Design principles for integrated control systems

For REV Ocean we started planning the control system architecture and functionality based on our 4 key design principles:

• Safe - machine control
• Secure -  system design robustness and resilience
• User friendly – intuitive and simple, yet extremely powerful user interface
• Logical – clear architecture with system, operations and equipment levels

Based on these principles and in close dialogue with end-users we design and simulate the control system operations before implementation and start-up.

Getting the big picture

With the control system design process we have gone through on the REV Ocean vessel we now control 11 winches, 5 overhead booms, a cursor and a 6000 m fiber crane with several different routing configurations through the same control system. In the same control system interface we have a complete system overview on system, operations and equipment level.

Level 1- System overview

Full system overview at a glance. Operator quickly gets a full overview of the system and ongoing operations.

Level 1: The big picture overview of complete system

The level 1 view shows wire routing, aggregated equipment status and where the equipment are controlled from.

• Traction Winch – Wire routed to crane                          – Operated from Crane radio (indicated by remote symbol)
• Deep Tow winch – Wire routed to moon pool                  – Operated from Moon pool Radio (indicated by remote symbol)
• CTD winch – Wire routed to STB FWD Boom                 – Operated from Control Room (indicated by HMI symbol)

Level 2 -  Operations overview

Full overview of the ongoing operation. The user interface only presents need-to-know information required for safe and efficient operation.

Level 2: Current operations dashboard. Dashboard provide real-time performance data of the current operation.

The view shows equipment under control (EUC), operational data and equipment status

• EUC:                CTD Winch are used in conjunction with light cursor frame in moon pool.
• Operational:      System is at rest at 0 m/s, have no wire out and no payload in the hook.
• Status:             System are healthy and the winch is in STOPPED mode

Level 3 - Equipment overview

Full overview on an equipment level. Operator is presented with a detailed overview over equipment status and recent usage.

Level 3:  Current equipment dashboard. Dashboard provide real-time performance data of the individual machine. In this example the CTD winch.

Do you want to know more about integrated control systems please contact Arne Johan Trandal.