Now that we have OPC events triggering rule scripts in KSX, I wanted to develop a simple and elegant way to process the events. On a couple of different projects, I have used the concept of a filter graph, that is, a chain of connected filters that can each consume, alter and/or pass on incoming objects to other filters further down the graph. The very core of KSX is the node tree, which is simply an object graph. Read more...

On a recent visit to a client site in Chile, the process control team expressed their dismay at the overwhelming number of alarms that the control room operators must acknowledge daily. This alarm volume led to the operators generally ignoring most alarms, and also led to the problem that import alarms were easily overlooked as they were buried in the long list of alarms from the plant. Read more...

One element of building automation that I would like to explore further is the concept of just-in-time temperature control. In my last post I gave an overview of how KSX fits into the overall building automation sphere. Now I would like to press further into some details. Read more...

One area where we are very excited about the potential of KSX is building automation. Specifically, optimization of energy consumption for large buildings. A great deal of work has been done to standardize the communication protocols used in building automation. This allows for complete integration of HVAC, lighting, network and communications and security systems in a way that hasn't been possible in the past. Much of the push for this unification was for HMI (human machine interfaces) and data logging but can be capitalized upon for optimization as well. Read more...

In the last post, I wrote all about portals, and how they can be used to build up a hierarchy of communicating KnowledgeScapes for performance, reliability and access control. In this post I want to introduce a little bit of magic with regard to distributed computing and performance. When you configure your KnowledgeScape cluster, you define KnowledgeScapes on the machines on which they will run. From the user interface, you can also define "slaves". Read more...

In part 1, I introduced the concept of a portal between two KnowledgeScapes. The portal allows you to effectively import objects from one KnowledgeScape and use them as if they were local. This allows for some nice things. Read more...

In my last post, I started to outline some of the problems that distributed computing can solve. In this post I will give some specific examples in process control, and start to layout the first part of the solution using KSX. Read more...

This post is the first in a multi part series about performance and distributed computing strategies with KSX. First I would like to provide a little background information to help frame the problem, and the various solutions that KSX can offer. You may be familiar with Moore's law, or if not, you are familiar with its results. Read more...

In normal economic times we typically use KSX to try to optimize (increase) production. With the big economic downturn and the corresponding dip in commodities prices, increasing production is no longer the right approach. In fact many of our clients are cutting production, either by closing plants, or by reducing operating hours. So what kind of optimization can we do that is effective in this economic climate? Read more...

For the past 28 months we've been designing, coding and testing KSX, our next generation expert control system. We have tried to apply all the lessons we have learned over our careers doing expert control to this product. We've sweated over the details, the performance, the scalability, the robustness. I truly think that what we have is special. KSX is a platform unlike any other. It's potential to create profit and cost savings in business is really unbounded. Read more...