JP2000069578A - Monitor control system for broad area plant - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simply increase/decrease the number of clients that apply monitor control to a plant. SOLUTION: In the broad area plant monitor control system having a sever 3 and clients 6, the server is provided with a control menu generating means 11 that generates a control menu in compliance with the WWW rules to be displayed for each client, a control menu transmission means 14 that receives a transmission request of a control menu from each client and transmits the control menu generated by the control menu generating means 11 to each client, and a plant control means 13 that receives a control request from each client and transmits a control command to a plant. Furthermore, each client has a WWW browser, transmits the transmission request of the control menu to the server by using the browser, receives the control menu from the server and displays and outputs it on a display screen and transmits a control request entered in a state that the control menu is displayed to the server.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wide area plant monitoring and control system for monitoring and controlling a plant using a client server system comprising a client and a server connected via a communication network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, water and sewage plants (facilities), dam plants (facilities), power generation plants (facilities), etc.
When the installation location of the actual plant is far from the demand location of water and power produced in each plant, a server for monitoring and controlling each plant is installed near the plant. A plurality of clients installed in a city where demand is located are connected to the server installed in the remote place via a communication network such as a public telephone line or a dedicated communication line.

[0003] An operator resident in the city inputs an operation request in accordance with an operation screen displayed on each client while checking the status of the plant displayed on each client. Then, this operation request is transmitted to the server.

The server actually operates each device constituting each plant based on the operation request received from each client. The operation result is transmitted via the server, for example, to the client that performed the operation in real time, and is displayed and output on the display screen of the client. Therefore, the operator can perform remote operation on the plant while checking the state of the plant.

[0005]

However, the wide area plant monitoring and control system configured as described above has the following problems to be improved. That is, in addition to a dedicated communication function for performing communication with the server, each client connected to the server for monitoring and controlling the plant via the communication network includes:
Naturally, this plant-specific software including an operation screen for operating the plant is incorporated.

Therefore, when the configuration or specification of the plant itself is changed, not only does the control specification of the server change,
Of course, it is necessary to change the software installed in each client. In addition, when a new client is added, it is necessary to introduce a dedicated device or software.

When a new client is added as described above, it is necessary to change the specifications on the server side. When the number of clients connected to the server is reduced, the specifications of the server also need to be changed.

When the client is located at a remote location from the server, the server receives an operation request from the client to the server while maintaining the line connection state between the client and the server. An operation command is sent to a designated device of the plant based on the operation request. When the server confirms the operation result of the device, the server transmits the operation result to the client that issued the operation request. Upon receiving the operation result from the server, the client operator cuts off the communication line formed with the server.

[0009] However, depending on the equipment incorporated in the plant, for example, a valve inserted in a pipe,
There is a case where an operation time of several minutes to several tens minutes is required from the start of the operation to the end of the operation. During the operation time of this device, a communication line between the client and the server that issued the operation request remains formed. The operator of the client waits for the operation result during the operation time without performing the next operation.

[0010] Therefore, if the operation time of the device is long, the communication line continues to be connected despite the fact that no information is exchanged between the client and the server. Will increase.

When the client issues one operation request, the client does not accept the next operation request until an operation result corresponding to the operation request is obtained, so that the client operator continuously operates the plant. Cannot be implemented.
In particular, in a client-server system including a plurality of servers and a plurality of clients, after a client sends an operation request to one server, an operation request to another device cannot be sent to another server. There are issues.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a server for monitoring and controlling a plant is a WWW server, and each client is connected to this server via the Internet. The information necessary for plant operation can be supplied to the client, the general-purpose WWW browser can be incorporated into the client, and the control specification for the plant can be easily changed without the need to incorporate special software related to the plant operation. It is another object of the present invention to provide a wide-area plant monitoring and control system that can easily add or reduce clients.

[0013]

According to the present invention, there is provided a server for monitoring and controlling a plant, and a plurality of clients connected to the server via a communication network and transmitting an operation request for the plant to the server. It is applied to a wide area plant monitoring and control system equipped.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the present invention, each client is provided with a plant configuration definition table for storing a definition of a plant configuration and an operation screen table for storing an operation screen definition. Operation screen creation means for creating an operation screen according to the WWW rules to be displayed on the server, receiving an operation screen transmission request from each client, and transmitting the operation screen created by the operation screen creation means to the corresponding client And an operation screen transmitting unit for receiving an operation request from each client and transmitting an operation command to the plant based on the received operation request.

Further, each client has a WWW browser, using this browser, sends an operation screen transmission request to the server, retrieves the operation screen from the server, displays and outputs the operation screen on the display screen, and An operation request input in the state where the screen is displayed is transmitted to the server.

In the wide-area plant monitoring and control system configured as described above, the relationship between a server that monitors and controls the plant and each client that transmits a plant operation request to the server is based on, for example, WWW rules on the Internet. This corresponds to a relationship between a WWW server having a plurality of pages including a home page described in the above section and an information processing terminal such as a personal computer for sequentially circulating each page of the WWW server with a WWW browser.

Each client sends an operation screen transmission request to a WWW server using a WWW browser. Upon receiving the transmission request, the server transmits the created operation screen to the requesting client. The operation screen also has a function of transmitting an operation request for the plant, which is input by the operator while the operation screen is displayed on the display screen of the client, to its own server.

When an operation request is input from each client, the server operates the plant based on the input operation request. Thus, all the software required for each client to remotely control the plant is
At the time when the operation is required, all are supplied from the server via the Internet.

Therefore, each client is a general-purpose W
It is sufficient that a WW browser is incorporated, and no software for inputting an operation request for the plant is required. That is, each client may be any information processing terminal such as a commercially available personal computer in which a general-purpose WWW browser is incorporated.

[0020] In another invention, a server in the wide area plant monitoring system of the invention described above,
When an operation request from each client is received, operation request confirmation means for transmitting operation request reception information to the client and displaying the information on the client is added.

In the wide area plant monitoring and control system configured as described above, when each client transmits an operation request to the server, the client receives operation request reception information indicating that the operation request has been received from the server. Even in the case where the operation request is transmitted via a route that is not uniquely determined, such as the Internet, the reliability of communication between the client and the server can be ensured.

In another invention, a server in the wide area plant monitoring system of the invention described above is provided
Control means for controlling the corresponding client to wait for reception of the operation result after displaying and outputting the operation request confirmation information to the corresponding client; and a waiting state until an operation result is transmitted from the plant after transmitting an operation command to the plant, An operation result transmitting means for transmitting the operation result to the client when the operation result is received is added.

In the wide-area plant monitoring and control system configured as described above, the processing for the operation request for the plant and the processing for the operation result output from the plant in each client and server are separated.
It is in a state of waiting for the input of the operation result that ends the processing for the operation request.

Therefore, during this waiting state period,
Even if the communication line between them is interrupted, when the operation result is input as another process, the communication line is formed again and the operation result is transmitted to the client.

[0025] In another invention, a server in the wide area plant monitoring system of the invention described above,
An operation condition table that stores an allowable range of an operation request input using the created operation screen and an operation condition table transmitting unit that transmits the operation condition table to the client together with the operation screen are added.

Further, each client prohibits input of an operation request outside the allowable range stored in the operation condition table. In the wide area plant monitoring and control system configured as described above, the operation condition table created by the server is transmitted to the client together with the operation screen. Therefore, an erroneous operation request is checked on the client side, thereby preventing an erroneous operation request from being input to the server.

In another invention, a server in the wide area plant monitoring system of the invention described above is provided as follows.
When an operation request is input from one client, there is provided a new condition setting means for setting the operation request presence information in the operation condition table as a new condition.

In the wide area plant monitoring and control system configured as described above, when an operation request for a plant is input in each client, the operation input input by another client is also added to the condition. Therefore, it is possible to prevent simultaneous conflicting operation requests from being issued to the same device in the plant.

[0029]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a wide area plant monitoring and control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A number of process controllers 2 for controlling the operation of each device incorporated in the plant are connected to one server 3 via a transmission line 1 of a control LAN. The server 3 sends an operation command to each process controller 2 via the control LAN transmission line 1 to monitor and control each device.

The server 3 communicates via the router 4 with, for example, an IS
It is connected to a wide area communication network 5 such as a DN line or an ATM line. The transmission line 5 of the operation LAN is connected to the communication network 5 via the router 4. A client 6 including a plurality of operation terminals is connected to the transmission line 5 of the operation LAN.
As shown, the client 6 may be directly connected to the communication network 5 via the router 4.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the server 3 and the client 6 incorporated in the wide area plant monitoring and control system. In FIG. 3, the router 4 is omitted.

In the server 3, an operation screen table 7, a plant configuration definition table 8, a user definition table 9, a network management section 10, an operation screen creation section 11 for creating operation screen information 12 in accordance with WWW rules, and a device operation section 1
3 are provided.

In the plant configuration definition table 6, FIG.
As shown in the figure, for each device (setting data) to be controlled incorporated in the plant, the TAG number of the identification code, the signal name, the equipment name, the address on the control LAN, the operation amount (operation request The upper limit and the lower limit of the permissible range are stored.

As shown in FIG. 6, the user setting table 9 shows, for each user as an operator operating each client 6, a user name, a password, and an authority range of the operation permitted to the user. User level is set. For example, the user level 3 can observe the state of the plant, but is prohibited from operating each device of the plant.

As shown in FIG. 7, in the operation condition table 20 formed in the operation screen information 12, each TAG number of each device (setting data) set in the plant configuration definition table 8 of FIG. Stores the upper limit value and the lower limit value of the allowable range of the operation amount (operation request) for the corresponding device, and information as to whether the operation (operation request) for the corresponding device can be set at the current time.

The network management unit 10 exchanges various information with each client 6 via the communication network 5. Specifically, in the network management unit 10, the operation screen information 12 created by the operation screen creation unit 11 in response to the operation screen transmission request from each client 6 is stored.
Is transmitted from the device operation unit 13, an operation screen transmission unit 14 that transmits the operation request from the client 6 to the transmission requesting client 6, an operation request reception unit 15 that receives an operation request from each client 6, and transfers the operation request to the device operation unit 13. And an operation result transmitting unit 16 for transmitting the operation result to the client 6 that has requested the operation.

The operation screen information 12 created by the operation screen creation unit 11 includes an operation screen 19 to be displayed on the display screen of the client 6 and an operation screen 19 by the client 6.
An operation request transmission unit 18 for transmitting an operation request input by using the operation request to the server 3, an operation result reception unit 19 for receiving an operation result from the server 3 and displaying the operation result on a predetermined position on an operation screen 19; , And the above-described operation condition table 20 shown in FIG.

Operation screen 1 created by operation screen creation unit 11
In FIG. 9, as shown in FIG. 3, a symbol 21 of each device constituting the plant and a setting icon 22 for inputting an operation amount (operation request) for each device are displayed.
When the operator of the client 6 clicks the setting icon 22 with a mouse, the setting area 2 is set as shown in the figure.
2a and an allowable range 22b including an upper limit value and a lower limit value of an operation amount (operation request) for the corresponding device are displayed. In this state, when the operator inputs an operation amount (operation request) with the keyboard, the operation amount is displayed in the setting area 22a. Then, in response to the operation request input by the operator, the operation of the actual device is started, and when the operation is completed, an end message 22c is displayed.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the operation screen table 7, the symbol number of each symbol 21, the X coordinate and the Y coordinate on the operation screen, and the corresponding device Is stored.

In FIG. 2, each client 6 connected to the communication network 5 is composed of a normal personal computer or the like having a built-in communication function, and internally has a general-purpose WWW browser 2 on the Internet.
3 is installed. And client 6
The operator operates the client 6 in the same manner as a normal Internet subscriber terminal, and operates the WWW browser 2
3 is used to form a communication line with the server 3, which is a WWW server, and the home page of the server 3 is read out on the display screen of the client 6. Then, when the password is input and the transmission request icon on the operation screen on the homepage is clicked, the function of the browser is operated, and the transmission request for the operation screen is transmitted to the server 3.

Then, since the operation screen information 12 is transmitted from the server 3, the operation screen information 12 is received and stored in the storage unit, and the operation screen 17 of the operation screen information 12 is displayed on the display screen. I do.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the client 6 and the server 3. As described above, when the transmission request of the operation screen is transmitted from the client 6 to the server 3 using the WWW browser 23 (S1), the server 3
The network management unit 10 receives the transmission request for the operation screen. Then, the operation screen creating unit 11 uses the setting contents of the plant configuration definition table 7 and the operation screen table 7 and operates the operation screen information 1 according to the WWW rule.
2 (Q1). Operation screen transmission unit 14 of server 3
Transmits the created operation screen information 12 to the client 6 (Q2).

The client 6 stores and holds the received operation screen information 12 in the storage unit, and displays and outputs the operation screen 17 of the operation screen information 12 on the display screen (S
2). When the operator inputs an operation request (operation amount) in the state where the operation screen 17 is displayed in the above-described manner (S3),
A condition determination is made to confirm that the input operation request (operation amount) does not deviate from the allowable range set in the operation condition table 20 received from the server 3 (S
4). If the value is out of the allowable range, a reset message is displayed and output. When the condition determining process is completed, the operation request transmitting unit 18 received from the server 3 transmits the operation request to the server 3 (S5).

The server 3 having received the operation request from the client 3 in the operation request receiving unit 15 searches the user definition table 9 and determines that the user level of the operator (user) of the client 6 is [1] or [1]. 2] (Q3). Next, operation request reception information indicating that the operation request has been received is transmitted to the client 6 (Q4).

The client 6 that has received the operation request reception information displays on the operation screen 17 that the operation request has been normally transmitted to the server 3 (S6). And server 3
The setting condition information of the TAG number corresponding to the current operation request in the operation condition table 20 received from the server is updated to be unsettable (S7).

Next, the operation request receiving unit 15 of the server 3
The device operation unit 13 transfers the received operation request to the device operation unit 13, and sends an operation command to the process controller 2 that drives the specified device via the control LAN (Q
5). As a result, the process controller 2 starts operating the target device (R1).

When the operation for the target device is completed, the device operation unit 13 of the server 3 takes in the operation result and transfers it to the operation result transmission unit 16 (Q6). Operation result transmission unit 16
Sends the received operation result to the client 6 that requested the operation (Q7).

When the client 6 receives the operation result in the operation result receiving section 19 previously received from the server 3, the client 6 displays the operation result on the operation screen 19 as described above, for example, as an operation end message 22c. Output (S8). After that, the setting impossibility in the setting propriety information set earlier in the operation condition table 20 received from the server 3 is released (updated) to be settable (S9).

In the wide area plant monitoring and control system thus configured, a server 3 for monitoring and controlling the plant via the process controller 2 and each client 6 for transmitting a plant operation request to the server 3
Is related to the WWW server and W
This corresponds to a relationship with an information processing terminal that sequentially circulates each page of a WWW server with a WW browser.

Each client 6 obtains the operation screen information 12 from the server 3 using a browser, and exchanges various information including an operation request with the server 3 using the obtained operation screen information 12. Is carried out. As described above, all the software necessary for each client 6 to remotely control the plant is supplied from the server 3 via the Internet at the time when the operation is required.

Therefore, each client 6 only needs to incorporate a general-purpose WWW browser, and does not need software for inputting an operation request for a plant. Therefore, each client 6 incorporates a general-purpose WWW browser. Any information processing terminal such as a commercially available personal computer may be used. Therefore, the number of clients incorporated in the wide area plant monitoring and control system can be easily increased or decreased.

When each client 6 transmits an operation request to the server 3, operation request reception information is transmitted from the server 3, so that reliability of communication between the client 6 and the server 3 can be ensured.

Further, the processing of the operation request to the plant and the processing of the operation result output from the plant are separated from each other, and a state is waited for the input of the operation result. Therefore, during this waiting state, the communication line between the two can be cut off, so that the communication cost between the client 6 and the server 3 can be reduced.

It is possible to input an operation request for another device during that period. Client 6
Since the erroneous operation request is checked on the side using the operation condition table 20, the erroneous operation request is prevented from being input to the server 3. That is, useless data is not transmitted and received between the client 6 and the server 3.

Further, in each of the clients 6, setting is disabled in the operation condition table 20 until an operation request for the plant is input and an operation result corresponding to the operation request is obtained. Therefore, it is possible to prevent simultaneous conflicting operation requests from being issued to the same device in the plant.

[0057]

As described above, in the wide area plant monitoring and control system of the present invention, the server for monitoring and controlling the plant is a WWW server, and each client is connected to this server via the Internet.

Therefore, information necessary for plant operation can be supplied from the server to each client, and only a general-purpose WWW browser is installed in the client, and there is no need to install special software related to the plant operation, and the client can easily do so. The control specifications for the plant can be changed, and the number of clients can be easily increased or decreased.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a wide area plant monitoring and control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a server and a client incorporated in the wide area plant monitoring and control system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an operation screen displayed on a client in the wide area plant monitoring and control system.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation screen table provided in a server in the wide area plant monitoring and control system.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a plant configuration definition table provided in a server in the wide area plant monitoring and control system.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a user definition table provided in a server in the wide area plant monitoring and control system.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an operation condition table provided in the wide area plant monitoring and control system.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing operations of a server and a client in the wide area plant monitoring and control system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Process controller 3 Server 4 Router 6 Client 7 Operation screen table 8 Plant configuration definition table 9 User definition table 10 Network management unit 11 Operation screen transmission unit 12 Operation screen information 13 Device operation unit 14 operation screen transmission unit 15 operation request reception unit 16 operation result transmission unit 17 operation screen 18 operation request transmission unit 19 operation result reception unit 20 operation condition table 21 symbol 22 setting icon

Continued on the front page F-term (reference) 5B089 GA12 GA23 GA31 GB04 JA21 JA35 JA40 JB15 KA04 LB04 LB17 5H223 AA02 CC08 CC09 DD03 DD07 EE05 5K030 GA08 GA11 HB19 HC01 HC14 HD03 HD08 JA10 KA01 KA04 KA07 KA08 MC04 BA04 DC03A04 HA01 HA02

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A wide area plant monitoring and control system comprising: a server for monitoring and controlling a plant; and a plurality of clients connected to the server via a communication network and transmitting operation requests for the plant to the server. In the system, the server creates an operation screen according to a WWW rule for displaying to each client from a plant configuration definition table storing a definition of a plant configuration and an operation screen table storing a definition of an operation screen. Operation screen generating means for receiving the operation screen transmission request from each of the clients, and transmitting the operation screen generated by the operation screen generating means to the corresponding client; and An operation request is received, and an operation finger is sent to the plant based on the received operation request. Each client has a WWW browser, and sends a request for transmitting an operation screen to the server by using the browser to retrieve the operation screen from the server and display the screen. A wide area plant monitoring and control system, wherein an operation request input and output in a state where the operation screen is displayed and the operation screen is displayed is transmitted to the server. 2. The server according to claim 1, further comprising an operation request confirmation unit that, when receiving an operation request from each of the clients, transmits operation request reception information to the corresponding client and causes the corresponding client to display and output the operation request. Claim 1
The wide area plant monitoring and control system according to the above. 3. The server, further comprising: a control unit configured to display and output the operation request confirmation information to a corresponding client, and then control the corresponding client to wait for reception of an operation result; 3. An operation result transmitting unit which is in a waiting state until an operation result is received from a plant, and transmits an operation result to the client when the operation result is received.
The wide area plant monitoring and control system according to the above. 4. An operation condition table that stores an allowable range of an operation request input using the created operation screen, and an operation condition table that transmits the operation condition table to the client together with the operation screen. The wide area plant monitoring and control system according to claim 1, further comprising a transmission unit, wherein each of the clients prohibits input of an operation request outside an allowable range stored in the operation condition table. 5. The server according to claim 1, further comprising a new condition setting means for setting the operation request information as a new condition in the operation condition table when an operation request is input from one client. The wide area plant monitoring and control system according to claim 4.