Coping with complexity

Abstract

In the report we discuss how computers can be used to assist the process plant operator in coping with complex situations during plant disturbances.The main idea is to use the computer for integrating plant measurements into information related to different levels of abstraction and aggregation.The basis for the data transformations is a hierachical multilevel plant description which identifies the variables and processes which are relevant to consider at the different levels.At the same time, the multilevel description provides a representation of the functional organization of the plant.This makes such a description useful for design of information displays which can be used by the operator in diagnosing disturbances.The multilevel description is closely related to plant descriptions derived from analysis of verbal protocols.Accordingly the approach leads to a design of the man-machine interface which can support an advanced dialogue between the operator and the plant computer in diagnosis.