HawkEye-HMI-Generation: A Method to Synthesize Zoomable Process Automation User Interfaces.

Process plant operators use graphical user interfaces to supervise complex processes with tens of thousands of instruments. Such systems may require more than 1000 operator screens, but an operator can only view 3-4 screens simultaneously ("keyhole-effect"), thus prolonging root cause analysis and emergency reactions. This effect contributes to the billions of USD lost in the process industry every year due to unscheduled downtimes. Researchers have proposed alternative, zoomable 2D user interfaces ("HawkEye HMIs") similar to Google Maps, to address the keyhole-effect, but manual efforts to create these HMIs proved to be cost-prohibitive. This paper proposes a novel method for HawkEye-HMI-Generation based on semi-automated page layouting and automated level-of-detail zooming, which can significantly lower graphics engineering costs. We tested a prototypical implementation on two cases from large production plants with up to 90 process graphics and more than 5000 graphical nodes, demonstrating high scalability, good usability, and a more than 70 percent cost savings potential.