Starting with Proficy CSense

The Continuous Troubleshooter and Discrete & Batch Troubleshooter enable you to rapidly troubleshoot time continuous, discrete or batch processes by examining production data from a variety of historical data sources. Data is prepared and visualized, and rules-based and data driven process models can be constructed. The knowledge extracted from these models allows you to estimate the benefit of the proposed process changes, all with a few button clicks. Using this modelled system, root causes of process deviations are identified, so processes can be corrected to produce a consistent product at optimal yield levels.

This comprehensive development platform provides drag-and-drop building blocks to quickly develop scalable, robust solutions. These solutions can then be deployed online, either in real-time or as scheduled events, through the CSense Runtime Manager. A solution is generally developed from a combination of recipes for data preparation, a blueprint of data actions, and a way of sinking data for reuse, either in the CSense Runtime Manager, or a number of third-party applications.

Action Object Services are used to deploy and execute Action Objects. The actual application used for deployment is the CSense Runtime Manager.

The CSense Runtime Manager provides a simple and easy way to deploy and monitor Action Objects. An Action Object (AO) is the name given to an executing configuration, which could have been created and deployed from a number of sources, including Architect and Process+ to name a few. An executing Action Object is an OPC Classic Server and can be connected to from OPC Classic clients.

There are different types of Action Objects that can be deployed:

• Event-based Action Objects

• Process+ Action Objects

• Real-time Action Objects

• Scheduled Action Objects

The CSense Data Server is provided with all editions and is a set of databases running on Microsoft SQL Server. These databases are used when doing data preparation from the Troubleshooters, as well for storing Action Objects used by the Action Object Services.

The Action Object Toolkit is provided with all editions and is geared for advanced users to programmatically create blueprints and Action Objects. This set of software tools also enables the development of deployable Action Objects, created in any number of third-party applications, that can be integrated into the Proficy CSense software. The Action Object Toolkit includes the following sub-components:

• Blueprint SDK

• COM Wrapper blueprint block

• .NET Wrapper blueprint blocks

• .NET Wrapper Data Recipe operations

• ISV Object

The MPC (Model Predictive Control) Editor enables engineers to define and configure a model and controller for a Model Predictive Control solution. Once configured, the MPC model and controller can be saved to a file, which is then used to configure the MPC block in the CSense Architect for offline simulation or online real-time execution of the MPC solution.