JP2003091316A - Remote operation support method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a remote operation support method implemented by individual work to heighten the efficiency of work at a site and enabling a non-expert to carry out the work. SOLUTION: This remote operation support method supports from a remote place the operation of an operator at a site in the case of inspecting, operating or measuring a plurality of devices at the site as objects for maintenance and inspection having no remote operating function installed at the site of the plant or the like by the on-the-spot operator carrying a terminal while patrolling. Each of the plurality of devices at the site as objects for maintenance and inspection is provided with a radio tag capable of transmitting inherent individual identification information at least storing the number of the device to be collated by a remote support device at least storing the data on the devices at the site through the terminal carried by the on-the-spot-operator.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote operation assisting apparatus for assisting operation and inspection / maintenance of equipment such as a plant from a remote location, where an operator selects a target equipment from many similar equipment. , To provide a means to make sure that patrols are performed properly and that maintenance and inspection operations are performed correctly.

In addition, an operator manually inputs the state of the equipment to realize semi-automatic remote maintenance.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a part of the work of monitoring various equipment of a plant, an operator is required to perform a plant operation during a trial run of the plant, daily inspection, periodic maintenance, system switching, investigation of the cause when an accident occurs, and restoration work. Of various devices and equipment,
May check the indicated value of the instrument, check the equipment, and operate.

[0004]

In the field work of various equipment of such a plant, in order to prevent mistakes in the operation, an operation procedure manual is prepared in advance, and an operator who carries out inspection and operation of the on-site equipment is operated. It is customary for two operation supervisors who confirm and record the contents to work.

When an event that is not described in the work procedure manual occurs at the monitoring site of various equipment of the plant, the operator is sufficiently skilled and the operator can judge the event that can be handled within the operator's authority. However, if that is not the case, I contacted a skilled operator or went back to the central operation room where the information on all driving operations was recorded, and made the operation procedure manual again.

On-site equipment with a high frequency of work is automated and can be monitored and operated from the central operating room, whereas on-site equipment with a low frequency of work or measuring instruments can be monitored and operated from the central operating room. It is installed as a non-operational device, and many on-site devices are installed in plants, etc., and there are few operators who are familiar with all on-site devices. When an external event occurred, it was often impossible to respond sufficiently.

Further, in plants and the like, a large number of similar devices and instruments are installed, and it is often difficult for an operator to properly operate the desired device.

For the work such as monitoring and maintenance of plant field equipment and instruments, necessary work is carried out, the result is reported,
It is necessary to record, but even if you operate a different device by mistake and record the value of a different instrument, there is no means to prevent it, and furthermore, omitting the fact that the operator actually goes to the site. However, the present situation is that there is no way to confirm even if it is recorded on the record that the site work is done.

In the field work, work by a plurality of operators is required, the quality of the operator is also required to have a technical level capable of performing the field work, and the work must be properly performed and recorded in the work result correctly. I won't.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a remote operation support method which can be carried out by a single work and can be performed by an unskilled person in order to make the work on site efficient.

[0011]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention adopts the following configuration. Operation of the site operator when a site operator carrying a terminal device inspects, operates, or measures multiple field devices that are subject to maintenance and inspection that are not installed on the site of the plant, such as remote control functions. In a remote operation support method for supporting from a remote location, a wireless tag capable of transmitting unique individual identification information in which at least the device number is stored in each of the plurality of field devices to be maintained and inspected, and It is a remote operation support method capable of collating at least a remote support device in which field device data is stored via a terminal carried by a site operator.

[0012] At this time, the RFID tag has a structure capable of operating the field equipment corresponding to the individual identification information, and the field operator carrying the terminal in the individual identification information unique to each field equipment transmitted by the field equipment. It is desirable to include the measurement values of the field instruments that accompany the field equipment that is input and transmitted from the field.

The data on the field equipment is, for example,
The name of the field device, the installation location, the maintenance number, the period required for maintenance, the length of the period to be inspected, the time required for the inspection, the inspection and maintenance history data, the data related to the maintenance procedure, and the field operator's field device. Includes new information and measured values for field equipment, if any.

Also, when the individual identification information regarding the wrong field device is received from the field device, it is transmitted to the terminal device carried by the field operator so that the terminal device gives an alarm, so that the field operator can easily obtain the purpose. You can do the work.

According to the above aspect of the present invention, a field device,
For equipment and devices that require inspection and maintenance, such as measuring instruments and operating devices,
An RFID tag that can be individually identified is installed, and it communicates with the terminal carried by the field operator, and also communicates with the remote operation support device located in a remote place from the terminal, which the field operator targets. Recognize the equipment at a remote location, and at the same time, by appropriate input from the on-site operator, capture the operating status of the on-site equipment, the indicated value of the measuring instrument, etc. by communication, and confirm that the on-site work is being performed properly. It is intended to provide a remote operation support method for giving an appropriate instruction to a field operator.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of a remote operation support method for supporting remote maintenance according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 shows an individual identification information D of a field device 102 using a wireless tag 100.
The figure shows a terminal device 101 carried by an operator for exchanging information by performing communication with the remote operation support device 114 in a remote place while acquiring the information.

In FIG. 1, a terminal 101 is carried by a site operator on the site. The terminal device 101 is a combination of a portable small computer and a communication device, and is a computing device 1 including a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and the like.
03, input device 107, output device 109, storage device 10
A computer composed of 5 etc., and a field device 1
The RFID tag transmission / reception antenna 104 for exchanging data with the RFID tag 100 installed in 02, the RFID tag communication device 108 for transferring data to the transmission / reception antenna 104, and the remote operation support device 114 and the network 111 and the data reception device 110 for communication. Data communication antenna 11 for
3. The data communication device 106 transfers data to the data communication antenna 113.

Further, a data communication antenna 113 is installed at an appropriate place in the plant including the field device 102,
Data is exchanged with the remote operation support device 114 via the network 111. The data communication device 106 is not special, and data communication may be performed using PHS, a mobile phone, or the like.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the remote operation support device (remote maintenance support device) 114. Remote operation support device 114
Is an arithmetic unit 2 including a CPU, RAM, ROM, etc.
00, input device 201, output device 202, data communication device 203, field device data 204, inspection and maintenance history data 205, inspection and maintenance procedure data 206, and the like.

The procedure for determining the inspection and maintenance contents of the remote operation support device 114 is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

The remote operation support device 114 first determines the work content of the site operator. The past inspection / maintenance history is read from the inspection / maintenance history data 205 stored in the format as shown in FIG. 4, and collated with the field device data 204. In the field device data 204, information on all field devices 102 of the plant in the format shown in FIG.
No. 02, maintenance number, inspection period, etc. are stored. If the inspection date is December 12, 1999, the inspection and maintenance history data 205 in FIG.
The field device with the device number 7770A is 1998.12.
12, the gland packing is replaced by the maintenance number 1190. However, referring to the device number 7770A in the field device data 204 of FIG. 6, the maintenance period of the maintenance number 1190 is one year, and 1999.12.12 Will need work again.

The inspection and maintenance procedure for maintenance number 1190 is as follows:
All the inspection and maintenance work is stored in the inspection and maintenance procedure data 206 as a procedure in a format as shown in FIG.
00, the work content of the maintenance number 1190 is automatically referred to, and the work of the maintenance number 1190 is posted and output.

By repeating this work for the equipment arranged at all the sites including the on-site equipment 102, the on-site work of the on-site operator on the day as shown in FIG. 7 is determined. Since the work content data of the maintenance number 1190 includes items such as the difficulty level and the expected work time for the work, the skill level of the site operator who works on the day, the work time, etc. are taken into consideration.
Determine work allocation. An example of the format of the work content 303 thus determined is shown in FIG. 7. When the work content to be performed by the site operator is determined, the data communication device 20
3 is sent to the data communication device 106 of the terminal 101, and the work content 303 is stored in the storage device 105.

Items extracted from the field device data 204 and the inspection / maintenance procedure data 206 related to the work content 303 are also stored in the storage device 105 in the same manner.

Here, the first item 304 of the work content 303
The number of the target field device 102 is 77.
70A, which is water pump A from field equipment data 204, and work location is B-23. Work place B
-23 is the position information unique to the plant,
Absolute values such as how many north latitudes and how many east longitudes may be used. The maintenance number is 1190, which is the gland packing replacement work from the inspection and maintenance procedure data 206.

The site operator carries the terminal 101, goes to the site, and the work content 303 stored in the storage device 105 of the terminal 101 and the field device data 204 related thereto,
The items extracted from the inspection / maintenance procedure data 206 are output to the output device 109 via the arithmetic unit 103, and the site operator performs inspection / maintenance work based on the work content 303.

When the site operator arrives at the target facility, the wireless tag 10 attached to the field device 102 in the target facility.
From 0, the individual identification information of the field device 102 is issued to the terminal device 101. Item 304 in work content 303
For example, the on-site operator correctly applies the target on-site equipment 10
If it faces 2, the individual identification information is the device number 77.
70A, but otherwise, the remote operation support device 114 receives different individual identification information. In this case, therefore, the remote operation support device 114 indicates the terminal 101.
Send a warning to. As a result, the terminal device 101 can issue an alarm and alert the on-site operator.

As described above, since the individual identification information is simultaneously sent to the remote operation support device 114 via the terminal 101, the program of the remote operation support device 114 automatically allows the site operator to automatically go to the site. It is possible to correctly confirm whether or not the field device 102 subject to maintenance and inspection is in the vicinity.

A skilled operator who operates the remote operation support device 114 outputs to the output device (alarm or display device) 202 whether or not the on-site operator who has visited the site is properly near the on-site equipment 102 to be inspected. You can check with. Further, even when the on-site operator moves near each on-site device 102, the remote operation support device 114 can receive the individual identification information of the on-site device 102 near the terminal 101, so that the on-site operator moves on the correct route. It can be confirmed by the output device 202 of the remote operation support device 114 whether or not it is present. For this reason, the individual identification information is immediately perceived as an abnormal situation when the site operator makes a mistake or intentionally does not go to the site.

Further, since the work time of the work is predicted, the individual identification information can be the individual identification information in the vicinity at the time of work or movement of the site operator, or the remote operation support via the terminal 101 together with the time. When the individual transmission signal is transmitted to the device 114, and when transmitted independently, the individual identification signal is not input even after the working time has elapsed by associating with the clock function of the remote operation support device 114, or the next field device 10
When the individual identification signal No. 2 is not input, it can be confirmed that the work is hindered and an unexpected event has occurred.

A field operator sends the status of the field device 102 and the indicated value of the instrument to the remote operation support device 114 via the terminal 101, whereby semi-automatic remote operation is possible. This procedure will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The flowchart of FIG. 8 shows the operation procedure of the terminal 101 and the operation procedure of the remote operation support device 114, respectively.

When the program starts in the operation procedure of the terminal 101, the individual identification information of the target field device 102 is transmitted from the wireless tag 100 to the transmission / reception antenna 104.
Read through the communication means (data communication antenna 11
3, data reception device 110, network 111) to the remote operation support device 114. The operation procedure of the remote operation support device 114 receives the individual identification information of the field device 102. Next, the on-site operator reads the state of the on-site device 102, in this case, the instrument instruction value, manually inputs it, and transmits it to the remote operation support device 114 in the same procedure. The remote operation support device 114 determines the state of the target on-site device 102 from the individual identification information and the instrument instruction value sent. Here, either the operation A or the operation B is determined depending on whether or not the meter indication value exceeds the evaluation value, and the operation is transmitted to the terminal device 101 in the reverse procedure. The terminal 101 displays the operation content on the output device 109, and the site operator performs an appropriate operation in accordance with the operation content. In the present embodiment, the operation content is determined by the program, but instead of this, a skilled operator who is familiar may give an instruction.

Since there are many similar devices at the plant site, it is possible to prevent mistakes of the site operator by automatically taking in the individual identification information of the field device 102.

Further, by providing the remote operation support device 114 with a function for determining the operation in response to the indicated value and the state of the field device 102, it becomes possible to use a large-scale database and cope with complicated events. It will be possible. In addition, when a skilled operator approaches the remote operation support device 114 and gives an appropriate instruction, the operator at the same time performs the same processing as a skilled operator through a skilled operator to perform a plurality of on-site operations. be able to.

[0037]

According to the present invention, at the site of a plant facility where a large number of field equipments are installed, the site operator can easily obtain the inspection contents and the operation contents, so that he / she will not hesitate.
Work on appropriate field equipment is possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a remote operation support device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flowchart for determining inspection and maintenance work of field equipment by the remote operation support device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of an inspection / maintenance history of field equipment stored in the remote operation support device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an inspection and maintenance procedure of a field device stored in the remote operation support device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of data of a field device stored in the remote operation support device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the on-site work of the operator for the on-site equipment stored in the remote operation support device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flowchart for determining a site operation procedure by the remote operation support device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

100-RF tag 101-Terminal 102-Field device 103-Computing device 104-RF tag transmitting / receiving antenna 105-Storage device 106-Data communication device 107-Input device 108-RF tag communication device 109-Output device 110-Data receiving device 111-network 112-data 113-data communication antenna 114-remote operation support device 200-arithmetic device 201-input device 202-output device 203-data communication device 204-field device data 205-check maintenance history data 206-check maintenance procedure Data 300-Inspection and maintenance history data content 301-Inspection and maintenance procedure data content 302-Field device data content 303-Work content 304-Item

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Yoshio Murakami             Babcock Hitachi 6-9 Takaracho, Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture             Kure Office Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5B042 GB06 GC12 JJ02 JJ03 KK12                       KK13                 5H223 AA01 BB01 CC08 DD07 EE08

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A case where a field operator carrying a terminal device inspects, operates or measures a plurality of field devices which are installed in a site such as a plant and do not have a remote control function and which are subject to maintenance and inspection. In a remote operation support method for assisting the operation of a site operator from a remote location, a wireless tag capable of transmitting unique individual identification information in which at least the device number is stored in each of the plurality of field devices to be inspected and maintained. The remote operation support method is characterized in that a remote support device in which at least field data is stored can be collated via a terminal carried by the site operator. 2. The remote operation support method according to claim 1, wherein the wireless tag has a configuration capable of operating a field device corresponding to the individual identification information. 3. The individual identification information unique to each field device transmitted by the field device includes a measured value of a field instrument attached to the field device input and transmitted from the field by a field operator carrying the terminal device. The remote operation support method according to claim 1, wherein: 4. The on-site equipment data includes the name of the on-site equipment, the installation location, the maintenance number, the period required for maintenance, the length of the period to be inspected, the time required for inspection, inspection maintenance history data, and data related to maintenance procedures. 2. The remote operation support method according to claim 1, further comprising new information input by the on-site operator to the on-site equipment and the measured value if the on-site equipment has the measured value. 5. The device according to claim 1, wherein when receiving the individual identification information regarding the wrong field device from the field device, at least the terminal device transmits the identification information to the terminal carried by the field operator so as to issue an alarm. Remote operation support method.