JP4054795B2 - Design support program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a design support program for supporting mechanism control design. More specifically, the present invention relates to a software design support program for controlling a transport mechanism for transporting a sheet-shaped transport body.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a sheet-like conveyance body such as paper (hereinafter simply referred to as paper) is conveyed in all fields. For example, in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer, paper is transported by a transport mechanism such as a roller or a guide.

  When transporting paper, in many cases it is rare to transport the paper in only one direction at a constant speed. For example, the position of the transport body is detected by a sensor and stopped at a predetermined position, or the roller is rotated in reverse. In most cases, the conveying direction is reversed. Therefore, when transporting paper, software for controlling the paper transport mechanism is indispensable.

  In addition, for example, recent image forming apparatuses are demanded to have high functions and high production. Accordingly, software for controlling the image forming apparatus has become complicated, and the number of steps for identifying and correcting the cause has increased due to the discovery of defects. Yes.

  Thus, with the recent improvement in computer performance, there are increasing opportunities to use simulation technology for transport mechanism design. For example, a system for calculating the behavior of paper by simulation and finding a latent defect in the transport mechanism has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

In addition, while mechanism simulation plays an active role in every situation, software verification for controlling the mechanism has also been proposed. For example, a design support method has been proposed in which an external event such as switching on / off or opening / closing of a cover is generated from an input device such as a keyboard to printer control software (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP-A-9-81600 JP-A-5-143260

  Conventionally, for example, in the paper conveyance control of the image forming apparatus in FIG. That is, the motor M1 of the path AB is turned on (S01), and the paper P is conveyed in the AB direction by the rollers R1 and R2 driven from the motor M1. Then, the motor M2 of the pass BC is turned on (S02), the sensor S1 is turned on (S03), waits for a predetermined timing (S04), and the roller R3 is rotated reversely (S05).

  Here, for example, the timing of S04 is set short, and if the roller M3 reversely rotates the motor M2 in S05 while the paper P is transporting the paper P, the paper P is reversely transported in the path BC that should not be reversely transported. Will be jammed.

  In such a case, the actual paper transport direction and the direction in which the paper should be transported do not match, so the paper P does not reach the sensor S1 of the path BC. End up. Since there are various causes for the occurrence of a jam, it is difficult to identify the cause such as a jam due to a mismatch in the transport direction.

  In other words, in the conventional transfer control software verification, when an unexpected operation different from the design is performed, first, the state is visually checked, the timing is verified, the cause is estimated, and the defective part is identified. Therefore, development efficiency was bad.

  Further, in the paper conveyance control of the image forming apparatus in the conventional example of FIG. 7, there is a case where the paper is forcibly pulled out by a roller (not shown) downstream from the roller R3 and does not jam. In such a case, it is very difficult to specify that the failure is caused by another failure, for example, a phenomenon such as paper rubbing, and the failure of S04.

  In the conventional technology such as Patent Document 1, although the cause of the malfunction that is latent in the mechanism can be identified, software for controlling the transport mechanism in the real world is not used. could not. In addition, in the technique of the conventional patent document 2, although it is possible to find a potential defect in the software, it is necessary to specify the cause according to the conventional method, which is very inefficient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a design support program that can efficiently verify transport mechanism control software.

  In order to solve the above object, a design support program according to the present invention is a computer-readable design support program that enables verification of processing operations of software that controls a transport mechanism. A first procedure for presetting the paper transport direction, and a second procedure for determining whether the virtual paper transport direction set in the first procedure matches the direction in which the virtual paper is actually transported. In the second procedure and the second procedure, if it is determined that the virtual paper transport direction set in the first procedure is different from the virtual paper transport direction, a display associated with the computer is displayed. And causing the computer to execute a third procedure for displaying a warning on the unit.

  The design support program according to the present invention is a design support program executable in the image forming apparatus that enables verification of a processing operation of software that controls a sheet conveyance mechanism in the image forming apparatus. The first procedure for presetting the transport direction of the virtual paper for the transport path, and whether the transport direction of the virtual paper set in the first procedure matches the direction in which the virtual paper is actually transported. When it is determined in the second procedure to be determined and in the second procedure that the virtual paper conveyance direction set in the first procedure is different from the direction in which the virtual paper is actually conveyed, The image forming apparatus is caused to execute a third procedure for displaying a warning on a display unit provided in the forming apparatus.

  According to the present invention, for example, when reverse conveyance is to be performed in a conveyance mechanism that should not be reversed, the cause of the failure can be identified before an abnormality occurs, and the conveyance mechanism software can be efficiently verified. Can do.

  Hereinafter, a design support apparatus according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

  First, Example 1 will be described. In this embodiment, in the paper conveyance simulation, a warning is displayed when virtual paper is conveyed in a direction different from a preset conveyance direction. Here, the term “virtual” is used to indicate virtual paper on the simulation.

  FIG. 1 shows a design support apparatus according to this embodiment. The design support apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment is a paper conveyance simulator that can perform a paper conveyance simulation of an image forming apparatus on a personal computer. In addition, it supports the control timing design of the firmware software that controls the image forming apparatus in the real world, and enables the verification of the processing operation of the firmware software.

  The design support apparatus according to this embodiment includes a software simulation unit 1, a mechanism simulation unit 2, an input monitoring unit 4, and a display control unit 5. Each is stored in the HDD in the personal computer and executed on the CPU in the personal computer. When executed, it is executed after being expanded on the RAM of the personal computer.

  The software simulation unit 1 is for virtually executing firmware software relating to paper conveyance control on a CPU in a personal computer. The input monitoring unit 4 monitors inputs from a keyboard device or a mouse as a man-machine interface, and instructs the software simulation unit 1 to start executing the software simulation.

  The execution result of the software simulation is passed to the mechanism simulation unit 2. The mechanism simulation unit 2 obtains by calculation which part in the paper transport mechanism the virtual paper is present from the speed of the virtual roller related to the paper transport control, etc. and passes it to the software simulation unit 1 or the display control unit 5.

  FIG. 2 is a display example of the paper conveyance simulation screen W1 displayed on the display attached to the personal computer by the display control unit 5. On the paper transport simulation screen W1, the virtual paper transport path is represented by a dotted line, the virtual roller is represented by a circle, the virtual sensor is represented by a triangle, and the virtual paper is represented by a solid line P.

  When the branch point B is pointed with the mouse cursor PT on the paper transport simulation screen W1 and the button of the pointing device is clicked, a transport path attribute setting screen W2 as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed. Here, the conveyance path is a paper conveyance path having a predetermined length.

  On the transport path attribute setting screen W2, the transport direction of virtual paper can be set for the virtual transport path. The transport path name display W20 displays the name of the virtual transport path arbitrarily given by the designer, such as “Path AB”. For W22, “0”, “1”, or “−1”, which is the control value of the virtual transport path, can be selected. When the control value is “1”, it is defined that the virtual paper can move only in the forward direction, and similarly, “−1” defines the movement only in the reverse direction. Also, the movement in both the positive direction and the reverse direction is defined as “0”.

  FIG. 4 shows aspects of the software simulation unit 1 and the mechanism simulation unit 2 of the design support apparatus of this embodiment.

  The software simulation unit 1 includes a firmware software unit 10, an input I / F unit 12, and an output I / F unit 13.

  The firmware software unit 10 is software for performing paper conveyance control of an image forming apparatus in the real world.

  The input I / F unit 12 is a part for inputting information from the mechanism simulation unit 2. The output I / F unit 13 is a part that outputs information to the mechanism simulation unit 2.

  The mechanism simulation unit 2 includes a paper position calculation unit 20, an input I / F unit 29, an output I / F unit 27, and a paper position display unit 28.

  The input I / F unit 29 is a part that receives an output result from the output I / F unit 13 of the software simulation unit 1 and is used to pass control information related to paper conveyance control to the subsequent stage.

  The paper position calculation unit 20 stores the position of the virtual roller, rotates the virtual roller in accordance with the paper conveyance control information from the software simulation unit 1, and sets the stored virtual roller position and virtual roller rotation speed. Accordingly, the leading edge position and the trailing edge position of the virtual paper P in the virtual paper transport path are calculated and stored.

  The paper position display unit 28 instructs the display control unit 5 to display the above-described paper conveyance simulation screen W1 based on the leading edge position and the trailing edge position of the virtual paper P calculated by the preceding paper position calculation unit 20. It is a part to do.

  The output I / F unit 27 is a part for supplying the paper position information set by the preceding paper position calculation unit 20 to the input I / F unit 12 of the software simulation unit 1.

  The path attribute setting registration unit 31, that is, the transport path attribute setting screen W <b> 2 shown in FIG. 3 sets a transport direction control value in the virtual paper transport direction in the virtual transport path, and passes it to the path direction management unit 32.

  The path direction management unit 32 is a part that holds the path direction set by the path attribute setting registration unit 31.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the paper position calculation unit 20. Before performing the paper position control shown in this flowchart, the virtual paper transport direction for each virtual transport path is set in advance (FIG. 3).

  The paper position calculation unit 20 first performs processing at a predetermined time interval t (S51). Then, the position of the virtual paper P is calculated by obtaining the distance S = v × t that the virtual paper P travels from the paper transport speed v and the time interval t (S54).

  The virtual paper transport direction is obtained from the difference between the previous virtual paper position and the virtual paper position scheduled to be updated this time obtained in S54, and the destination is determined from the information on the virtual transport path registered in the path direction management unit 32. The direction set in the virtual transport path is acquired and compared with the obtained transport direction of the virtual paper (S55).

  If the transport direction of the virtual paper does not match the set virtual transport path direction in S55, it notifies the path fraud warning display unit 30 and passes information such as the generated virtual transport path. The path fraud warning display unit 30 displays a dialog as shown in FIG. 6 and displays a warning message “Advancing paper in an invalid direction!” To the developer (S56). Abnormal termination (carrying stop) Let

  If the transport direction of the virtual paper matches the direction of the set virtual transport path in S55, the paper position calculated in S54 is updated. The updated position information is transferred to the paper position display unit 28 and displayed on the paper transport simulation screen W1 (S57).

  The paper position change in S57 is transferred to the output I / F unit 27 (S58). The output I / F unit 27 outputs the paper position information to the input I / F unit 12 of the software simulation unit 1.

  Next, a description will be added in accordance with an actual simulation operation using FIG. 13 and FIG. FIG. 13 is an example of various device arrangements relating to paper conveyance control. The following items are required for paper conveyance control. The virtual paper P is conveyed by the virtual rollers R1 and R2 in the direction of the solid arrow on the virtual path AB. The virtual roller R1 and the virtual roller R2 are driven by the virtual motor M1. Subsequently, the virtual roller R3 is rotated forward to advance the virtual paper P through the virtual path BC. The virtual roller R3 and the virtual roller R4 are driven by the virtual motor M2. When the rear end of the virtual paper P reaches 5 mm downstream of the virtual roller R3, the virtual motor M2 is stopped, then the virtual motor M2 is rotated reversely, and the virtual roller R4 is rotated reversely. A dotted arrow indicates a driving relationship.

  When the designer instructs the start of the paper conveyance simulation from the man-machine interface, the software simulation unit 1 and the mechanism simulation unit 2 are executed by the operating system 3 via the input monitoring unit 4. When the software simulation unit 1 is started, the firmware software unit 10 cooperates with the operating system 3 to sequentially execute software for performing paper conveyance control of the real-world image forming apparatus.

  The firmware software unit 10 performs paper conveyance control according to the flowchart of FIG. When the virtual paper P reaches the predetermined position, the virtual motor M1 is turned on (S01), and the virtual motor M2 is rotated forward (S02). Then, it waits for the virtual sensor S1 to be turned on (S03), and if it is turned on, it waits for the reversal timing of the virtual motor M2 (S04).

  Then, at the timing when the rear end of the virtual paper P reaches 5 mm downstream of the virtual roller R3, the reversal of the virtual motor M2 is started (S05). Here, originally, it is necessary to wait for the timing when the trailing edge of the virtual paper P reaches 5 mm downstream of the virtual roller R3 in S04, but this timing is too early due to, for example, a software description error, and the virtual roller R3 is moved to the virtual paper. Assume that the rear end of P was not missing. In this case, the virtual paper P flows backward through the virtual path BC.

  The information on the virtual motor M1 ON in S01 is passed to the paper position calculation unit 20 via the input I / F unit 29, and the connected virtual roller R1 and virtual roller R2 rotate.

  The information about the virtual motor M2 forward rotation start in S02 is passed to the paper position calculation unit 20 via the input I / F unit 29, and the connected virtual roller R3 rotates.

  The paper position calculation unit 20 updates the position of the virtual paper P according to the rotation of the virtual roller R1, the virtual roller R2, and the virtual roller R3, and the firmware software via the output I / F unit 27 at the timing when it reaches the virtual sensor S1. The ON information of the virtual sensor S1 is given to the unit 10, and the waiting process of S03 is exited.

  The information of the virtual motor M2 reverse start in S05 is passed to the paper position calculation unit 20 via the input I / F unit 29, and the connected virtual roller R3 is reversed. The paper position calculation unit 20 updates the position of the virtual paper P according to the rotation of the virtual roller R3, but the virtual path BC is set in the forward rotation direction as indicated by W2 in FIG. Accordingly, the virtual paper transport direction in S55 of the paper position control flowchart of FIG. 5 is different from the set virtual transport path direction, so that a warning is displayed as shown in FIG.

  As described above, in the design support method according to the present embodiment, it is possible to notify the designer that there is a control error in the reversal control by finding an error in the virtual paper transport direction.

  Note that the transport path attribute setting screen in FIG. 3 is not limited to that form. For example, it may be recorded in advance in a data file as setting data and read before starting the design support apparatus according to this embodiment. good.

  The warning display in FIG. 6 is not limited to that form. For example, the color of the branch point B is changed on the paper conveyance simulation screen W1 in FIG. The designer may be alerted by displaying a marker or the like.

  Next, Example 2 will be described. In the present embodiment, as in the first embodiment, a warning is displayed when the paper is transported in a direction different from the preset transport direction, but the paper is transported while the paper is actually transported by a roller. The difference is that the situation and the warning are displayed on a touch panel display provided in the image forming apparatus.

  In the present embodiment, a sheet-like conveyance body such as paper (hereinafter simply referred to as “paper”) is actually conveyed by a roller, so that the expression “virtual” is omitted.

  FIG. 7 shows a design support apparatus according to the present invention. The design support apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment can display the paper conveyance state of the image forming apparatus in the image forming apparatus, and supports the design of control timing of firmware software that controls the image forming apparatus.

  The design support apparatus of the present embodiment includes a software unit 1b, a mechanism monitor unit 2, an input monitoring unit 4b, and a display control unit 5b. Each is stored in a ROM or HDD in the image forming apparatus, and is executed on a CPU in the image forming apparatus.

  The software unit 1b is firmware software related to paper conveyance control. The input monitoring unit 4b monitors inputs from the touch panel display 50 and the numeric keypad 40, which are man-machine interfaces shown in FIG.

  By executing the software unit 1b, the motor 60, the clutch 61, and the flapper 62 in the paper transport mechanism 6 of the image forming apparatus are controlled. The result of paper movement is fed back to the software unit 1b by the sensor 63.

  The execution result of the software unit 1b is passed to the mechanism monitor unit 2b. The mechanism monitor unit 2b obtains by calculation which part in the paper transport mechanism 6 the paper is present from, for example, the speed of a roller related to paper transport control, and passes it to the display control unit 5b.

  A paper conveyance display screen as shown in FIG. 9 is displayed on the touch panel display 50 by the display controller 5b. On the paper transport display screen, the paper transport path is represented by a dotted line, the roller is a circle, the sensor is a triangle, and the paper is represented by a solid line P.

  When the branch point B is pointed with the finger F or the like on the paper conveyance display screen, the conveyance path attribute setting is displayed. In the transport path attribute setting (W20 to 221), the paper transport direction can be set for the transport path. Details are the same as in the first embodiment.

  FIG. 10 shows aspects of the software unit 1b, mechanism monitor unit 2b, and paper transport mechanism 6 of the design support apparatus of this embodiment.

  The software unit 1b includes a firmware software unit 10, an input I / F unit b12, and an output I / F unit 13b.

  The firmware software unit 10 is software for performing paper conveyance control of the image forming apparatus.

  The input I / F unit 12 b is a part for inputting information from the paper mechanism mechanism 6. The output I / F unit 13b is a part that outputs information to the paper transport mechanism 6 and the mechanism monitor unit 2b.

  The mechanism monitor unit 2b includes a paper position calculation unit 20, an input I / F unit 29, a path management unit 24, a flapper simulation unit 25, and a paper position display unit 28. The main configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment. In the first embodiment, since there is no feedback from the sensor to the software simulation unit 1, the paper position calculation unit 20 generates the data. However, since there is the paper transport mechanism 6, this is not necessary in this embodiment.

  The paper transport mechanism 6 includes a motor 60, a clutch 61, a flapper 62, and a sensor 63.

  Similarly to the first embodiment, when the actual paper transport mechanism 6 is arranged as shown in FIG. 13 and the firm software unit 10 performs paper transport control according to the flowchart of FIG. 14, it is shown on the touch panel display 50 as shown in FIG. A warning display 60 is displayed.

  As described above, the design support method of the present embodiment can also notify the designer that fraud has occurred in the path direction and the paper transport direction.

  Note that the transport path attribute setting in FIG. 11 is not limited to that form. For example, it may be recorded in advance in a data file as setting data and read before starting the design support apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  The warning display in FIG. 11 is not limited to the form. For example, the color of the branch point B is changed, the shape is changed, the enlarged display is performed on the paper conveyance simulation screen W1 in FIG. May be displayed to alert the designer.

  In the first and second embodiments, the path direction fraud warning screen in FIG. 6 is displayed according to the direction in which the virtual paper moves within the predetermined time t as in S54 to S57 in FIG. A path direction fraud warning screen may be displayed depending on the rotation direction of the roller.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart of the paper position calculation unit 20 according to this embodiment. The paper position calculation unit 20 first performs processing at a predetermined time interval t (S61). Then, it is checked whether the paper transport speed v is positive or negative, the paper transport direction is obtained from this positive / negative judgment, and set as the destination virtual transport path based on the virtual transport path information registered in the path direction management unit 32. The obtained direction is acquired and compared with the obtained transport direction of the virtual paper (S62).

  If the transport direction of the virtual paper matches the registered transport direction, the position of the virtual paper P is calculated by obtaining the distance S = v × t that the virtual paper P travels from the time interval t (S63). The paper position calculated in S63 is updated (S64), and the updated position information is transferred to the paper position display unit 28 and displayed on the paper transport simulation screen W1 (S65). The paper position change in S64 is passed to the output I / F unit 27 (S65). The output I / F unit 27 outputs the paper position information to the input I / F unit 12 of the software simulation unit 1.

  If the transport direction of the virtual paper does not match the set virtual transport path direction in S62, it notifies the path fraud warning display unit 30 and passes information such as the generated virtual transport path. The path fraud warning display unit 30 displays a dialog as shown in FIG. 6 and displays a warning message “Advancing paper in an invalid direction!” To the developer (S66), and abnormal termination (carrying stop) Let

  As in the first and second embodiments, when the actual paper transport mechanism 6 has the arrangement shown in FIG. 13 and the firmware software unit 10 performs paper transport control according to the flowchart of FIG. 14, a warning display as shown in FIG. Is called.

  As described above, the design support method according to the present embodiment can notify the designer that there is a control error in the reversal control in this example by finding an error in the virtual paper transport direction.

It is a control block diagram of the design support apparatus of Example 1 which concerns on this invention. It is a screen display image figure of the design support apparatus of FIG. It is a conveyance path attribute setting screen display image figure of the design support apparatus of FIG. It is a more detailed control block diagram of the design support apparatus of Example 1. It is a flowchart of the paper position calculation part by the design support method which concerns on this invention. It is a conveyance path fraud warning screen display image figure of the design support apparatus of FIG. It is a more detailed control block diagram of the design support apparatus of Example 2. It is an image figure of the man machine interface of the design support apparatus of Example 2. FIG. FIG. 11 is a display image diagram of a transport path attribute setting screen of the design support apparatus according to the second embodiment. It is a more detailed control block diagram of the design support apparatus of Example 2. FIG. 10 is a display image diagram of a conveyance path fraud warning screen of the design support apparatus according to the second embodiment. It is a flowchart of the paper position calculation part of Example 3 which concerns on this invention. It is a figure showing an example of the paper conveyance control of a prior art example. It is a flowchart showing the paper conveyance control of the prior art example of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Software simulation part 1b Software part 2 Mechanism simulation part 2b Mechanism monitor part 4 Input device 5 Display control part 10 Firm software part 12 Input I / F part 13 Output I / F part 20 Paper position calculation part 27 Output I / F part 28 Paper position display section 29 Input I / F section 30 Path fraud warning display section 31 Path attribute setting registration section 32 Path direction management section 40 Numeric keypad 50 Touch panel display M1 (virtual) motor M2 (virtual) motor P (virtual) paper R1 ( (Virtual) roller R2 (virtual) roller R3 (virtual) roller S1 (virtual) sensor W1 paper transport simulation screen W2 transport path attribute setting screen

Claims (5)

In a computer-readable design support program that enables verification of the processing operation of software that controls the transport mechanism,
A first procedure for presetting a virtual paper conveyance direction for a virtual conveyance path in units of a predetermined section;
A second procedure for determining whether or not the transport direction of the virtual paper set in the first procedure matches the direction in which the virtual paper is actually transported;
In the second procedure, when it is determined that the virtual paper transport direction set in the first procedure is different from the virtual paper transport direction, a warning is displayed on the display unit associated with the computer. A third step of performing
A design support program for causing a computer to execute   2. The design support program according to claim 1, wherein, in the third procedure, the virtual conveyance path in units of the predetermined section in which the direction mismatch occurs is displayed on the display unit in a different color from the normal time. .   2. The design support program according to claim 1, wherein in the third procedure, the virtual conveyance path in units of the predetermined section in which the direction mismatch occurs is displayed on the display unit in a different shape from the normal time. .   The design support program according to claim 1, wherein, in the third procedure, a mark is added to the virtual conveyance path in units of the predetermined section in which the direction mismatch has occurred, and the display unit displays the mark. In the design support program executable in the image forming apparatus, the processing operation of the software for controlling the sheet conveying mechanism in the image forming apparatus can be verified.
A first procedure for presetting a virtual paper conveyance direction for a virtual conveyance path in units of a predetermined section;
A second procedure for determining whether or not the transport direction of the virtual paper set in the first procedure matches the direction in which the virtual paper is actually transported;
If it is determined in the second procedure that the virtual paper conveyance direction set in the first procedure is different from the direction in which the virtual paper is actually conveyed, a display unit provided in the image forming apparatus A third procedure for displaying a warning on
Is executed by the image forming apparatus.

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