessä haastateltiin simulointiammattilaisia, joiden mielipiteistä muodostettiin perusta käytäntöjen kehitykselle