Intent-based Process Control configuration models

Process Control application engineering would be substantially less expensive if supported with readable self-documentation. An important advance would be models and languages designed to more clearly represent application Intent, without the usual implementation obscurity. This paper analyzes how Intent, in this sense, can be usefully defined and expressed. Process Control has traditionally been defined in terms of a number of automation levels. This supports the concept of Intent in one way, defining the implementation of higher application goals in terms of lower level ones. The situation is not unlike the traditional development of the physical sciences where one level of problem is best addressed by an appropriate kind of theory, which must be related to more fundamental theories even though those theories are much too complex to address the higher level problem directly. But more than leveling is needed. At each application level, the language should support concepts that make the normal usages clear. It should ensure that appropriate application practices can be expressed transparently in terms of their Intent. It should allow the engineer to clearly relate the result to the expected implementation, allowing him full control over the application. The paper will expand on prior papers to show more generally how these concepts can be developed.