JPH0574088U - Distributed control system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] By adding a simple configuration on the engineering station side, it is possible to minimize the number of times that the control station side temporarily fails. [Structure] Depending on whether the engineering station has an effect on the memory allocation of the control station by comparing the database creation means for creating / modifying the control station database, the information after database modification, and the information before modification. , An initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means for judging whether the initialization is necessary or not, and a downloading means for downloading the modified database together with the judgment information by the initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means to the control station side. An initialization is performed to initialize the information stored in its own memory in the communication card of the control station based on the initialization necessary / unnecessary information added to the database sent by the download means. It is configured by providing means.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a distributed control system for controlling a process, and more specifically, it performs a process control operation on a database handled by various internal instruments configured in a control station in charge of control calculation. Decentralized control system with engineering station with online maintenance function to correct up to (online).

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 The distributed control system is composed of a control station and an operator station that exchanges data with the control station and performs control operation and operation. In such a decentralized control system, assuming that the target of process control may change or the production amount may change, the connection status of multiple internal instruments configured in the control station Also, an engineering station for changing or modifying the database (including parameters) handled by these internal instruments can be connected.

Here, a plurality of control stations and an operator station, and these and an engineering station are connected through a communication line. Therefore, each control station is equipped with a communication card for interfacing with the communication line. This communication card is equipped with a memory that stores information (maps) for calculating addresses to retrieve the data handled by the internal instruments in the control station from the memory.

In the conventional device, the engineering station initializes the memory of the communication card every time the internal instrument of the control station is changed online.

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 For this reason, the online maintenance, which involves changing some of the internal instruments in the control station, temporarily interrupts communication with the operator station each time due to the initialization of the communication card. , The control station seemed to have temporarily failed. This is inconvenient for creating the control system application at the engineering station.

The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and the initialization of the communication card is performed only when absolutely necessary during the online maintenance by the engineering station, and the control station main body is temporarily operated. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a distributed control system that can minimize the frequency of failures that appear to have failed.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The present invention, which achieves such an object, transmits and receives data between a control station having a communication card for interfacing with a communication line and this control station to perform a controlled operation or operation. In the distributed control system consisting of an operator station that performs operations and an engineering station that has an online maintenance function for online maintenance of the database handled by multiple internal instruments that are configured in the control station, According to whether or not the memory allocation of the control station is affected by comparing the database creation means for creating / modifying the control station database, the information after the database modification by the database creation means, and the information before modification, to the station. An initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means for judging whether the initialization is necessary or not, and a downloading means for downloading the modified database to the control station together with the judgment information by the initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means. In the communication card on the control station side, based on the initialization necessary / unnecessary information added to the database sent by the download means, the information stored in its own memory is initialized. This is a distributed control system characterized by being provided with an initialization means for performing the initialization.

[0008]

[Action]

 The engineering station creates and modifies the database of the control station by the database creating means as its online maintenance function. The initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means judges whether or not the initialization of the memory of the communication card is necessary before downloading the modified database to the control station side based on the information before and after the correction.

On the communication card side, the memory is initialized only when the database sent by the download means has the information that needs to be initialized.

[0010]

【Example】

 Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, OPS is an operator station for controlling driving operation and monitoring the control state, and is equipped with a CRT and a keyboard as a man-machine interface.

FC1 and FC2 are control stations in charge of controlling the process, and have communication cards C1 and C2 for interfacing with the communication line BS, respectively. In the control stations FC1 and FC2, a large number of internal instruments 11 for performing, for example, PID control calculation, sequence control, etc. are configured, and a database 12 is constructed including signals handled by these internal instruments. . Control stations FC1 and FC2 are configured so that signals from various sensors (not shown) installed in the process are applied and the control output obtained by the internal instrument is output to the operating end such as a valve. Has become. Although two control stations are shown here, a plurality of control stations are further connected to the communication line BS depending on the scale of the process to be controlled.

ENG is an engineering station, which is equipped with a CRT as a man-machine interface and a keyboard, and is connected to a communication line BS as necessary. This engineering station ENG has connection information of a plurality of internal instruments 11 configured in the control stations FC1 and FC2, a database which these internal instruments handle (connection information between internal instruments and parameters used by the internal instruments). Etc.) and has a maintenance function for making online changes. In this engineering station ENG, 31 is a database creating means for creating and modifying the database 12 of the control stations FC1 and FC2, and 32 is a comparison between the information after the database modification by the database creating means 31 and the information before the modification. , An initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means for judging whether the initialization is necessary or not according to whether or not the memory arrangement of the control station is affected, 33 is a judgment whether the modified database is necessary / unnecessary It is a download means for downloading to the control stations FC1, FC2 side together with the judgment information by the means 32.

In the communication cards C1 and C2 on the side of the control stations FC1 and FC2, 21 is a communication interface for performing an interface function with the communication line BS, and 22 is a memory. Stores information for address calculation. Reference numeral 23 is an initialization means for initializing the own memory 22 based on the initialization necessary / unnecessary information added to the database sent by the download means 33.

The operation of the apparatus thus configured will be described below. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation when performing online maintenance by the engineering station ENG.

Here, the online maintenance means that, for example, an engineer of a user corrects the information that is the source of the database in the control station at the engineering station ENG, and the information after the correction is converted into the database format of the control station. , The work of downloading to the control station without stopping the normal operation of the control station.

Here, in the process of making the correction contents into the data format of the control station, it is judged whether the contents corrected this time need to initialize the communication cards C1 and C2 of the control station. This is performed by the difference list creation process of the initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means 32.

This difference list creation process uses the database currently loaded and loaded in the control station and the database that has been modified in the online maintenance state and that is newly created based on the modified information for each function of the control station. It is a process to compare each and check if there is a difference. If there is a difference, write the difference information to a file. At the same time, it also judges whether or not the difference involves initialization of the communication card on the control station side.

This judgment criterion depends on whether or not the memory layout of the currently operating control station is affected. If there is an effect, initialization is necessary, and that information (initialization command) is stored in a file. Initialization is unnecessary if there is no effect on writing.

That is, the internal measuring instrument 11 of the control station is composed of a master list and a function list, and the internal measuring instrument depends on the arrangement order of the list and the number of constituents of the list. The difference list process will check whether the list structure is changed as the database is modified (the list structure and order are changed due to the deletion and addition of internal instruments, the amount of arithmetic expressions, etc.).

Then, the load process by the download unit 33 is performed. This process sends the necessary database information to the control station based on the difference file created by the difference list process. At this time, the initialization command is transmitted to the control station only when the initialization command code is included in the file.

The communication card executes initialization of its own memory 22 only when receiving such an initialization command. When the communication card is initialized, it temporarily goes into a fail state and then returns to normal operation. If there is no initialization command, the online maintenance work ends.

[0022]

[Effect of the device]

 As described above in detail, the present invention compares the existing database with the modified database when performing the online maintenance work on the engineering station having the online maintenance function, and the initialization based on the result is performed. The configuration is such that information on whether or not it is necessary is passed to the load process, and there is no need to modify the configuration on the control station side.

Therefore, according to the present invention, by adding a simple configuration on the engineering station side in the conventional apparatus, it is possible to minimize the number of times the control station side is temporarily in a fail state, which is a distributed control. The system can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of an operation when online maintenance is performed by an engineering station.

[Explanation of symbols]

 OPS operator station FC1, FC2 control station BS communication line C1, C2 communication card 11 internal instrument 12 database ENG engineering station 31 database creating means 32 initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means 33 download means 21 communication interface 22 memory 23 initialization means

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A control station having a communication card for interfacing with a communication line, an operator station for exchanging data with the control station for control operation and operation, and an inside of the control station. In a distributed control system including an engineering station having an online maintenance function for online maintenance of a database handled by a plurality of internal instruments, the database of the control station is created in the engineering station.・ Initialization or non-necessity of initialization depends on whether the database arrangement for correction, the information after database correction by the database preparation means, and the information before correction affect the memory allocation of the control station. An initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means for making a judgment and a download means for downloading the corrected database to the control station side together with the judgment information by the initialization necessary / unnecessary judging means are provided, and the communication card on the control station side is provided. It is characterized in that initialization means for initializing the information stored in its own memory is provided based on the initialization necessary / unnecessary information added to the database sent by the download means. Decentralized control system.