November 11, 2013 – PlantESP Monitoring And Optimization Platform Augmented With TuneVue

Advanced Diagnostic Identifies Full Range of Controller Improvement Opportunities

November 11, 2013  Control Station introduced TuneVue with the newest release of its PlantESP Loop Performance Monitoring solution. TuneVue is an advanced diagnostic that accurately models highly dynamic process data and identifies opportunities for improved control loop performance. With this innovation PlantESP is uniquely equipped to identify loop performance issues that result in loss of an estimated 5% in annual production value.

Changes in controller output occur regularly within a typical production facility as either manual adjustments to final control elements or adjustments to set points are made by production staff. Each change presents an opportunity to model the associated process dynamics and to determine if modifications to controller tuning parameters are warranted. However, the data associated with most production processes is inherently noisy and oscillatory due to the dynamic and interactive nature of the processes themselves. Other loop monitoring products that actively capture output changes generally produce erroneous models due to their inability to accurately analyze the dynamics associated with both integrating and non-integrating processes.

TuneVue is based on Control Station’s patent-pending innovation for modeling dynamic process data. It automatically identifies both open- and closed-loop changes in controller output and notifies users with specific recommendations for improving controller performance. The innovation does not require a steady-state condition in order to generate accurate models, and it has proven highly effective when applied to integrating and non-integrating processes. As a result TuneVue is ideally suited to the highly variable dynamics typical of industrial manufacturing.

TuneVue provides a significant advancement in control loop performance monitoring and plant-wide optimization, commented Brett Beauregard, Control Station’s Director of Product Development. The ability to identify process changes is a fundamental requirement for any control loop monitoring application. If the modeling capability is either limited to certain types of processes or prone to producing inaccurate models, however, then it fails the user. TuneVue represents a major step forward as it handily satisfies those key criteria.

The Non-Steady State (NSS) Modeling Innovation was introduced in 2008 as a break-through in data modeling and controller tuning. It eliminates the requirement for a steady-state condition prior to performing bump tests or other experiments commonly required for tuning PID controllers. The innovation is equally reliable when applied to highly oscillatory and noisy process data and to processes with long Dead-Time. No other data modeling and controller tuning software has demonstrated such a capability, and its application within PlantESP provides process manufacturers with superior process diagnostic and optimization capabilities.