JPH117595A - Sensor data collecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sensor data processor by which multiple sensor modules are connected with fewer wirings, data is processed by means of division and the load of a controller is reduced. SOLUTION: When data is collected from the multiple sensor modules 101 to a host controller 103, data relay modules 102 with same configuration are connected in tree structure between them. The data relay modules 102 are provided with a host communication part having one host communication channel, a low-order communication part having plural low-order communication channels and an arithmetic part 203 for operating data inputted with the low- order communication channels and calculating one new data so that an arithmetic function is changed by the arithmetic system setting command of host module.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sensor control device for reducing wiring and efficiently collecting data in a robot controller or a process controller which needs to collect and process information from a large number of sensors. It relates to a collecting device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a large number of sensors are connected to a control device to collect data, a multi-channel A / D converter 502 is provided in the control device 503 as shown in FIG. And the like, and the signals of all the sensor modules 501 are directly connected to the control device 503.
As shown in another example in FIG. 6, a configuration is also adopted in which a plurality of input / output dedicated AD conversion modules 602 connected to a plurality of sensor modules 601 are provided and connected to the control device 603 via a communication network. I was

[0003]

However, according to these prior arts, as the number of sensor modules 501 and 601 increases, the number of wirings increases in proportion to the number.
There is a problem that only a relatively small number of sensor modules can be used. In addition, as the number of sensor modules increases, the required processing becomes complicated and the processing time increases.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and the number of wirings of a large number of sensor modules of the same type can be significantly reduced as compared with the related art, and connection can be made.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sensor data collection device that can perform necessary data processing in a divided manner and reduce the load on a control device.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention relates to a sensor data collecting apparatus for collecting data from a large number of sensor modules. An upper communication unit that is connected and has one upper communication channel, a lower communication unit that has a plurality of lower communication channels, and performs an operation on a plurality of data input through the lower communication channels. A plurality of data relay modules for changing the arithmetic function according to an arithmetic mode setting instruction of a higher-order module, and a data relay module connected to a tree structure. And a higher-level control device that collects information of the sensor module via the data relay module It was characterized to be al configuration. As another configuration of the present invention, the arithmetic unit of the data relay module has an arithmetic function of selecting an average value, a maximum value, a minimum value of input data, or data from a specific lower communication channel. It was. Further, as another configuration of the present invention, the data relay module includes a field indicating a channel number column of the lower data relay module to which the command sent from the upper data relay module is to be transferred and command data, and a channel number field Is present, the highest-order channel number of the field is taken out, and the remaining data is sent to the channel specified by the highest-order channel number. If the channel number field is empty, the command transfer section for executing the command Or, if the data relay module is a special number meaning the highest channel number in the channel number field is all predetermined lower modules, To transfer the same command to lower-level modules and execute the command The data relay module is characterized in that, if the highest channel number in the channel number field is a special number indicating a predetermined all terminal module, the data relay module is connected to all connected lower modules. The same command is transferred, and when the receiving side is the terminal module, the command is executed, and furthermore, the data relay module determines that the data input from the lower module is the input channel number. It is composed of a field and sensor data, and is characterized in that it has a data transfer unit for adding an input channel number to a channel number field and transferring it when transferring to an upper module. With the configuration described above, signals from a large number of sensor modules can be transmitted to the host control device with considerably less wiring than in the past, and the sensor data collection device can be simplified.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a sensor data collection device to which the present invention is applied.
Is a number of sensor modules, 102 is a data relay module connecting a plurality of sensor modules 101,
A plurality of data relay modules 102 having the same connection are provided. These plurality of data relay modules 10
The output of No. 2 is connected to a further higher-level data relay module 102, and has a tree structure as a whole by the same connection relationship. The uppermost data relay module 102 is connected to the upper controller 103, and the signals of all the sensor modules 101 are collected. The internal structure of each data relay module 102 is shown in FIG.
The communication unit 2 communicates with the upper module.
01, a communication unit 202 with a plurality of lower modules, a data operation unit 203, a command transfer unit 204, a data transfer unit 20
5 so that signals or commands flow as shown by arrows in the figure. Next, FIG. 3 shows a specific example in which a large number of distributed pressure sensor modules 301 are attached to a robot arm. In the figure,
The distributed pressure sensor modules 301 attached almost evenly around the arm are connected to the sensor modules 101, respectively, and these pairs constitute one set of sensors. The sensor module 101 is connected to the host controller 103 via the data relay module 102, and has the same tree structure as that shown in FIG. The distributed pressure sensor module 301 in the figure has a matrix of electrodes arranged on a conductive rubber and detects the magnitude of the contact pressure as a change in the resistance value of the conductive rubber, and is paired with this. The sensor module 101 includes a multiplexer, an AD converter, a data processing unit, and a communication unit. In this embodiment, since the sensor module 101 itself can collect a plurality of sensor data, the internal data processing unit has a data calculation function equivalent to that of the data relay module 102. As a result, the sensor according to the present embodiment can be regarded as being constituted by the plurality of distributed pressure sensor modules 301 and the data relay module 102, and thus has the same configuration as that shown in FIG. 1 in principle. Less than,
The operation of the sensor data collection device in the configuration of FIG. 1 will be described.

Each data relay module 102 has at least four modes of operation of input data, namely, no operation, average, maximum value, and minimum value, and calculates input data in the operation mode set from the upper level. Then, the result is transmitted to an upper communication channel. Data input and operation from the lower module are started by a data input command from the upper module. There are two types of commands from the upper module: operation mode setting and input commands. As shown in FIG. 4, the format of the command from the upper module is composed of a channel number field in which a plurality of channel numbers are continuous and a command data field. The channel number field indicates the number of the lower communication channel to be transferred by the data relay module 102 in order from the higher order. When the data relay module 102 identifies the lower communication channel to be transferred from the first channel number, it removes the channel number from the channel number field, and transfers the remaining channel number field and the command data to the specified lower communication channel. At this time, if the channel number field is empty, the command data is interpreted as a command addressed to itself and the command data is executed. As a result, the host control device 103 can give a command to any data relay module 102 or sensor module 101. The data relay module 102 does not need to store the structure of the tree structure and its own position in the tree structure, so that the process of command transfer is simplified, and it is necessary to set addresses and the like in accordance with the change in the structure. There is an advantage that there is no. Here, when the same command is given to all the data relay modules 102, there is a problem that the command to all the data relay modules must be issued. However, a special channel number which functions as a wild card is provided in the channel number field. Is specified, and the data relay module 102 recognizes it, so that the same command data can be transferred to all lower modules connected to the data relay module 102. Similarly, the transfer of command data to all terminal modules can be handled by preparing a special channel number for transferring command data to a lower module unless the module itself is the terminal module.

Next, a method of collecting sensor data will be described. Here, an example is shown in which the average is taken at the lowest layer and the maximum value is collected. First, the operation mode of the sensor data collection device is set. A mode setting command for maximum value calculation is sent to all data relay modules 102. After that, an average value calculation mode setting command is sent to the lowermost data relay module 102. The transmission of these commands can be transmitted at once by the above-described batch transmission method to all modules and the batch transmission method to the terminal. Next, a data input command is sent to the uppermost data relay module 102. After transferring the data input command to the lower module connected to the lower channel, the data relay module 102 inputs the response data from each lower channel, and the data relay module 102 is set when the data of all the lower modules is completed. Perform the operation,
The result is returned to the upper module. At this time, the input data has the lower transfer channel number added to the head of the channel number field by the data transfer unit.
This format is similar to that shown in FIG. However, since new data is generated in the averaging operation, this channel number field is discarded by the operation unit. In this way, the control device that has received the data can know the address of the data relay module 102 or the sensor module 101 where the data was generated. In this example, the maximum value of the locally averaged sensor data and its location are sent to the host controller.

When the maximum value exceeds the set threshold value while monitoring the maximum value, the host control device 103 can know the detailed contents. For example, in this example, the address 2-3-2-2
If the average value data transmitted by the data relay module 102 exceeds the threshold value, the data relay module 102 in 2-3-2 is set not to perform any arithmetic processing, and a data input command is sent to the data relay module 102. Since no arithmetic processing is set, a data input command is sent to the first channel to the lower input channel, and when the result is received, it is transferred to the upper channel. When receiving the next data input command continuously, it sends a data input command to the next lower channel and transfers the result to the upper channel. The upper data relay module 102 does not perform an operation because no command is given, and sends data input via the data transfer unit to the upper communication channel. In this way, the sensor data of the specific area can be directly input to the host controller without performing the arithmetic processing. In the above embodiment, the upper control device 103 issues a data input command to the data relay module 102 every time. However, even when it is desired to perform continuous data collection, the data relay module 102 is provided with a data input command and an arithmetic operation repeated mode. It can be easily handled by adding an arithmetic function.

[0009]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the data relay module is connected to the tree structure, the wiring from the sensor module is extended to the relay module arranged at a short distance, and the wiring is greatly reduced. Can be simplified. Since only one line is required for wiring to the control device, the structure of the control device itself can be simplified. Further, by adding a relay module, there is an effect that a sensor module can be easily added. In addition, the relay module enables data filtering, and it is possible to monitor only a part of the sensor data without putting a load on the control device, or to monitor an average, a maximum value, a minimum value, and the like of the whole. There is an effect that it can be easily performed. Furthermore, since the addressing of the relay module for transmitting the command is determined only by the number sequence of the lower channel numbers, it is not necessary to assign a special address to the relay module or the sensor module at the end, so that the configuration can be easily changed. There are advantages too.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a sensor data collection device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an internal block diagram of a data relay module.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a format of command data.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional sensor data collection device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional sensor data collection method using a network.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101, 501, 601 Sensor module 102 Data relay module 103 Upper control device 201 Upper communication unit 202 Lower communication unit 203 Operation unit 204 Command transfer unit 205 Data transfer unit 301 Distributed pressure sensor module 502, 602 AD converter 503, 603 Control apparatus

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A sensor data collecting apparatus for collecting data from a large number of sensor modules, comprising: a high-order or a low-order high-order communication channel connected to a higher-order or lower-order module having the same configuration; A communication unit, a lower communication unit having a plurality of lower communication channels, and an operation unit that calculates one new data by performing an operation on a plurality of data input through the lower communication channel; A plurality of data relay modules for changing arithmetic functions according to an arithmetic mode setting instruction of a higher-order module; a sensor module located at an end of the data relay module connected to a tree structure; and the sensor module via the data relay module And a higher-level control device that collects information on the sensor data. Location. An arithmetic unit configured to calculate an average value, a maximum value,
2. The sensor data collection device according to claim 1, wherein the sensor data collection device has a calculation function of selecting a minimum value or data from a specific lower communication channel. 3. The data relay module comprises a field indicating a channel number sequence of a lower data relay module to which a command sent from an upper data relay module is to be transferred and command data. A command transfer unit for taking out the highest channel number of the field and transmitting the remaining data to the channel specified by the highest channel number, and executing the command if the channel number field is empty. The sensor data collection device according to claim 1, wherein: 4. When the highest channel number in the channel number field is a special number indicating all predetermined lower modules, the data relay module sends the same command to all connected lower modules. 4. The sensor data collection device according to claim 3, wherein the command is transmitted and the command is executed. 5. When the highest channel number in the channel number field is a special number indicating a predetermined end module, the data relay module sends the same command to all connected lower modules. 4. The sensor data collection device according to claim 3, wherein the command is transmitted when the receiving side is a terminal module. 6. A data relay module, wherein data input from a lower module is composed of an input channel number field and sensor data, and when transferring to an upper module, the input channel number is added to a channel number field. The sensor data collection device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a data transfer unit that transfers the data.