A Human–Machine Interface for Efficient and Stable Blast Furnace Operation

To achieve an efficient and stable operation of blast furnaces in the steel industry while retaining the proficient human operators’ skills, a human–machine interface based on an ecological interface design (EID) was developed. EID is an interface design framework that reduces the cognitive workload of human operators by providing essential information on the controlled system in an intuitive way. The developed interface allows the operators to explore the possible control actions, by presenting the future predictions of the controlled variables when hypothetical control actions are taken, using a transient model. In addition, a graphical representation of the mass and energy balance that links the manipulated variables and controlled variables is provided to raise the situation awareness of the blast furnace operation. The developed interface is beneficial to determine appropriate control actions that maintain hot metal temperature and production rate near the target values and keep pressure drop below the upper bound while reducing carbon intensity and production costs.