Toward Nonconventional Human–Machine Interfaces for Supervisory Plant Process Monitoring

This paper describes a novel methodology for designing alternative human-machine interfaces (HMI) dealing with the industrial process control visualization and plant monitoring. The system is based on a multiagent approach in order to allow visualizations using nonconventional display devices (e.g., power-wall or table) combined with the natural user interaction (NUI) paradigm. This type of HMI solution could form an optional extension to current systems employed in a plant monitoring. Namely the utilization of a virtual reality creates new opportunities for the HMI system use cases, where an enhanced visualization and interaction can improve decision making strategies in complex processes. An immersive plant personnel training or realistic process visualizations are examples where the usage of the third dimension can be helpful. Nevertheless, the development of nonconventional HMI increases the complexity of the industrial information system environment. The question is how to adapt the system design for the nonconventional HMI, in a contrast with the conventional solutions. We applied the multiagent approach, which leads to a more robust and less-coupled component structure. An experimental prototype was implemented on the top of the proposed methodology. A simulation of an absorption refrigeration process was used as a process model on top of which the prototype was designed. Interoperability was gained via the automation standard of OPC UA. Furthermore, in order to optimize our NUI agent, a user testing application was developed for the evaluation of exploratory interaction tasks in a power-wall display scenario. The proposed framework provides fundamental guidelines for designing and developing a new generation of HMI systems.