JP2001117848A - Facility controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a facility manager to freely set and control facilities from an arbitrary place and to enable a user other than the manager to watch the state of the facilities by using a WWW browser as the setting picture of a facility managing device. SOLUTION: A WWW server 2 is provided between a conventional system 1 dedicated to facility control and a personal computer 4 that a manager or general user uses. On the server 2, conversion software 210 is provided which performs mutual conversion between the language of a facility control system and a language for display and input to a WWW browser on the PC 4; and they are connected to 1 and 4 through TCP/IP, so that the facility setting, management, and state observation can be performed through the WWW browser on the PC 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device using a terminal on which a browser operates as a control terminal of a dedicated computer for controlling equipment such as a building.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for controlling air conditioning equipment and lighting equipment in a building, a manager uses a computer for equipment control, and an administrator monitors and controls the state of the equipment from a terminal of the computer. FIG. 2 shows a conventional system configuration for building equipment control. Reference numeral 20 denotes a computer dedicated to equipment control, which is application software 2 for equipment control.
1. A control terminal interface 22 is provided and connected to the control terminals 23-1 to 23-n. These are dedicated equipment control systems.

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional configuration, since the man-machine interface is also dedicated to the facility control system, it is difficult to customize the screen to be easy for the administrator as a user to use. Also,
Since a dedicated terminal is used for equipment control, it is necessary for the administrator to move to the location of the terminal device when making settings and the like. That is, equipment control cannot be performed from a terminal such as a personal computer that is usually used by each administrator. Furthermore, there is also a request other than the manager, for example, when he / she feels that the temperature of the room is inappropriate, he / she wants to check the status of the air conditioning equipment. There was also a problem that it was not possible to see the situation. In view of the above problems, the present invention allows a facility manager to freely set up a facility from any location,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an equipment control device capable of performing control and enabling a user other than an administrator to see the status of equipment.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, in the equipment control apparatus of the present invention, a WWW server is provided between a dedicated computer for equipment control and a user interface, and a WWW browser is used for the user interface. , The equipment manager controls the equipment from the browser,
A general user is provided with a facility control device characterized by being able to view the status of the facility from the browser.

[0005]

[Function] Since the equipment control device of the present invention uses a WWW browser for the user interface, the equipment manager can set the equipment from a terminal to which any WWW browser is connected.
Can manage. In addition, the WWW browser can be customized so that the administrator can easily use it. In addition, general users who are not administrators can view the status of equipment from a WWW browser in Read Only mode.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of the present invention, and FIG.
Is an operation flow when a user uses this system, FIG. 4 is an operation flow between a WWW server and a computer dedicated to equipment control, and FIG. 5 is a screen for an equipment manager to set an air conditioning equipment using the present invention. This is an example.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a PC) is used as an equipment control terminal. 1
A conventional computer system dedicated to facility control has the same configuration as 20 in FIG. Reference numeral 2 denotes a WWW server that enables operation of a computer dedicated to equipment by operation from the PC. The WWW server includes software 201 that communicates with a computer dedicated to facility control and converts the current state into a format that can be viewed from a browser. Reference numeral 3 denotes a database for managing user IDs and personal identification numbers.
Reference numeral 4 denotes a PC on which a commonly used browser operates, which is connected by a LAN or WAN connection device 5.

The processing procedure of the system having the above configuration will be described. In FIG. 2, TCP is transmitted between the PC 4 and the WWW server 2.
Communicate using / IP. After the connection is set, the WWW server performs authentication using the received user ID and password. Here, a distinction is made between an administrator and a general user.
If the user is authenticated as an administrator, the computer is connected to the computer dedicated to facility control, and control by operation from a browser is enabled. When the user is authenticated as a general user, the current state of the facility can be viewed on the browser.

[0009] Conversion software 201 of the WWW server 20
Converts a browser operation performed by an administrator into a facility control command used in the conventional method. The converted command is transmitted to the computer 1 dedicated to equipment control. The equipment control computer 1 controls the equipment according to the received command. The result of the processing performed by the computer dedicated to equipment control is converted into a format that can be displayed on a browser of a personal computer through conversion software on a WWW server. The administrator can view the control results from the browser on the personal computer.

The above operation will be described with reference to the operation flowchart of FIG. Here, a description will be given mainly of a case where the administrator performs facility control. (1) In the initial screen of facility control on the browser,
D is input (S1). (2) From the user ID, it is determined whether the user is an administrator or a general user (S2). If the user is authenticated as an administrator, the screen changes to an administrator screen after inputting the password (S3) (S3).
4). If the user has been authenticated as a general user, the screen transits to a general user screen after inputting the password. If neither is authenticated, the user ID is determined to be inappropriate and the user ID
Return to the input screen.

(3) The administrator performs an operation on the equipment control screen on the browser (S5). With this operation, facility control can be performed via a WWW server and a computer dedicated to facility control. FIG. 5 shows an example of the equipment control screen. FIG.
Is for the air conditioning equipment of the building, and the target floor, set temperature, air conditioning operation start time, end time, and the like are input on this screen. FIG. 5 shows the values already entered by the administrator (underlined). (4) The control result is sent to the equipment control computer and
The format is converted into a format that can be displayed on a browser on the WW server, and the status of the equipment and the control result are displayed (S6).

[0012] Since the operation procedure is almost the same as that of the administrator when the user is recognized as a general user in S2, the description of each step of the flow regarding the general user is omitted. The only difference between the operation and the administrator is that the general user can see the state of the equipment, but cannot perform setting and control of the equipment. For general users, see FIG.
Screen (after the facility manager has already entered the values).

FIG. 4 shows an operation flow between the WWW server and the computer dedicated to facility control when the administrator performs a control operation from the browser. When the equipment control operation is performed from the browser (S401), the character string on the browser is converted into a control command by the conversion software 201 of the WWW server 20 in FIG. 1 (S402). This control command is transmitted to the equipment control dedicated computer 1, and the equipment dedicated control computer executes the equipment control (S403). Also,
When the control result and the status display are performed, the control result to be displayed and the state of the equipment are transmitted to the WWW server 20, and the conversion software 201 converts the display content into a format that can be displayed on a browser (S404). Here, it is converted to HTML, which is the standard language of WWW browsers. The result is displayed on the WWW browser on the administrator's PC (S40)
5).

Note that the screen on which the administrator makes an input in FIG. 5 is a browser screen, which can be created and customized by the user in HTML. Today, not only HTML,
Many web page creation tools are known, and a user who does not know a language for a browser can easily create a display screen using the creation tool.

[0015]

[Explanation of Usage] In this embodiment, control in a desktop environment has been described. However, if a remote access server for controlling external access such as a telephone line is introduced, equipment control can be performed in a mobile environment.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the WW between the conventional computer dedicated for equipment control and the user operation terminal is used.
A W server is provided, and terminals used by users such as administrators
Since setting, control input, and status display can be performed using a browser, operations can be performed from a general PC instead of a conventional dedicated terminal. Therefore, if the user ID and the password are set, not only the facility manager but also the general user can see the state of the facility. As a result, complaints and inquiries from the general user to the facility manager are reduced or become more specific, so that the efficiency of environment setting and the like can be improved. Furthermore, since the input screen and the display screen are displayed on the browser, the user can easily customize the screen using a web page creation tool or the like. This allows
A better user interface is not a specific person,
It will be proposed by many users, and improvement of man-machine interface and usability is expected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an equipment control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of a conventional equipment control device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart when a user operates the control device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an operation of the apparatus when a control operation is performed.

FIG. 5 is an example of a screen on which an administrator sets air conditioning equipment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Computer system for equipment control 2 WWW server 201 Conversion software 3 Management database 4 Personal computer 5 Network connection device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An equipment control device using an equipment control dedicated computer, wherein a WW is provided between the dedicated computer and a user interface.
An equipment control device comprising a W server, a WWW browser for a user interface, an equipment manager controlling equipment from the browser, and a general user capable of viewing equipment status from the browser.