New Mobile Capabilities for United Airlines at Houston Airport

Project Scope:

• Tags: 43,019 PLC Tags (>170k tags total)
• Screens: 127
• Clients: 5 (this number is expected to grow as more devices start coming in and used by field operators)
• Alarms: 24,641
• Devices used: 22 ControlLogix PLCs
• Architectures used: Standard
• Databases used: 1 (SQL Server)
• Historical data logged: N/A

Project Summary:

In addition to the HMI baggage handling system Vision application running on the workstations for Houston Terminal C/E (and now B), the intent was to offer the same functionality on a mobile device, such as a tablet. While incorporating the same security roles as the Vision application, the operator on the tablet can view/acknowledge/shelve alarms, view graphics, view and interact with device statuses and controls, view statistics and view connection status details from the new Perspective application.

Problem:

One of the problems Brock Solutions was trying to solve by introducing a Perspective mobile application is offering field operators greater visibility and awareness of what is happening in the system. The workstations in the control room provide valuable information to those operators, where they can relay information (such as alarms) to field operators who can investigate but having the physical representation would ease the maintenance work.

Solution:

Perspective was used to solve this problem by having devices (tablets) used by field operators. Rather than having control room operators call out alarms to the field operators, the mobile application allows the field operators to view and interact with alarms and devices straight from their tablet. This eliminates the need for a control room operator calling out alarms. Due to the size of the system, it is broken up into configurable “areas,” such that the application could be filtered out to show only relevant information (devices and alarms), which allows the field operators to focus on their configured areas.

Having the physical representation of the system in the field is very important in how operators/maintenance crew interact with it and improves the efficiency of resolving alarms on site.