JP2000267726A - Remote failure diagnosing system in machine facility - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a remote failure diagnosing system capable of quickly carrying out failure restoration when any failure is generated in one or plural machine facilities controlled by a sequencer in a mechanical parking lot isolated from a maintenance center. SOLUTION: In this remote failure diagnosing system in a machine facility for operating failure diagnosis by connecting a section in charge of maintenance and a machine facility through a communication network from a maintenance center 10 at a remote place, the maintenance center 10 is provided with a failure generation condition DB 21 for storing a condition failure is detected by a sequencer 45 of a machine device at a job site side, a cause inferring device 13 for inferring the failure cause based on the corresponding fob site information, and a transmission data preparing device 14 for preparing restoration instruction data based on the failure cause obtained by the inferring device. Then, when any failure is generated in the machine device at the job site side, the job site information is communicated through a communication network 17 and communication equipment 11 to the maintenance center 10 side, and the failure cause is inferred by the cause inferring device 13 from the job site information held by an information holding means and the failure generation situation DB 21 in the center 10, and the failure cause and the prescribed restoration instruction data are communicated to a section in charge of maintenance.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote fault diagnosis system applied to a mechanical equipment controlled by a sequencer such as a mechanical parking lot, an automatic warehouse, a crane equipment, an elevator equipment, a robot equipment, etc. The present invention relates to a remote failure diagnosis system for machinery and equipment that diagnoses failures of machinery and equipment collectively at a maintenance center located at a remote location and issues a recovery instruction to each maintenance person, department in charge, and the site.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a machine control device using a sequencer is conventionally a relatively small-scale system by itself or an auxiliary device in a large-scale system.
The development of a remote fault diagnosis system for a control unit using a sequencer was delayed. In recent years, operation of a relatively large-scale system using a sequencer has started, and the need for a remote fault diagnosis system that supports fault recovery together with a request for quick recovery in the event of a fault has increased.

Under such circumstances, a remote fault diagnosis system as shown in FIG. 6 has been developed. FIG. 6 shows one or a plurality of local A, B, and C machineries 40a... Having mechanical devices 46a... Controlled by a control device (sequencer) 45a.
A remote failure diagnosis system for mechanical equipment for performing failure diagnosis via a telephone or other public line 18, wherein a failure diagnosis expert system 61 is installed in the maintenance center 10.
., The local A, B, and C side information is received from the local A, B, and C sides via the modem 41a, and a printer or a facsimile or the like provided at the local A, B, or C side from the maintenance center 10. The information display terminal device 43a is provided with a communication device 11 for transmitting a signal from the maintenance center 10 side.

In such a remote failure diagnosis system, when the sequencer 45 controlling the mechanical device 46 installed in the on-site mechanical equipment 40 detects a failure, the operation of the mechanical device 46 is stopped first and the on-site display panel is stopped. The failure number corresponding to the failure is displayed. Inside the sequencer 45, the sensor state at the time of occurrence of the failure is held, and the modem 41 is connected to the maintenance center 10 of the maker by using the telephone line 18 to notify the local name, the failure number, the sensor state, and the like. At the maintenance center 10 receiving the data, the fault diagnosis expert system 61 for estimating the cause of the failure based on the logic created in advance is used to communicate the information about the estimated failure cause and the confirmation location in the form of a question tree to the public line 18 by the communication device 11. Is used to notify the local machine 40 and output to a printer or FAX device 43 installed at the site.

As such a remote failure diagnosis system,
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.
No. 144362 is disclosed. Such a technique is a failure diagnosis of a large number of parking lots that can centrally manage all the parking lots and can know the cause of the failure without a service engineer having a computer at the site. When an abnormality occurs in the parking lot, sequence data of a sensor or the like at the time of a failure is transmitted to a failure diagnosis expert system 61 in the maintenance center 10 via the public line 18 and the communication device 11 and the sensor and the like are sent to the system. The cause of the failure is estimated from the sequence data, and the question item and the cause of the failure are transmitted to the corresponding printer or FAX device 43 of the parking lot 40 via the public line 18 and the modem 41.

[0006] The expert system 61
An inference engine that infers observations interactively, and i
It consists of a rule base that establishes an inference rule with the f-sentence and then-sentence. Observations specific to the parking lot are output from the inference engine. Creates a question tree in the form of YES, NO and outputs the diagnosis result,
The estimated cause is input to the coping example search unit. The handling example search unit inputs failure data from the failure database to the handling example registration unit, and outputs a handling example corresponding to the estimated cause from the knowledge database of the handling examples.

[0007]

In such a remote fault diagnosis system according to the prior art, the fault inference is performed by the expert system as described above. An expert system is a system that realizes an inference mechanism that uses a certain form of knowledge expression and knowledge on a computer.
The task of creating a knowledge database of coping examples requires an experienced person who has a good understanding of mechanical equipment, and is a task that takes time and effort. Also, every time the software is modified, it is necessary to consider modifying the embedded knowledge database.

As described above, there is a problem that it is difficult to create knowledge of the expert system. In addition, since the machine starts operating immediately after the local software correction, it is necessary to correct the remote fault diagnosis system in a timely manner, but it is difficult to respond to it.

In addition, since the sequencer software in the control device can be easily modified locally if there is a tool, the sequencer software is centrally managed with source codes like computer software.
It is difficult to prevent local modifications. Therefore, the software may be modified for each site and the failure detection logic may be changed.However, creating a knowledge database that can be customized for each site requires a great deal of labor and time. there were.

On the other hand, in the above-mentioned conventional system, since the maintenance center sends the failure inference result only to the site when the result is obtained, the maintenance person cannot know the situation until arrival at the site and cannot make a preliminary study. Anticipated necessary tools, parts,
Since materials and the like cannot be prepared before arrival, there is a problem in that it takes time to prepare the goods and delays in recovery.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem.
When one or more mechanical equipment controlled by a sequencer such as a mechanical parking lot, automatic warehouse, crane equipment, elevator equipment, robot equipment, etc., located at a position distant from the maintenance center, failure recovery can be performed quickly. It is an object of the present invention to provide a remote failure diagnosis system that can be performed.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a system for remotely diagnosing mechanical equipment as described above, and in particular, the invention as defined in claim 1 comprises one or more mechanical devices controlled by a sequencer. The local machinery and the remote maintenance center are connected via a communication network such as the public or a dedicated line or a computer network. In a remote failure diagnosis system for mechanical equipment which notifies a responsible department (including a maintenance person) of restoration support, in the maintenance center, input / output status / internal information and sequencer information of a sequencer of each mechanical device at the time of failure occurrence. One or more information holding means for holding the local information at the time of failure other than the above, and conditions for detecting the failure by the sequencer of the local machine A cause inference device for inferring one or a plurality of failure causes from the failure occurrence condition database based on a stored failure occurrence condition database (hereinafter referred to as a DB) and local information transmitted from a corresponding local site; A transmission data creation device for creating restoration instruction data from the restoration instruction DB based on the failure cause obtained, and receiving the failure occurrence information and other respective local information from each local site or a maintenance department to a maintenance center; Also, a communication device for transmitting the failure occurrence information and the recovery instruction data to an information display terminal device provided in the maintenance department or on the site side from the maintenance center is provided, and when a failure occurs in each machine device on the site side, ,
The local information (execution operation type, sensor status, current position,
The name of the facility and the time of occurrence) are notified to the maintenance center via the communication network and the communication device, and the cause of the failure is determined by the cause inference device based on the local information held in the information holding means in the center and the failure occurrence status DB. Estimate the failure cause, check points, required tools, parts, etc., and restore the prescribed recovery instruction data to the maintenance department (maintenance company, manufacturer, customer
By notifying the responsible department), quick failure recovery can be realized.

Here, the "public line" in the public or private line means not only a telephone line connected to each home by wire, but also a digital line represented by ISDN, a mobile phone, a PHS, a satellite phone, and the like. The term “computer network” refers to a communication network provided by a communication company, and the term “computer network” refers to a communication network using a computer represented by the Internet, an intranet, or the like. The term “communication means” refers to a terminal device installed in the field, a maintenance center, a department in charge of maintenance, or a terminal carried by a maintenance person and a public line / computer network. Equipment required for communication and means devices such as a modem, DSU / TA, hub, and router.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the maintenance center includes a logic analyzer for analyzing a logic of a sequencer of a machine on the site side and analyzing a condition which causes a failure. The analysis device analyzes the backup stored in the maintenance center of the sequencer software stored in the corresponding sequencer on the site side, and identifies the failure occurrence condition (input condition) for each failure number for identifying the failure part of the corresponding machine. The remote failure diagnosis system according to claim 1 is also configured to generate a failure occurrence condition DB by obtaining an output and a combination of ON / OFF of an internal condition.

According to this invention, local information (execution operation type, sensor state,
By comparing the current position, the name of the generated equipment, the time of occurrence, and the like with the failure occurrence condition obtained on the maintenance center side, the condition that caused the failure can be determined, and the sensor and internal condition of the failure cause can be specified. Since the conditions obtained from the local sequencer software are used, it is possible to cope with the difference between each locality and to realize a reliable diagnosis.

A failure history DB which records failure occurrence status, causes and treatment results is provided, and when a plurality of failure factors are obtained as a result of diagnosis by the cause inference device, the cause is determined based on past results. The remote failure diagnosis system according to claims 1 and 2 is also configured to output recovery instruction data by ranking the failure factors having a high probability of occurrence.

As a means for communicating a recovery instruction to a maintenance department including a maintenance staff, a pager, a mobile phone, a PH
4. The remote control device according to claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal owned by the maintenance technician is notified of the restoration instruction information by using mobile communication means such as S, satellite communication, and satellite telephone. A failure diagnosis system is also an effective means of the present invention.

Also, a remote failure diagnosis system characterized in that the sequencer software stored in each of the local sequencers is backed up to the maintenance center via an automatic backup device using a communication network. This is an effective means of the invention.

The sequencer of the on-site machine equipment includes a cycle buffer-type storage device for storing input / output and internal information of the sequencer required for failure analysis for a predetermined time period. By writing the status, discarding the oldest information when the storage area is insufficient, storing the latest information in the predetermined time range, and stopping the writing of new information due to the failure of the corresponding mechanical device,
The remote fault diagnosis system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the status in a predetermined time range immediately before the occurrence of the fault is held, is also an effective means of the present invention.

The mechanical equipment used in the remote failure diagnosis system of the present invention is exemplified by a mechanical parking lot, a crane equipment, an automatic warehouse, an elevator equipment, and a robot equipment, but is not limited thereto.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. However, the types of component parts, circuit configurations, their relative arrangements, hardware and software configurations, etc. described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention thereto, unless otherwise specified. This is just an example.

FIG. 1 is an overall block configuration diagram of a remote failure diagnosis system for mechanical equipment according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, one or a plurality of local mechanical equipment 40 (40a, 40b...) Having a mechanical device 46 controlled by a sequencer 45 and a maintenance center 10 at a remote location are connected to a public or dedicated line / computer network or the like. Of the maintenance department, or the maintenance staff 3 who is conducting patrols, etc., through the communication network 17 and performs a failure diagnosis by connecting as necessary such as occurrence of a failure.
0 is a remote fault diagnosis system for mechanical equipment that directly calls 0 to notify a recovery instruction, wherein the maintenance center 10
Within the data management device 12, a failure occurrence condition DB 21 storing conditions under which the sequencer 45 of the local machine 46 detects a failure, and a failure occurrence based on the local information sent from the corresponding local side. A cause inference device 13 for inferring one or a plurality of failure causes from the condition DB 21;
The transmission data creation device 14 that creates various transmission data together with the recovery instruction data from the recovery instruction DB 22 based on the failure cause obtained from 3 and the local machinery 40 or the maintenance department or the maintenance staff who is patrol The failure occurrence information and other local information are received from the operator 30 (hereinafter referred to as a maintenance department or the like) to the maintenance center 10, and a printer provided in the maintenance department 30 or the local machine 40 from the maintenance center 10. Information display terminal device 4 such as FAX
2, a communication device 11 for transmitting the failure occurrence information and the recovery instruction data, and a sequencer 45 of the on-site mechanical device 46.
The logic analyzer 15 that analyzes the logic of the failure and analyzes the conditions that cause the failure, the failure history DB 23 that records the failure occurrence status, the cause, and the treatment result, and the respective sequencers 45 of the local machinery 46 The stored sequencer software is stored in the maintenance center 1 using the communication network 17.
The storage device 16 of the sequencer software 26 for backing up to the 0 side via the automatic backup device 50 is provided.

The maintenance section or the maintenance person 30 who is traveling is a failure status input device 35 such as a personal computer, a mobile personal computer, a cellular phone equipped with a keyboard, and information such as a printer, a facsimile, an OCR, and a liquid crystal screen. Display terminal device 3
2 and a communication device 31 for transmitting the information to the maintenance center 10 and the on-site mechanical equipment 40 and receiving the failure occurrence information and other on-site information from each on-site mechanical equipment 40 or the maintenance center 10. System. still,
Since the maintenance staff is often traveling, the system is configured using mobile communication devices such as pagers, mobile phones, PHS, satellite communications, satellite phones, etc. It is preferable to notify the user of the recovery instruction information.

The on-site mechanical equipment 40 includes a mechanical device 46 controlled by a sequencer 45 incorporated in a control panel.
The control panel transmits, together with the sequencer 45, an information display terminal device 42 such as a printer, a facsimile, an OCR, and a liquid crystal screen, and information on the sequencer 45 and the like to the maintenance center 10 and the department in charge of maintenance 30. A communication device 41 is provided for receiving restoration instruction data and other information from the maintenance center 10. Further, inside the sequencer 45, there is provided one or a plurality of information holding circuits 120 for holding the input / output state and internal information of the sequencer at the time of occurrence of a failure and local information at the time of failure other than the sequencer information. In this case, the mechanical equipment 40 is exemplified by a mechanical parking lot, a crane equipment, an automatic warehouse, an elevator equipment, and a robot equipment. The information holding circuit 120 shown in FIG. 7 may be provided in each sequencer 45.

The structure of the information holding circuit 120 is shown in FIG.
It will be described based on. One or more holding circuits 120 are provided inside the sequencer 45. The holding circuit 120 sequentially writes the input / output / internal information 124 of the sequencer necessary for failure analysis to the cycle memory 121 in which the memory area is endlessly rotary-shifted based on a control signal from the memory writing control circuit 125. configured to be, the cycle memory 121 includes a plurality of memory areas to A~O example, new a there ^- if the information came, written into the O region is the oldest memory area.

According to the memory 121, the memory 1
The state of the sequencer 45 is always written in the memory 21. If the memory area is insufficient, the oldest memory information is discarded, and the latest information of the predetermined time area can be always stored in the memory areas A to O. The memory write control circuit 125 performs write control based on a permission signal from the write permission signal generation circuit 123. The write permission signal is an output signal from an AND gate 122 that ANDs a sequencer read cycle signal obtained from the local machine 40 via the communication device 41 and an inverted signal of the failure signal (in other words, a non-failure signal in a non-failure state). Is generated by the write enable signal generation circuit 123 based on the

That is, in a normal state, the input / output / internal information 124 of the sequencer necessary for failure analysis is rotated by the control signal from the memory write control circuit 125 based on the sequencer information read signal so that the memory area is endlessly rotated. The cycle data is sequentially written into the cycle memory 121, and the latest data is always stored for a predetermined time range. And
When a failure signal is transmitted to the AND gate 122 due to the occurrence of a failure in the corresponding mechanical device 46, the write permission signal generation circuit 123 outputs a non-permission signal to the memory write control circuit 1.
25, and stop writing new information,
The state of the predetermined time range immediately before the occurrence of the failure is stored in the cycle memory 12.
1 can be held.

Each device except the mechanical device 46 and the sequencer 45 in the field, each device in the maintenance center 10, and each device installed in the maintenance department 30 can be configured as a single device, or can be configured as one device. A plurality of devices can be configured by a computer. In the present embodiment, each device will be described as a single device, but the present invention is not limited thereto, but is merely an example of description. In FIG. 1, a maintenance center 10 includes a communication device 11 for transmitting and receiving data to and from the outside, and a data management device 12.
Determines the transmitted data and performs appropriate processing.
If the received information is failure occurrence information, the information is stored in the failure history DB 23, and is sent to the failure cause inference device 13 to start diagnosis. If it is failure recovery information, it is stored in the recovery instruction DB 22 and the failure history DB 23 in association with the failure occurrence information.

The failure cause inference device 13 is a local machine 4
0, the cause of the failure is inferred based on the failure occurrence information and the failure occurrence condition DB 21 sent from 0, the inference result is sent to the transmission data creation device 14, and a recovery instruction is issued for a recovery instruction corresponding to the failure cause obtained by the inference. The information is extracted from the DB 22 and data to be transmitted to the local machinery 40 is created. The created recovery instruction data is sent to the data management device 12, stored in association with the failure occurrence information in the failure history DB 23, and transmitted by the communication device 11 to the maintenance department 30 and, if necessary, to the local machine equipment 40. It is configured as follows. In FIG. 1, only one local machine 40 is described in detail, but a plurality of local machines (40a, 40a,
40b,...). In addition, although only one location is described in detail for the maintenance department 30, one location for each site or for multiple sites,
Alternatively, it is also possible to notify the maintenance departments (30a, 30b,...) Of a plurality of locations in one place.

The processing flow from the occurrence of a failure to the completion of recovery will be described below. Failure Occurrence of a malfunction such as an abnormal sensor input or an unexpected input in the mechanical device 46, if a malfunction is detected by logic incorporated in the sequencer software, the sequencer 45 stops the mechanical device 46 as a fault, The input information and output information of the sequencer 45 at that time are held by the information holding circuit 120 in the sequencer 45. Failure Notification After the occurrence of a failure, the sequencer 45 summarizes the information necessary for failure analysis such as the held input / output information, the information indicating the processing operation being executed, the current stop state, and the stop position.
The maintenance center 10 is notified of these information together with the date and time of occurrence, the name of the site, and the name of the equipment.

The failure occurrence information received by the maintenance center 10 is newly registered in the failure history DB 23 and the failure cause inference device 13
Sent to Failure analysis The failure cause inference device 13 searches the failure occurrence condition DB 21 based on the received failure occurrence information by using the local name, the failure occurrence equipment, the failure number set in the corresponding failure part as a key, and the like. Thus, a list of all conditions in which the relevant failure occurs is obtained. -Compare the input / output information, the information indicating the processing operation being executed, the current stop state, the local conditions at the time of the failure such as the stop position, and the condition list obtained from the failure occurrence condition DB 21 to cause the failure. The detected element is detected. If the condition cannot be narrowed down to a single condition or involves a plurality of elements, the failure history DB 23 is searched to check the past occurrence status, to examine the possibility of recurrence, and to determine the most likely cause. From the list. In the failure history DB 23, weighting such as setting a low possibility of recurrence for members related to life such as breakage when there is a history of recent replacement, and setting a high possibility of recurrence for elements such as malfunctions and erroneous operations. Is done.
The selected failure cause list is sent to the transmission data creation device 14.

The transmission data creation device 14 obtains a restoration method for the estimated cause of failure from the restoration instruction DB 22, creates transmission data, and sends it to the data management device 12. The data management device 12 stores the recovery instruction data in the failure history DB 23 in association with the failure occurrence information. Notification of restoration instruction The restoration instruction data is transmitted by the communication device 11 to the corresponding maintenance department 30 and, if necessary, to the local machine equipment 40. Where the notification of the restoration instruction is transmitted to each site is stored in the data management device 12, and the change and addition are performed by the person in charge of the maintenance center 10.

Receiving the restoration instruction The restoration instruction is received by the communication device 31 of the maintenance department 30 and displayed on the information display terminal device 32. Further, printing is performed from the information display terminal device 32 as necessary. Based on the displayed information, the maintenance staff can examine recovery measures and prepare parts and tools that are expected to be necessary. Restoration work The maintenance staff performs restoration work according to the restoration instructions. If there is more than one cause item, confirm and recover according to the items described. After the completion of the recovery work, the maintenance person inputs the failure recovery status such as the cause of the failure and the repair method using the failure status input device 35 and notifies the maintenance center 10 of the recovery.

Post-processing The maintenance center 1 receiving a recovery report from the local machine 40
At 0, the data management device 12 stores the restoration result in the failure history DB 23 in association with the failure occurrence information. At this time, it is also confirmed which item in the recovery instruction is the cause, and if there is any other cause, it is registered as new information in the failure history DB 23, and the recovery method is the recovery instruction D.
Registered in B22. When the sequencer software 26 is corrected as a measure, the backup of the sequencer software 26 in the maintenance center 10 is updated by activating the automatic backup device 50 described later. With the above-described series of flows, failure recovery can be performed quickly and smoothly.

Next, a failure condition DB important for failure diagnosis
21 and the logic analyzer 15 that creates it will be described in detail. The failure occurrence condition DB 21 is analyzed and created by the logic analyzer 15 based on the sequencer software 26. FIG. 2 is a ladder diagram of a sequencer showing an example of analysis, and FIG. 3 is a failure occurrence condition list showing an example of analysis result. These examples are examples for explaining the function of the logic analyzer 15 and do not limit the range of the target sequencer software.

An outline of the sequencer software shown in FIG. 2 will be described. A logic for detecting a start condition abnormality when M100 = on. When the start PB [X10] is on, the start condition abnormality [M
100]. Automatic SW [X2
0]: selected by on, automatic start condition satisfied [M1] is o
It becomes abnormal at the time of ff. Manual is manual SW [X21]:
On is selected, and becomes abnormal when the manual start condition is satisfied [M2]: off. Sensor A [X1] and Sensor B [X2]
When the AND condition of the switch C [X3] and the switch C [X3] is an automatic start condition satisfied [M1], the condition is satisfied when they are off, on, and off, respectively.
The condition is not satisfied. Also, the AND condition between the sensor D [X4] and the comparison statement (start position = current position) is a manual start condition satisfied [M2], and the condition is satisfied when on & (start position = current position) is satisfied. It is not established. Here, the condition in which M100 is turned on is a cause element of the occurrence of the “start condition abnormality”, and is obtained by analyzing all combinations from the sequencer software of FIG. The list shown in FIG. 3 is the analysis result of FIG. A total of five combinations have resulted. ON / OFF indicates the state of the input, and "-" indicates that the input condition is irrelevant.

The function of the logic analyzer 15 is to generate a fault condition list from the sequencer software described here and store it in the fault occurrence condition DB 21. Here, the failure condition list is shown in a table form in FIG. 3 for explanation, but is actually stored in the failure occurrence condition DB 21 as data.

Next, a method of failure analysis performed by the failure cause inference device 13 will be described. As an example, the sequencer software and the condition list shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are used. It is assumed that the following failure occurrence information has been notified from the site. Local name: ABC factory Equipment name: XYZ Failure name: Abnormal start condition <failure number: 100> Operating condition: Automatic operation I / O state: Start PB ... ON Manual SW ... OFF Automatic SW ... ON Sensor D ... ON Sensor A ... OFF Start position ... 1200 Sensor B ... OFF Current position ... 1230 Switch C ... OFF

The target sequencer software is specified from the local name and the equipment name, and the fault occurrence condition is obtained from the fault occurrence condition DB 21 using the fault number: 100 and “start condition error” as keys. Here, as an example for explanation, FIG.
Use the condition list shown in. Comparing the input / output state sent from the site with the condition list, it can be seen that the occurrence condition in the second column in FIG. 3 matches. Under this condition, there are three related inputs: start PB, automatic SW, and sensor B,
Since it is "autonomous driving" based on information from the local area,
W: It can be estimated that ON is not the cause. Sensor B: OFF
Indicates that the object is not at a predetermined position, for example, and is considered as a cause of the abnormality [Cause 1]. Also, start PB
Is an operation start switch, and is presumed to be caused by an operation error caused by an operator operating before the operator is ready [Cause 2]. Here, the past occurrence status is obtained from the failure history DB 23, and if there are many operation errors, [Cause 2]
As the first candidate and if there is almost no operation mistake,
If the cause is sensor B in many cases, a cause list is created with [Cause 1] as the first candidate. More than,
It is a description of the function of the failure cause inference device 13.

Next, a method of backing up the sequencer software 26 stored in the sequencer software storage device 16 in the maintenance center 10 will be described. Conventionally, local 4
A local maintenance person who modifies the sequencer software at 0 takes a backup every time the software is changed on site,
By sending the data in a storage medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk, by using a computer network, or by sending a change by facsimile, the maintenance center 10 keeps a copy of the latest sequencer software. To However, when making software changes, local maintenance staff are often forced to deal with customer issues such as troubleshooting, and backup processing is postponed and sometimes forgotten.

For this reason, in this embodiment, by installing the automatic backup device 50, a backup can be made without the labor of the local maintenance staff. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the automatic backup device 50. Maintenance Center 1
The automatic backup device 50 installed in the communication device 11 has a controller 51 for controlling the present device therein, is connected to the communication device 11 for data exchange with the site, and has a sequencer for storing the acquired sequencer software. It is also connected to the software storage device 16. When the backup is performed regularly, such as every week, every month, or the like, the interval for capturing into the timer device 56 is set by the automatic capturing interval setting device 55. The setting may be specified for each local machine 40 or may be specified for all the local machines 40 collectively. The timer device 56 issues a fetch instruction to the controller 51 at a set predetermined interval. The controller 51 obtains a local telephone number or an address name and an address number necessary for network connection with reference to the local list 52, connects to the relevant local site by the communication device 11, and takes in the sequencer software 26. The loaded sequencer software 26 is the sequencer software storage device 1
6 and sent to the logic analyzer 15 to update the failure occurrence condition DB 21.

When the software modification at the site 40 is reported, the person in charge of the maintenance center 10 selects the corresponding site / connection equipment by the manual connection destination selection device 53 and sends it to the controller 51 by the manual start switch 54. By issuing a fetch instruction to it, the latest sequencer software 26 can be fetched in the same manner as in the automatic fetch. As a result, even if the local staff is busy, backup can be performed from the maintenance center 10 side, and even if software is changed without the knowledge of the maintenance center 10, backup is performed regularly to prevent forgetting to back up. be able to.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. The same members as those in FIG. The difference from the first embodiment is that in the present embodiment, the local machine equipment is relatively large-scale, and is constituted by a plurality of machine equipment and a sequencer, and a control computer 47 for integrating and controlling them. It is a point that is installed.
The maintenance center 10 and the department 30 in charge of maintenance, which are connected via the communication network 17, are the same as those in the first embodiment shown in FIG. Shall be.

In the configuration diagram shown in FIG.
0, the plurality of mechanical devices 46a to 46n
The control computer 47 is controlled by the control computers 47a to 45n, respectively, and when the mechanical devices 46a to 46n are simultaneously operated, or when they are sequentially transferred and operated.
Is a system that issues an instruction to each of the sequencers 45a to 45n. Such a system is a relatively large-scale system, and a mechanical parking lot facility, an automatic warehouse, a crane facility, an elevator facility, a robot facility, and the like often have such a configuration. The control computer 47 notifies the maintenance center 10 as a failure notification together with the name of the sequencer equipment in which the failure has occurred, the failure occurrence information from the failed sequencer, the instruction contents currently issued by the computer, and the operation status of the other sequencers. With the ability to

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention, when an abnormality / failure occurs in a machine controlled by a sequencer in each local machine, the occurrence of the failure is automatically sent to a maintenance center. It is possible to provide a system capable of promptly performing a recovery operation by receiving a notification, estimating a cause of the failure, transmitting a maintenance instruction to the maintenance person who rushes to the site for recovery, and transmitting a recovery instruction to the site. Also,
Even if there are multiple local machinery and equipment, respond to multiple local sites,
A single maintenance center can handle multiple maintenance personnel, saving labor. Further, the invention of claim 2 provides a method of generating the rule of the diagnosis logic based on the failure diagnosis from the local sequencer software, so that the rule change by the local software change is easy and timely. It can be performed.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the restoration instruction data is output by ranking the failure factors having a high probability of occurrence based on the past results and the restoration instruction data is issued, so that accurate restoration is possible. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a pager, a mobile phone, a PH,
Since S or the like is used, it is possible to promptly notify the mobile terminal owned by the maintenance technician who is moving about the restoration instruction information. Further, the invention according to claim 5 provides a method of making a backup using communication means, so that a backup can be made without manual intervention and can be performed simultaneously with a local change. Furthermore, according to the invention described in claim 6,
The state of the sequencer in a predetermined time range immediately before the occurrence of a failure can be always held in the storage device, and it is easy to perform a failure-free and accurate failure diagnosis.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall block configuration diagram of a remote failure diagnosis system in mechanical equipment according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a ladder diagram of a sequencer, showing an example of automatic analysis of the remote failure diagnosis system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a condition list of analysis results showing an example of automatic analysis of the remote failure diagnosis system of FIG. 1;

4 is an explanatory diagram of an automatic backup device incorporated in a maintenance center of the remote failure diagnosis system of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an overall block configuration diagram of a remote failure diagnosis system in mechanical equipment according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example of a remote failure diagnosis system according to the related art.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information holding circuit incorporated in a data management device in a maintenance center or a sequencer of local machine equipment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 maintenance center 11, 31, 41 communication device 12 data management device 13 failure cause inference device 14 transmission data creation device 15 logic analysis device 16 sequencer software storage device 17 communication network 18 telephone line 21 failure occurrence condition DB 22 recovery instruction DB 23 failure History DB 26 Sequencer software 30 Maintenance department 32, 42 Information display terminal device 33 Failure status input device 40 Local 43 Printer or FAX 45 Sequencer 46 Machinery 47 Control computer 50 Automatic backup device 51 Controller 52 Local list 53 Manual connection destination selection Device 54 Manual start switch 55 Automatic capture interval setting device 56 Timer device 61 Failure diagnosis expert system 120 Sequence data holding device 121 Cycle memory

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06F 11/22 360 G05B 19/05 D (72) Inventor Katsuhito Nakayama 12 Nishikicho, Naka-ku, Yokohama Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Company Yokohama F-term (reference)

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A failure occurs when one or a plurality of on-site mechanical equipment having mechanical devices controlled by a sequencer is connected to a maintenance center in a remote place via a communication network such as a public or dedicated line or a computer network. In a remote failure diagnosis system for machinery and equipment that performs a failure diagnosis by connecting as necessary, and notifies a maintenance department (including maintenance personnel) of recovery support through the communication network, a failure occurs in the maintenance center. One or more information holding means for holding the local information at the time of failure other than the input / output status and internal information of the sequencer of each machine and the sequencer information at the time of the failure, and the conditions for detecting the failure by the sequencer of the machine at the site Failure condition database (hereinafter referred to as DB) that stores
And a cause inference device for inferring one or more failure causes from the failure occurrence condition DB based on the local information sent from the corresponding local side, and a recovery instruction based on the failure cause obtained from the inference device. A transmission data creation device for creating recovery instruction data from the DB, receiving the above-mentioned failure occurrence information and other local information from each local site or the maintenance department to the maintenance center, and from the maintenance center to the maintenance department or the local site A communication device for transmitting the failure occurrence information and the recovery instruction data to the provided information display terminal device, wherein when a failure occurs in each local machine, the local information is transmitted to the communication network and communication. Notifying the maintenance center via the device, estimating the cause of the failure by the cause inference device from the local information held in the information holding means in the center and the failure occurrence status DB, A remote failure diagnosis system for mechanical equipment, wherein constant restoration instruction data is notified to a maintenance department to realize quick failure recovery. 2. The maintenance center further includes a logic analyzer for analyzing a logic of a sequencer of a machine on the site side to analyze a condition that causes a failure, and the analyzer on the site side by the analyzer. Analyze the backup stored in the maintenance center of the sequencer software stored in the corresponding sequencer, find the failure occurrence condition for each failure number that identifies the failure site of the corresponding machine, and generate a failure occurrence condition DB. The remote fault diagnosis system according to claim 1, wherein: 3. A failure history DB which records a failure occurrence situation, a cause, and a treatment result. When a plurality of failure factors are selected as a result of diagnosis by the cause inference device, a cause is determined based on past results. Characterized by issuing a restoration instruction signal by ranking the failure factors with a high probability of occurrence as
The remote failure diagnosis system according to claim 1. 4. A maintenance technician who is moving by using a mobile communication means such as a pager, a mobile phone, a PHS, a satellite communication, a satellite telephone, etc. as communication means for instructing a maintenance department including a maintenance technician to recover. 4. The remote failure diagnosis system according to claim 1, wherein the recovery instruction information is notified to the possessed mobile terminal. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sequencer software stored in each local sequencer is backed up to the maintenance center via an automatic backup device using a communication network. 5. The remote failure diagnosis system according to 3 or 4. 6. A sequence buffer of a local machine facility includes a cycle buffer-type storage device for storing input / output and internal information of the sequencer required for failure analysis for a predetermined time period. Write the status, discard the oldest information when the storage area is insufficient, save the latest information in the predetermined time range, and stop writing new information due to the failure of the corresponding machine, so that the predetermined information immediately before the failure occurs 6. The remote fault diagnosis system according to claim 1, wherein a state in a time domain is maintained. 7. The remote failure diagnosis system according to claim 1, wherein the mechanical equipment used in the remote failure diagnosis system according to claim 1 is a mechanical parking lot, a crane equipment, an automatic warehouse, an elevator equipment, and a robot equipment.