JP2907174B2 - User interface system for supervisory control system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a user interface system for a supervisory control system, and more particularly to a user interface system for a supervisory control system that enables information to be transferred between objects without the intervention of an operator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A monitoring and control system for a network or a plant is a system in which an operator collects various data in a monitoring center and performs various monitoring and control based on the data with the aid of a computer. And a user interface (hereinafter abbreviated as UI) system for inputting operation commands
A system is provided which includes an output unit such as a hand-ray tube (CRT) and a speaker to provide various data to an operator, and includes an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse to input necessary commands and data.

[0003] Conventionally, as a UI system of this type of monitoring control system, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 08-187797 is disclosed.
No. ". FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing this conventional example. Referring to FIG. 7, this conventional UI system 150 includes facility data of a system to be monitored and controlled,
A database 101 capable of accessing data 108 to be monitored and controlled, such as setting data and status data, and a UI object 105, and one or more UI clients (the UI clients 110 and 11 in the example of FIG. 7).
1, 112). The UI clients 110, 111, and 112 read the UI object 105 from the database 101 and execute the read UI object 106.
2, an output unit 103 for visualizing and audible display screen data and audio data, an input unit 104 for receiving an instruction and data input from an operator, and a display position, a color, and an audio output of the output unit 103 on the display screen. And a parameter storage unit 107 for storing a parameter such as a volume of each of the UI objects 105.

The UI objects 105 prepared in the database 101 and read and executed by the UI module 102 are in charge of individually defined monitoring control types, and data 108 necessary for the monitoring control types are stored in the database 101 from the database 101. A program that reads and edits and creates display screen data and audio data, provides the data to the operator using the output unit 103, and edits the input data and updates the data in the database 101 when there is an input from the operator. is there.

[0005]

A problem with the prior art described above is that the operations of a plurality of UI objects operating in the UI module are independent of each other. For this reason, even if the UI objects are related to each other, the mutual information cannot be exchanged. However, there is a situation in which the operator has to mediate information between UI objects, such as a situation in which it is necessary to input to another UI object in the mechanical work described above, and there is a problem that the burden on the operator is large.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a UI capable of transferring information between UI objects without operator intervention.
Is to provide a system.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user interface system of a supervisory control system, comprising: data to be subjected to supervisory control including facility data, setting data, and state data of a supervisory control target system; A user interface system for a monitoring and control system, comprising: a database accessible to a first user interface object to be accessed; and a user interface client, wherein the user interface client reads the first user interface object from the database. , A user interface module for executing the second user interface object as a second user interface object, and display screen data and audio data. Visualization, and output means for audible, an input means for receiving input commands and data from an operator, a parameter storing means for storing the parameters specific to each of the first user interface object,
Mediation setting storage means for storing message mediation setting data defining association between meta information indicating the classification of information sent from the first user interface object and the second user interface object, and the message mediation setting data Message mediating means for mediating message exchange between the second user interface objects in accordance with the above.

[0008] A user interface system of the second monitoring and control system according to the present invention is the user interface system of the first monitoring and control system, wherein the message mediating means is sent from the second user interface object. To the second user interface object determined from the meta information and the message mediation setting data stored in the mediation setting storage means in a message having a data portion containing information and a meta information portion containing meta information. The information of the data part of the message is transmitted.

[0009] A third aspect of the present invention is the user interface system of the first or second monitoring and control system, wherein the message mediation setting data includes the meta information sequence, And a name column of the second user interface object.

[0010] A fourth aspect of the present invention is the user interface system of the first or second monitoring and control system, wherein the message mediation setting data includes the meta information, It consists of text containing the name of the second user interface object and parentheses and semicolons.

[0011]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a UI system 250 according to the present invention includes a database 101 capable of accessing data 108 to be monitored and controlled and UI objects 205 such as equipment data, setting data, and status data of a monitored and controlled system; It is composed of one or more UI clients (three UI clients 210, 211, 212 in the example of FIG. 1).

Also, the UI clients 210, 211,
212, the UI object 205 is stored in the database 10
1 and read UI object 20
6, an output module 103 for visualizing and audible display screen data and audio data,
An input unit 104 for receiving an instruction or data input from an operator, and a parameter storage unit 10 for storing parameters such as a display position on the display screen of the output unit 103, a color, and a sound output volume for each UI object 205.
7, a message relay unit 221 that relays a message exchange between the UI objects 206 in accordance with the message relay setting data, and a relay setting storage unit 222 that stores the message relay setting data.

The UI objects 205 prepared in the database 101 and read and executed by the UI module 102 are in charge of individually defined monitoring control types, and data 108 necessary for the monitoring control types are stored in the database 101 from the database 101. It reads and edits and creates display screen data and audio data, and provides them to the operator using the output means 103. When there is an input from the operator or transmission of information from the message mediating means 221, input data or received data is received. Is a program that edits and updates the data in the database 101 and sends a message to the message mediating means 221.

The difference from the prior art is that a message relay means 221 and a relay setting storage means 222 are added. In addition, the UI object 205 transmits a message to the message mediation unit 221 and receives information transmitted by the message mediation unit 221.
Also, some functions differ from the UI object 105 of the related art.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG. Database 101, UI module 102, output means 10
3. The operations of the input unit 104 and the parameter storage unit 107 are the same as those of the conventional technology. Also, the UI object 206 operating on the UI module 102 is
Unless the message mediation means 221 is used, U
The operation of the I client 210 is not different from that of the conventional UI client 110. Therefore, the description of the operation in that case is omitted, and the operation in the case where the UI object 206 uses the message mediation unit 221 will be described.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the format of a message exchanged between the UI object 206 and the message mediating means 221. Referring to FIG. 2, the message includes a meta information section 401 containing meta information and a data section 402 containing information. The order relation, bit length, bit configuration, and the like between the two are arbitrary, but the message mediating means 221 uses the meta information section 401 in the message.
It is important to be able to identify and extract Therefore, for example, a format in which the position of the boundary with the data unit 402 is fixed, such as the first 4 bytes of the message being the meta information unit 401, is considered.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the message relay setting data stored in the relay setting storage means 222. The message mediation setting data is data defining the association between the meta information and the name of the UI object 205. When certain meta information and a certain object name are associated with each other by this data, the information of the data part of the message having the meta information indicates that the information should be sent to the UI object having the object name. The example of FIG. 3A has two columns, a meta information column that contains meta information and a name column that contains the object name of a UI object. This is expressed in a tabular format. FIG. 3 (b)
In the example, the association between the meta information and the object name of the UI object is expressed by using a text file using delimiters such as parentheses and semicolons.
In both (a) and (b), the meta information A contains the object name A
a and the object name Ab, the meta information B relates to the object name Ba and the object name Bb, and the meta information C relates to the object name Ca.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process performed by the message mediating means 221 every time a message is sent from the UI object 206 operating on the UI module 102. Message intermediation means 22 that has received a message (hereinafter, represented by M) from UI object 206
1 extracts a meta information part and a data part from the message. The obtained meta information of the meta information part is represented by K, and the information of the data part is represented by D (FIG. 4, step 601). Next, all the object names associated with the meta information K are searched for in the message relay setting data stored in the relay setting storage unit 222, and those object names are searched for in the UI object 206 operating in the UI module 102. The information D is transmitted to all objects having any one of the object names (Step 602 in FIG. 4).

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 shows the message mediation setting data in FIG.
When the table format shown in FIG.
6 is a flowchart showing processing performed each time a message is sent from a UI object 206 operating on the UI module 102. The process of step 602 in FIG. 4 is a process from step 302 to step 307 in FIG.

Each step will be described in order. A row having the same meta information sequence as the meta information K is searched for in the table of the message relay setting data stored in advance in the relay setting storage unit 222 (step 302 in FIG. 5). If the corresponding row does not exist, the process ends. If the corresponding row exists, the name column of the row is copied to a variable R (step 304 in FIG. 5). Generally, since a plurality of object names are described in the name column, the variable R is treated as a set having the object names as elements. Next, one element is extracted from R. The extracted element is represented by e. Element e is deleted from R (step 305 in FIG. 5). Next, the information D is sent to the UI object 206 of the object name e operating on the UI module 102. U of object name e
When the I object 206 is not operating in the UI module 102, nothing is performed (step 306 in FIG. 5).
Next, if the set R is an empty set, the processing is terminated. If it is not an empty set, the process returns to step 305 to continue the process (step 307 in FIG. 5).

Next, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, the mediation setting storage means 2
22 stores the message mediation setting data 501, and in the UI module 102, when the UI object 506 having the object name “A” and the UI object 507 having the object name “B” are operating,
The processing of the message mediating unit 221 will be described using an example in which the object 506 has sent the message 502 to the message mediating unit 221.

In step 601, K is "7" and D is
Represents “Hello”.

In step 302, a row whose meta information sequence is 7 is searched for in the table of the message mediation setting data 501. Since the second row corresponds, the process proceeds to step 304 by the conditional branch of step 303.

In step 304, R is the name column of the second row of the table of the message mediation setting data 501, that is, R
= {B, F}.

In step 305, one element is set from R
Take out one. There are two elements of R and the order of extraction is arbitrary, but here B is extracted. That is, e = B and R = {F}.

In step 306, the information D is sent to the UI object of the object name e operating in the UI module 102, that is, the UI object 507 of the object name "B". Since R = {F} at present and not an empty set, the process proceeds to step 305 by the conditional branch of step 307.

In step 305, e = F, and
R is an empty set.

In step 306, nothing is performed since there is no UI object operating in the UI module 102 with the object name e, ie, "F". Since R is currently an empty set, the process ends by the conditional branch in step 309.

With the above processing, the UI object 50
6 is sent to the UI object 507 via a path shown by a broken line in FIG.

[0030]

A first effect of the present invention is to solve a situation where an operator has to provide similar information over a plurality of UI objects. The reason is,
This is because the information given to a certain UI object by the operator can be sent to another UI object and shared.

The second effect is mechanical operation of the operator,
For example, it is possible to reduce the simple work of looking at the output of one UI object and inputting it to another UI object. The reason is that the former UI object can replace such work by sending information to the latter UI object.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a message format.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of message mediation setting data.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of a message mediation unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of a message mediation unit.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Database 102 UI Module 103 Output Unit 104 Input Unit 105, 106 UI Object 107 Parameter Storage Unit 108 Data 110, 111, 112 UI Client 150 UI System 205, 206 UI Object 210, 211, 212 UI Client 221 Message Intermediation Unit 222 Intermediation Setting storage means 250 UI system 501 message mediation setting data 502 message 503 information 506,507 UI object

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G05B 23/02 G06F 3/14 G06F 11/30

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A database accessible to data to be monitored and controlled, including equipment data, setting data and status data of a system to be monitored and controlled, and a first user interface object accessing the data, and a user interface client. A user interface system for a monitoring and control system comprising: wherein the user interface client comprises:
The first user interface object is read from the database and used as a second user interface object, and a user interface module for executing the second user interface object, and visualizing and audible display screen data and audio data. Output means, input means for receiving an instruction or data input from an operator, parameter storage means for storing parameters unique to each first user interface object, and information sent from the first user interface object. Mediation setting storage means for storing message mediation setting data defining association between meta information indicating a classification and the second user interface object; and the second user according to the message mediation setting data User interface system of monitoring and control system comprising: the message mediating means for mediating the exchange of messages interface objects which are, a. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said message mediating means stores said meta information and mediation setting storing means in a message having a data portion containing information and a meta information portion containing meta information sent from said second user interface object. The user interface system according to claim 1, wherein information of a data portion of the message is transmitted to another second user interface object determined from the stored message mediation setting data. 3. The monitoring control system according to claim 1, wherein the message mediation setting data includes the meta information sequence and a name sequence of the second user interface object. User interface system. 4. The message mediation setting data according to claim 1, wherein the meta information, the name of the second user interface object, a text including parentheses, and a semicolon are included. 2
A user interface system for the supervisory control system described in the above.