JP6664563B1 - Program creation support device, program creation support method, and program creation support program - Google Patents

Abstract

The program creation support apparatus (1) extracts a common logic part from the entire circuit in the sequence program, and regarding circuit parts included in the extracted common logic part, device allocations for circuit parts at the same position are common to all. A common determination unit (13) that generates ancillary information indicating whether or not the logic parts match each other, and a program component generator (a program component registration unit (a program component registration unit ( 17)) and a replacement unit (componentization processing unit (19)) for replacing each common logic part in the sequence program with a program component and a circuit component connected to an input / output argument of the program component, The program component generator is for the circuit components at the same position. The circuit component device assignment is consistent with all common logic part, the user can select whether to generate an output arguments.

Description

  The present invention relates to a program creation support device, a program creation support method, and a program creation support program that support creation of a sequence program.

  A programmable logic controller (PLC: Programmable Logic Controller) is a control device that operates according to a sequence program and controls a controlled device installed in a factory or the like.

  There is a ladder language as a main description language of a sequence program. The ladder language is a programming language based on a graphical representation simulating a relay circuit. A program can be created by arranging circuit components such as contacts and coils for transmitting control signals and designating a connection relationship between them. The control signal is allocated to an internal memory of the PLC, and this internal memory is called a “device”. A sequence program described in a ladder language is called a ladder program. In a ladder program, a device is represented by combining symbols such as X and Y and a numerical value, and signal propagation is represented by allocating the device to each of a contact and a coil.

  Here, in recent years, the scale of production equipment has been increased, and accordingly, the number of controlled devices controlled by the PLC has increased, and the sequence program has also been increased in scale. Therefore, techniques for efficiently creating a sequence program have been proposed.

  For example, in the invention described in Patent Document 1, attention is paid to the fact that the same circuit pattern is used a plurality of times in one sequence program, and a sequence program can be efficiently created. More specifically, according to the invention described in Patent Document 1, a common circuit pattern is extracted from a created sequence program to make a component, and a program component that is a componentized circuit pattern is created in a subsequent sequence program. And so on.

Japanese Patent No. 5769900

  In the invention described in Patent Literature 1, the definition of the program component, that is, the definition of the input / output argument is automatically determined. Specifically, the input / output arguments of the program component are defined as all the device assignments to the circuit components (contacts, coils, etc.) in the common circuit pattern are passed from the input / output arguments. Therefore, for example, when there are five contacts and three coils in the common circuit pattern, the program component generated from the common circuit pattern has five input arguments (= the number of contacts) and three output arguments (= the number of contacts). = Coil number).

  By the way, in a plurality of circuits from which a common circuit pattern is extracted, for circuit components having the same device assignment, it is not necessary to pass the device assignment from the outside as an argument, and the argument of the program component can be omitted. In a sequence program, as the number of input / output arguments of a program component to be used is smaller, readability and maintainability are improved, and the program capacity can be reduced. However, the invention described in Patent Literature 1 has a problem in that the number of input / output arguments of a program component is reduced, that is, improvement in readability and maintainability of a sequence program is not considered.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a program creation support device capable of improving the readability and maintainability of a sequence program.

In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, a program creation support device according to the present invention extracts a common logic portion from the entire circuit in a sequence program, and includes circuit components included in the extracted common logic portion. And a common determination unit that generates additional information indicating whether or not the device assignment to the circuit component at the same position is the same in all common logic parts. In addition, the program creation support device includes a program component generation unit that generates a program component based on the common logic part and the attached information extracted by the common determination unit, and a common logic part in the sequence program. And a replacement unit that replaces with a circuit component connected to the input / output argument of the program component. Program component generating section, the first circuit component designated by the user in the first circuit component is a circuit component device assignment for the circuit components of the same position is consistent with all common logic part A program component having an input / output argument for performing device assignment and an input / output argument for performing device assignment to a second circuit component, which is a circuit component not corresponding to the first circuit component, is generated .

  The program creation support device according to the present invention has an effect that readability and maintainability of a sequence program can be improved.

The figure which shows the outline | summary of the production | generation operation | movement of the program component by the program creation assistance apparatus concerning embodiment 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a program creation system including a program creation support device according to an embodiment. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of the program creation support device according to the embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the input / output argument generation specification screen of the program component The figure which shows an example of the screen for the confirmation of the sequence program after execution of replacement processing FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a program creation support device according to an embodiment.

  Hereinafter, a program creation support device, a program creation support method, and a program creation support program according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited by the embodiment.

In the following embodiments, the “common circuit pattern G” and the “common logic part H” will be separately described as follows.
A common circuit pattern G: a logic pattern commonly appearing in a sequence program.
A common logic portion H: a portion (region) of the sequence program where the common circuit pattern G appears.
In the following description, it is assumed that the sequence program handled by the program creation support device is a ladder program.

Embodiment.
First, an outline of the operation of the program creation support device according to the present embodiment will be described. The program creation support device according to the present embodiment has at least the following two functions, and uses these functions to assist a user in creating a sequence program.

  The first function is a function of searching for and displaying a common logic part H that can be made into components from the entire circuit of the sequence program. A ladder program, which is a sequence program, includes instructions corresponding to contacts or coils and application instructions corresponding to numerical operations and the like. Therefore, the program creation support device uses a common circuit pattern that is common only to the logic of a contact equivalent command, which is an instruction equivalent to a contact, a coil equivalent instruction, which is an instruction equivalent to a coil, and an application instruction equivalent to a numerical operation. G and a program location (common logic portion H) are searched and displayed. The searched common circuit pattern G is a candidate for a program component (macro, subroutine, etc.) which is a program component.

  The second function is that when any one of the common circuit patterns G searched by the first function is selected by the user, the selected common circuit pattern G is converted (executed into components) into program components and registered. Function. The second function automatically converts the sequence program into a component by replacing the common logic part H retrieved by the first function with an instance of the registered program component.

  Here, when searching for the common logic part H in the first function described above, the program creation support device holds information indicating whether or not device assignments to respective circuit components such as contacts and coils in the circuit match. deep. That is, in the extracted common circuit pattern G, whether or not the device assignments to the circuit components arranged at the same coordinates match in all of the original common logic parts H is stored as additional information. The coordinates here indicate the position of the circuit component in the circuit pattern. Therefore, the circuit components arranged at the same coordinates are the circuit components arranged at the same position in the common circuit pattern G.

  Further, when the program function is generated in the second function, the program creation support device uses the program component based on the attached information held when searching for the common logic part H in the first function. Determine the argument of Specifically, when there is a circuit component that is arranged at the same coordinates but does not have the same device assignment between the common logic parts H, the program creation support device assigns a device to this circuit component. Generate a program part having arguments.

  As a result, it is possible to prevent the number of input / output arguments of the program components generated by the program creation support device from becoming unnecessarily large, and to improve the readability and maintainability of the sequence program. Further, the capacity of the sequence program can be reduced.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a program component generation operation performed by the program creation support device according to the embodiment.

  As shown in phase (A) of FIG. 1, the program creation support device extracts a common logic part H from within a sequence program. Here, the program creation support device extracts a block in which the circuit blocks 2a to 4a are arranged as a common logic part H.

  Further, as shown in phase (B) of FIG. 1, the program creation support device sets a common circuit pattern G that can be made into components based on the logic of the circuit blocks 2a to 4a. In other words, the program creation support device sets the logic common to the circuit blocks 2a to 4a in the common circuit pattern G. Thus, the program creation support device treats the circuit blocks 2a to 4a as the common circuit pattern G.

  At this time, in the extracted circuit blocks 2a to 4a, the program creation support device confirms whether or not the device assignments to the circuit components having the same coordinates match, and information indicating the confirmation result (whether or not the device assignments match). Information). In the example shown in FIG. 1, the coordinates of the circuit component located on the upper left of the circuit blocks 2a to 4a are (0, 0), the coordinates of the circuit component located on the right of this component are (1, 0), and The coordinates of the circuit component located on the right side are (2, 0). Also, the coordinates of the circuit component located immediately below the circuit component located at the upper left are (0, 1), the coordinates of the circuit component located on the right of this component are (1, 1), and the coordinates of the circuit component located on the right are further located on the right. The coordinates of the circuit component to be executed are (2, 1). The method of determining the coordinates indicating the position of each circuit component is not limited to this. It is not essential to indicate the arrangement of each circuit component by coordinates. If the arrangement of each circuit component in the circuit block is known, the arrangement of each circuit component may be indicated using information other than the coordinates.

  In the example shown in FIG. 1, the device allocation for the circuit components having the coordinates (0, 0) and (1, 1) does not match among the circuit blocks 2a to 4a, and the devices for the circuit components having the other coordinates are different. The assignment is the same among the circuit blocks 2a to 4a. Therefore, in the phase (B), the program creation support device does not match the device allocation to the circuit components having the coordinates (0, 0) and (1, 1) among the circuit blocks 2a to 4a, and Generating information indicating that device assignments to the circuit components of (1, 0), (2, 0), (0, 1), and (2, 1) match among the circuit blocks 2a to 4a; Hold. In the following description, a circuit component having the same device assignment among all the common logic portions H (the circuit blocks 2a to 4a in FIG. 1) will be referred to as a first circuit component, if necessary. A circuit component that does not correspond to the first circuit component is referred to as a second circuit component.

  Next, as shown in phase (C) of FIG. 1, the program creation support device is a screen for specifying the input / output argument of the program component based on the information generated and held in phase (B). The screen 101 is displayed on the display device. Then, the program creation support device receives a selection of a circuit component for generating an input / output argument from a user. Here, an input / output argument is always generated for a circuit component whose device assignment does not match, that is, a second circuit component whose device assignment does not completely match between the circuit blocks 2a to 4a. Therefore, on the screen 101 shown in FIG. 1, a display is displayed so that the user can understand that the input / output argument is always generated for the circuit component having the coordinates (0, 0) and the circuit component having the coordinates (1, 1). And does not accept the selection operation by the user.

  Upon completion of the user's selection of the first circuit component for generating the input / output argument, the program creation support device proceeds to phase (D). That is, when receiving from the user an operation of ending the selection of the first circuit component for generating the input / output argument, the program creation support device displays the screen 102, which is the image confirmation screen after replacement with the program component, on the display device. Let it. The screen 102 illustrated in FIG. 1 has a configuration in which the sequence program before the replacement with the program component is displayed on the left side, and the sequence program after the replacement with the program component is displayed on the right side. The screen 102 has display contents in which the program components and the circuit blocks are associated with each other so that the user can know which circuit block has been replaced with the program components. The display content on the right side of the screen 102 follows the operation content received from the user in the phase (C). The screen 102 illustrated in FIG. 1 displays a program part in a case where the user has selected generation of an argument for a coil that is a circuit part having coordinates (2, 0).

  After confirming the screen 102, the user presses an “OK (execute)” button at the lower right of the screen 102 when generating a program component and replacing a circuit block with a program component. Further, after confirming the screen 102, the user presses the “cancel” button at the lower right of the screen 102 when selecting the circuit component for generating the input / output argument again. When the “cancel” button is pressed, the program creation support device returns to the phase (C).

  When the “OK (execute)” button on the screen 102 is pressed, the program creation support apparatus shifts to phase (E) in FIG. 1 and generates an FB (Function Block) as a program component. At this time, the program creation support device generates a program component having the configuration shown on the right side of the screen 102 displayed on the display device in phase (D).

  Then, when the generation of the program component is completed, the program creation support device proceeds to the phase (F) in FIG. 1 and replaces the circuit blocks 2a to 4a extracted in the phase (A) with the program component generated in the phase (E). And circuit blocks 2b to 4b.

  According to such a procedure, the program creation support device generates a program component from the sequence program, and further, among the circuit blocks of the sequence program, replaces a circuit block that can be replaced with the generated program component with the program component. In addition, the program creation support device holds the generated program component so that it can be used when editing another sequence program, developing another sequence program, and the like.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a program creation system including the program creation support device according to the embodiment. The program creation system 100 includes a program creation support device 1, a sequence program creation device 2, a sequence program editing device 3, and a display device 5. In the present embodiment, the program creation support device 1, the sequence program creation device 2, the sequence program editing device 3, and the display device 5 are described as individual devices, but the functions of each of these devices will be described. May be realized by one device, for example, a computer system such as a personal computer.

  As described above, the program creation support device 1 extracts the common logic part H from the sequence program, and generates a program component according to an instruction from the user.

  The sequence program creation device 2 is a device that creates a sequence program to be operated by a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) system also called a sequencer. The sequence program creation device 2 inputs the created sequence program to the program creation support device 1.

  The sequence program editing device 3 is a device that edits a sequence program using the sequence program replaced by the program component in the program creation support device 1. The display device 5 is a liquid crystal monitor or the like, and displays a sequence program, a common circuit pattern G, a program component, and the like in accordance with an instruction from the program creation support device 1.

  The program creation support device 1 includes a program input unit 11, a program storage unit 12, a common determination unit 13, a search result storage unit 14, a search result display processing unit 15, an instruction input unit 16, a program component registration unit 17, a program component storage unit 18, a component processing unit 19, an output unit 20, a component definition display processing unit 21, and a component image display processing unit 22.

  The program input unit 11 receives a sequence program input from the sequence program creation device 2 and sends the received sequence program to the program storage unit 12.

  The program storage unit 12 is a memory or the like that stores a sequence program (a program to be made into components) in which a common logic part H is searched. When receiving the sequence program from the program input unit 11, the program storage unit 12 holds the received sequence program. When receiving a request from the sequence program editing device 3 or the like, the program storage unit 12 outputs the requested sequence program to the output unit 20. The sequence program output to the output unit 20 is transferred from the output unit 20 to the sequence program editing device 3. Also, the program storage unit 12 performs processing in which, among the circuit blocks constituting the stored sequence program, the circuit blocks used for generating the program components are replaced with the program components by the component processing unit 19 described later. When a certain replacement process is performed, the sequence program after the replacement process is held.

  The common determination unit 13 reads a sequence program stored in the program storage unit 12 and determines whether or not there is a common logic part H in the sequence program. When there is a common logic part H, the common determination unit 13 extracts a common logic in the common logic part H as a common circuit pattern G. In other words, the common determination unit 13 extracts, as the common circuit pattern G, a logic pattern that appears in common to the circuit patterns arranged in the common logic portion H. Note that the program creation support device 1 uses a known code clone detection method or the like when determining whether a common logic part H exists in a sequence program. The code clone detection method is a method of searching for similar code fragments from source code representing a program. Similar pieces of code that make up the source code are called code clones.

  Further, the common determination unit 13 checks whether or not the device assignments to the circuit components arranged at the same coordinates match in all the common logic parts H, and as the information indicating the check result, the additional information of the common circuit pattern G Generate The common determination unit 13 confirms whether or not the device assignment is the same for all of the plurality of circuit components included in the plurality of common logic parts H in all the common logic parts H, and indicates the confirmation result. Generate information. The attached information indicates a confirmation result for each of the plurality of circuit components included in the common logic part H. For example, when the common logic portion H includes four circuit components # 1 to # 4, the attached information indicates whether the device assignment to the circuit component # 1 is the same for all the common logic portions H. The information indicates whether the device assignment to the circuit component # 2 matches in all the common logic parts H, and the information indicates whether the device assignment to the circuit component # 3 matches in all the common logic parts H And information as to whether or not the device assignment to the circuit component # 4 is the same in all the common logic parts H.

  The search result storage unit 14 is a memory or the like that stores information on the common circuit pattern G and the attached information extracted by the common determination unit 13 as search results. That is, when the common determination unit 13 extracts the common circuit pattern G, the search result storage unit 14 receives the information indicating the configuration of the extracted common circuit pattern G and the attached information, and stores the received information in the search result storage unit 14. Hold as. Hereinafter, information indicating the configuration of the common circuit pattern G is referred to as configuration information.

  The search result display processing unit 15 causes the display device 5 to display the search results stored in the search result storage unit 14 in a list format. When the user selects the common circuit pattern G to be made into a component from the displayed search result, the search result display processing unit 15 transmits the configuration information and the additional information of the selected common circuit pattern G to the common circuit pattern G. The information is sent to the component definition display processing unit 21 as information.

  The instruction input unit 16 receives an instruction input by the user and outputs information indicating the content of the instruction to some or all of the search result display processing unit 15, the component definition display processing unit 21, and the componentized image display processing unit 22. . Instructions by the user include a search instruction as an instruction relating to a search, a component designation instruction as an instruction relating to componentization, an instruction to determine whether or not to generate an argument, and an instruction to determine componentization, or an output instruction as an instruction relating to output.

  The search instruction is an instruction to search the common circuit pattern G from within the sequence program, and is sent from the instruction input unit 16 to the common determination unit 13. The component designation instruction is an instruction for designating a common circuit pattern G to be made into a component from the search results, and is sent from the instruction input unit 16 to the search result display processing unit 15. The argument generation necessity instruction is an instruction for designating the necessity of generation of the input / output argument of the program component for the common circuit pattern G, and is sent from the instruction input unit 16 to the component definition display processing unit 21. The componentization determination instruction is an instruction for specifying whether to determine or cancel the componentization based on the confirmation result of the image after replacing some circuit blocks in the sequence program with the program components. The componentization confirmation instruction is sent from the instruction input unit 16 to the componentization image display processing unit 22. The output instruction is an instruction to output the sequence program to the sequence program editing device 3 or the like, which is an external device, and is transmitted from the instruction input unit 16 to the output unit 20.

  Upon receiving the program component definition information from the componentized image display processing unit 22, which will be described later, the program component registration unit 17 converts the common circuit pattern G into a program component based on the sent definition information. Make parts. That is, the program component registration unit 17 is a program component generation unit that generates a program component that is a program component based on the common circuit pattern G and the definition information. The program component registration unit 17 registers the generated program component in the program component storage unit 18.

  The program component storage unit 18 is a memory or the like that stores program components according to instructions from the program component registration unit 17. The program component storage unit 18 holds the program component received from the program component registration unit 17. The program component storage unit 18 outputs the held program components to the component processing unit 19 when the component processing unit 19 performs a process of replacing the circuit blocks of the sequence program with the program components.

  The component processing unit 19 replaces the common logic part H in the sequence program stored in the program storage unit 12 with the program component stored in the program component storage unit 18. The component processing unit 19 causes the program storage unit 12 to store the replaced sequence program.

  When an output instruction is sent from the instruction input unit 16, the output unit 20 reads the sequence program specified by the output instruction from the program storage unit 12 and outputs the read sequence program to the sequence program editing device 3 that is an external device. When another external device is connected to the output unit 20 in addition to the sequence program editing device 3, the output unit 20 outputs the sequence program specified by the output instruction to the external device specified by the output instruction.

  The component definition display processing unit 21 generates a screen for designating the input / output argument of the program component (corresponding to the screen 101 shown in FIG. 1) based on the information on the common circuit pattern G sent from the search result display processing unit 15. It is displayed on the display device 5. The component definition display processing unit 21 receives designation of an input / output argument to be generated from a user while displaying a screen for specifying input / output arguments of the program component. When the user specifies the input / output argument to be generated, the component definition display processing unit 21 generates the definition information of the program component based on the result of the user's specification, and sends the generated definition information to the component image display processing unit 22. send.

  The componentized image display processing unit 22 displays an image (confirmation screen) of the sequence program after replacing the common logic part H with the program component based on the definition information of the program component transmitted from the component definition display processing unit 21. It is created and displayed on the display device 5. Specifically, the componentized image display processing unit 22 causes the display device 5 to display a screen corresponding to the screen 102 shown in FIG. Further, the componentized image display processing unit 22 receives an input of a determination result as to whether or not to actually perform replacement with the confirmation screen of the sequence program after replacement displayed on the display device 5. Upon receiving the input of the determination result indicating that the replacement is to be performed, the componentized image display processing unit 22 sends the program component definition information received from the component definition display processing unit 21 to the program component registration unit 17. On the other hand, when accepting the input of the determination result indicating that the replacement is not performed, the componentized image display processing unit 22 notifies the component definition display processing unit 21 of the determination result. The component definition display processing unit 21 that has received the notification causes the display device 5 to redisplay the input / output argument generation designation screen of the program component, and accepts the specification of the input / output argument to be generated from the user.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of the program creation support device 1 according to the embodiment. The flowchart of FIG. 3 shows a processing procedure when the program creation support apparatus 1 creates a program part from a sequence program and generates a sequence program in which the common logic part H is replaced with the program part.

  It is assumed that the program creation support device 1 holds a sequence program in the program storage unit 12. That is, it is assumed that the program input unit 11 of the program creation support device 1 has received the sequence program from the sequence program creation device 2 and the processing of storing the received sequence program in the program storage unit 12 has been completed.

  The program creation support device 1 receives a search instruction for the common logic part H, and starts a program componentization process (step S1). That is, when the user inputs a search instruction for the common circuit pattern G (common logic part H) from the instruction input unit 16, the search instruction is sent from the instruction input unit 16 to the common determination unit 13. As a result, the program creation support device 1 starts the program component processing.

  When receiving the search instruction from the instruction input unit 16, the common determination unit 13 extracts the common circuit pattern G from the sequence program held in the program storage unit 12. The common determination unit 13 extracts, for example, a common logic portion H from the sequence program, and extracts a common circuit pattern from circuit blocks (such as the circuit blocks 2a to 4a shown in FIG. 1) arranged in the common logic portion H. G is extracted (step S2). In addition, the common determination unit 13 checks whether or not the device assignment to the circuit component is the same in all the common logic parts H for each of the extracted circuit parts constituting the common logic part H, and determines the check result. Generate attached information shown. The attached information is information indicating whether each of the circuit components constituting the common logic portion H corresponds to the first circuit component or the second circuit component.

  When the extraction of the common circuit pattern G and the generation of the additional information are completed, the common determination unit 13 associates the extracted configuration information and the additional information of the common circuit pattern G with the number of the common circuit patterns G and associates the search result. It is stored in the storage unit 14 (step S3).

  In addition, the common determination unit 13 associates the location of the common logic part H with program identification information that is information for identifying a sequence program from which the common logic part H has been extracted, and sends it to the component processing unit 19. . The location of the common logic part H is, for example, the line number of the ladder program.

  When receiving the information from the common determination unit 13, the search result storage unit 14 stores the received information. When the information output from the common determination unit 13 is stored in the search result storage unit 14, the search result display processing unit 15 extracts the information from the common determination unit 13 based on the information held in the search result storage unit 14. The display device 5 displays a list of the configurations and the numbers of the common circuit patterns G thus obtained. The display device 5 displays, for example, the common circuit pattern G shown in FIG. 1 and the number thereof (three in FIG. 1) (step S4). Whether or not the information output from the common determination unit 13 has been stored in the search result storage unit 14 is grasped, for example, by the search result display processing unit 15 periodically checking the state of the search result storage unit 14. Note that the common determination unit 13 may notify the search result display processing unit 15 that the information has been stored in the search result storage unit 14.

  After executing step S4, the program creation support device 1 waits for the user to select the common circuit pattern G to be made into a component. When receiving the selection of the common circuit pattern G to be made into a component from the user (step S5), the instruction input unit 16 generates a component designation instruction indicating the selected common circuit pattern G and sends it to the search result display processing unit 15. The search result display processing unit 15 reads the configuration information and the additional information of the common circuit pattern G indicated by the component designation instruction from the search result storage unit 14 and sends them to the component definition display processing unit 21.

  When the component definition display processing unit 21 receives the configuration information and the additional information of the common circuit pattern G from the search result display processing unit 15, it responds to the common circuit pattern G selected by the user in step S5 based on the received information. A display screen for specifying generation of input / output arguments of the program component to be displayed is displayed on the display device 5 (step S6). In step S6, the component definition display processing unit 21 causes the display device 5 to display, for example, a screen having the contents illustrated in FIG. 4 as a generation designation screen of the input / output argument of the program component. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen for designating the generation of input / output arguments of a program component. The program component input / output argument generation designation screen is displayed when the user specifies an argument to be generated as a program component input / output argument. That is, the program creation support device 1 causes the display device 5 to display a screen for specifying the input / output argument of the program component when receiving the specification of the argument to be generated as the input / output argument of the program component. The input / output argument generation designation screen (hereinafter, referred to as a screen 101) of the program component illustrated in FIG. 4 includes “coordinates”, “circuit symbols”, “match / mismatch of device assignment”, and “generation of input / output arguments”. Necessity ”. “Coordinate” indicates the position of each circuit component included in the common circuit pattern G in the common circuit pattern G. “Circuit symbol” indicates the type of circuit component existing at the position indicated by “coordinates” on the same row. “Match / mismatch of device assignment” indicates whether or not the device assignment to the circuit component located at the position indicated by the “coordinate” in the same row is the same in all of the common logic parts H. That is, “match / mismatch of device assignment” indicates which of the first circuit component and the second circuit component the circuit component existing at the position indicated by the “coordinate” in the same row. For the circuit component (first circuit component) for which "match / mismatch of device assignment" is "match", the device assigned to the circuit component is also displayed. For example, a device assigned to a circuit component having coordinates (1, 0) is “M2”. “I / O argument generation necessity” indicates whether or not to generate an input / output argument for allocating a device to a circuit component existing at a position indicated by “coordinates” on the same row. When the screen 101 is displayed on the display device 5, the user operates an input device such as a mouse to check or uncheck the item of “Issuance of input / output argument required”. Change the specification of input / output arguments to be generated. However, for circuit components (second circuit components) for which “match / mismatch of device assignment” is “mismatch”, generation of input / output arguments is essential. For this reason, the program creation support apparatus 1 fixes the “input / output argument generation necessity” of the circuit component whose “device assignment match / mismatch” is “mismatched” with a check mark, and checks by the user. Will not be accepted.

  After executing step S6, the program creation support device 1 selects the input / output argument to be generated by the program component with the screen 101 shown in FIG. 4 displayed on the display device 5, and terminates the selection operation. Wait to do. When the selection operation by the user is completed, that is, when the selection of the input / output argument to be generated is received from the user (step S7), the instruction input unit 16 generates an argument generation necessity instruction indicating the selected input / output argument. It is sent to the component definition display processing unit 21. The instruction input unit 16 generates an argument generation necessity instruction when, for example, a selection operation end button not shown in FIG. 4 is pressed by the user. Here, the description is continued assuming that the instruction for generating the argument is generated according to the content of the screen 101 shown in FIG. That is, the description is continued assuming that the user has designated generation of an input / output argument for allocating a device to the coil at coordinates (2, 0). In this case, the argument generation necessity instruction is an input for assigning a device to each of the a contact at the coordinates (0, 0), the coil at the coordinates (2, 0), and the b contact at the coordinates (1, 1). Contains information that specifies the generation of output arguments. Note that the component definition display processing unit 21 and the instruction input unit 16 executing the above steps S6 and S7 change the input / output arguments after the common logic part H is replaced with the program component from the first circuit components. A selection receiving unit that allows the user to select the first circuit component that requires the used device allocation is configured.

  When receiving the argument generation necessity instruction, the component definition display processing unit 21 converts the received argument generation necessity instruction and the configuration information of the common circuit pattern G received and held from the search result display processing unit 15 into a component. Is sent to the converted image display processing unit 22.

  When the componentized image display processing unit 22 receives the argument generation necessity instruction and the configuration information of the common circuit pattern G from the component definition display processing unit 21, it holds the received information. Further, the componentized image display processing unit 22 replaces the common logic part H with a program component based on the information received from the component definition display processing unit 21 and the sequence program held in the program storage unit 12. A screen for confirming the subsequent sequence program is displayed on the display device 5 (step S8). In step S8, the componentized image display processing unit 22 causes the display device 5 to display, for example, a screen having the contents illustrated in FIG. 5 as a screen for checking the sequence program after the execution of the replacement processing. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a sequence program confirmation screen after execution of the replacement process. The sequence program confirmation screen after the execution of the replacement process is a screen for confirming the configuration of the sequence program after the common logic part H has been replaced with the program component. That is, the componentized image display processing unit 22 is a confirmation display processing unit that causes the display device 5 to display a screen for confirming the configuration of the sequence program after being replaced with the program component. The screen for confirming the sequence program after execution of the replacement process (hereinafter, referred to as a screen 102) illustrated in FIG. 5 has a configuration in which the sequence program before replacement and the sequence program after replacement are arranged side by side. The left side of the screen 102 is a sequence program (program before replacement) before replacing the common logic part H with a program part, and the right side of the screen 102 is a sequence program (replacement) after replacing the common logic part H with a program part. Later program). The componentized image display processing unit 22 may calculate the size of the sequence program before replacement and the size of the sequence program after replacement, and display them on the screen 102. In this case, it becomes possible for the user to know in advance the effect of reducing the program size by replacing the common logic part H with the program component, and this can be used as a material for determining whether or not to perform the replacement. FIG. 5 shows an example of a screen displaying the configuration of the sequence program after replacing one common logic portion H with a program component. However, after replacing a plurality of common logic portions H with a program component, FIG. May be displayed. In addition, the componentized image display processing unit 22 scrolls the display of the screen 102 up and down according to the operation of the user, and the user confirms the configuration of the sequence program after replacing all the common logic parts H with the program components. You may be able to.

  After executing step S8, the program creation support device 1 determines whether or not the user replaces the common logic portion H with the program component while the screen 102 shown in FIG. 5 is displayed on the display device 5. Is selected (step S9). When the “OK (execute)” button at the lower right of the screen 102 is pressed, that is, when the execution of the replacement of the common logic part H by the program component is selected (step S9: execute). , And generates a componentization determination instruction and sends it to the componentization image display processing unit 22. Further, when the “cancel” button at the lower right of the screen 102 is pressed, that is, when it is selected that the replacement of the common logic part H by the program component is not performed (step S9: cancel) ), Generates a cancel instruction and sends it to the componentized image display processing unit 22.

  Upon receiving the cancel instruction, the componentized image display processing unit 22 sends the received cancel instruction to the component definition display processing unit 21, and ends the display of the screen 102 on the display device 5. When receiving the cancellation instruction via the componentized image display processing unit 22, the component definition display processing unit 21 causes the display device 5 to display the screen 101. Then, the component definition display processing unit 21 waits again for the user to select an input / output argument to be generated by the program component and end the selection operation. As described above, when the “cancel” button at the lower right of the screen 102 shown in FIG. 5 is pressed by the user, the program creation support device 1 returns to step S7.

  On the other hand, when the componentization image display processing unit 22 receives the componentization confirmation instruction, the information received and held from the component definition display processing unit 21, specifically, the argument generation necessity instruction and the common circuit pattern The configuration information of G is sent to the program component registration unit 17.

  Upon receiving the argument generation necessity instruction and the configuration information of the common circuit pattern G from the componentized image display processing unit 22, the program component registration unit 17 converts the common circuit pattern G selected in step S5 into a program component. (Step S10). More specifically, the program component registration unit 17 has the input / output argument indicated by the argument generation necessity instruction indicating the common circuit pattern G indicated by the configuration information of the common circuit pattern G received from the componentized image display processing unit 22. Create program parts by converting them to program parts. The program component registration unit 17 stores the converted program component in the program component storage unit 18 (Step S11). Thus, the common circuit pattern G selected by the user is stored in the program component storage unit 18 as a program component.

  When receiving the program component from the program component registration unit 17, the program component storage unit 18 stores the received program component. When the program component created by the program component registration unit 17 is stored in the program component storage unit 18, the component conversion processing unit 19 generates a common logic part H in the sequence program held by the program storage unit 12. Is replaced with the program component stored in the program component storage unit 18 (step S12). When replacing the common logic part H with a program component, the component processing unit 19 assigns input / output arguments of the replaced program component. At this time, the component processing unit 19 stores the information received and held from the common determination unit 13, specifically, the location of the common logic part H and the sequence program of the sequence program from which the common logic part H is extracted. Based on the program identification information, the common logic part H of the sequence program indicated by the program identification information is replaced with a program component. Specifically, the component processing unit 19 extracts a sequence program to be componentized from the program storage unit 12 based on the program identification information. Then, the component processing unit 19 replaces the circuit pattern in the common logic part H of the extracted sequence program with the program component stored in the program component storage unit 18. Whether the program component is stored in the program component storage unit 18 is grasped, for example, by the component processing unit 19 periodically checking the state of the program component storage unit 18. The program component registration unit 17 may notify the component processing unit 19 that the program component has been stored in the program component storage unit 18.

  After at least a part of the sequence program is replaced by the program component, the replaced sequence program is stored in the program storage unit 12. Thereafter, when the user inputs an output instruction to the instruction input unit 16, the output instruction is sent from the instruction input unit 16 to the output unit 20. The output unit 20 extracts the sequence program specified by the output instruction from the program storage unit 12 and sends it to the sequence program editing device 3. Thereby, the sequence program editing device 3 edits the sequence program according to the user's instruction.

  After executing step S12 in FIG. 3, the program creation support device 1 may return to step S4 to continue the operation. In this case, the search result display processing unit 15, when displaying the configuration and the number of common circuit patterns G in a list on the display device 5 in step S4, the common circuit pattern G selected in step S5 executed in the past, that is, the program The common circuit pattern G that has been made into a component is not included in the list display.

  In the present embodiment, the common circuit pattern G specified by the user is made into components, but the program component registration unit 17 may make all the common circuit patterns G extracted by the common determination unit 13 into components. . In this case, for example, the program creation support device 1 repeatedly executes the processing of steps S6 to S9 shown in FIG. 3 and, when the processing of steps S6 to S9 is completed for all the common circuit patterns G, performs steps S10 to S12. Execute.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the program creation support device 1 allows the user to select the input / output argument of the program component in the above steps S6 and S7, but the configuration may be such that the selection by the user is not accepted. That is, among the circuit components included in the common circuit pattern G, the circuit component (first circuit component) having the same device assignment in all of the common logic portions H is determined not to generate input / output arguments. The number of component input / output arguments may be minimized. In this case, the program creation support device 1 executes step S10 following step S5. At this time, the search result display processing unit 15 reads the configuration information and the attached information of the common circuit pattern G selected by the user in step S5 from the search result storage unit 14 and sends them to the program component registration unit 17.

  Further, in the present embodiment, an example has been described in which the sequence program handled by the program creation support device 1 is a ladder program, but the sequence program is not limited to the ladder program.

  Further, the program creation support device 1 may allow the user to specify the size of a block to be extracted as the common circuit pattern G, similarly to the invention described in Patent Document 1.

  As described above, the program creation support device 1 according to the present embodiment analyzes the sequence program to check whether there are a plurality of circuit patterns having the same configuration, and determines whether the common circuit pattern has the same configuration. G is extracted, and a program component representing the extracted common circuit pattern G is generated. Then, the program creation support device 1 replaces the common circuit pattern G included in the sequence program with the generated program component. Further, after extracting the common circuit pattern G, the program creation support device 1 determines whether the device assignments of all the extracted common circuit patterns G are the same for each of the circuit components included in the common circuit pattern G. And generates additional information indicating the confirmation result. Then, when generating the program parts, the program creation support device 1 regards the first circuit parts having the same device assignment among all the common circuit patterns G except when instructed by the user. It has been decided not to generate input / output arguments for device allocation. Thus, the number of input / output arguments of the program component can be reduced. As a result, the readability and maintainability of the sequence program can be improved.

  Next, the hardware configuration of the program creation support device 1 will be described. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the program creation support device 1 according to the embodiment. The program creation support device 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 91, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 92, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 93, a communication interface 94, and an input unit 95. In the program creation support device 1, the CPU 91, the ROM 92, the RAM 93, the communication interface 94, and the input unit 95 are connected via the bus line B. The input unit 95 includes a mouse and a keyboard. Further, a program 90 is stored in the ROM 92. The program 90 is a program for the CPU 91 to operate as the common determination unit 13, the search result display processing unit 15, the program component registration unit 17, the component conversion processing unit 19, the component definition display processing unit 21, and the component conversion image display processing unit 22. It is. The communication interface 94 is a processing circuit that allows the program creation support device 1 to transmit and receive communication signals to and from other devices such as the sequence program creation device 2 and the sequence program editing device 3. is there. The display device 5 is also connected to the bus line B.

  Among the components of the program creation support device 1 shown in FIG. 2, the common determination unit 13, the search result display processing unit 15, the program component registration unit 17, the component conversion processing unit 19, the component definition display processing unit 21, and the component conversion The image display processing unit 22 is realized by the CPU 91 and the ROM 92. That is, when the CPU 91 reads out the program 90 stored in the ROM 92 from the ROM 92 and executes it, each of the above components is realized.

  In addition, the program storage unit 12, the search result storage unit 14, and the program component storage unit 18 of the program creation support device 1 illustrated in FIG. The program input unit 11 and the output unit 20 of the program creation support device 1 shown in FIG. The instruction input unit 16 of the program creation support device 1 shown in FIG.

  Here, the common determination unit 13, the search result display processing unit 15, the program component registration unit 17, the component conversion processing unit 19, the component definition display processing unit 21, and the component conversion image display processing unit 22 of the program creation support device 1 are described here. The program for operation (program 90) is stored in the ROM 92 in advance, but the present invention is not limited to this. The program 90 is supplied to the user in a state of being written on a recording medium such as a CD (Compact Disc) -ROM and a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) -ROM. A form for performing installation may be used. In this case, the hardware that implements the program creation support device 1 has a configuration including a reading device for reading a program from a recording medium or an interface circuit for connecting the reading device. The program 90 may be provided via a communication line such as the Internet.

  The configurations described in the above embodiments are merely examples of the contents of the present invention, and can be combined with other known technologies, and can be combined with other known technologies without departing from the gist of the present invention. Parts can be omitted or changed.

  REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 program creation support device, 2 sequence program creation device, 3 sequence program editing device, 5 display device, 2 a to 4 a, 2 b to 4 b circuit block, 11 program input unit, 12 program storage unit, 13 common determination unit, 14 search results Storage unit, 15 search result display processing unit, 16 instruction input unit, 17 program component registration unit, 18 program component storage unit, 19 component processing unit, 20 output unit, 21 component definition display processing unit, 22 component image display processing Department, 100 program creation system.

Claims (6)

A common logic part is extracted from the entire circuit in the sequence program, and as for the circuit parts included in the extracted common logic part, whether or not the device assignment to the circuit part at the same position is the same in all the common logic parts A common determination unit that generates additional information indicating
A program component generation unit that generates a program component based on the common logic part and the attached information extracted by the common determination unit,
A replacement unit that replaces each of the common logic parts in the sequence program with the program component and a circuit component connected to an input / output argument of the program component;
With
It said program component generating unit includes a first circuit that is designated by the user in the first circuit component is a circuit component device assignment is consistent with all of the common logic portion for the circuit components of the same position Generating a program component having an input / output argument for assigning a device to a component and an input / output argument for assigning a device to a second circuit component that is a circuit component not corresponding to the first circuit component ;
A program creation support device characterized by the following. A search result display processing unit that causes the common logic part extracted by the common determination unit to be displayed on a display device as a candidate for a program component;
With
The program component generating unit generates a program component based on a common logic part selected by a user from among the candidates for the program component and the attached information,
The program creation support device according to claim 1, wherein: From among the first circuit components, a first circuit component that requires device allocation using input / output arguments after the common logic part is replaced with a program component generated by the program component generation unit. Selection accepting unit to be selected by
Program creation support apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in the Ruco equipped with. The common logic part connects to the program component and the input / output arguments of the program component before the program component generation part generates the program component and the replacement part replaces the common logic part with the program component. A confirmation display processing unit that causes a display device to display a screen for confirming the configuration of the sequence program after being replaced with a circuit component to be replaced,
The program creation support device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: A program creation support method executed by a program creation support device that supports creation of a sequence program,
A first step of extracting a common logic part from the entire circuit in the sequence program;
For the circuit components included in the common logic portion extracted in the first step, an attachment indicating whether or not the device assignment of each common logic portion to the circuit component at the same position is the same in all common logic portions. A second step of generating information;
A third step of generating a program component based on the common logic portion extracted in the first step and the attached information;
A fourth step of replacing the common logic portion in the sequence program with the program component and a circuit component connected to an input / output argument of the program component;
Only including,
In the third step, the first circuit component designated by the user among the first circuit components, which is the circuit component whose device assignment to the circuit component at the same position is the same in all the common logic parts A program component having an input / output argument for allocating a device to the first circuit component and an input / output argument for allocating a device to a second circuit component which is a circuit component not corresponding to the first circuit component Produces
A program creation support method characterized by the following. A first step of extracting a common logic part from the entire circuit in the sequence program;
For the circuit components included in the common logic portion extracted in the first step, an attachment indicating whether or not the device assignment of each common logic portion to the circuit component at the same position is the same in all common logic portions. A second step of generating information;
A third step of generating a program component based on the common logic portion extracted in the first step and the attached information;
A fourth step of replacing the common logic portion in the sequence program with the program component and a circuit component connected to an input / output argument of the program component;
To the computer ,
The third step is a first circuit component designated by a user among first circuit components which are circuit components whose device assignments to circuit components at the same position are identical in all the common logic parts. A program component having an input / output argument for allocating a device to the first circuit component and an input / output argument for allocating a device to a second circuit component which is a circuit component not corresponding to the first circuit component Including the process of generating
A program creation support program characterized in that:

Images