JP2003256480A - System for constructing database - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a data control method capable of making efficient design and production work for software and hardware, in a production process of a monitoring controller. <P>SOLUTION: Library control is conducted as a process monitoring control unit by a data holding structure covering information such as equipment monitoring information 1, monitoring screen information 2, circuit information 3 for control, signal information 4 for the control, and hardware information 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a database construction system used for designing / manufacturing computer software, designing / manufacturing a hard circuit, etc. of a supervisory control device applying a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A computer-applied supervisory control device is a man-machine component that processes, monitors, stores, displays, and prints process information, a controller component that handles automatic control for operating processes, and interface signals. It is composed of a transmission device and a hardware circuit for transmitting the.

In order to manufacture the supervisory control device, it is necessary to design and manufacture software to be mounted on these man-machine components and controller components, and to design and manufacture hardware circuits.

[0004]

In the production of a conventional supervisory control device to which a computer is applied, the man-machine component, the controller component, the relay circuit, etc. are individually designed and manufactured based on the specifications from the user. I was going. Therefore, each software,
In the hardware manufacturing process, duplicated information was often handled, which was inefficient.

Further, the information for interfacing between each component and the hard circuit must be individually designed and manufactured to perform the interface test,
There is also a problem that information for process monitoring cannot be correctly transmitted due to an error that occurs in the design / manufacturing process.

Furthermore, even when standardizing software and hardware circuits to be mounted on components, software and standard circuit diagrams are managed separately,
It was not possible to manage across the software and hardware for each component.

Further, since there is a huge amount of database information for managing processes, the consistency and consistency of data information, such as signal names and unit of unit, may be lost in the data production process.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the data holding structure that crosses each component constituting the monitoring control device ensures the consistency of data and the interface information that crosses each component. It is an object of the present invention to provide a database construction system capable of creating data in which the consistency of the above is maintained.

[0009]

A database construction system for constructing a database of a supervisory control device to which a computer of the present invention is applied has a data holding structure which traverses at least a man-machine component and a controller component constituting the supervisory control device. A library is managed as a process monitoring control unit, and a database is constructed using this process monitoring control unit.

Further, if the process monitoring control unit holds the interface information between the man-machine component and the controller component, it is possible to generate consistent data across both components.

Further, if the process supervisory control unit can designate another process supervisory control unit by its signal information portion, a hierarchical structure with another supervisory control unit is made possible and the function to be implemented in the supervisory control device is facilitated. Can be changed and expanded.

Further, since the process monitoring control unit can be configured as an object of a device to be monitored and controlled and an object of a control function, the function and the signal management information installed in the monitoring control device can be expressed as an intuitive unit.

Similarly, the process monitoring control unit can be configured as an object of a device to be monitored and controlled and a control function object. Therefore, by stacking these objects, a large amount of process monitoring signal information can be consistently defined. it can.

In addition, the data for engineering is
Engineering work can be simplified by defining the data structure that can be managed on a device-by-device basis using the process monitoring control unit.

In addition, for the library database that manages the model of the process monitoring control unit as a library,
By defining the minimum conditions, the optimum information is selected and output, and by modifying the output data with the user-specific information and specifications of the supervisory controller, the data to be input to the engineering tool can be simplified. Can be created.

Further, the function and signal management information to be mounted on the supervisory control device can be promptly provided to the user by using the process supervisory control unit, and the request from the user can be fed back.

In the present invention, a data holding structure for collectively managing the software function and hardware information of each component that constitutes the monitoring and control device is defined, and the consistency across the software function and hardware of each of these components is defined. It is possible to create certain data.

Also, by providing a concept for handling signals in units of monitored devices, not in units of process signals, it is possible to ensure consistency of signal cohesion. To do.

Further, in the engineering work, the engineering unit can handle the data from the individual signal unit in a more concrete image of the equipment, and the software engineering work can be performed by a person other than a specialized engineer.

Further, the database for producing the software and hardware of the supervisory control device does not hold each component individually, but collectively holds information in units required by each component constituting the supervisory device. Therefore, it is possible to output the production information in a state where the interface information is consistent over a plurality of components.

Further, since the data management unit is held not as a separate signal but as a group of meaningful signals, it becomes possible to build up parts by building database information (building block) system. .

[0022]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, an embodiment of a database construction system according to the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the process monitoring control unit 20 showing an example of the data holding structure and the production equipment 21.

In this example, as a structure for managing data,
The process monitoring control unit 20 divides the functions into device monitoring information 1 and monitoring screen information 2 for man-machine components, control circuit information 3 and control signal information 4 for controller components, and hardware information 5. Holding.

Device monitoring information 1 is signal attribute information for each signal management unit (device unit, etc.) for process monitoring, and includes name, unit identification information, signal processing information, and I / I.
It consists of O allocation point information. The monitor screen information 2 is display information (size, position, display method of display object, etc.) for displaying signal information on the monitor screen, and includes faceplate display pattern information, object display information, and the like.

The control circuit information 3 is a program specification, a program and data of a controller for performing interlocking control and automatic control related to the relevant signal, such as control circuit library data and host computer I / F circuit. The control signal information 4 is the point or attribute information of the I / F signal used in the control circuit, such as I / O allocation point information or virtual signal point information.

The hardware information 5 is hardware configuration and connection information for inputting related signals, and includes equipment-incorporated housing information.

The process monitoring control unit 20 having such a data holding structure is defined for each device existing in the process to be monitored by the monitoring control device. Each of the held information 1, 2, 3, 4 is set across the man-machine component and the controller component, and holds information about the interface between these two components.

When data of the supervisory control system is created, software to be installed in each component is generated based on the information from these process supervisory control unit groups.

The production equipment 21 mounts the software generated based on the information from the process monitoring control unit 20 on each component of the monitoring control device actually manufactured. That is, the human interface 6 of the man-machine component has a signal monitoring database and a screen display database generated based on the device monitoring information 1 and the monitoring screen information 2.

The PLC (program logical controller) 7 which constitutes the controller component,
The control circuit information 3 and the control signal information 4 are generated based on the control circuit and the interface information with the host computer, and the input / output area 7A is also generated at the same time.

Further, the interface area 6A of both of these components has the information 1, 2, 3, as described above.
4 is set across both components and holds information about the interface, so it is automatically generated with consistency. That is, it is not necessary to design and test the interface as in the conventional case.

Further, a hardware production drawing 8 is generated from the hardware information 5, and signal connection information and mounting information in the housing are output.

The data structure of the process monitoring control unit 20 is managed as a standardized template in the library database, and is separate from the data installed in the monitoring control device. In the case of actually mounting in the monitoring control device, the source data of the model data structure is taken out from the library, the user-specific data is set, and the actual signal information is allocated to generate the mounting data.

In the above-mentioned configuration, in the embodiment relating to claim 1, the display of the human interface 6 part of the man-machine component constituting the monitor control device and the control of the PLC 7 part of the controller component are performed.
The process monitoring control unit 20 is made into a library by a data holding structure which is closely related. In this case, the information related to the display function and the information related to the control function can be managed as an integrated object.
For this reason, it is possible to retain the versions of the functions in both display and control in a consistent form.

In the embodiment according to claim 2, since the information on the interface 6A between the display of the human interface 6 part of the supervisory controller and the control of the controller 7 part is held in the model of the process supervisory control unit 20, It is possible to manufacture software and hardware that are produced by using the template and that have compatible interfaces.

In the embodiment of claim 3, the process monitoring control unit 20 can specify another process monitoring control unit in the signal information portion to be monitored. This function enables a hierarchical structure of units, and it is possible to combine high-level units by combining low-level units. Further, by reusing the process monitoring control unit as a component, the function of the monitoring control device can be easily changed or expanded.

In the fourth embodiment of the present invention, the process signals handled by the process monitoring and control unit 20 are grouped in more specific units such as devices and control functions to be monitored and controlled. This is because the process supervisory control unit 20 itself is positioned as a target device or an object of a control function. As a result, it becomes possible to construct the monitor and control device by stacking objects of these concrete units. This has an advantage that, in addition to the merit in the manufacturing process, it becomes easy to intuitively grasp the information of the target device or facility even in the scene of actually operating the monitoring control device.

In the embodiment of claim 5, as described in claim 4, the process monitoring control unit is an object reflecting the monitoring control target. For this reason, these objects are piled up when the monitor control device is manufactured. In practice, the types of target devices and control functions will be sorted out, a model of the process monitoring control unit 20 corresponding to that will be selected, and some of them will be modified and used.

According to this procedure, the variations of the units are the variations arranged in the corresponding system, and the same equipment and control system use the same unit. For this reason, it is possible to produce data that is consistent with the data of similar devices and control methods.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, in engineering using the process supervisory control unit 20, the database of the supervisory control device to be manufactured is a stack of objects reflecting the devices and control methods to be supervisory controlled. This can reduce the area that requires special knowledge about data management for manufacturing the monitor and control device, and can provide an environment in which even a non-specialized engineer can perform database construction to some extent.

The embodiment of claim 7 will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, the process monitoring control unit 2
The template of 0 is managed as the library database 9A. The library data managed here corresponds to the model of the process monitoring control unit 20 and is held in the basic library 9 as a group of basic information for realizing the specifications required by the user.

An engineer who constructs the system defines a minimum condition for the basic library 9 and extracts standard document data 10 consisting of standard documents and data corresponding to user specifications from the basic library 9. For example, as the condition definition, control name and control method,
Enter the target device specifications and number as search key information,
Standard document data (template) 10 satisfying these conditions is extracted.

Then, in the output standard document data 10, the user's unique specification information and standard specification correction information are input in step 10a to create user-specific specification information 11. This work is data setting and partial correction work for the prepared template.

By inputting the user-specific specification information 11 into the data generation processing 12 of the engineering tool 10A, the monitoring control system manufacturing data and the document 1 are input.
3 is generated.

In the embodiment of the eighth aspect, the engineering based on the process monitoring control unit 20 is to perform the database construction of the monitoring control device in a unit easily recognized by general users of the device. Therefore, by confirming the production specifications between the user and the manufacturer based on this unit information, it is possible to exchange information more easily and quickly. In other words, in order to make it easy to present specifications to the user and confirm the user in the early stages of production,
It also becomes possible to promptly provide feedback on user requests.

Although the above contents have explained the efficiency improvement in the manufacturing work of the monitoring control device, in the present invention, since the information of the monitoring control device can be constructed in the form of a building block, it is possible for an engineer who is not familiar with system construction to There is a merit that it is easy to understand the functional configuration of the system.

By utilizing this, it becomes possible to present the electronic medium expanded from this data to the user via the network. The database information provides a mechanism that can be distributed, browsed, or modified via the network. As a result, the feedback information from the user of the corresponding specification can be processed more quickly.

Further, this database construction system is
It can be used without depending on the components of the supervisory controller and the system configuration. Further, the data produced by this database construction system is stored in the database in the same manner as the library. With this database, existing system data can be reused when manufacturing a monitoring control device of another system, and effective use of assets can be achieved.

[0050]

According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently design and manufacture software and hardware in the manufacturing process of the monitor and control device, and the data consistency and consistency are superior to those in the past. It becomes possible to manufacture products.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a data configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a database construction system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an engineering operation according to the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Device monitoring information 2 Monitoring screen information 3 Control circuit information 4 Control signal information 5 hardware information 6 Human interface 6A I / F area 7 PLC 7A I / O area 8 hardware production drawings 20 Process monitoring and control unit 21 Production equipment

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Mitsuru Takatsu             1-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo Co., Ltd.             Toshiba headquarters office (72) Inventor Yoshikazu Tonozuka             No. 1 Toshiba-cho, Fuchu-shi, Tokyo Toshiba Corporation             Fuchu Office F-term (reference) 5B046 AA07 KA05

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A database construction system for constructing a database of a supervisory control device applying a computer,
A database construction system characterized in that a library is managed as a process monitoring control unit by a data holding structure crossing at least a man-machine component and a controller component constituting the monitoring control device, and a database is constructed using this process monitoring control unit. . 2. The process monitoring control unit holds interface information between a man-machine component and a controller component, and can generate consistent data across the both components. Database construction system described. 3. The process supervisory control unit can specify another process supervisory control unit by its signal information portion, and can easily change the function implemented in the supervisory control device by enabling a hierarchical structure with another supervisory control unit, The database construction system according to claim 1 or 2, which is expandable. 4. The process monitoring control unit is configured as an object of a device to be monitored and controlled and an object of a control function, and functions and signal management information to be mounted on the monitoring control device are expressed as an intuitive unit. The database construction system according to claim 1. 5. The process monitoring control unit is configured as an object of a device to be monitored and controlled or a control function, and by stacking these objects, definition of a large amount of process monitoring signal information is made consistent. The database construction system according to claim 1. 6. The engineering work is simplified by defining engineering data in a data structure that can be managed in units of devices using a process monitoring control unit. Database construction system. 7. Optimum information is selected and output by defining a minimum condition for a library database that manages the process monitoring control unit as a library.
A database construction system characterized in that it is possible to easily create data to be input to an engineering tool by correcting the user's unique information and specifications of the monitoring control device with respect to this output data. 8. The function and signal management information to be implemented in the supervisory control device can be promptly provided to the user by using the process supervisory control unit, and the request from the user can be fed back. Through 7
The database construction system described in.