JPH0787614B2 - Remote maintenance management method for plants - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application] The present invention connects a plant control device for operating and controlling a manufacturing plant such as an asphalt plant and a batcher plant, and a remote maintenance center device via a transmission line, The present invention relates to a method and device for maintaining and managing a plant control device from a maintenance center device.

[Prior Art] Recently, control technologies for asphalt plants and batcher plants have been further advanced by using microcomputers. A large number of various sensors are attached to the plant body to grasp the operating status of the plant, and the operating status of the plant is displayed on the CRT display device on the operation panel moment by moment, and the operator can monitor the operating status of the plant from the screen. It is easy to grasp, and its operability has been greatly improved.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, since the control technology of the plant has become too advanced, a failure in the control system will place a heavy burden on the operator. It is difficult to accurately report the cause of the failure and its location to the manufacturer even if the failure location is notified to the manufacturer, and even if the operator has a simple failure such as a setting error of the operator, an operation error, or a malfunction of the sensor such as the limit switch, etc. There are many problems, such as dispatching them to deal with them.

Therefore, in view of the above points, the present invention connects the control device of the plant and the remote maintenance center device by a transmission line, and quickly and accurately grasps the operating state of the plant from the remote maintenance center side far from the plant, To propose a remote maintenance management method and device for a plant that can confirm whether or not equipment is operating normally, and when a failure occurs in the control system, quickly find the cause and restore it. The purpose is.

[Means for Solving the Problems] Various signals and plant control detected by a large number of sensors arranged in each equipment of the plant by connecting a plant control device for controlling the operation of the plant and a remote maintenance center device through a transmission line. The plant operation state signal consisting of various operation signals output by operating various switches of the device is fetched into the plant control device at a predetermined cycle, and stored in the storage unit while being updated as the latest state data. If there is a request from the remote maintenance center device to send status data, the latest status data stored at that time is sent first, and thereafter only the data that causes a difference in the plant status data is sent to the remote maintenance center. By sending the data to the equipment, the CRT display of the remote maintenance center equipment can be used to visualize the ever-changing plant operation status data. It is intended to provide a remote maintenance management method for a plant, which is characterized by displaying the time.

[Operation] According to the remote maintenance management method for a plant according to the present invention, the plant control device and the remote maintenance center device are connected by a transmission line, and the plant is displayed from the computer screen of the remote maintenance center far from the plant. You can directly see the operating status of. The data transfer between the plant control device and the remote maintenance center device is such that the data can be sent quickly and efficiently by sending only the one in which the operation status signal of the plant has changed to the remote maintenance center side. Since the remote maintenance center can grasp the operating state of the plant, which changes every moment, it is possible to check whether each device is operating normally and whether it is operating properly. It is possible to realize maintenance support for a plant far away from.

In addition, if a failure occurs in the control system, the operating status of the plant controller can be checked directly on the screen of the computer of the remote maintenance center, and the cause of the failure can be found quickly and restored. is there.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram in which a remote maintenance center device 1 and a plant control device 3 for controlling the operation of a plant 2 are connected by a public communication line 4.

The remote maintenance center device 1 is composed of a main body device 5, an operation station 6 having a keyboard operated by an operator, a CRT display device 7 for displaying data, and an operation station controller 8. The remote maintenance center device 1 and the plant control device 3 are equipped with modems 9 and 10 equipped with a modulation circuit for sending a signal from each device to a transmission line and a demodulation circuit for sending a signal from the transmission line to each device. The modems 9 and 10 are connected by the public communication line 4 via the respective telephone exchanges 11 and 12 located at the installation locations of the remote maintenance center device 1 and the plant control device 3.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the data processing means 20 provided in the plant control device 3.

The operating state (operating state) signals detected by a large number of sensors attached to the plant are taken into the data processing means 20 at a predetermined cycle and stored in the present state data storage means 21 as the latest state data. The data stored in this state data storage means 21 is constantly updated every time a new state signal is fetched. When importing the plant operation status signal, the on / off signals of the limit switch etc. are imported as they are, and the analog signals such as the temperature of the material, the measured value and the current value of the drive device are converted into digital signals by the A / D converter 22. It is captured. In addition, set values input to the operation panel of the plant control device 3 and ON / OFF of various operation switches
Is also taken in at the same time.

The previous state data storage means 23 is the current state data storage means 21.
And the corresponding state data is stored in the same memory address as the previous state data storage means 23.
The latest status data transmitted to the remote maintenance center device 1 side is stored in.

The receiving means 24 has a function of receiving the starting address transmitted from the remote maintenance center device 1, and the starting address received by the receiving means 24 is stored in the starting address storing means 25. This start address points to the memory address of the current state data storage means 21 that stores the latest operating states fetched from various sensors attached to the plant and the operation panel, and is the engineer of the remote maintenance center device 1 side. Is to input a memory address to be confirmed from the keyboard, and is programmed to instruct to read a plurality of state data from a specified memory address (start address).

The comparing means 26 designates a memory address which designates the latest operating state data of the plant stored in the present state data storing means 21 and the data of the previous state data storing means 23 storing the state data transmitted to the remote maintenance center device 1. From then on, it is judged whether or not there is a difference in the data. Then, when there is a difference in the data, the status data stored in the status data storage means 21 this time is stored and stored in the transmission data storage means 27.

The transmission means 28 has a function of transmitting the transmission data stored in the transmission data storage means 27 to the remote maintenance center device 1.

Further, there is provided a data control means 29 for integrally controlling each of the storage means and the comparison means to transfer data and to perform arithmetic operations such as address addition.

Next, data processing means provided in the plant control device 3
The procedure of processing data by 20 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In the figure, S1 to S16 represent each step of each processing procedure.

In the normal operation state of the plant control device 3, the data control means 20 of the plant control device 3 functions as follows to process data. First, determine whether there is an interrupt signal for capturing status data that is generated at a predetermined cycle (S1), and if there is an interrupt signal, capture the operating status signal from various sensors or operation panels installed in the plant, The latest status data is stored in the current status data storage means 21 (S2). When the acquisition of the latest state data of the plant is completed, it is judged whether or not the start address transmitted from the maintenance center device 1 is received (S3), and if the start address is not received, it is judged whether or not there is an interrupt signal (S1). Return to. In this way, during the normal operation of the plant, the operating state signal of the plant is taken in at a predetermined cycle,
It is in the idling state where the latest state data is stored while constantly updating the data.

When the remote maintenance center device 1 is activated and the start address is transmitted from the remote maintenance center through the public communication line,
The plant control device 3 confirms the reception of the start address (S3), reads the start address, and stores it in the start address storage means 25 (S4).

Next, the state data stored in the memory address corresponding to the start address in the latest state data of the plant stored in the state data storage means 21 this time is read (S
5) Further, the state data stored in the same memory address of the state data storage means 23 last time is read (S6). Then, the state data stored in the same memory address of each storage means is compared by the comparison means 26 (S7), and it is determined whether there is a difference (S8).

If a difference is generated by the comparison, the current state data having the difference is transferred and stored in the same address of the previous state data storage means 23 to update the data of the previous state data storage means 23 (S9), and the state data Is also transferred and stored in the transmission data storage means 27 in order to be transmitted to the remote maintenance center device 1 (S10). Next, if it is programmed to instruct to read a plurality of status data from the specified address, it is judged whether or not the current address is the final address (S11). If it is not the final address, 1 is added to the address. After adding (S12) and returning to step 5, the same operation as described above is performed, and the data having the difference is updated one by one with the latest state data in the previous state data storage means 23 one by one, and at the same time, the transmission data storage means.
It will be stored in 27.

It should be noted that when the status data transmission request from the remote maintenance center device 1 is first received, the previous status data storage means 23
Since no data is stored in all the data due to the comparison of the data, all the latest state data of the plant is stored in the previous state data storage means 23, and also in the transmission data storage means 27. The data will be stored.

When the reading of the status data of the final address is completed (S11), the data stored in the transmission data storage means 27 is collectively transmitted to the remote maintenance center device 1 by the transmission means 27 via the public communication line 4 (S13). ). After transmitting this data, it is judged whether the operation of the plant control device is in the stopped state (S14), and if it is not in the stopped state, step 1
Return to and repeat the subsequent steps, and if it is in the stopped state, end the data processing.

In the step 8 described above, if the current state data and the previous state data are compared and there is no difference, it is continuously determined whether or not the address is the final address (S15), and if it is not the final address. One is added to the address (S16), and the process returns to step 5. If the address becomes the final address, the process moves to step 13 described above.

As described above, when the remote maintenance center device 1 requests the plant control device 3 to transmit the plant operation state data, first, the latest state data of the plant stored at that time is transmitted to the remote maintenance center. At the same time, after that, only the data that caused a difference in the plant status data such as changes in the detection signals of various sensors installed in the plant, changes in the setting values of the operation panel, ON / OFF switching of operation switches, etc. will be sent to the remote maintenance center Send it. As a result, the operating status of the plant is displayed on the CRT display device 7 of the remote maintenance center every moment, and the operating status of the plant far away from the remote maintenance center side can be grasped.

If the plant control device 3 has stopped operating due to some failure, the remote maintenance center device 1 requests the plant control device 3 to transmit plant operating state data, and the data is stored when the operation is stopped. CRT display 7 at the remote maintenance center
You can check it on the screen.

In the above embodiment, the status data having a difference is stored in the transmission data storage unit in order to improve the transmission efficiency, and when the comparison of the data of the final address is completed, the status data is collectively stored in the remote maintenance center device 1. Although an example of transmitting is shown, the data may be transmitted to the remote maintenance center device 1 every time a difference occurs due to comparison. Further, by connecting the plant control device for controlling the operation of the plant and the remote maintenance center device with a public communication line, the communication line can be used without modifying the program inside the plant control device 3 or upgrading the version on site. It can be done easily.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the remote maintenance management method and device of the present invention, after the latest data is sent from the plant control device 3 in response to a data transmission request from the remote maintenance center device 1, thereafter Since only the data having a difference is transmitted, the data can be transmitted quickly and efficiently, and the data can be transmitted on the screen of the CRT display device 7 of the remote maintenance center device 1 at a long distance via the passage line. By displaying the operating status of the plant, the remote maintenance center can grasp the operating status of the plant, which changes moment by moment, in real time. Whether or not each device is operating normally, and whether it is operating properly It is also possible to confirm whether or not it is possible to realize maintenance support for a plant far away from the remote maintenance center.

Also, if a failure occurs in the control system, you can directly check the operating status of the plant on the screen of the CRT display device 7 of the remote maintenance center device 1, and you can quickly find the cause of the failure and restore it. It becomes.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a remote maintenance management device for a plant according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of data processing means provided in a plant control device, and FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a remote maintenance management method. is there. 1 ... Remote maintenance center device, 2 ... plant, 3 ... plant control device, 4 ... public communication line, 20 ... data processing means, 21 ... current state data storage means, 23 ... previous state data storage Means, 25 ... Starting address storage means, 26 ...
… Comparison means, 27 …… Sending data storage means, 29 …… Data control means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A variety of signals detected by a large number of sensors arranged in each equipment of the plant and various switches of the plant control apparatus, which are connected by a transmission line to a plant control apparatus for controlling the operation of the plant and a remote maintenance center apparatus. The operation status signals of the plant, which consist of various operation signals output by the operation of, are fetched into the plant control device at a predetermined cycle, and stored in the storage unit while being updated as the latest status data. If there is a request for status data transmission from the equipment, the latest status data stored at that time is sent first, and thereafter only the data that causes a difference in the status data of the plant is sent to the remote maintenance center equipment. In this way, the CRT display device of the remote maintenance center device displays the operating state data of the plant, which changes moment by moment, in real time. Remote maintenance management method of the plant, characterized in that as.