CN116915759A - Support PLC equipment of convenient cloud connection - Google Patents

Abstract

The patent application discloses a support PLC equipment of convenient cloud connection. The PLC equipment supporting convenient cloud connection is characterized by comprising a bottom-layer operating system, wherein the PLC equipment comprises a first built-in OPC UA server and an application program installed in the bottom-layer operating system of the PLC equipment, the application program is used for accessing the first OPC UA server running in the PLC equipment to acquire data of a first terminal equipment in a local area network and networking with the PLC equipment, the application program is also used for accessing a second OPC UA server running in a gateway equipment in the same local area network to acquire data of a second terminal equipment networking with the gateway equipment, and the application program is also used for communicating with a cloud service equipment through an MQTT protocol and uploading the data of the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment.

Description

Support PLC equipment of convenient cloud connection

Technical Field

The present application relates to a PLC device supporting a convenient cloud connection in industrial automation applications.

Background

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) have found very wide application in industrial internet of things. For example, in industrial internet of things involving production environments, PLC devices as gateways of the internet of things may be used for production control, data acquisition, security control, etc. Among other things, in PLC device-based data acquisition and processing applications, PLC devices can acquire and process data of various sensors and devices, such as temperature, pressure, current, etc. And through the connection with the cloud platform or other systems, the PLC equipment can realize real-time monitoring, analysis and prediction of data, optimize the production process and improve the efficiency.

In an industrial automation scenario, PLC devices or other internet of things gateways can collect data downward via OPC UA protocols. In the topology of OPC UA, the gateway device acts as an OPC UA Server (OPC UA Server) to provide various services, and other applications on the gateway device may call services provided by the OPC UA Server.

On the other hand, the communication between the PLC device and the cloud platform or cloud device is biased towards the internet environment, and the data transmission is usually performed by means of an internet protocol different from OPC UA. For example, the PLC device may enable communication of the PLC device and the cloud platform based on the MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) protocol. The cloud-up mode based on the MQTT is completed through a local server, and hardware equipment is required to be deployed locally, wherein the hardware equipment comprises control equipment such as a PLC (programmable logic controller), a PC (personal computer), an industrial personal computer and the like, or a proprietary gateway module is adopted. Another MQTT-based cloud approach is to deploy specialized functional blocks in PLC devices. For example, in a PLC product of a certain manufacturer, an lmqtt_client function block is used to deploy MQTT cloud server parameters, so as to implement MQTT protocol communication with the cloud. The flow for deploying the MQTT client by means of the PLC functional block is very complicated, and special programming software needs to be opened to build corresponding engineering.

It is desirable to have a new architecture solution that can simplify the cloud-up flow and deployment costs of the data collected by the PLC.

Disclosure of Invention

The patent application provides a PLC equipment that supports convenient cloud and connects. An application program is deployed in the PLC equipment to support an extended cloud connection scheme. The application program accesses OPC UA servers in all gateways in the local area network to obtain data of all Internet of things devices, and the data are uniformly transmitted to the cloud server. The application program can provide a webpage configuration interface for the user so as to complete the configuration of the MQTT cloud server parameters. The cloud connection scheme based on the PLC device can reduce local hardware deployment and software deployment work.

According to a first aspect of the present application, a PLC device supporting a convenient cloud connection is provided, where the PLC device has a bottom operating system, the PLC device includes a first OPC UA server installed in the bottom operating system of the PLC device, and an application program installed in the bottom operating system of the PLC device, where the application program is used to access the first OPC UA server running in the PLC device to obtain data of a first terminal device networked with the PLC device in a local area network, and the application program is further used to access a second OPC UA server running in a gateway device in the same local area network to obtain data of a second terminal device networked with the gateway device, and the application program is further used to communicate with a cloud service device through an MQTT protocol, and upload data of the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

In the above-mentioned scheme of supporting the PLC device of the convenient cloud connection, as an optional implementation manner, the gateway device is a programmable logic controller.

In the above scheme of supporting the PLC device with the convenient cloud connection, as an optional implementation manner, the operating system is a Linux operating system.

In the foregoing solution of supporting a PLC device with a convenient cloud connection, as an optional implementation manner, the first OPC UA server is configured to be built in firmware of a PLCnext, and the application program is disposed in an extension component of the PLCnext.

In the above solution for supporting a PLC device with a convenient cloud connection, as an optional implementation manner, the application program is deployed as a Container in the Linux operating system.

In the above scheme of supporting the PLC device with the convenient cloud connection, as an optional implementation manner, the application program provides a parameter configuration interface based on a WEB page.

In the above-mentioned scheme of supporting the PLC device with the convenient cloud connection, as an optional implementation manner, the WEB page may be accessed by a computing device or a mobile device accessing the local area network.

In the above scheme of supporting the PLC device with the convenient cloud connection, as an optional implementation manner, the parameter configuration interface prompts the user to input the MQTT cloud server parameter.

In the foregoing solution supporting the PLC device with the convenient cloud connection, as an optional implementation manner, the MQTT cloud server parameter includes at least one of the following: broker Client Name, broker URL, broker Port, broker Username, broker passage word, broker Message Topic, publisher Name, default Send Interval, broker Command Topic, broker Command Response Topic, broker Metadata Topic, metadata Send Interval.

In the above-mentioned scheme of supporting the PLC device of the convenient cloud connection, as an optional implementation manner, the parameter configuration interface prompts the user to configure the node parameters of the OPC UA server.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiments of the application and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the application. In the accompanying drawings:

fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an extended cloud connection scheme based on a PLC device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 illustrates an architecture of a PLC device suitable for the extended cloud connection scheme illustrated in fig. 1.

Fig. 3A-3D illustrate screen shots of a web page configuration interface provided by a host device in the extended cloud connection scheme illustrated in fig. 1.

Detailed Description

In the following description, the present patent application is described with reference to various embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the embodiments may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other alternative and/or additional methods, materials, or components. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of various embodiments of the present patent application. Similarly, for purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present patent application. However, the present patent application may be practiced without specific details. Furthermore, it should be understood that the embodiments shown in the drawings are illustrative representations and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

The various embodiments and variations of the present application are further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an extended cloud connection scheme based on a PLC device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, a plurality of gateway devices (e.g., programmable logic controllers PLCs) are deployed within a local area network 50. For ease of illustration, fig. 1 shows a first PLC device 10, a second PLC device 20, a third PLC device 30, and a cloud server 40, it being understood that this number is merely an example. Further, it should be appreciated that the first, second, and third PLC devices may each be wired or wirelessly connected to a number of controlled or monitored terminal internet of things devices (e.g., sensors), the graphical representation of which is omitted from fig. 1.

The first PLC device 10, the second PLC device 20, and the third PLC device 30 may be substantially identical devices, for example, all PLC devices having the architecture shown in fig. 2. However, in some implementations, only the first PLC device 10 needs to have an architecture and execution resources, for example, as shown in fig. 2, and other PLC devices may be heterogeneous with the first PLC device 10, so long as the PLC devices have OPC UA server functions built therein, and can form a topology structure as shown in fig. 1 with the first PLC device 10 and transfer data of the internet of things.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the system components built in the first PLC device 10 include an OPC UA server 120, the system components built in the second PLC device 20 include an OPC UA server 220, and the system components built in the third PLC device 30 include an OPC UA server 320. In other words, these OPC UA servers exist as built-in functional modules in the PLC device platform and can therefore be called up on demand. The PLC device with the built-in OPC UA server may be, for example, a PLCnext controller commercially available from the german phoenix electric company (PHOENIX CONTACT GMBH & co.kg) or its related entities, although the present application does not necessarily rely on this source of PLC device. Although the OPC UA server in the present embodiment is used to be built in firmware of the PLCnext, this should not constitute a limitation on the PLC device employed in implementing the present application.

Further, an application program 110 capable of implementing OPC UA data collection between gateways and implementing data cloud up through MQTT protocol may be deployed in the first PLC device 10. Such an application 110 may be in the form of open source software, or software obtained based on the subsequent development of open source code, for example, it may be software commercially available from the phoenix electric company of germany or its associated entity (e.g., software name OPC UA OVER MQTT APP). The application 110 supports OPC UA protocol communications with the OPC UA server and MQTT protocol communications with the cloud server 40.

Unlike OPC UA server 120, which is built in the PLCnext firmware, application 110 is deployed and runs on the PLCnext as an extension component. The application 110 can provide an access interface based on a WEB page, so that a user can configure the MQTT cloud server parameters through the WEB page, and can further configure OPC UA server node parameters of the internet of things. For example, fig. 3D illustrates an operator interface for configuring cloud server parameters via WEB access (described in further detail below).

Returning again to fig. 1. Because the three PLC devices are respectively built with the OPC UA server and are addressable in the same local area network, the PLC devices can interact with each other based on the application program 110, and thus acquire the information of the internet of things devices acquired by each PLC device as required. Therefore, in the topology of the present application, only the application program 110 needs to be deployed in the first PLC device 10, and the application program 110 can acquire data of different kinds of devices of the internet of things associated with all OPC UA servers under the local area network 50 by using the OPC UA protocol characteristics.

In a further, alternative implementation, redundant devices may be configured in a network topology. Specifically, when the first PLC device 10 is used as a main device for deploying the application program 110, the same application program 210 as the application program 110 may be deployed in the second PLC device 20, so that when the main device fails, a redundant device, that is, the application program 210 of the second PLC device 20, is started, so that the data collection and the cloud task uploading of the internet of things device are continuously completed.

In a preferred implementation, the application 110 is deployed as a Container (the name of the Linux self-contained containerization tool) in the Linux operating system. Fig. 2 illustrates an architecture of a PLC device 80 suitable for use in the extended cloud connection scheme shown in fig. 1 that is capable of providing a Docker container for an application 110 as a deployment environment.

Specifically, the PLC device 80 shown in fig. 2 should first include the underlying hardware 801. The operating system may then employ a Linux operating system 802, such as an RT-Linux system. Compared with Windows, linux has the characteristics of stability, more efficiency, less loopholes, quick repair, multitasking, multiple users, safer users and file authority strategies, and the like, and can give consideration to the degree of freedom of development and the real-time running of programs. In addition, the Linux system is characterized in that the bottom layer is composed of files, the files can be accessed through safe modes such as SSH or SFTP, and the file parameter configuration is directly modified, so that safe, free and rapid configuration setting is facilitated.

Middleware 803 may be implemented on the basis of Linux operating system 802. Taking the PLCnext of the phoenix electrical as an example, the intermediate member 803 may include: GDS (Global Data Space), it realizes the data consistency of interaction between different real-time components; and RSC (Remote Service Call), programs running on the expansion component 805 (described further below) may communicate with the core component 804 over the RSC interface.

Middleware 803 functions to interface the operating system software (Linux operating system 802) with the user application software (core component 804, extension component 805).

The core components 804 may include IOs, fieldbus components, system components, service components, and the like. IO is used to process the input and output of data, and the Fieldbus may include a PROFINET controller, a PROFINET device, an Axioline F Master station (local bus), etc. The system components provide all of the basic functions underlying the PLC device 80, which may include a system manager, a PLC manager, an ESM (execution synchronization manager), a user manager, an IEC61131 runtime, etc., as appropriate, some of which may be firmware components. The service component provides access to the ESM, GDS, etc. system components.

Typically, the OPC UA server 820 is also implemented in the core component 804, more specifically in a system component of the core component 804, and thus the OPC UA server 820 may be accessed through a service component.

The expansion component 805 further expands the functionality of the PLC device 80. One example of an extension component 805 is a Docker container 8050 of the Linux system, where applications 810 may be deployed in the Docker container 8050. The application 810 in the Docker container 8050 may access the OPC UA server 820 and thus may gather data of the internet of things device through the OPC UA server 820. In addition, the application 810 in the Docker container 8050 may itself complete the data clouding through the MQTT protocol, or by invoking other MQTT communication services in the extension component 805.

For Linux operations, the Docker container itself may be implemented using various mature technologies in the public domain, and thus the implementation of the Docker container itself does not constitute a limitation of the present application.

In the above implementation, the internet of things gateway is implemented based on a programmable logic controller PLC. It should be appreciated that in other implementations, the internet of things gateway may be a Linux system-based edge device (e.g., it may be an edge device EPC1522 commercially available from the phoenix electric company, germany or its associated entities), and the application 110 is deployed in a Docker container of the Linux system.

Fig. 3A-3D illustrate a screenshot of a web page configuration interface provided by a master device (i.e., first PLC device 10) in the extended cloud connection scheme illustrated in fig. 1. In a further implementation, the parameter configuration manner provided by the scheme of the present application is described with reference to fig. 3A to 3D.

According to one aspect of the application, the parameter configuration interface provided by the application 110 may be opened using a device having a web browser, such as a cell phone or a computer, for example. So that conventional programming software does not need to be opened. The interface for parameter configuration may be constructed and illustrated in the form of fig. 3A-3D, so as to guide the user through OPC UA server node configuration and connection parameter configuration to the cloud MQTT proxy (brooker) in a concise and clear manner.

For example, using the account number and password of the first PLC device 10, or another dedicated account number and password, the user may log into the OPC UA server connection (OPC UA Server Connect) page shown in fig. 3A, and through the operation on the page, the configuration of the OPC UA server nodes may be completed, and specifically, the published nodes (i.e., which nodes are collected and the internet of things data transmission is clouded) may be selected.

Further, by clicking on a tab or other means, the Published node (Published Nodes) page shown in fig. 3B may be jumped to, thereby managing, including importing, exporting, reloading, etc., the Published OPC UA server node.

Further, by clicking on a tab or other means, the diagnostic page shown in fig. 3C may be skipped to reveal monitoring information for the connection conditions of the OPC UA server node and MQTT Broker, statistical information including session number, message queue, etc., and a visual chart of part of the variables.

Further, by clicking a tab or other manner, the Configuration page shown in fig. 3D may be skipped, where the Configuration of the connection parameters to the cloud MQTTBroker may be set, for example, the following parameters may be set:

·Broker Client Name

·Broker URL

·Broker Port

·Broker Username

·Broker Password

·Broker Message Topic

·Publisher Name

·Default Send Interval

·Broker Command Topic

·Broker Command Response Topic

·Broker Metadata Topic

·Metadata Send Interval

it should be noted that, these interfaces of fig. 3A to 3D are an implementation example of the parameter configuration interface in the solution of the present application, and the layout manner and the specific graphic content in the interface do not limit the present application.

Although the advantages of the Linux operating system are set forth in the foregoing, the present application does not exclude implementation of an internet of things gateway or PLC device based on the Windows operating system and other operating systems.

Although the embodiments were described above with three PLC devices as an example, more or fewer PLC devices may be employed to build the corresponding internet of things network.

In some variations, the PLC device may be replaced by another gateway of the internet of things, as long as the underlying operating system of the gateway of the internet of things may additionally install an application program, and have an OPC UA server service and an MQTT network communication service that may be invoked by the application program.

In some variations, the parameter configuration interface provided by the application 110 may be further simplified or incorporate more configuration options, as desired.

The application uses specific words to describe embodiments of the application. Reference to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," and/or "some embodiments" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is associated with at least one embodiment of the application. Thus, it should be emphasized and should be appreciated that two or more references to "an embodiment" or "one embodiment" or "an alternative embodiment" in various positions in this specification are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, certain features, structures, or characteristics of one or more embodiments of the application may be combined as suitable.

In the context of the present application, the words "a," "an," "the," and/or "the" are not specific to the singular, but may include the plural, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In general, the terms "comprises" and "comprising" merely indicate that the steps and elements are explicitly identified, and they do not constitute an exclusive list, as other steps or elements may be included in a method or apparatus.

Similarly, it should be noted that in order to simplify the description of the present disclosure and thereby aid in understanding one or more inventive embodiments, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof. This method of disclosure, however, is not intended to imply that more features than are required by the subject application. Indeed, less than all of the features of a single embodiment disclosed above.

While the basic concepts have been described above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the foregoing disclosure is by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting. Although not explicitly described herein, various modifications, improvements and adaptations of the application may occur to one skilled in the art. Such modifications, improvements, and modifications are intended to be suggested within the scope of embodiments of the present application.

Claims (10)

1. A PLC device supporting convenient cloud connection is characterized in that,

the PLC device has an underlying operating system,

the PLC device includes a first OPC UA server (120) built-in, and an application (110) installed in the underlying operating system of the PLC device,

the application program is used for accessing the first OPC UA server running in the PLC equipment to acquire data of a first terminal equipment networked with the PLC equipment in a local area network,

the application program is further used for accessing a second OPC UA server (220, 320) running in a gateway device (20, 30) within the same local area network to obtain data of a second terminal device networked with the gateway device,

the application program is also used for communicating with the cloud service equipment (40) through an MQTT protocol and uploading data of the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment.

2. The PLC device of claim 1, wherein the gateway device is a programmable logic controller.

3. The PLC device of claim 1, wherein the operating system is a Linux operating system.

4. A PLC device according to claim 3, wherein the first OPC UA server is for being built in firmware of a PLCnext, the application being arranged in an extension component of the PLCnext.

5. The PLC device of claim 3, wherein the application is deployed as a content in the Linux operating system.

6. The PLC device of claim 1, wherein the application provides a WEB page based parameter configuration interface.

7. The PLC device of claim 6, wherein the WEB page is accessible by a computing device or mobile device that accesses the local area network.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the parameter configuration interface prompts a user to enter MQTT cloud server parameters.

9. The PLC device of claim 8, wherein the MQTT cloud server parameters comprise at least one of:

Broker Client Name、Broker URL、Broker Port、Broker Username、Broker Password、Broker Message Topic、Publisher Name、Default SendInterval、Broker Command Topic、Broker Command Response Topic、Broker Metadata Topic、Metadata Send Interval。

10. the PLC device of claim 7, wherein the parameter configuration interface prompts a user to configure OPC UA server node parameters.