High performance HMIs: Harsher safety standards transform the HMI landscape

摘要

Anew era of the human-machine interface (HMI) is upon us. Harsher safety and compliance standards have persuaded many operating companies to replace their "traditional" graphics with high-performance HMIs - a move that is sure to make life easier for plant operators everywhere. When graphic operator display capabilities were first introduced into distributed control systems (DCS) in the late 1970s, there were no guidelines for the effective design of human interfaces. Rather, they were designed based upon existing plant piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), which were the best available schematic representations of the plant.