JP3152619B2 - Remote monitoring device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote monitoring apparatus for managing various equipment in a building from a remote place, and more particularly to a remote monitoring apparatus for collecting operation information of equipment via a public line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a general building, equipment such as an elevator, an air conditioner, a water receiving tank, and a security device, which are indispensable for people to work safely and comfortably in the building, are installed. Failure of any one of these types of equipment could severely impair the safety and comfort of the building, and in some circumstances, effectively disable people's activities. Therefore, in order to prevent such a failure of the equipment from occurring abruptly, it is required to find a minor defect or malfunction at an early stage and take appropriate measures.

[0003] A remote monitoring device is known as a prior art which satisfies the above-mentioned requirements. The remote monitoring device includes a monitoring terminal installed in each of the buildings to be monitored, and an information center for monitoring a plurality of buildings.
The monitoring terminal continues to record the operation information of the equipment in the building around the clock. The information center periodically collects and records the operation information recorded by the monitoring terminal via a predetermined communication line.
Analysis is performed to predict failure occurrence and instruct appropriate measures for equipment that has found a failure or malfunction, while performing more detailed cause analysis for equipment that has recently failed.

[0004] In a general remote monitoring device, a public telephone line is usually used as the communication line. Therefore, both the building where the monitoring terminal is installed and the information center prepare a public telephone line, and notify at least the building-side information center side of a dedicated telephone number for access to the monitoring terminal in advance. . The information center has unique information storage means for storing unique information for each monitoring terminal together with the access-dedicated telephone number. The monitoring terminal at the access destination for which the operation information is to be collected and analyzed, has the unique information. The selection is made with reference to the storage means. Therefore, the order in which the information center tries to access the monitoring terminals depends on the order when the unique information of each monitoring terminal is stored in the unique information storage means in the information center.

[0005]

When a plurality of monitoring terminals are installed in the same building, it is usual to collectively store the unique information group in unique information storage means in the information center. It is. In this case, the above unique information group is
It will be stored continuously in the unique information storage means. Therefore, when trying to collect operation information of equipment from a plurality of monitoring terminals installed in the same building, the order in which the information center tries to access will be continuous.

On the other hand, it is useless to provide a large number of public telephone lines only for collecting and analyzing operation information. Therefore, even if a plurality of monitoring terminals are installed, the building side needs to provide a smaller number of lines than the installed number. Often, only a single public telephone line is dedicated to access. On the other hand, the information center usually prepares a large number of public telephone lines so that operation information of equipment can be collected from a large number of monitoring terminals at the same time.

[0007] From the above, the order when the information center attempts to access a plurality of monitoring terminals installed in the same building and to which the number of assigned public lines is smaller than the number of installations is as follows. Will generally be continuous.

However, since a normal public telephone line cannot access a plurality of other parties at the same time, if there are a plurality of monitoring terminals installed in the same building where the above conditions overlap, an access procedure from the information center is required. However, there is a problem in that the operation information is complicated and the collection efficiency of the operation information of the equipment is reduced. For example, of a plurality of monitoring terminals installed in the same building, immediately after the access to the first monitoring terminal stored first in the unique information storage means in the information center is started, An information center having a large number of public telephone lines immediately uses another line to access a second monitoring terminal installed in the same building, which is stored next to the unique information storage means. Try to start. At this time, if only one common telephone line is assigned to all the monitoring terminals including the first monitoring terminal on the building side, the second monitoring terminal will not be connected in a busy state. . In the above case, the prior art attempts to access the line in a busy state from the information center many times at regular intervals until the collection of operation information from the first monitoring terminal is completed. As a result, the access procedure becomes complicated, and the efficiency of collecting operation information from each monitoring terminal decreases.

Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide a remote monitoring device capable of accessing each monitoring terminal in an optimum access order according to the contents of the unique information storage means in the information center. Is to do.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a remote monitoring device in which the efficiency of collecting operation information from each monitoring terminal is improved as compared with the related art.

It is a third object of the present invention to provide a remote monitoring apparatus in which an access procedure for each monitoring terminal is simplified as compared with the related art.

[0012]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a remote monitoring device which is attached to a building together with various types of equipment, and includes a monitoring terminal for recording operation information of the equipment, A remote monitoring device including an information center that accesses the monitoring terminal via a public line based on the stored unique information and performs collection and analysis of the recorded operation information. An access order setting means for setting an access order to the monitoring terminal different from a storage order of the corresponding plurality of the unique information. Thus, the first object of the present invention is achieved in that each monitoring terminal is accessed in an optimum access order according to the contents of the unique information storage means in the information center.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the corresponding unique information is stored in the information center one after another, and a pair of monitoring information accessed through a common public line is provided. If there is a terminal, the access order setting means may access the other monitoring terminal accessed via a public line different from the common public line while accessing the pair of monitoring terminals. The access order is set so as to be performed. As a result, the number of cases where the public line is not connected to the monitoring terminal attempting to access in a busy state is reduced, and the efficiency of collecting operation information from each monitoring terminal is improved as compared with the related art. Two objectives are achieved.

Further, the invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 2, wherein the number of the other monitoring terminals is the number of public lines which can be simultaneously used from the information center or more. It is. Accordingly, the third object of the present invention is to simplify the access procedure for each monitoring terminal as compared with the related art, since the connection to the monitoring terminal to which the common public telephone line is allocated is indispensable. Achieved.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a monitoring terminal that is attached to a building together with various types of equipment and records operation information of the equipment and accesses the monitoring terminal via a public line. An information center for collecting and analyzing the recorded operation information, wherein the order of access to the plurality of monitoring terminals is controlled by a pair of monitoring terminals accessed via a common public line. And an access order setting means for setting so that an access is made to another monitoring terminal accessed via a public line different from the common public line while accessing the common public line. As a result, the number of cases where the public line is not connected to the monitoring terminal attempting to access in a busy state is reduced, and the efficiency of collecting operation information from each monitoring terminal is improved as compared with the related art. Two objectives are achieved.

[0016]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a remote monitoring apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an information center provided in an embodiment of the remote monitoring apparatus of the present invention.
1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a building in which a monitoring terminal provided in an embodiment of a remote monitoring device of the present invention is installed. In both figures, 1 is an information center, 1a is a control unit, 1b is a display unit, 1
c denotes a processing unit including an access order setting unit 3 described later,
d is a unique information storage means, 10a to 10d are communication units, 2a
2n is a building in which the equipment to be monitored is installed, 20a
20n are public lines, 201a, 202a,.
Reference numerals 1n and 202n denote monitoring terminals provided in the buildings 2a to 2n, and 211a, 212a,..., 211n denote equipment to be monitored.

In FIG. 1, an information center 1 includes a processing unit 1c for performing various data processing, a unique information storage unit 1d for storing unique information on all the equipment 211a, 212a,... Terminal 201
a, 202a,..., 201n, a display unit 1b for displaying an abnormality at the time of communication with the 202n, and the monitoring terminal 2
, 201n, 202n, a plurality of communication units 10a to 10d, and a communication unit 10
a to d, a processing unit 1c, a unique information storage unit 1d, and a display unit 1b. The communication units 10a to 10d are connected to public lines 20a to 20d, respectively.

In FIG. 2, the first building 2a has monitoring terminals 201a to 203a and elevators 211a to 213a connected to the public line 20a, and the second building 2b has monitoring terminals connected to the public line 20b. 201b and 202b and elevators 211b to 213b,..., In the n-th building 2n, monitoring terminals 201n and 202n and elevator 211n connected to the public line 20n and various equipment (not shown) such as air conditioners and water tanks. , Security equipment, etc.). The monitoring terminal 201a of the first building 2a indicates the operating state of the elevator 211a, the monitoring terminal 202a indicates the operating state of the elevator 212a, and the monitoring terminal 203a indicates the elevator 213a.
The monitoring terminal 201b of the second building 2b indicates the operating state of the elevator 211b.
Indicates the operation states of the elevators 212b and 213b,.
..., the monitoring terminal 201n of the n-th building 2n indicates the operation state of the elevator 211n, the monitoring terminal 202n indicates the air conditioner,
It monitors the operation status of equipment such as a water receiving tank and security equipment, and records the operation information. The operation information of the corresponding equipment recorded by each monitoring terminal is transmitted to the information center 1 when the information center 1 accesses via a public line.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the unique information file 4 in which unique information relating to each equipment to be monitored is stored in advance in the unique information storage means 1d in the information center 1. The file 4 collectively holds information unique to each monitoring terminal, such as a customer name, an access-dedicated telephone number, and a distinction between facility devices. In the figure, unique information represented by the same alphabetic characters such as A1, A2, and A3 is a group of monitoring terminals to which a single facility device accessed from the information center 1 via a common public line is connected. The unique information corresponding to each of the devices and represented by the same alphanumeric characters such as B2-1 and B2-2 corresponds to each of the plurality of equipment connected to the common monitoring terminal. .

As described above, when new unique information is registered in the unique information file 4 stored in the unique information storage means 1d of the information center 1, the registration order is determined by the new monitoring terminal and equipment. Is the installation order. That is, each of the monitoring terminal and the equipment shown in FIG. 2 is replaced with the monitoring terminal 201a and the elevator 211a,
Monitoring terminal 202a and elevator 212a, monitoring terminal 203a and elevator 213a, monitoring terminal 201b and elevator 211b, monitoring terminal 202b and elevator 212b, elevator 21
3b,..., The registration order of each unique information in the unique information file 4 is as shown in FIG.
Specific information A1 corresponding to monitoring terminal 201a and elevator 211a, specific information A2 corresponding to monitoring terminal 202a and elevator 212a, monitoring terminal 20
3a and unique information A corresponding to the elevator 213a
3, unique information B1 corresponding to the monitoring terminal 201b and the elevator 211b, unique information B2-1 corresponding to the monitoring terminal 202b and the elevator 212b, unique information B2-2 corresponding to the monitoring terminal 202b and the elevator 213b, and so on. Become. In the prior art, if it is attempted to access each monitoring terminal from the information center 1 in the registration order of each unique information in the unique information file 4, for example, the first monitoring terminal 201a corresponding to the unique information A1 Immediately after the start of access to, access to the second monitoring terminal 202a corresponding to the next unique information A2 is immediately attempted, but a common telephone line is allocated to the monitoring terminals 201a and 202a. Therefore, the access to the second monitoring terminal 202a always fails, and the access to the telephone line is repeated many times.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the access order setting means provided in the information center 1
During access to each of a pair of monitoring terminals which are accessed via a common public line in which corresponding specific information is stored successively, access via a public line different from this common public line The access order based on the unique information file 4 is set so that the access to another monitoring terminal is performed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an intermediate file generated by the access order setting means 3 provided in the embodiment of FIG. 1 based on the unique information file of FIG. The three types of intermediate files 5a, 5b, and 5c shown in FIG. 4 respectively include the unique information A1 in the intermediate file 5a and the unique information A2 in the intermediate file 5b for each piece of the unique information constituting the above-described unique information file 4. , The unique information A3 in the intermediate file 5c, the unique information B1 in the intermediate file 5a,
The unique information B2-1 is assigned to the intermediate file 5b, the unique information B2-2 is assigned to the intermediate file 5c, and so on, in a cyclic manner based on the registration order in the unique information file 4.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an access order file generated by the access order setting means 3 provided in the embodiment of FIG. 1 based on the intermediate file of FIG.

In the access order file 6 shown in FIG. 5, the unique information registered at the end of the intermediate file 5a and the unique information registered at the beginning of the intermediate file 5b are continuous. The intermediate file 5 is set such that the last registered unique information and the first registered unique information of the intermediate file 5c are continuous.
a, 5b, and 5c.

The access order setting means 3 in the processing section 1c of the information center 1 checks the unique information of all the equipment in the unique information file 4 stored in the unique information storage means 1d, and checks the common public information. It is checked whether there is a monitoring terminal to which a line is assigned, or whether there is a monitoring terminal monitoring a plurality of equipment. If there is a monitoring terminal to which a common public line is assigned, the maximum number of monitoring terminals sharing the same public line is determined. If there is a monitoring terminal monitoring a plurality of equipment, the maximum number of equipment connected to the same monitoring terminal is determined. For example, as in the present embodiment, when the number of monitoring terminals to which a common public line is allocated in the building 2a in FIG. 1 is the maximum, the maximum number of monitoring terminals determined as described above =
It becomes 3. The building 2b in FIG. 1 has a monitoring terminal for monitoring two elevators. However, since three equipments are connected to the monitoring terminal, the maximum number of equipments is three. Become.

Thereafter, the larger of the maximum number of monitoring terminals per building and the maximum number of equipment connected to the monitoring terminals per building determined as described above, Each unique information in the unique information file is allocated to the same number of intermediate files. Alternatively, since the communication performed by the communication unit available to the information center 1 always starts and ends asynchronously, the above-mentioned communication line for the monitoring terminal sharing the public line is avoided in order to avoid duplication of the communication line. Of the maximum number of monitoring terminals per building and the maximum number of equipment connected to the monitoring terminals per building determined by Each unique information in the information file is allocated.

In the following, for the maximum number of monitoring terminals per building and the maximum number of equipment connected to the monitoring terminals per building, the same number of intermediate files as the larger value is used. A case in which each piece of unique information in the unique information file is sequentially allocated will be described.

As described above, the maximum number of monitoring terminals per building in the present embodiment = 3, and the maximum number of equipment connected to the monitoring terminals per building = 3. Thus, the number of intermediate files for dividing and outputting each piece of unique information in the unique information file 4 = 3. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, each unique information in the unique information file 4 is cyclically allocated to three types of intermediate files 5a, 5b, 5c based on the registration order. After allocating all the unique information to each of the intermediate files 5a, 5b, 5c, the unique information registered at the end of the intermediate file 5a and the unique information registered at the beginning of the intermediate file 5b continue as described above. The intermediate files 5a and 5b are linked so that the unique information registered at the end of the intermediate file 5b and the unique information registered at the beginning of the intermediate file 5c are linked. Thus, the access order file 6 shown in FIG. 5 is generated and stored in the unique information storage unit 1d. As described above, the monitoring terminal 201 installed in each of the buildings 2a to 2n shown in FIG.
The access to a, 202a,..., 201n, 202n is sequentially executed in accordance with the registration order of each unique information in the access order file 6 thus obtained. As a result, the corresponding unique information is stored in the unique information file 4 of the information center 1 in succession, and a pair of monitoring terminals that are accessed via a common public line, for example, a monitor to which the same public line 20a is assigned During access to each of the combined monitoring terminals such as the terminal 201a (specific information A1) and the monitoring terminal 202a (specific information A2), access is made via a public line different from the common public line (20a). Access to other monitoring terminals.

The monitoring terminals to which the same public line is assigned are set in advance in a priority order according to a predetermined access order. In the case of the building 2a in FIG.
For example, the monitoring terminal 201a is the monitoring terminal 202a and the monitoring terminal 203a. Therefore, the monitoring terminals 20 are stored in the order according to the access order file 6.
When accessing to the monitoring terminal 2a, an incoming call prohibition setting for the monitoring terminal 201a having a higher priority is performed in advance, and then the access to the target monitoring terminal 202a is started. Similarly, prior to accessing the monitoring terminal 203a, the monitoring terminal 2 having a higher priority
After setting incoming call prohibition for 01a and 202a, access to the target monitoring terminal 203a is started.

[0031]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention,
According to the present invention, there is an effect that each monitoring terminal can be accessed in an optimal access order according to the contents of the unique information storage means in the information center.

According to the second or fourth aspect of the present invention, the number of cases in which the public line is not connected to the monitoring terminal to be accessed in a busy state is reduced. There is an effect that the collection efficiency can be improved as compared with the related art.

According to the invention of claim 3,
Since a common public telephone line is always connected to the assigned monitoring terminal, an access procedure for each monitoring terminal can be simplified as compared with the related art.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an information center provided in an embodiment of a remote monitoring device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a building in which a monitoring terminal provided in an embodiment of the remote monitoring device of the present invention is installed.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a unique information file in which unique information on each equipment to be monitored is stored in advance in a unique information storage unit in the information center.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an intermediate file generated based on the unique information file of FIG. 3 by an access order setting means provided in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an access order file generated based on the intermediate file of FIG. 4 by an access order setting means provided in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information center 1a Control part 1b Display part 1c Processing part 1d Unique information storage means 10a-10d Communication part 2a-2n Building in which equipment to be monitored is installed 3 Access order setting means 20a-20n Public line 201a, 202a,. ..., 201n, 202n Monitoring terminal 211a, 212a, ..., 211n Equipment to be monitored 4 Specific information 5a, 5b, 5c Intermediate information 6 Access order setting information

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-7-321943 (JP, A) JP-A-4-113797 (JP, A) Japanese Utility Model 63-106259 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int) .Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G08B 23/00-31/00 B66B 3/00 B66B 5/00

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A monitoring terminal that is attached to a building together with various equipment and records operation information of the equipment, and accesses the monitoring terminal via a public line based on pre-stored unique information. An information center for collecting and analyzing the recorded operation information, the storage order of the plurality of unique information corresponding to the access order to the plurality of monitoring terminals in the information center. A remote monitoring device comprising an access order setting means for setting an order different from the order. 2. In a case where there is a pair of monitoring terminals which are stored in the information center one after the other and the corresponding unique information is successively accessed via a common public line, the access order setting means is configured to execute the access sequence setting. The access order is set so that access to another monitoring terminal accessed via a public line different from a public line is performed between accesses to the pair of monitoring terminals. The remote monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The remote monitoring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the number of the other monitoring terminals is equal to or more than the number of public lines that can be simultaneously used from the information center. 4. A monitoring terminal that is attached to a building together with various equipment and records operation information of the equipment, and accesses the monitoring terminal via a public line to collect the recorded operation information. And an information center for performing analysis, wherein the access order to the plurality of monitoring terminals is changed between the access to a pair of monitoring terminals accessed via a common public line. A remote monitoring device, comprising: an access order setting means for setting so as to access another monitoring terminal accessed via a public line different from a public line.