JP2001166822A - Facility management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a facility management system capable of transmitting error information to be information necessary for monitor and control, easily designing the interfaces of various equipment and systems and defining rigid and detailed data. SOLUTION: A data structure description language processing part 150 is provided with an error control part 154 in addition to an interpretation part 151, an interface description part 152 and an attribute description part 153 to generate and transmit error information. An interface is mechanically led out by expressing equipment and a system by data structure description language to which design structure is mechanically projected. The definition of a data type, a data value range and a data unit are included in the data definition description of the data structure description language and the data definition description can be applied as definition concerned with not only the whole document of the data structure description language but also only a part of the document, so that a means for executing rigid and detailed data definition is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facility management system such as a building management system or a building maintenance system for controlling equipment status such as air conditioning and lighting in a building and for monitoring the status thereof. The present invention relates to an equipment management system for providing a means for remotely controlling or monitoring equipment such as air conditioning and lighting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a facility management system such as a building management system or a building maintenance system for controlling and monitoring equipment such as air conditioning and lighting in a building,
Usually, control and monitoring of these equipments are intensively performed in a central monitoring room via a network, and the following points are difficult points in constructing such a system.

[0003] First, since air conditioning control and lighting control are each performed by a unique control method for each manufacturer, the equipment management system, which is a building management system that is a higher-level system that supervises the air conditioning control and lighting control, uses these air conditioning control and lighting control. ,
It was necessary to coordinate with the unique method of each manufacturer such as lighting, and the design load for constructing the equipment management system was a heavy load on both the upper system side and the lower system side.

Second, in the facility management system as described above, the network for monitoring and controlling the facility equipment is insulated for the occupants who are tenants, and cannot benefit from the precious network. That is,
The schedule of the air-conditioning operation time, the extension of the temporary operation time, or the confirmation and change of the set temperature are requested to the central monitoring room every time, and the workers in the central monitoring room manage the equipment accordingly. The corresponding settings were made using the system.

Third, since the network of the facility management system itself does not use standard technology, it is difficult to utilize software assets in the world to improve the usability of users. In order to improve the usability of the user, it is indispensable to develop a dedicated management system, and this burden is heavy.

Fourth, the equipment management system generally has a large scale as software because it is necessary to provide various functions to a plurality of types of equipment, and the communication management
Since various technologies including database design and equipment-specific control algorithms are required, these technologies are developed by multiple specialist engineers. for that reason,
It is important to have a mechanism that can easily design interfaces for various devices and software components. In addition, in order to share an interface definition among a plurality of engineers, a data description method that enables strict and detailed data definition is indispensable.

Therefore, the inventor of the present invention has disclosed Japanese Patent Application No. 11-11927.
As described in No. 8, etc., the invention of clarifying the interface as a static and dynamic specification expression using a structural description language is performed, but in this invention, consideration is given to ensuring the reliability of data transfer itself. Monitoring of facilities and equipment,
Because it is assumed that information on control is transmitted in a normal state, monitoring when transmission is not performed normally,
There is a problem that transmission of error information, which is information necessary for control, is not considered. In addition, there still remain problems with respect to facilitation of interface design and means for defining data strictly and finely.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and enables monitoring of an equipment management system and transmission of error information such as an abnormality of a device to be controlled and a system. Another object of the present invention is to provide a means for facilitating interface design and defining data strictly and finely.

[0009]

An equipment management system according to the present invention comprises: a target control unit for inputting / outputting target equipment to / from equipment control means; a communication control unit for inputting / outputting to / from external communication means; A data management unit that arranges input / output between the target control unit and the communication management unit and stores data; and a data management unit that stores data. Common data for input / output of the communication management unit, exchange of data handled between the communication management unit and the data management unit, and exchange of data handled between the data management unit and the target control unit. It is performed in a structure description language, and a data structure description language processing unit includes an interpretation unit, an interface description unit, an attribute description unit, and an error control unit connected to the interpretation unit, and performs the operation of the software in the interpretation unit.

[0010] Further, an object expressing the logical hierarchical structure of the device itself and the device configuration and the hierarchical structure of the mounting is structurally described by mechanically projecting the logical hierarchical structure of the device itself and the device configuration and the hierarchical structure of the mounting. It is described by language.

Further, in the data structure description language, the data definition description includes a data type, a data value range, and a data unit, and separates the data definition description from the instance description representing actual data.

Further, the data definition description can be applied not only to the definition of the entire document of the data structure description language but also to the definition of a part of the one document.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 Hereinafter, Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4. FIG. First, in FIG. 1, the equipment management apparatus 100 includes a target control unit 102, a data management unit 103, and a communication management unit 10
The object control unit 102, the data management unit 103, and the communication management unit 104 each include a data structure description language processing unit 150 described later. This enables exchange of semantic information.

The equipment control means 101 is connected to building equipment, that is, air conditioning, lighting and the like, and forms a network for controlling them. Here, the representative equipment 20
0 was shown. The communication means 105 forms a network to information terminals used by building managers and residents. These networks are further extended to the outside through telephone lines or the like to enable remote management and remote maintenance. In particular, the communication means 105 enables extension via the Internet.

Here, the data structure description language processing unit is a component in the software configuration, and is positioned as a subroutine in the conventional expression. FIG. 2 shows an example of the internal configuration of the data structure description language processing unit 150.
51, interface description section 152, and attribute description section 153
And an error control unit 154. The operation of the software itself is performed by the interpretation unit 151, and the interface description unit 152, the attribute description unit 153, and the error control unit 154 are referred to as necessary.

For example, in FIGS. 1 and 2, the data management unit 103 having the data structure description language processing unit 150 and the communication management unit 104 first mutually exchange specifications. First, the data structure description language processing unit 1 in the data management unit 103
50 interface description unit 152 to data management unit 1
03 is created, and an attribute list expression is created from the attribute description unit 153. This is transmitted to the communication management unit 104, and the communication management unit 104 obtains the specifications of the data management unit 103. Next, the reverse procedure is taken from the communication management unit 104 to the data management unit 103.

According to this procedure, it is established that the communication management unit 104 transmits the entire data to the data management unit 103, and conversely, the data management unit 103
It is established that the data obtained by extracting only the information relating to the communication means 105 is transmitted to the communication device 4. When these conventions are established, the state shifts to a normal execution state, and the operation described later in this embodiment becomes possible.

Here, the data structure description language processing unit 150
As a data structure description language in, for example, HTM
W3C (WWWC) that manages documents of L. In other words, XML (eXtensible Markup) proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium
Language). In the data structure description language using XML, both the structure of the entire data and the value of the data can be expressed. Therefore, in addition to the transmission and reception of the data itself, it is possible to exchange high-level semantic information such as data specification disclosure / exchange of each unit. .

FIG. 3 shows X which is one of the data structure description languages.
It is an example of a simple syntax of ML data. XML data 300
Is delivery information 301, command 302, and message body 3
03. The delivery information 301 indicates the source and the destination of the XML, and the data structure description language processing unit of each part to relay the XML data 300 to the request destination based on this information.

Command 302 determines how to handle subsequent items. The message body 303 is a specific software part, and represents the content of a message to a device to be monitored and controlled. In this example, the command 302
In addition, the setting request for turning on the operating state is made to the air-conditioning indoor unit having the ID number 0001.

The outline of the operation of this equipment management device is as follows. For example, in normal monitoring, a building manager, a resident, a maintenance company, or a remote monitoring company (hereinafter simply referred to as a user) transmits information of a monitoring request in a data structure description language from the information terminal to the communication management unit 104 through the communication unit 105. The communication management unit 104 transmits the content to the data management unit 103.

The data management unit 103 determines whether the user's request is for monitoring or control, creates a data structure description language for obtaining equipment information, and transmits it to the object control unit 102. The object control unit 102 determines that this is an information request to the equipment, sends a communication message of the information request to the equipment control means 101, and
Wait for the target facility 200 connected to the server to respond to the request.

The object control unit 102 can determine the contents of the communication message because it can extract only the semantic information that can be processed by itself from the data structure description language. Such division of labor is consistently realized by a part having a data structure description language processing unit.

When there is a response from the target facility 200, information is transmitted in a flow reverse to that of the above operation outline, and the user's monitoring request is completed. In order to quickly satisfy the user's request, the main state of the data management unit equipment state is included, and the processing after the object control unit 102 can be omitted.

Here, for example, when there is no response from the target equipment 200 within the allowable response time set in advance by the target control unit 102, the target control unit 102 sets the cause of the error as "monitoring target device no response". Instructs the data structure description language processing unit 150 to refer to the error control unit 154. The data structure description language processing unit 150 refers to the error control unit 154 based on the error cause, creates a data structure description language for transmitting error information, and
As in the case where there is a response from 00, the error information is transmitted in a flow reverse to the above-described operation outline, and the error information is presented in response to the user's monitoring request. FIG. 4 shows an example of a data structure description language for transmitting error information in the case of XML. In FIG. 4A, the command 401 expresses an error response to the monitoring request, and the location of the error occurrence,
Error information 402 including error code and error message information is presented. In this case, instance I
In response to the request for monitoring the operating state of the air conditioner indoor unit of D number 0001, it is expressed that an error is determined without a response. Similarly, in the example of FIG. 4B, the command 403 expresses that an error notification has been sent from the device, and the message body 404 has the instance ID number 00
It is expressed that the air conditioner indoor unit No. 01 has a device abnormality.

In addition, similarly, in the case of monitoring, control target equipment, system abnormality, no response, control failure, control target absence, monitoring by data structure description language, control instruction improper, equipment management system internal error, etc. The error control unit of the corresponding data structure description language processing unit is referred to, a data structure description language including error information based on each error factor is generated, and delivered to necessary parts like other normal data. Used.

Embodiment 2 FIG. Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 5, 6, and 7. FIG. In the equipment management system, when designing the equipment to be controlled or the system, the equipment itself, the logical hierarchical structure of the equipment configuration, and the hierarchical structure of the mounting are shown in FIG.
In recent years, it has been common to express the object in an object diagram as shown in FIG. On the other hand, for the device or system represented by the object diagram,
At present, the design of these implementation interfaces is performed differently for each system. For example, for the air-conditioning indoor unit object 501 shown in FIG.
In a certain system, the command for the operation ON of the air-conditioning indoor unit is 0x01 and the command for the OFF is 0x00, and the value following the command represents the number of the air-conditioning indoor unit.
The command sequence of 0x01 and 0x02 is to be transmitted to send the command of the above, and another attribute is assigned to each system, for example, another command is assigned when controlling the operation mode. It requires a lot of man-hours to design the software interface.

Therefore, in the facility management system according to the present embodiment, the designed object 501 and the hierarchical structure 701 are described in a data structure description language in which the structure is mechanically projected, so that the external interfaces of the equipment and the system are described. Can be derived mechanically.

For example, the above-described XM
The case where L is used will be described. Fig. 5
When designed as in (a), the air conditioning indoor unit 502 which is the object name of the air conditioning indoor unit object 501
To the XML tag name 512. Each attribute of the air-conditioning indoor unit object 501, that is, the instance ID 503, the operation state 504, the operation mode 505,
XML with set air temperature indoor unit tag for each set temperature 506
Project as an attribute of That is, the instance ID 513, the operation state 514, and the operation mode 51 which are attributes of the XML having the air conditioning indoor unit tag 512
5. Projection to the set temperature 516. The possible values of each attribute correspond to the possible values of each attribute determined when the object 501 is designed. As described above, the device level object is projected on the data structure description language.

In the above example, the case of a scalar attribute schematically illustrated in FIG. 6A has been described. However, the same applies to a case where an object is designed as a list expression, an array expression, or a structure expression. 6 (b), 6 (c), 6
As shown in FIG. 6D, a data structure description language (XM
L).

Next, a method of projecting the logical and implementation hierarchical structure including the device level object onto a data structure description language will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described using an example of the ML. For example, FIG.
Consider the case where the design is as shown in FIG. The domain identifier 702 shown at the top and the information indicating whether it is on the server side or on the client side are projected on the delivery information 712. Thus, the destination of the XML is determined. In the example of the delivery destination 712 in FIG. 7B, it is described that the delivery is performed from the client side of the domain identifier 1 to the server side of the domain identifier 1. The hierarchical representation after delivery to each domain on the server side or client side is expressed in the message body. In the example of FIG. 7, the air conditioner indoor unit 705 is a database manager 703 / profile first type 70
Four levels below. Each of these hierarchies is projected to XML as a hierarchical tag in the message body.
In the above example, as shown in FIG. 7B, the database manager tag 713 and the profile first type tag 714
And an air conditioning indoor unit tag 71 below the hierarchy.
5, 716 are projected. The contents of the air-conditioning indoor unit tag conform to the above-described projection of the device-level object to the data structure description language. The hierarchical structure 701 designed as described above is projected to the data structure description language 711,
The interface description is derived mechanically.

As described above, the designed objects and the hierarchical structure are described in a data structure description language in which the structures are mechanically projected, so that the external interfaces of devices and systems can be derived mechanically. In addition, software interface design can be easily performed, and various commonly used object specifications, for example, object specifications such as LonMark and BACnet can be easily incorporated into the system.

Embodiment 3 Hereinafter, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Also in the present embodiment, a case where XML is used as a data structure description language will be described as an example. The data structure description language in this embodiment includes a data definition description 801 and an instance description 802. Data definition description 801
Includes a data structure definition 803, a data value range definition 804, and a data unit definition 805 in addition to the data structure definition also in the conventional XML. The method of defining the data value range includes, for example, a set of possible values, a combination of a minimum value and a maximum value, or one of them. In the instance description 802, application of the data definition description 801 is specified as a tag attribute. FIG. 8B shows a specific example. In this example, in the example 811 of the data definition description, each attribute of the air-conditioning indoor unit and the illuminator is described in the data defined by the name of the data definition 1. The air conditioner indoor unit has attributes of operation state, operation mode, and set temperature. The data type of the operation state is type 1, and the value range can be "ON" or "OFF". Is type 2,
The value range can be any of "cooling", "heating", and "dry". The data type of the set temperature is type 3, the value range is the minimum value is 16, the maximum value is 31, and the unit is "° C". "Is used, respectively. The same applies to the illuminator.

In the example 812 of the instance description, after specifying the example 811 of the data definition description, attribute values are set for each instance of the air-conditioning indoor unit and the illuminator (assuming that the command is a setting request). ). In the example 812 of the instance description, the attribute value of the attribute operation state is set to OFF for the air conditioner indoor unit having the instance ID number 0001, and the attribute operation state, operation mode, and set temperature attribute are set to the air conditioner indoor unit having the instance ID number 0002. Set the value to ON, heating to 20, and the instance ID number 1001
, The attribute lighting state of the illuminator and the attribute value of the dimming ratio are set to ON and 100, respectively. Since these attribute values do not deviate from the value range indicated by the data definition description 811 of the specified data definition 1, it is determined that the specification is normal and the control signal is transmitted to the device. On the other hand, for example, FIG.
As in an example 813 of the instance description shown in (c), ventilation is specified in the operation mode of the air conditioning indoor unit, 32 is specified in the set temperature, and lighting is specified in the lighting state. If the specified value deviates from the value range specified by the data definition description 811, it is regarded as an error, and the error is determined in the same manner as in the first embodiment of the present invention. Information is transmitted. That is, by reflecting the normal range of the device in the data definition description 811, an error can be detected in advance by the system before a control signal is issued to the device. , A wasteful process for error processing, and unnecessary communication traffic caused by transmitting a useless command can be prevented. At the same time, by using the data definition description in this manner, strict data definition becomes possible. Further, since the memory capacity used by the data type is known from the definition of the data type in the data definition description, it can also be used for determining the amount of memory to be secured when generating an instance statically or dynamically. .

FIG. 9 shows an example in which the above data definition description is applied not to the entire document of the data structure description language but to a part of the document, thereby enabling more detailed data definition. Is presented. FIG. 9 (a)
, The data definition description 901 has the same format as the data definition description 801. For convenience of explanation, two definition contents are prepared, and each definition content shows a simplified example. In response to such a data definition description 901, the instance description 902 specifies data definition 1 as an attribute of the tag B902 and data definition 2 as an attribute of the tag C903, and only within the effective range of each tag. Is valid. FIG. 9B shows a specific example. In the instance description 906, data definitions necessary for only a part of one document are used from the data definition description 905. The first instance description 907 of the profile first type tag uses data definition 1, and the second instance description 908 of the profile first type tag uses data definition 2. As a result, within the effective range of the first instance description 907 of the profile type 1 tag, the data type of the operation state attribute of the air conditioning indoor unit is type 1
The range of possible values is either ON or OFF. On the other hand, within the effective range of the second instance description 908 of the profile first type tag, the data type of the operating state attribute of the air conditioning indoor unit is type 2, and the range of possible values is either operation or stop. Therefore, as in the instance description 906, for example, it is possible to mix specification of different attribute values for the same attribute of the same object in one document, and it is possible to perform detailed data definition for each part. Become like Here, an example of changing the possible value range of the same attribute of the same object has been described. In addition, instead of applying the data definition description to the entire document of the data structure description language, the By applying to a part, you can limit the usable objects to each part, change the attributes available for the same object, change the attributes of aliases, or change the unit, Fine-grained data definition according to the place of use and the scene of use, such as changing the range of possible values, can be performed accordingly.

[0036]

According to the equipment management system of the present invention, the data structure description language processing section includes an interpretation section, an interface description section, an attribute description section, and an error control section which are connected to the interpretation section. According to the above, the interpretation unit performs the processing by referring to the interface description unit, attribute description unit, and error control unit. Therefore, the error information required for monitoring and controlling the target equipment and system, that is, the monitoring and control target It is possible to communicate abnormalities of devices and systems, no response, inability to control, absence of controlled objects, monitoring using a data structure description language, illegal control instructions, and the like.

In addition, since objects representing the logical hierarchical structure of the device itself and the device configuration, and the hierarchical structure of the implementation are described in a structure description language in which the structure is mechanically projected, monitoring of the device and the system is performed. ,
An external interface to be used for control can be mechanically derived, and interface design of software can be easily performed.

Further, in the data structure description language, the data definition description includes the data type, data value range, and data unit, and the data definition description is separated from the instance description representing the actual data. Strict data definition description not included in the data definition description can be performed, and the validity of data can be easily determined.

Further, the data definition description is not limited to the definition relating to the entire document of the data structure description language,
Since the definition can be applied to a part of the one document, a detailed data definition can be performed for each necessary part.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an equipment management system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of a data structure description language processing unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a syntax example showing a simple example of a data structure description language according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a description example of error information in a data structure description language according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an example of projection of a device object onto a data structure description language according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an example of projection of various data structures onto a data structure description language according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an example of projection of a hierarchical structure onto a data structure description language according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an example of a data definition description and an instance description in a data structure description language according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an example of application of a data definition description to a plurality of locations in one document in the data structure description language according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 equipment management device, 150 data structure description language processing unit, 151 interpretation unit, 152 interface description unit, 153 attribute description unit, 154 error control unit,
300 XML data example, 402 error information,
501 air-conditioning indoor unit object, 511 XML data example, 701 system hierarchy structure, 711 XML
Data example, 801 data definition description example, 802 instance description example, 901 data definition description example, 9
02 Instance description example.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shigeki Suzuki 2-3-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Inside Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (72) Inventor Shigenori Nakata 2-3-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Mitsubishi Electric Corporation F-term (reference) 5B049 BB05 CC21 CC34 CC45 EE56 GG04 GG07 5H223 AA11 DD07 EE06 9A001 DD02 DD03 JJ61 KK60 LL09

Claims (4)

[Claims] An object control unit for inputting / outputting to / from a facility control unit for a target facility, a communication management unit for inputting / outputting to / from an external communication unit, and an input / output between the target control unit and the communication management unit Organize
And a data management unit having a data management unit for accumulating data.Each unit constituting the data management unit includes a data structure description language processing unit.
A facility management system that exchanges data handled between the communication management unit and the data management unit and exchanges data handled between the data management unit and the target control unit using a common data structure description language. The data structure description language processing unit includes an interpretation unit, an interface description unit, an attribute description unit, and an error control unit connected thereto, and the operation of software is performed by the interpretation unit. Equipment management system. 2. The object according to claim 1, wherein an object expressing a logical hierarchical structure of the device itself and the device configuration and an implementation hierarchical structure is described by a structure description language which mechanically projects the structure. Equipment management system. 3. A data structure description language, wherein a data definition description includes a data type, a data value range, and a data unit, and the data definition description is separated from an instance description representing actual data. The facility management system according to claim 1, wherein 4. The equipment management system according to claim 1, wherein the data definition description is applied as a definition related to a part in one document of the data structure description language.