JP2004171540A - Production facility control device, production facility control system, and control method of production facility with production facility control device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a production facility control device capable of automatically performing a setting work without requiring manual work. <P>SOLUTION: This control device 2 is installed to control a production facility through a network 1. This control device 2 is constituted of a network connection means 9 allocated to connect with the network 1; a service means 5 executing a prescribed processing program on the basis of fetched data; an own service distribution means 6 for transmitting one or more of at least its own IP address and port number, its unique identification number, and its unique identification name in a fixed period; a universal service connecting means 8 for performing input and output of data to the other production facility control device 2 through the network 1; and an other service searching means 7 for retrieving data of the other production facility control device 2 through the network 1. As the communication method between the own service distribution means 6 of the other production facility control device 2 and the other service searching means 7 through the network 1, a multi-cast communication is applied, and as the communication method between the universal service connection means 8, uni-cast communication is applied. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

  The present invention relates to a production equipment control device, a production equipment control system, and a production equipment control method using the production equipment control device, and more particularly to a production equipment control device, a production equipment control system, and a production equipment control device connected to a network. And a method for controlling a production facility.

  A production line using a conventional production equipment control device (hereinafter, referred to as a control device) has, for example, a configuration as shown in FIG. Each control device in the figure is assigned an IP address in TCP / IP communication. After the assignment of the IP address, a predetermined operation is started, the tallying of the operating state and the selective download of the NC program are started, and the production activity proceeds. In the invention described in Patent Document 1, the amount of communication is reduced by devising a method of organizing the data collected at this time.

  FIG. 1 of Patent Document 2 shows another conventional control device. The production equipment control means in the figure is connected to a network via a control device as a protocol converter, and each production equipment control means is identified by an IP address and a port number in TCP / IP communication. Other conventional control devices compare the Gantt chart representing a pre-designed production plan with the Gantt chart based on actual production data obtained by actually operating production equipment, to grasp the exact situation and determine the production plan. Planning was done.

  FIG. 1 of Patent Document 3 shows another conventional control device. Each control device in the figure is assigned an IP address in TCP / IP communication. Such other conventional control devices are configured to exchange data called "work objects" between the control devices in order to grasp the current position of the work flowing on the production line and the operating state as a line. As a result, in the production equipment, it is possible to perform control suitable for the currently arriving work, and to reduce the memory capacity.

JP-A-5-20227 JP-A-9-27247 JP-A-11-249717

  The conventional control device needs to perform the following setting work before the start of production for the production equipment control means or the control device directly connected to each production equipment. For example, it is necessary for a system engineer or a maintenance person to manually set parameters for each control device and send the data representing the operation information to a control device having a main database. Was. Specifically, after designing a TCP / IP network, which IP address and host name are to be assigned to which device, a character string representing each assigned IP address is input to the setting screen of each device. Or inputting a character string representing each host name. Further, it is necessary to manually set and rotate the control program of which IP address should be used to download the NC program. Further, even when the configuration of the production line is changed, it is necessary to manually change the setting. For this reason, there has been a problem that as the number of control devices increases, manual setting work becomes more difficult.

  In addition, maintenance personnel who perform the setting work need to have knowledge of the network, knowledge of the production equipment, and knowledge of the application software, and it takes time to educate them. there were.

  Further, in recent years, it has become common to connect a campus network, which has been described above, to the Internet due to the development and spread of the Internet, and to exchange information by accessing a campus control device from the Internet. However, there is a tendency that setting work requiring knowledge of a plurality of specialized fields, such as setting of an IP address, setting of an Internet connection device called a router, setting of an application for the Internet, and the like, is increasing, and it takes more time for education. was there.

  On the other hand, it is also possible to confirm the location of the control device in the network by flowing a data packet to be received by all the control devices in the network. In short, this is a method using so-called broadcast communication. However, when such broadcast communication is applied as communication means between control devices, the following problem occurs.

  First, there are problems such as an increase in network traffic and difficulty in controlling the reach of data packets. 2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a network, particularly an IP network using Ethernet (registered trademark), generally includes a switching hub and a router. These network devices control the communication amount by controlling the reach and distribution destination of data packets. However, since broadcast communication passes through such a switching hub, the effect of suppressing the amount of communication cannot be obtained at all, and the situation returns to an old-fashioned network that adversely affects other data communication.

  Also, the network communication interface circuit of each device normally processes a multicast packet in the interface circuit and performs a process of delivering the packet to an OS (operating system, basic software) or discarding the packet as an unrelated packet. In this case, the broadcast packet is passed without passing or discarding. As a result, when either multicast or broadcast communication is used for the purpose of broadcast communication, it seems at first glance that the purpose is achieved in the same way, and in broadcast communication, the OS is entrusted with processing of unnecessary packets, As more broadcast communications are irrelevant to a device, the load on the device for meaningless processing increases. As described above, the broadcast communication has a serious problem that not only cannot enjoy the latest network technology, but also has other meaningless effects on other arithmetic processing.

  Furthermore, when it is desired to have a plurality of types of services in a network, if the existence and service contents of the own service are to be promulgated by broadcast communication, a proper data format is designed on the data packet, and the It must be adapted to the format. Therefore, when it is desired to add an application that executes a new service later, it is necessary to redesign the data format so that the application can be added. There was no problem if a simple redesign was enough, but in some cases it was not possible to completely change when a significant change was desired. Note that the service here refers to, for example, arithmetic processing that can be provided by a certain device in response to a request from another device, which will be described in detail later.

  As described above, the application of the broadcast communication has caused a problem in terms of interference with other data communication and additional services. In short, there is a problem that only the originally designed application is used, no new application is allowed to be added, and the network becomes a self-righting system in which only the data communication for this purpose is performed.

  Also, when building an information system for collecting the data representing the operating states of a plurality of control devices and grasping the operating conditions of a production line composed of a plurality of production facilities, the control device side is a so-called server, In the form of a client-server, where the general control device side is a so-called client, in such a configuration, the general control device sequentially sends a message to a plurality of control devices in order to detect an error state that occurs very rarely in each control device. I will contact you. While the number of each control device is small, it is good, but as the number of devices increases, a large amount of useless inquiry data flows and the amount of communication increases. was there.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems. As in the related art, network wiring is physically performed, but the setting work of each control device in the next stage is performed by maintenance personnel or It is an object of the present invention to provide a control device, a control device system, and a method of controlling production equipment that can be automatically executed without the need for system engineers. It is another object of the present invention to provide a control device, a control device system, and a method of controlling a production facility, in which the amount of communication on a network is suppressed and the reach of data packets is easily controlled.

  The production equipment control device according to the present invention is a production equipment control device provided to control the production equipment via a network, and includes a network connection means provided to connect to the network, and other production equipment. Service means for executing a predetermined processing program based on data transmitted from the equipment control device via the network and obtained via the network connection means and / or data obtained from the directly connected production equipment; Via the network connection means via the network, at least one of its own IP address and port number, its own unique identification number, its own unique identification name to the other production equipment control device The self-service promulgation means that transmits data at fixed intervals to the network and the network connection means Self-other service connection means for inputting / outputting data to the other production equipment control device via the network, and the other production equipment control device via the network via the network connection means. And other service detection means for searching data for the other production equipment control device via the network, a multicast communication as a communication method between the own service promulgation means and the other service detection means In addition, unicast communication is applied as a communication method between the self-other service connection means.

  Since the production equipment control device according to the present invention is configured as described above, the setting operation of the production equipment control device can be automatically performed without the need for maintenance personnel or system engineers. The effect is as follows. Further, there is an effect that the traffic on the network is suppressed and the control of the reach of the data packet is facilitated.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a production equipment control device (hereinafter, referred to as a control device) according to a first embodiment for carrying out the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a plurality of control devices of the present embodiment exist. It is a block diagram for description.

  In FIG. 1, 1 is a network, 2 is a control unit, 3 is a production facility controlled by the control unit 2, 4 is a production facility control unit, 5 is a service unit, 6 is a service promulgation unit, and 7 is another service detection unit. , 8 denotes own and other service connection means, and 9 denotes network connection means.

  FIG. 2 shows an embodiment in which a plurality of control devices 2 of FIG. 1 are installed and configured to control a plurality of production facilities. In FIG. 2, 2A is a first control device, 2B is a second control device, 2C is a third control device, 2D is a fourth control device, 3A is a first production facility, 3B is a second production facility, and 5A is a first production facility. The service means of the control device, 5B indicates the service means of the second control device, 5C indicates the service means of the third control device, and 5D indicates the service means of the fourth control device.

  Next, the operation of the control device 2 of the present embodiment will be described. First, the individual role of each means of the control device 2 shown in FIG. 1 will be described.

(1) Network The network 1 is provided for performing communication by the service means 5 described later, and mainly means network equipment capable of executing IP (Internet Protocol) communication, for example, Ethernet (registered trademark) or wireless communication. It comprises a LAN, hub, repeater, bridge, switch, router, modem, telephone line, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) line, ISDN line, optical fiber line, power line LAN, infrared ray, USB (Universal Serial Bus), IEEE 1394, and the like.

(2) Control Device The control device 2 includes a CPU, a main memory, a secondary storage device such as a hard disk (not shown) (not shown), and includes a network connection unit 9. Further, there may be a case where an input device such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a tablet, and a display device (image display device) such as a CRT and a liquid crystal are provided (not shown). In the case where the production equipment 3 directly connected to the control device 2 is directly controlled, a production equipment control means 4 is provided. For example, a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an NC (Numerical Controller), a plant control device, and the like correspond to this.

(3) Production Equipment Control Means The production equipment control means 4 is provided for controlling the production equipment 3 to be described later, and is provided with software and production that can control the production equipment 3 with the same CPU as the control device 2 described above. In the case where it is constituted by a physical interface with the equipment 3, and in the case where it is constituted by a control-dedicated CPU, a memory, a secondary storage device, and a physical interface with the production equipment 3 which are independent of the hardware constituting the control device 2. There may be dedicated hardware. In the latter device configuration, the control device 2 and the production equipment control means 4 are connected by any communicable means such as an internal bus, a serial or parallel line connection, and a shared two-port memory.

  Note that the control device of the present embodiment is for controlling the production facility 3 as described above, but simply communicates with the production facility 3 via the communication means to acquire the operation state of the production facility 3. It is possible to adopt a configuration in which the service means 5 is limited to a function of using the operation state data. In this case, the function of monitoring the production line is achieved.

(4) Production Equipment The production equipment 3 includes, for example, various processing devices such as a cutting machine, an electric discharge machine, a laser machine, and a press machine, a batch processing device such as a reaction tank, and the like, which are installed in a factory. It is an assembly device such as a robot, a transporter, a water treatment plant, a continuous production plant such as a chemical synthesis plant or the like, and is an assembling device for assembling a semiconductor, a liquid crystal, or a printed circuit board. The above-mentioned production equipment control means 4 is provided for the purpose of directly controlling each production equipment 3.

(5) Service means The service means 5 is composed of software (various programs). However, it is also possible to configure with hardware.
(A) Operation example 1 of service means
The service means 5 holds data necessary for production, for example, an NC program, or a combination of control parameters called machining conditions, and provides these as data in response to a request from another service means 5, or provides other data. An operation is performed to make a request to the service means 5 and obtain data held by the other service means 5. The provision or request of such data refers to data exchange performed via the network 1 via the network connection means 9. Note that, except for a transmission / reception part in a procedure necessary for communication, a transmission source of data of interest is referred to as a providing side, and a reception side is referred to as a requesting side.

(B) Operation example 2 of service means
As another operation example of the service means 5, a case where the production equipment 2 is a processing machine and a work is processed by the processing machine will be described below. This processing machine processes a workpiece by controlling its movable portion to move along a predetermined track or processing path, but the processing time or finish depends on the quality of the track or processing path. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize or quasi-optimize the trajectory or machining path during machining. At this time, preparation is made so that the service means 5 can execute an operation for optimizing or quasi-optimizing the trajectory or the machining path before starting the machining of the work. Such an operation is performed by the service means 5 of one control apparatus in response to a request from the service means 5 of another control apparatus, and operates so as to return a result to the control apparatus. Alternatively, this calculation is requested to the service means 5 of the own control device. As a result of these calculations, the optimal or suboptimal trajectory or machining path obtained by the service means 5 is passed to the production equipment control means 4, and the processing machine as the production equipment 3 starts machining.

(C) Operation example 3 of service means
Further, as another example of the operation of the service means 5, while the production equipment control means 4 is performing a control operation using the trajectory of the processing machine, necessary operations are performed in response to a request from the other service means 5. An operation to execute the request or request the other service means 5 to execute the request.

(D) Operation example 4 of service means
Further, as an example of another operation example of the service means 5, when monitoring the operation state of another production equipment control means 4 from a specific control device 2 from outside, when monitoring a monitoring cycle or complicated operation, a large amount of The data will flow, but the service means 5 of the specific control device operates to relay the distribution of the data and send it to the service means 5 of another control device, or the other device that is performing the relaying. An operation in which a specific control device receives data from the service unit 5 of the control device is exemplified. It is necessary to know the next relay destination from itself because of the data relay, which is given by the own service promulgating means 6 and the other service detecting means 7 in the same control device as the other service means 5. By applying the control device of the present operation example, a configuration is possible in which the data relay destination is dynamically changed, that is, the relay destination is appropriately changed for a plurality of control devices.

(E) Operation example 5 of service means
Further, as another example of the operation of the service unit 5, the operation state of the production facility 3 obtained from the production facility control unit 4 is provided to the service unit 5 of another control device, or the operation state of the service unit 5 of another control device is provided. There is also an operation in which the provided operation state is held to combine the operation state information of the entire factory.

(F) Operation example 6 of service means
Further, as another example of the operation of the service means 5, there is an operation of maintaining a list of what service means 5 exist in the network system and providing the list.

  The service means 5 may include only one of the above-described services, or may include a plurality of contents. The provision and request for each service may be performed by the service means 5 of each control device 2 in both cases, or only one of them may be performed. Various operation contents of the service means 5 are implemented as software (program) of a computer.

(6) Self-service promulgation means The self-service promulgation means 6 transmits the contents that the above-described service means 5 can provide to the service means 5 of the other control apparatus 2 to the other control apparatus 2 via the network 1. The means known to the service means 5 is implemented by software. For example, when TCP / IP communication is used on the Ethernet as the network 1, the method is performed by a method of performing multicast communication in the network 1 at a fixed cycle. Alternatively, an operation of holding a list of service contents that can be provided by the service means 5 of another control device 2 on the network 1 is performed. In the IP multicast transmission, the IP address of the transmitting control device is always included in the protocol of communication, but the communication identification number such as the IP address, host name, and port number of the transmitting control device is determined in advance. You can also send symbols and character strings.

  Furthermore, there is a method of notifying the service means 5 of the other control device 2 of the service contents that can be provided by the service means 5 of the own control device 2. In this case, the communication identification number such as the IP address, the host name, and the port number, the symbol, and the character string of the control device 2 having the service unit 5 performing the holding operation are known in advance, or will be described later. It is necessary to know the IP address, host name, port number, and the like of the control device 2 including the service unit 5 performing the holding operation by the other service detection unit 7. As described above, by transmitting a communication identification number such as an IP address, a host name, and a port number, a predetermined symbol, and a character string, the data can be used for such a purpose. Note that a communication identification number such as a host name and a port number, a predetermined symbol, and a character string are called unique identification names. The contents of the own service are transmitted to the IP address, host name, port number, etc. obtained in this way. When accessing networks of different IP address systems, there may be a case where IP addresses are duplicated. However, by applying an identification number or a unique identifier, the operation intended by the present invention can be performed even in such a case. Become. In other words, even if the IP address is duplicated, operation is possible as long as the communication identification number such as the host name and the port number and the unique identification name do not duplicate.

(7) Other Service Detecting Means The other service detecting means 7 is a means for knowing service contents that can be requested from the service means 5 of the other control device 2 and the service means 5 of the own control device 2. The other service detection means 7 receives the contents promulgated by the service means 5 of the other control device 2, that is, data transmitted by multicast communication, and stores the data. Further, the other service detecting means 7 transfers data from the service means 5 which is carrying out the operation of retaining the contents transmitted by the own service promulgating means 6 of the other control device described above.

(8) Self-other service connection means The self-other service connection means 8 is means for performing data communication relating to services between two or more service means 5 and is implemented by software. For example, in the case of the above-described route optimization calculation, the data representing the machining route before optimization is sent from the service unit 5 on the requesting side to the providing side by the service unit 5 on the request side, and after the optimization or sub-optimization, Is returned. The requesting service means 5 transmits the pre-optimization processing route data to the other plurality of service means 5 using the own / other service connection means 8, and returns the plurality of returned optimum or sub-optimal processing routes. Select the best route from among them. Unicast communication is used as communication means between the self-other service connection means 8. This is because it is sufficient if data packets are exchanged only between the corresponding service means.

(9) Network Connection Means Finally, the network connection means 9 is composed of hardware suitable for the hardware used for the network 1 described above. For example, it is common to use Ethernet as the network 1 and use an IC chip group for Ethernet as the network connection means 9. The network connection means 9 is generally composed of so-called device driver software for operating these Ethernet IC chips and software called a communication protocol stack for performing IP communication. As described above, when hardware other than Ethernet is used for the network 1, the hardware is changed to a corresponding hardware chip and device driver software.

  The operation of each unit described above when a plurality of control devices 2 are used will be described below. FIG. 2 shows a mode in which two production facilities 3A and 3B are controlled by four control devices 2A to 2D. First, a case will be described in which the operation states of the processing cells including the first production facility 3A and the second production facility 3B are totaled by the third control device 2C. In this case, the service means 5C of the third control device 2C has a total database of operating states. Further, the service means 5A of the first control device 2A and the service means 5B of the second control device 2B obtain data representing the operating state of each of the production facilities 3A, 3B from the respective production facility control means 4A, 4B, An operation of transmitting the data to the service unit 5C of the third control device 2C by unicast communication is performed via the own / other service connection unit 8, the network connection unit 9, and the network 1. However, this operation is an operation after the automatic configuration operation according to the procedure described below is performed. One of the features of the control device of the present embodiment is that an automatic configuration operation as described below is performed, and the automatic configuration operation allows the setting work of each of the control devices 2A to 2D to be performed by a maintenance person or a system. It can be executed automatically without the need for engineers.

  First, the operation of the own service promulgating means 6C of the third control device 2C will be described. As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3, a data packet is transmitted by multicast communication to a designated port of a previously designated multicast IP address (step ST301), and after that, a predetermined time is waited for (step ST302), and again. The transmission of the data packet (step ST301) is repeated. In short, data packets are transmitted at a fixed period by multicast communication. Incidentally, in the present operation example, it is set to transmit once every 15 seconds. The multicast IP address is, for example, 234.5.6.7, and the port number is 5670. The contents of the data packet transmit a character string “p2p-mon” in this operation example. However, in this case, it is not used meaningfully as a character string. This is because the character string itself has no effect on the operation.

  As the IP address and the port number, an address and a number different from those of the other operation examples in the present embodiment are selected. By assigning a unique address and number to a specific operation in this way, it can coexist with other services and applications without any inconvenience.

  The own service promulgating means 6C of the third control device 2C starts operation at the same time when the power of the third control device 2C is turned on. For example, if the execution form of a computer program called a task, a thread, or a process is executed independently of the operation of other means, the same effect can be obtained regardless of whether it is a thread or a process. Incidentally, in the present operation example, it is implemented in a mode called a thread. It should be noted that the control device 2 that sends data to the port number 5670 of the IP address 2345.5.6.7 is provided with a running status totaling database before each control device operates. Further, the multicast IP address and the IP address assigned to each control device 2 are different. A multicast IP address is like a channel in a radio or television broadcast. If a data packet is transmitted to a specific port number of the IP address, all devices that are tuned there and wait for the arrival of the data packet will be used. This is the mechanism by which data is received. On the other hand, there is broadcast transmission as another communication method, and this is a method in which data is uniformly delivered to all devices regardless of whether or not the user prefers to wait.

  The multicast data packet transmitted from the third control device 2C by the multicast communication is received and processed by the other service detection means 7A and 7B of the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B. FIG. 4 shows the operation of the other service detecting means 7A, 7B of the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B. The other service detection means 7A and 7B also start operating as soon as the power of each control device is turned on. This is also implemented as a thread. As shown in the flow chart of FIG. 4, a data packet is waited for at a designated port of a multicast IP address designated in advance (step ST401). When the data packet arrives, a predetermined directory (storage) area ( Step ST402: An operation of creating a file with the file name of the IP address of the transmission source in (in the present operation example, the file is created in a predetermined directory area, depending on the configuration of the file system). (Step ST403). If a file with the same file name already exists, the update date information added to that file is updated. The existence of the file update date information depends on the file system, but the file system of this operation example is provided with this. It is waiting for the arrival of a data packet at the port number 5670 of the multicast IP address 234.5.6.7. The contents of the received data packet are written to the created file.

  Further, in the other service detection means 7A and 7B of the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B, a thread for executing a procedure as shown in FIG. 5 is mounted. In this procedure, a directory area (storage area) in which a file having a source IP address as a file name is written is checked once every 15 seconds, and if 60 seconds or more have passed since the last update of the file, the file is deleted. Perform the operation. As a result, the multicast data packet should have been transmitted from the source once every 15 seconds, but if more than 60 seconds have elapsed since the last transmission from the source was received, the source will be sent to the network for some reason. 1 is determined to be no longer present, or that the network 1 has been disconnected. Hereinafter, the detailed operation will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

  First, a list of file names stored in the directory area (step ST501) is obtained (step ST502). Then, a loop is performed for each file name in the list (step ST503). The update date and time and the current date and time of the file indicated by each file name are obtained, the elapsed time after creation of each file is calculated (step ST504), and the two are compared (step ST505). If the time difference is 60 seconds or more, the file is deleted from the directory area (step ST501) (step ST506), and the process of the next file name is performed (step ST503). If the elapsed time is less than 60 seconds, nothing is performed and the processing of the next file name is performed (step ST503). When all the file names have been processed, the process exits from the loop and waits for a time of 15 seconds (step ST507). Thereafter, the process is repeated from the beginning (step ST502).

  Further, the other service detection units 7A and 7B of the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B have different threads. Although the operations of the two threads described above indicate a preparation stage for using the service means 5 of the other control device 2, the threads described below are steps for directly using the other service means 5. belongs to. The operation of such a thread is shown in the flowchart of FIG. In the flowchart of FIG. 6, parts other than the other service detecting means 7 are also described. The operation of the other service detection means 7 in the flowchart of FIG. 6 is a range surrounded by a dotted-line square. Other parts represent the range executed by the service means 5 described later. In the operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6, once every 60 seconds, data representing the operating state of the production facility 3 controlled by itself is transmitted by unicast communication. The transmission destination is the service means 5 of another control device 2 searched using the other service detection means 7.

  The operation will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, data representing the operation state of the production facility 3 is obtained (step ST601). Next, a file name list is obtained from the above-mentioned predetermined directory area (step ST602) (step ST603). Subsequently, a loop for performing processing for each file name is turned (step ST604). In the loop, the operation status data acquired earlier is transmitted to the IP address indicated by each file name (step ST605). When all file names have been processed, the process waits for 60 seconds (step ST606). After that, the process returns to the beginning of the process and acquisition of the operating state is started (step ST601). This thread is executed with respect to a loop for all file names. However, in the above-described operation example, since only a file whose file name is the IP address of the third control device 2C, the loop is performed only for such a file, Executed only once. Incidentally, if the IP address of even the third control device 2C is not included, there is a possibility that some failure may occur in the network 1 or the third control device 2C, and in this case, the transmission of the operating state is not performed.

  In the above operation example, the data indicating the operating state is simply described as "transmitting". However, a part which creates such data packet and transmits / receives the data packet by unicast communication according to a predetermined protocol is the role of the own / other service connecting means 8. It is. Since the operation shown in FIG. 6 is a very simple case of one file, the transmitting side simply writes the operation status into one packet and transmits the packet through the unicast socket, and the receiving side also transmits the unicast socket. It simply waits after opening in the receiving mode, receiving a single received packet, and interpreting the contents.

  For example, when there is a plurality of combinations of the X coordinate and the Y coordinate, such as when the data to be transmitted is a machining route, a protocol for transmitting and receiving the combination to the own / other service connection means 8 may be determined in advance. For example, the X coordinate and the Y coordinate may be separated by a space in a text format, and one point may be transmitted by one line, and when the last line is transmitted, a line including only a period may be transmitted at the beginning of the line.

  Note that the operation of the service means 5 of the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B is the flowchart itself shown in FIG.

  The operation of the service means 5C of the third control device 2C is shown in the flowchart of FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, reception of an IP unicast packet is waited for at port 5550 of its own IP address (step ST701). Since the received IP unicast packet is an operation state packet from the first control device 2A or the second control device 2B, the reception time, the transmission source, and the reception packet data are tailored into one record, and the relational database (step ST702). ) Is stored in a predetermined recording table (step ST703), and a standby state for receiving the next data packet is entered (step ST701).

  The overall operation of the control device according to the present embodiment described above is shown in the flowchart of FIG. From this flowchart, it can be seen that the recording system in the operating state is operating. In addition, it is necessary to set a multicast IP address, a unicast IP address, and a port number in advance in each of the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B which control the production facilities 3A, 3B. Then, when connecting to the network 1, it automatically detects that the control device that is collecting the operation status is the third control device 2C, and starts transmitting the operation status to the third control device 2C. By such an operation, a recording system in an operating state can be automatically configured.

  In the present operation example, the case where the character string in the data packet transmitted / received in the multicast communication is not used has been described. However, as this character string, the port number for which the third control device 2C is waiting for the operation state is added. As a result, an effect is obtained that the information set in advance in the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B is reduced by one. Further, a procedure for using the service provided by the service means 5 can be implemented in this character string. If the service provided is a function, information about its argument list is implemented. Alternatively, a computer program itself that can be executed on the service providing side is mounted, and the service using side can copy the program to its own service means and execute it. That is, the service provided by the other service means can be used by the execution.

  On the other hand, when the fourth control device 2D (FIG. 2) is activated simultaneously with the third control device 2C, the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B are connected to both the third control device 2C and the fourth control device 2D. A data packet indicating the operation state is transmitted by unicast communication. In this case, even if one of the third control device 2C and the fourth control device 2D stops due to some failure, data is accumulated in the other normally operating one.

  Normally, the third control device 2C is operated, the fourth control device 2D is started immediately before the third control device 2C is stopped for maintenance, and after the third control device 2C is stopped and maintained, the fourth control device 2C is stopped. The third control device 2C is activated, the own service promulgation means 6D of the fourth control device 2D is stopped, and the data stored in the relational database of the fourth control device 2D is transferred to the relational database of the third control device 2C. An operation means of stopping the control device 2D is used.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, an example is shown in which a signal is transmitted from each control device side and a data packet is transmitted to a control device having a relational database. That is, each control device operates as a client, and a control device having a relational database operates as a server.

  In the above description of the operation, the case where the number of control devices for controlling the production facilities 3A and 3B is two (the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B) (FIG. 2) is described. The same operation will be performed even if there are any units, and the same operation will be performed even if there are any number of control units having specifications such as the third control unit 2C and the fourth control unit 2D which are not directly connected to the production equipment.

  Also, an example has been described in which the self-other service connection means 8 of the control device is configured by a unicast socket. However, the HTTP protocol, the SOAP protocol, the WebDAV protocol, the FTP protocol, the SMTP protocol, the POP protocol, the IMAP protocol, the XML protocol, the DCOM The same effect can be obtained with the (registered trademark) protocol and the CORBA (registered trademark) protocol.

  In this operation example, an IP address and a port number different from those of the other operation examples of the control device 2 in the present embodiment are selected. By doing so, it is possible to coexist with other services and applications without any difficulty. However, if the contents of the services are almost the same, they may be the same as other IP addresses and port numbers. However, it is necessary to design the data format of the transmitted data packet in advance in order to discriminate between similar but different services.

  Further, in the present embodiment, an example has been described in which the own service promulgating means 6 transmits packets at a constant cycle, but this may be a variable cycle. For example, an operation may be performed such that transmission is performed every 10 seconds immediately after the power supply of the control device is turned on, and the transmission is performed every 30 seconds when, for example, 5 minutes have elapsed since the power supply was turned on. In this case, an effect of reducing network addition can be obtained. However, there is also a disadvantage that it takes more time for the other service detecting means 7 to find out. In addition, when another control device transmitting a packet at a cycle of 10 seconds is detected, a means such as setting its own transmission cycle to 10 seconds for 5 minutes can be implemented. In this case, if there is a control device that is powered on later than another control device, the control device that is powered on later finds a control device that is powered on first and is already running. Has the effect of completing it quickly.

  In addition, these IP communications have been described using the example of IP version 4, but the same operation can be performed even in version 6 (IPv6), and the same effect is obtained.

  As described above, according to the control device of the first embodiment, the setting operation of each control device can be automatically performed without the need for maintenance personnel or system engineers. In addition, by applying multicast communication as a communication means between the own service promulgating means and other service detecting means between the control devices, and applying unicast communication as a communication means between the own and other service connecting means, the network can be controlled. The communication amount can be suppressed, and the control of the arrival range of the data packet becomes easy.

Embodiment 2 FIG.
In the above-described first embodiment, a description will be given of a mode in which the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B transmit the operation states of the production facilities 3A and 3B controlled by themselves to the third control device 2C or the fourth control device 2D. However, in the second embodiment, the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B as shown in the configuration diagram of FIG. 2 return data indicating the operation state in response to an inquiry about the operation state from another. Service means 5A and 5B having various service contents. Further, the own service promulgating means 6A, 6B transmits to the network 1 the presence of the service means 5A, 5B performing an operation of returning such an inquiry as an IP multicast packet, and sends the information to the third control device 2C or the third control device 2C. 4 The control device 2D is configured to receive the IP multicast packet and determine which control device to inquire to collect data. In short, the transmission source of a predetermined IP multicast packet is stored as a control device existing on the network 1. Also in this case, similarly to the first embodiment, there is an effect that a control device that collects the operating states of the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B is automatically obtained.

  Furthermore, in the second embodiment, it is clear that the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B from which the operation information is to be collected are operating normally, and it is clear that no failure has occurred in the network 1. In the band, a deletion procedure as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5 in the other service detection means 7C and 7D in the third control apparatus 2C and the fourth control apparatus 2D is operated, and thereafter, only after a predetermined time elapses, only this deletion procedure is stopped. It is configured to It is assumed that a human checks that each control device is operating normally and that no failure has occurred in the network. After a certain time has elapsed, it means the time that elapses when a human completes the confirmation work.

  While the deletion procedure is running, presence information obtained by receiving the IP multicast packet indicates that a new control device has been installed and that the previously existing control device has been removed. Will be reflected in For example, the presence of the first control device 2A and the second control device 2B is detected by the third control device 2C or the fourth control device 2D, and the whole operation starts, and thereafter, the first control device 2A is removed. In this case, the third control device 2C or the fourth control device 2D deletes the data indicating that the first control device 2A exists, and retains the data indicating that only the second control device 2B exists. I will do it. In this way, it is reflected in the presence information. In other words, an effect is obtained that the setting work of each control device can be automatically executed without the need for maintenance personnel or system engineers.

  When the deletion procedure is stopped, the presence information changes when the control device is newly installed, but the presence information is changed even if it is removed or some failure occurs and the IP multicast packet cannot be received. The information will not change. In other words, even if a failure occurs in the first control device 2A, the second control device 2B or the network 1 and the files in the predetermined directory area (storage area) are not updated, the first control device 2A or the second control Data indicating the existence of the device 2B is not deleted. Since the service is not deleted, the own / other service connection means 8 tries to communicate with the unreachable partner. However, since the communication is not possible, as a result, whether a failure has occurred in the first control device 2A or the second control device 2B or whether the network 1 It can detect that a failure has occurred. When the deletion means is operated, data indicating the existence of the failed control device is deleted, and communication with the control device is stopped, so that the occurrence of the failure cannot be recognized. In the present embodiment, since the deletion unit is stopped, it tries to communicate with the control device represented by the data indicating the existence, so that a failure can be detected. The deletion means restarts the operation at an arbitrary timing. This updates the latest installation and removal information.

  In this embodiment, a case has been described in which the control device for controlling the production equipment 3 is composed of two units, the first control unit 2A and the second control unit 2B. However, no matter how many control units have such specifications. The same operation is performed, and the third control device 2C and the fourth control device 2D operate similarly regardless of the number of control devices having such specifications.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the description has been made assuming that the deletion unit is stopped and operated. However, a failure of the control device or the network can be detected by the following operation method.

  First, the above-described human confirmation work is performed. The presence information of the control device based on the IP multicast packet reception data obtained at this time is stored and held as “correct”. After the confirmation operation is completed, the deletion means is stopped in the previous operation example, but the deletion means is not stopped in this operation example. Therefore, the data indicating the presence of the failed control device is deleted. In the event of a network failure, all data will be deleted. By comparing the data indicating the existence of the control device at each point in time with the “positive” data stored and held in advance, the removal of the control device, the occurrence of a failure, and the occurrence of a network failure are determined. According to this operation example, compared to actually trying to communicate with the target control device and not being able to communicate and knowing the occurrence of a failure or the like, it is possible to know the failure or the like before attempting the communication. can get. Therefore, it is possible to detect a communication failure in advance without bothering maintenance personnel or system engineers.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a control device according to the third embodiment. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 10 denotes a wide area network. Reference numeral 1 denotes a private network, which is the same as the network 1 in the other embodiments.

  In the first control device 2A in FIG. 9, the service means 5A uses the service means 5C of the third control device 2C on the private network 1 or the wide area network (Internet) 10 while controlling the first production equipment 3A. Alternatively, the third control device 2C uses the service means 5A of the first control device 2A. Normally, the private network 1 and the wide area network 10 are connected by a connection device called a router. An example in which the router is configured by the second control device 2B will be described. In such a configuration, the second control device 2B includes two network connection units 9B1 and 9B2 for the private network 1 and the wide area network 10. The second control device 2B has a function of controlling the transfer of data packets between these two networks, and sorts such that certain packets are transferred and certain packets are not transferred. This is the router function, and if a function of performing the sorting for selectively excluding an illegal data communication request from the wide area network 10 is brought to the front, it can be used as a firewall.

  Now, suppose that the first control device 2A wants to connect to the service of the service means 5C of the third control device 2C by unicast communication. Normally, the data transfer between the two network connection means 9B1 and 9B2 of the second control device 2B is not performed, and the data transfer is performed only when the first control device 2A is connected to the third control device 2C. Thus, unauthorized intrusion from the wide area network 10, unintended data leakage from the local area network 1, and unauthorized communication can be prevented. Then, the service means 5B of the second control device 2B provides a service regarding whether to perform or stop the data transfer. The own / other service connecting means 8A of the first control device 2A connects to the own / other service connecting means 8B of the second control device 2B and requests that the communication data transfer from itself to the third control device 2C be performed. I do. That is, it requests execution of data transfer between the two network connection units 9B1 and 9B2 of the second control device 2B.

  Next, the first control device 2A makes a connection to the third control device 2C. Since data transfer is being performed, a communication path is established. When the data communication is completed, the second communication device 2B is again connected to the second control device 2B, and a request to stop data transfer is made. On the other hand, in order to use the service means 5A of the first control device 2A from the outside, it is also connected to the own / other service connection means 8B of the second control device 2B, and transfer of communication data from the third control device 2C to itself is performed. Ask them to do it. Then, the data transfer ends in the same procedure. Needless to say, the fact that the second control device 2B can execute the service for performing data transfer is known to the first control device 2A by the own service promulgating means 6B. Since all of the above series of operations are performed automatically, an effect is obtained that the setting work of each control device can be automatically executed without the need for maintenance personnel or system engineers.

  Further, it is possible to consider a situation where the network connection unit 9B1 performs IPv6 communication and the network connection unit 9B2 performs IPv4 communication. The reverse is also possible. In such a case, while the premises performs IPv6 communication, an effect of being able to cope with a scene where it is necessary to use IPv4 communication on the Internet is obtained.

Embodiment 4 FIG.
The configuration diagram of FIG. 10 is an example of the control device according to the fourth embodiment in which the production facility 3 is controlled by two control devices 2A and 2B. The production equipment control means 4A of the first control device 2A in the present embodiment controls a measurement signal of a state of the production equipment 3A and an energy supply command signal or a position command signal, a speed command signal, a contact opening / closing signal, etc. to an actuator such as a motor. The command signal is connected to the production equipment control means 4B of the second control device 2B via the service connection means 6A and the service means 5A. Thereby, the control operation is realized by the second control device 2B sending a control command corresponding to the state of the production equipment 3A to the production equipment 3A of the first control device 2A. Since all of the above series of operations are performed automatically, an effect is obtained that the setting work of each control device can be automatically executed without the need for maintenance personnel or system engineers.

Embodiment 5 FIG.
FIG. 11 shows a configuration diagram of a control device according to the fifth embodiment. The production equipment 3 is composed of two units, and the control device 2 is composed of four units. In the present embodiment, the first production facility 3A and the second production facility 3B are processing machines such as laser drilling machines in which the quality of the processing path affects the processing time. The operation of the processing machine will be described below. FIG. 12 is a plan view of the work, showing a manner in which five holes are formed in a square work. At this time, the machining path is shorter when holes are drilled in the work as shown in FIG. 12B than when holes are drilled in the work as shown in FIG. Therefore, before actually performing the machining shown in FIG. 12 in the first production facility 3A or the second production facility 3B, an optimal machining order for the hole arrangement is obtained as shown in FIG. 12B. This is very important. If the machining path is short, the machining time is shortened. As a result, for example, more work can be machined in one day of operation, and the productivity is further improved. When the first production facility 3A in FIG. 11 needs such an optimal machining order, in other words, an optimization or a sub-optimization operation of the machining path, the optimization operation is performed by the four control devices 2A to 2A. The function of each control device in the present embodiment is executed by 2D.

  First, the calculation for finding the shortest machining path will be described. Usually, the planning of the machining path is started from the point where only the work and the arrangement of holes to be drilled in the work are given. At first, the order of the holes is appropriately arranged by random numbers, etc., and then the so-called optimization algorithm is applied to determine the optimal machining path with the shortest machining path or the quasi-optimized path that will be closest to the shortest machining path. Ask. This is a problem itself called the traveling salesman problem.

  Optimization algorithms for solving such a traveling salesman problem include, for example, a hill-climbing method, a simulated annealing method, a genetic algorithm method, and a full search method. When the number of holes to be drilled is small, full search is also possible, but in general, in the number of holes in practical machining, full search is not completed within a practical time, and the full search method is not used. There is no. Therefore, although there are other algorithms, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Here, an operation example in which a plurality of methods are combined to take advantage of each method will be described.

  Among the above-described methods, the simulated annealing method (first optimization program) is such that optimization proceeds rapidly without falling into a relatively local optimum solution. However, in the simulated annealing method, after the optimization has progressed to some extent, a good solution cannot be obtained even if the calculation is continued. Therefore, the operation is started by the simulated annealing method, the operation method is continued for a while, and based on the solution obtained at a certain point (the first optimum solution), the operation is switched to the hill climbing method (the second optimization program). The optimization is continued, and a further optimal solution (second optimal solution) is obtained. There is one problem here. That is, the hill-climbing method easily falls into a local optimum solution, and often a good solution cannot be obtained. On the other hand, a surprisingly good solution may be obtained in a short time. In order to solve such a problem, after switching to the hill-climbing method, a plurality of hill-climbing method operation threads are simultaneously operated to finally obtain the best solution (second optimal solution). Only adopt it. Since 1000 calculations yield 1000 answers, it is preferable to run as many threads as possible simultaneously.

  The graph in FIG. 13 shows the calculation result according to this operation example. The horizontal axis represents the number of repetitions of the hill-climbing method, and the vertical axis represents the total extension distance of the machining path. Multiple plot curves represent the results of each execution of multiple threads. In the graph of FIG. 13, since the calculation is performed with ten threads, there are also ten curves corresponding to the threads. As can be seen from the graph of FIG. 13, when compared at a certain number of operations, the total extension distance of the machining path of each thread varies. Therefore, in order to obtain a more optimal solution, a solution (second optimal solution) of the thread having the minimum total extension distance is selected from among the calculation results that vary.

  On the other hand, when an optimization operation is performed by a genetic algorithm, a good solution can be finally obtained by repeating the operation repeatedly as compared with such a multi-thread hill-climbing method. It has been experimentally found that the time is longer. It is possible to terminate the operation of the genetic low algorithm in the same time as the multi-thread hill-climbing method, but it has been experimentally found that in this case, a better solution than the multi-thread hill-climbing method cannot be obtained.

  FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the procedure of a method that combines the simulated annealing method (first optimization program) and the multiple thread hill-climbing method (second optimization program) described above. Hereinafter, description will be given according to the flowchart of FIG. The processing is to form a plurality of holes in a specified position on a two-dimensional plane. Therefore, each hole is expressed as a plurality of combinations of X and Y coordinates arranged (step ST1401). The start of the calculation is to acquire a problem represented by a combination of a plurality of X and Y coordinates (step ST1402). Next, the order of holes to be drilled as an initial solution is determined by random numbers (step ST1403). Subsequently, a simulated annealing method starting from the initial solution using the random numbers is executed (step ST1404). This simulated annealing method is terminated in a fixed time. Other methods of aborting include a method of aborting with a fixed number of calculations and a method of aborting when the speed at which the solution gradually becomes a good value (in this case, the total extension distance is a shorter value) becomes smaller than a certain value. Is mentioned.

  Then, it moves to the hill climbing method. As described above, the hill-climbing method is executed by a plurality of threads (step ST1405). Incidentally, the flowchart of FIG. 14 shows an example in which calculation is performed by four threads (step ST1406, step ST1407, step ST1408, step ST1409). Each thread repeatedly performs the operation by the hill-climbing method. However, since random numbers are used in the operation, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 described above, even if the operation is started from the same initial solution, the progress and the result are obtained. Will be different. This hill-climbing method is terminated after a predetermined number of calculations. Other methods of discontinuation include a method of discontinuing in a fixed time and a method of discontinuing when a solution improvement speed becomes slow.

  It is determined that all the threads have ended (step ST1410), and the solutions of the respective threads are obtained. After that, all the solutions are sorted by the total extension distance, the shortest value is set as the final solution (second optimal solution) (step ST1411), and the result is recorded in the result recording file together with the order in which holes are formed (step ST1412). ,finish.

  In the present embodiment, the actual calculation part of the hill-climbing method (second optimization program) using a plurality of threads is executed by the plurality of control devices 2 in the calculation method shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, the hill-climbing method is processed in parallel by a plurality of control devices. As shown in FIG. 11, the service for calculating the above-mentioned hill-climbing method is configured in advance so that it can be executed in parallel by the service means 5A to 5D of the first to fourth control devices 2A to 2D. Then, the data packets are multicast-transmitted toward the inside of the network 1 by the own service promulgating means 6A to 6D of each of the four control devices 2A to 2D at the IP multicast address 2345.5.6.7 and the port number 4567. . The IP multicast address and the port number are determined in advance.

  Here, values different from those of the operation example in the other embodiment of the present invention are selected for the IP address and the port number. That is, the IP address and the port number have unique values. As a result, the service and the application have different IP addresses and port numbers from other services and applications, so that each service and the application can coexist with each other without any difficulty.

  In the above service, the transmitted data packet includes a character string “P2P-TSP”. The other service detecting means 7A of the first control device 2A receives this IP multicast transmission data packet (operation equivalent to the flowchart of FIG. 4; however, the reception waiting IP address and port number are different) and sequentially stores them in the directory area. . The operation of deleting the multicast packet from the directory area when the reception of the multicast packet is not observed by the first control device 2A is the same as that in the flowchart of FIG.

  Now, it is assumed that the first control device 2A has started handling data on a work to be processed. Then, the operation as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 14 is performed by the service unit 5A of the first control device 2A. First, the service unit 5A of the first control device 2A calculates an initial solution based on a random number, and subsequently performs an optimization calculation based on a simulated annealing method to obtain a first optimum solution. Next, the service means 5A of the control device 2A capable of executing the hill-climbing method is read from the storage area by the same operation as that of the other service detection means 7A shown in the area surrounded by the dotted line in the flowchart of FIG. As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6, the IP address of each service means 5A is obtained as a file name.

  Subsequently, a solution obtained by the simulated annealing method is distributed to each of the service means 5A to 5D. When distributing such a solution, the self-other service connection means 8A is used. As described above, the own / other service connecting means 8A is provided for exchanging data necessary for using the service means 5B to 5D of the other control devices 2B to 2D other than the own. In the present embodiment, the own / other service connection means 8A of the first control device 2A is used for first delivering a combination of a plurality of X, Y coordinates to the other service means 5B to 5D.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the control device of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the simulated annealing method is completed in the operation of the first control device 2A (step ST1504), the service means of the other control devices 2B to 2D which can take charge of the hill-climbing method obtained by the other service detection means 7B to 7D (step ST1506). A thread is started for each of 5B to 5D (step ST1508), and a plurality of combinations of X and Y coordinates are transmitted by unicast communication using the own / other service connection means 8A for each thread (step ST1510). . When such transmission is completed, ". (Period) is further transmitted by unicast communication (step ST1511). After the transmission, it waits until a result is returned (step ST1512). The original thread that has started each thread waits until each thread ends (step ST1516). In each thread, the shortest total extension distance (step ST1512), a combination of a plurality of X and Y coordinates giving the distance (step ST1515) by the own / other service connection means 8B to 8D, and ". (Period) (step ST1514), data is returned in this order, so data is received according to this order, and the process ends. When all the threads are finished, the total extension distance returned by each thread is sorted (step ST1517), and the shortest one is selected from the sorted distances, and at the same time, the X and Y coordinates giving the shortest distance are selected (step ST1518). ) Finish the operation.

  On the other hand, the self-other service connecting means 8A to 8D of each of the control devices 2A to 2D capable of handling the hill-climbing method implements a similar data transmission procedure (step ST1520 to step ST1522), and the arrangement of the received X and Y coordinates. Is performed a predetermined number of times (step ST1513), and the result is sent back to the transmission source according to the procedure described above (steps ST1524 to ST1526). As described above, since the optimum processing path has been obtained, the processing can be started in the first production facility 3A.

  Although the present embodiment has been described with respect to a processing machine in which a processing path is a problem, even in the case of a production machine such as a processing machine, a plant, an assembly line, or the like, which calculates a processing parameter before starting processing, a service can be provided. A similar effect can be obtained by changing the contents of the service in the means to an optimization operation corresponding to the problem.

  In addition, although the IP communication has been described using the example of the version 4 of the IP, the same operation can be performed in the case of the version 6 (IPv6), and the same effect can be obtained.

  In the present embodiment, values different from those of the other operation examples are selected for the IP address and the port number. By doing so, it is possible to coexist with other services and applications without any difficulty. However, if the contents of the services are almost the same, they may be the same as other IP addresses and port numbers. However, it is necessary to design the data format of the transmitted data packet in advance in order to discriminate between similar but different services.

  As described above, according to the control method of the production equipment by the control device of the present embodiment, since a part of the optimization program is executed by using a plurality of control devices, an optimal or sub-optimal There is an effect that machining can be performed by the machining path.

Embodiment 6 FIG.
The control device according to the sixth embodiment has substantially the same configuration as the production line as shown in FIG. 2 described above. In the configuration of the control device in FIG. 2, the service means 5A of the first control device 2A sends data representing the current operation state of the first production facility 3A to the service means 5B to 5D of the other control devices 2B to 2D. Although it is transmitted, it transmits to only the three control devices 2B to 2D to suppress its own load. On the other hand, the service means 5B to 5D of the control devices 2B to 2D have a service for relay-transferring the data indicating the received operation state to the service means of another control device. Each of the own service promulgating means 8A to 8D multicasts in the network 1 that the operation state can be transmitted or relayed. Further, each of the other service detection means 7A to 7D searches for a control device to relay, and searches for a control device capable of transmitting original data.

  When each control device is configured to perform such an operation, when a total of 11 control devices 2A to 2K are connected to the network 1, these groups of control devices 2A to 2K issue their own service announcements. The means 6 and the other service detection means 7 automatically determine from which control device data is to be received and to which control device the data is to be transmitted without manual operation. The control devices 2B to 2K transmit by their own service promulgation means 6 by multicast communication that they can relay. At this time, the first control device 2A selects, for example, three control devices 2B to 2D as the control devices capable of executing the relay. Then, the self-other service connection means 8 start connection. Next, the three control devices 2B to 2D respectively select, for example, the control devices 2E to 2G, the control devices 2H to 2J, and the control device 2K as the control devices capable of executing the relay. At this time, each of the control devices 2E to 2K transmits the fact that it is at the end of the middle route by the own service promulgation means 6 by multicast communication. When each of the control devices 2E to 2K becomes a relay point instead of a terminal, the promulgation of the terminal is stopped. This completes the middle path as schematically shown in FIG.

  A control device that wants to monitor the operation state of the first control device 2A performs monitoring by connecting to the terminal control devices. The selection and connection of relay points and terminals in this area are "first come, first served".

  The meaning of the above "first-come, first-served" will be described in detail. When a control device that wants to execute a monitoring operation appears, the other service detection means 7 detects a control device proclaiming "the end of the relay", and when a plurality of "terminals" are found, any one is detected. Select and connect. Since the method of selecting a control device at random is performed, the connection relationship between the control devices does not become a predetermined order, and if the order in which the devices appear in the network 1 changes, the intermediate route that is completed is always the same. No.

  The situation of "first-come-first-served" occurs because, for example, it is expected that connecting to the "end" located closer to the beginning of the relay route will reduce the data delay, so such data delay This is because the "terminal" that can be connected upstream, where there is little, is taken on a first-come, first-served basis.

  In other words, when proclaiming that the user is "end" and connectable through the self service promulgation means 6 of each control device, the number of the device counted from the most upstream is promulgated simultaneously as data. The self-other service connection means 8 of the other control device that has received the promulgation data is configured to connect to the service means 5 that is closest to the most upstream among the plurality of promulgation data, that is, has the smallest value. Therefore, the control device that appears on the network 1 earlier can be connected to the “terminal” near the upstream, and as a result, a situation occurs in which “first-come, first-served” occurs as described above.

  The control device according to the present embodiment is configured and operated as described above, and when there are a plurality of control devices for which the operation state of the first production facility 3A is to be monitored, conventionally, data is transmitted for the number of control devices. Although it is necessary, the control device of the present embodiment only needs to send data to the control devices 2B to 2D, so that only three transmission loads are applied. Therefore, the communication amount on the network is suppressed, and the reach of the data packet is limited. Control becomes easy. Further, when the number of control devices to be monitored further increases, the intermediate route is automatically expanded simply by increasing the number of control devices provided with the service means 5 that can be relayed. The effect that the program can be automatically executed without troublesome personnel or system engineers is obtained.

Embodiment 7 FIG.
In the control device according to the seventh embodiment, in the configuration of the control device as shown in FIG. 2 described above, the operation content of each service means 5 is implemented by software. Since it is software, it can be easily transmitted as data on the network 1. At this time, the service means 5 is provided with a service for transmitting an operation procedure executed by the service means 5 to another control device in advance. As a result, a control device capable of performing the same operation by copying the contents of the other service means 5 is obtained. Alternatively, a control device that operates to distribute the contents of the service means 5 to a plurality of other control devices is obtained.

  As a result, when it is desired to increase the number of service means 5 for executing a certain service, there is an effect that a control device which can easily realize the service is obtained. Further, by distributing software (program), which is the content of the completely new service means 5, and distributing upgraded software, there is an effect that a control device that does not depend on manual installation work can be obtained.

Embodiment 8 FIG.
In the control device according to the eighth embodiment, in the configuration of the control device as shown in FIG. 2 described above, the own / other service connection means 8 is connected to an HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) client, a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) client, or It is composed of a WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) client. In many cases, a so-called higher-level information system is implemented in a Web application server, and operates as a server of the HTTP protocol or the WebDAV protocol. Therefore, the control device can directly transmit data to such a higher-level information system. Alternatively, a higher-level information system has begun to be implemented as a Web service, and similarly, the control device can directly transmit data to such a higher-level information system, and setting work of each control device requires maintenance personnel or system engineers. Without this, an effect that can be automatically executed is obtained.

Embodiment 9 FIG.
The control device according to Embodiment 9 includes a production line monitoring system controlled by a plurality of control devices as shown in FIG. 17, that is, an image display device. The service means 5 of each control device is configured to be able to transmit data representing the operating state of the production facility 3 controlled by itself in response to a request from another control device. The transmittable data is configured to be transmitted by IP multicast transmission within the network 1 by the own service promulgating means 6. The request and the transmission are implemented by the own / other service connection means 8.

  In such a configuration, the fourth control device 2D includes a graphical user interface configured by a graphic display (image display device) and a pointing device represented by a mouse (not shown). Then, graphic information as shown in FIG. 18 is drawn on the graphical user interface, and the service means 5 is programmed to change the drawing state by instructing the operator to select the graphic information by operating the mouse. I have. On the left side of the graphical user interface shown in FIG. 18, a schematic diagram of the network configuration of the production line is drawn based on the network configuration information of another control device obtained by the other service detection means 7. Each square or circle depicted here represents one control device. The operator has selected one of these with the mouse. By this selection, the type of data representing the operating state that the control device can transmit is displayed on the tree at the upper right of the graphical user interface. The tree information is obtained by connecting and requesting the service means 5 of the control device 2 by using the own / other service connection means 8. For example, a data format called XML (extended Markup Language) is suitable for expressing a tree structure as described herein. Then, by selecting, for example, the Z coordinate in the graphic drawn on the tree with the mouse, the actual value is displayed in the lower right part of FIG. The data is also obtained through the self-other service connection means 8.

  Further, the network configuration diagram can be displayed three-dimensionally as shown in FIG. Then, when one of the control devices 2 is selected with the mouse, the data name that can be transmitted from the control device 2 is displayed on the tree as an animated display from the selected shape as if it had grown. You can also. By providing such a monitoring system, the setting work of each control device can be performed more smoothly without the need for maintenance personnel or system engineers.

Embodiment 10 FIG.
As described above, in the control device selected in the ninth embodiment, the actual value of the selected data is obtained from the selected actual control device 2 via the network 1 as described above. There is a program code for acquiring the selected data, which can be taken out as data. For such a program code, the IP address of the control device 2 of interest and the type of data to be extracted are given as parameters for the program code. This program code is used by the own / other service connection means 8, and is implemented as a procedure, class, function, or the like (depending on the programming language). Parameters are assigned to each program code as these arguments and the like.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in the monitoring system (image display device) of FIG. 20, when a control device of interest and desired data are selected by a mouse in the same operation as in the operation example so far, various programming is performed. It is configured to automatically generate the source code of the program including the language arguments and display it on the screen or save it to a file. This has the effect of assisting programming when describing the monitoring system. Monitoring system programmers can cut and paste the displayed code into their program. By providing such a monitoring system, the setting work of each control device can be performed more smoothly without the need for maintenance personnel or system engineers.

Embodiment 11 FIG.
In the present embodiment, each control device is configured as shown in FIG. That is, a first control device 2A provided for controlling the production equipment A, a second control device 2B provided for controlling the production equipment B, other control devices, a third control device 2C, a fourth control device The 2D exchanges data via the network 1. Each control device 2 includes its own service promulgation means 6, other service detection means 7, own and other service connection means 8, and network connection means 9. As shown in FIG. 3, the own service promulgating means 6 of each control device repeatedly transmits packets according to the IP multicast communication method at regular time intervals (ST301 and ST302). Here, the IP address is set to 234.5.6.7, the port number is set to 5670, and the transmission interval is set to every 15 seconds. However, these values may be different as long as they are predetermined in the entire system. The transmission interval may be variable as described in the first embodiment. At the same time, the other service detecting means of each control device 2 performs the operation shown in FIG. 4, receives the above-mentioned multicast packet (ST401), and stores the IP address of the control device that transmitted the packet and the transmitted content in the directory. It is stored in the area (ST402). These receiving operations are repeatedly performed.

  The contents transmitted here will be described. In the present embodiment, since the storage areas of the files are provided to each other, information for this purpose is included in the transmission contents.

  A first example of the transmission content is that one control device 2 includes the size of a file storage area that can be provided to another control device 2 in the transmission content, and the number of bytes that can be stored is used. ing. As will be described later, when the number of storable bytes is known, the size of a file that a certain control device now wants to store in another control device, and the contents promulgated by the other control devices, that is, the storable size, Can be determined to determine to which control device the user's file can be sent and stored. Alternatively, it is possible to make a plan as to whether or not files can be distributed evenly and uniformly in the entire system promulgated by each control device.

  A second example of content is to include the geographical location of the transmitting control device in its content. This allows each control device to calculate the geographic distance between each of the other control devices from the promulgated geographical position and its own geographical position, and to determine which control device is closer to itself and which is farther away. It becomes possible to grasp. After this calculation, for example, a control device located closest and a control device located farthest from other control device groups are selected, and an operation is performed to transmit a file to be sent. This makes sense from a data backup perspective. In other words, the idea of using backup data from a nearby location that is less likely to cause a communication path failure when a backup comes out and the scene you want to use, and a geographical location that is less likely to be simultaneously affected by natural disasters and fires This realizes two concepts of using backup data existing in a remote place.

FIGS. 21 and 22 are explanatory diagrams (flowcharts) showing a series of operations of the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, a series of operations includes a plurality of threads (or processes or tasks). First, a resident thread is activated (ST2101). Hereinafter, each of the activated threads will be described. The threads activated here are ST2102, ST2107, ST2111, and ST2133.
(1) Thread ST2102
The ST2102 thread is activated by ST2101. The ST2102 thread is a starting point of a thread that receives contents promulgated by another control device. The mobile terminal, in ST2103, waits for reception of an IP multicast packet. The IP address is an IPv4 multicast IP address of 234.5.6.7, and the port number is 5670. When the multicast packet is transmitted from another control device (ST2104), the received content is extracted in ST2105, and the received content is stored in storage area A in ST2106. As described above, the received content is, for example, a file capacity that can be stored in each of the other control devices or a geographical location.
(2) Thread ST2107
Further, the thread ST2107 started by ST2101 will be described. In Step ST2108, an IP multicast packet is transmitted. This IP multicast packet is received in ST2103 of another control device (ST2109). After the transmission, after waiting for 15 seconds in ST2110, the process returns to ST2108 again.
(3) Thread ST2111
ST2111 is further activated by ST2101. ST2111 is a thread of the FTP server. It is an FTP server in ST2112 and prepares for connection from an FTP client (ST2117 and ST2131: described later) provided in another control device. If there is a connection, the file is received according to the request and stored in the file area ST2113, a list of file names of the files stored in the file area ST2113 is returned, or the requested file itself is returned. Such an operation is performed. For details of the FTP operation, the operation is performed according to a procedure described in a document such as RFC 959 and RFC 1579 of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).

  Furthermore, although the thread ST2133 is activated, the movement of the ST2133 is easier to understand after the description of the other thread ST2120, and thus the details will be described later.

With the above procedure and the activation of ST2102, ST2107, ST2111, and ST2133, the whole operation enters a stable state for the time being. As the next stage, when a certain control device tries to send its data file to another control device, another control device tries to take out the file stored in ST2113 and store it in its own ST2113. Sometimes it is the stage where the thread is started. Hereinafter, these two threads will be described.
(4) Thread ST2114
First, a description will be given of the thread ST2114 started when a certain control device attempts to send its data file to another control device. In ST2115 immediately after startup, the promulgated contents of each control device are extracted from storage area A (ST2106). Next, one or more IP addresses of the control device are selected in ST2116. Subsequently, in ST2117, the data file to be transmitted is transmitted to the selected control device using the FTP client. If a plurality is selected in ST2118, it is determined that ST2117 is repeated, and if all are selected, the thread ends in ST2119.
(5) Thread ST2120
Next, a description will be given of a thread ST2120 that is started when another control device retrieves a file stored in ST2113 and attempts to store the file in its own ST2113. First, in ST2121, preparations are made for waiting for reception of a unicast packet. In terms of software, a TCP / IP socket is prepared (socket () system call), a packet waiting port number is assigned (bind () system call), and actual waiting for packet arrival is started (listen () system call). Processing such as is performed. When this preparation is completed, the ST2122 thread is activated, and an IP multicast packet is transmitted to another control device in ST2123 (ST2124). After the transmission, this thread ends (ST2125).

  On the other hand, in ST2126, it is waiting to receive an IP unicast packet. When a packet is transmitted from another control device (ST2127: ST2127 is connected to ST2138 of another control device), the process proceeds to ST2128. The transmitted contents are stored in storage area B (ST2129). In the present embodiment, the IP address of the control device that transmitted the packet is extracted and stored from the packet received in ST2128. However, in another embodiment, the file size of the file name stored is , Various dates (the date and time of the first file creation, the date and time of the last update of the file, the date and time related to the file content such as the date and time of the photograph), the checksum of the file contents, the geographical location of the control device, It is also possible to exchange the history (when and from which control device it was received and when and to which control device it was sent). After that, it waits for reception again in ST2126.

By the way, in ST2126, reception is waited for 10 seconds from the start of reception. Thereafter, regardless of whether any of the control devices has transmitted, the process proceeds to ST2130 after 10 seconds. In ST2130, any one of the control devices stored in storage area B (ST2129) is selected. At this time, according to the other embodiment described above, there is an effect that a selection can be made with some intention instead of selecting an arbitrary one. For example, the one with the newest date, the one with the correct checksum by majority vote, the geographically closest, the farthest, the one that is likely to be correct from the creator's intention, etc. It becomes. Of course, if nothing is stored in the storage area B (ST2129), since none of the control devices has the specified file, this thread ends there (not shown). After selecting one control device in ST2130, the mobile terminal shifts to ST2131. ST2131 is an FTP client. An operation of communicating with the FTP server (ST2112) of the selected control device and copying the target file to its own file area (ST2113) is performed. Thus, the operation of this thread is completed, and ends in ST2132.
(6) ST2133 Thread Finally, the operation of the thread ST2133 whose description has been suspended will be described. This thread ST2133 is one of four threads (ST2102, ST2107, ST2111, ST2133) started as an initial operation. The operation has already started when the threads ST2114, ST2120, and ST2122 are activated. In ST2134, it waits for an IP multicast packet reception operation. Here, in the thread ST2122 described above, the IP multicast packet ST2124 sent to another control device is received. That is, it is a packet for the purpose of searching whether the specified file exists. When the packet is received, a file search is performed on file area ST2113 to determine whether a data file having the file name included in the packet exists (ST2136). For example, Microsoft's Win32 API can be implemented by issuing a system call to the OS called FindFirstFile (). If the file is not found, the process returns to ST2134 (not shown). If the file is found, IP unicast communication is performed and the result is transmitted to the control device that transmitted the packet in ST2135 (ST2138). . The destination to which ST2138 is connected is ST2127 of another control device. Thereafter, the process returns to ST2134. The above is the operation of the thread ST2133. The purpose of this thread is to reply to the thread ST2120 on another control device whether or not the file exists.

  Although all the operations have been described above, all the control devices can perform a series of operations shown in FIGS. 21 and 22. That is, it has software of the same structure. By opposing a client and a server on the same structure in communication, the operation of the system as a whole is performed according to the purpose.

  According to the present embodiment, a system is realized in which the contents of the initial settings necessary for the operation of each control device or the logging files collected and accumulated as the operation results are saved and shared by sharing the file storage areas with each other. There is an effect that the data file can be saved and held without providing a new special file storage area such as a personal computer server.

Embodiment 12 FIG.
When the control device is turned on, the so-called firmware starts up, and after a hardware check (may not exist), the OS starts up, and parameters (IP address, netmask, gateway IP) on TCP / IP communication are started. Address, DNS server IP address, time server IP address, mail server IP address, etc.) are set for the communication protocol stack of the OS, and then an application program for measurement control is started while reading various setting parameters. . At this time, the communication parameters and application program parameters are stored in a non-volatile memory or a file system. It is typed in or copied to the control device as a parameter file. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, communication parameters and application parameters are automatically set when the control device is started.

  First, parameters for communication. When a DHCP server (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Server) is present in the network, an inquiry packet is sent to the network when the communication protocol stack is initialized. The communication parameters are extracted and used as parameters for the own communication. This is in accordance with the procedure set forth in IETF RFC2131. In addition, in order to resolve the DNS, a parameter called its own “host name” is registered in a DNS server in combination with its own IP address by a procedure called dynamic DNS (RFC2136). In addition, about this DNS registration, when a DHCP server assigns an IP address, it may register with a DNS server at the same time. If there is no DHCP server, the IP address is automatically determined by, for example, the AutoIP procedure described in RFC2462 of IETF.

  Further, when the application starts operating, it is necessary to set various parameters in advance. One of them is an IP multicast IP address and a port number. Before starting the application, what value should be used in the network system may be decided by each control device by a joint system and then the application may be started. That is, at the stage when the OS is started and the application is ready to be started, a broadcast or multicast packet for inquiring about some multicast IP addresses related to a certain service is transmitted. If there is a reply, use that value. If no control device returns a response within a predetermined time, the control device self-determines and starts the application, and at the same time, starts a server operation for responding to the inquiry with the value determined just now.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the sharing of functions on the system is also determined by a collaborative system. For example, when deciding which control device is to be the server that stores the monitoring data of the system, a "consultation request" packet is transmitted from one of the control devices. Each of the received control devices shifts to a mode of participating in the discussion, and transmits packets with its own file capacity set as a “commitment”. Each controller receives the "commitment" packet and transmits a packet "authorizing" the controller with the largest file, and the consultation ends. Thereafter, as a storage server, each control device transmits data to an authorized control device. The control device started after the "consultation" sends a packet inquiring about the presence or absence of the storage server, and the storage server responds to this, and the control device started later transmits data to the storage server. become. Alternatively, a “consultation execution request” packet may be transmitted.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, there is an effect that a control device that can automatically determine parameters of various communication such as an IP address and an application parameter without having to determine them in advance is obtained. There is an effect that it is not necessary to reset communication parameters even when a control device is added.

1 is a configuration diagram of a production equipment control device according to a first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a control device for a production facility according to the first, second, seventh, and eighth embodiments. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the production equipment control device according to the first embodiment. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the production equipment control device according to the first embodiment. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the production equipment control device according to the first embodiment. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the production equipment control device according to the first embodiment. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the production equipment control device according to the first embodiment. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the production equipment control device according to the first embodiment. It is a block diagram of the control apparatus for production facilities of Embodiment 3. It is a block diagram of the control apparatus for production facilities of Embodiment 4. It is a block diagram of the control apparatus for production facilities of Embodiment 5. It is a schematic diagram which shows the processing path in a production facility (processing machine). It is a figure which shows the total extension distance of a machining path and the number of times of repeated calculation. 15 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the production equipment control device according to the fifth embodiment. 15 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the production equipment control device according to the fifth embodiment. It is a block diagram of the control apparatus for production facilities of Embodiment 6. It is a block diagram of the control apparatus for production facilities of Embodiment 9. FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of an image on an image display device in a control device for a production facility according to a ninth embodiment. FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of an image on an image display device in a control device for a production facility according to a ninth embodiment. FIG. 22 is a schematic diagram of an image on an image display device in the control device for a production facility according to the tenth embodiment. 33 is a flowchart showing a series of operations of the production equipment control device of the eleventh embodiment. 33 is a flowchart showing a series of operations of the production equipment control device of the eleventh embodiment.

Explanation of reference numerals

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Network, 2, 2A-2K Production equipment control equipment, 3, 3A-3D production equipment, 4 Production equipment control means, 5, 5A-5D service means, 6, 6A-6D Self-service promulgation means, 7, 7A- 7D other service detecting means, 8, 8A to 8D own / other service connecting means, 9, 9A to 9D, 9B1, 9B2 network connecting means, 10 wide area network.

Claims (17)

A production equipment control device provided to control the production equipment via a network,
Network connection means provided to connect to the network;
A predetermined processing program is executed based on data transmitted from the control device for another production facility via the network and acquired via the network connection means and / or data acquired from the directly connected production facility. Service means;
At least one of its own IP address and port number, its own unique identification number, and its own unique identifier through the network via the network connection means to the other production equipment control device. Self-service promulgation means to transmit at a fixed or variable period
Self-other service connection means for inputting and outputting data to the other production equipment control device via the network via the network connection means,
Other service detection means for searching for data for the other production equipment control device via the network via the network connection means,
Multicast communication is used as a communication method between the own service promulgating means and the other service detecting means in the other production facility control device via the network, and unicast is used as a communication method between the own and other service connecting means. A control device for production equipment, characterized by applying communication. 2. The production system according to claim 1, further comprising a production facility control means provided to input and output data to and from the production facility, and comprising a program and / or hardware for executing the input and output of the data. Equipment control equipment. The production equipment control means has a storage area for holding at least any one of the IP address, the unique identification number, the unique identification name, and the port number, and the data is stored at every fixed cycle or at every variable cycle. 3. The control device for a production facility according to claim 1, wherein the data is updated by the data transmitted to the storage device, and the data in the storage area is deleted when the data is not transmitted for a predetermined elapsed time or more. 4. 3. The production equipment control device according to claim 1, wherein the unique IP address and the port number are assigned to each program and / or hardware in the service means. When the network is composed of a plurality of networks that are not directly connected to each other, the network includes a plurality of network connection means for coupling the plurality of networks to each other, and data communication to be performed between both networks 3. The control device for a production facility according to claim 1, wherein the relay of the relay is performed. The production equipment is a processing machine, the service means has a program for calculating an optimal processing parameter or a processing path or a processing procedure, and the program is executed in parallel between the plurality of production equipment control devices via the network. The control device for a production facility according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control device has a function of performing processing. When a plurality of production equipment control devices are connected to the network via the network connection means, the own service promulgation means uses the own IP address, unique identification number, unique identification name, and port number. Any one or more of the data representing the connection order between the production equipment control devices is transmitted to other production equipment control devices by multicast transmission or unicast transmission, thereby sequentially determining the connection form between the production equipment control devices. 3. The production equipment control device according to claim 1, further comprising a function. In the case where there is a program that its own service means does not have in each of the service means in the plurality of production equipment control devices, if necessary, from another production equipment control device having the program via the network 3. The production equipment control device according to claim 1, further comprising a function of copying the program into the service means by transmitting the program. 3. The production equipment control device according to claim 1, further comprising an image display device for displaying the contents of said service means. When the image display device selects one of the plurality of production equipment control devices displayed on the image, the image display device has a function of further displaying data on the selected production equipment control device. 10. The control device for production equipment according to claim 9, wherein: The image display device displays, on an image, a network connection diagram configured by the production equipment control devices and the network, and displays data relating to the production equipment control devices as a tree structure in a fixed or animated manner. 11. The production equipment control device according to claim 10, wherein a computer program code for acquiring the data is also displayed. The self-other service connection means is an HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) client, a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) client, a WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) client, an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client, or SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol),
Alternatively, an XML (extensible Markup Language) protocol client, an IMAP (Internet Mail Access) client, or a POP (Post Office Protocol) client, a DCOM (registered trademark: Registered Component OBJECTRectBridge) 3. The control device for a production facility according to claim 1, wherein the control device comprises a client. A method for controlling a production facility by a plurality of production facility control devices provided to control the production facility via a network,
Connecting the network and the production equipment control device by network connection means;
Data transmitted from the other production equipment control device via the network and taken into the production equipment control device via the network connection means and / or data obtained from the directly connected production equipment. Executing a predetermined processing program in the service means based on the
At least one of its own IP address, port number, unique identification number, and unique identification name is sent to the other production facility at regular intervals via the network via the network connection means by its own service promulgating means. Transmitting to the control device for
Performing data input / output to / from the other production facility control device via the network via the network connection means by the own / other service connection means;
Searching for data for the other production facility control device via the network via the network connection means by another service detection means,
Multicast communication as a communication method between the own service promulgating means and the other service detecting means in the plurality of production equipment control devices via the network, and unicast as a communication method between the own and other service connecting means. A method for controlling a production facility by a production facility control device, characterized by applying communication. A method for controlling a production facility by a plurality of production facility control devices provided to control the production facility via a network,
A first optimal solution for optimizing a processing path of a processing machine as the production equipment is calculated by a first optimization program mounted on one specific service means in the plurality of production equipment control devices. Steps and
Unicast transmission of the first optimal solution to service means of another production equipment control device via the network via the own / other service connection means;
Calculating a second optimal solution for each production equipment control device based on the first optimal solution by a second optimization program implemented in a service means of the plurality of production equipment control devices;
Unicast transmission of the second optimal solution calculated for each of the production facility control devices to the specific one production facility control device;
Calculating the machining path of the processing machine based on the second optimal solution computed for each of the production equipment control devices, and selecting a second optimal solution that provides the shortest machining path. A method for controlling a production facility by using the production facility control device. 3. The production equipment control device according to claim 1, wherein a file storage area shared via the network is provided in a part of service means of each of the production equipment control devices. A production equipment control device provided to control the production equipment via a network,
Means for automatically determining a parameter on communication or an operation parameter of an application after power-on of the control device for the production equipment, or a means for jointly determining between the control devices for the production equipment. Control device. A production equipment control system, wherein a plurality of the production equipment control devices according to claim 1 or 2 are connected via a network.

Images