JPH08161199A - Remote maintenance and management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To quickly repair abnormality generated in a maintenance object within minimum time. CONSTITUTION: A network 11a is constituted of connecting a local computer 11, controllers 12a for maintenance objects 12 and pocket bells 13 through a public telephone line K. If abnormality is generated in a certain maintenance object 12, its corresponding controller 12a transmits abnormality information to the local computer 11, which distributes maintenance command information to pocket bells 13 carried by respective maintenance men.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote maintenance management system for efficiently monitoring and maintaining a large number of maintenance objects scattered over a wide area.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A regular patrol maintenance system is generally employed to monitor and maintain a large number of maintenance objects scattered over a wide area. According to this, since each maintenance target is regularly patrolled regardless of whether or not an abnormality has occurred, it is possible to maintain the best operating state by so-called preventive maintenance.

However, in this regular patrol maintenance system, maintenance work is carried out uniformly regardless of whether or not an abnormality has occurred. Therefore, downtime cannot be ignored, the optimal arrangement of maintenance personnel, the optimal inventory of maintenance parts, etc. However, it is extremely difficult to operate the entire system efficiently.

[0004] On the other hand, in the so-called post-maintenance for repairing an abnormality each time a maintenance target occurs, the maintenance center is notified of the abnormality and a maintenance staff is dispatched through the maintenance center. It is possible to minimize the required number.

[0005]

According to the prior art, the notification of an abnormality from the maintenance target and the dispatch of the maintenance staff from the maintenance center are normally made by hand and by telephone. Therefore, the time required for the maintenance personnel to arrive tends to be long, and even if the maintenance target is an unmanned system or a manned system where the operator is stationed, if the operator cannot be expected to have anomaly analysis capability, However, there is a problem that the time required for restoration is extremely long because the maintenance staff cannot grasp the details of the abnormality in advance. In this way, if the time required for the maintenance staff to arrive and the time required for the repair become long, it is obvious that the downtime of the maintenance target becomes long and the overall operation rate is greatly reduced.

Therefore, in view of the problems of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to fully automate the abnormality notification from the maintenance target and the dispatch command of the maintenance personnel, so that the overall operation rate is good even though the maintenance is performed after the fact. It is to provide a remote maintenance management system that can easily realize the following.

[0007]

The structure of the present invention for achieving the above object is attached to a local computer and each maintenance target in the monitoring area of the local computer, and is connected to the local computer via a public telephone circuit. Consists of multiple controllers to connect to and a receiving terminal to connect to the local computer via a public telephone line. The controller detects that an abnormality has occurred in the maintenance target and sends an abnormality report to the local computer. The main point is to deliver the maintenance command information to a predetermined receiving terminal in response to the abnormality notification from the controller.

The receiving terminal may be a pager carried by a maintenance person.

Further, the local computer can simultaneously deliver the maintenance command information to at least two receiving terminals.

Further, the local computer is connected to the central computer via a public telephone line, and the controller can issue an abnormality notification to both the local computer and the central computer. Can be connected.

[0011]

According to the structure of the present invention, the controller attached to each maintenance target detects that an abnormality has occurred in the maintenance target and issues an abnormality notification, and the local computer receives the abnormality notification to determine the predetermined condition. Since the maintenance command information can be distributed to the receiving terminal of, the maintenance staff can immediately go to a predetermined maintenance target and start the maintenance work by receiving the maintenance command information via the receiving terminal. it can. At this time, the abnormality notification from the controller can include technical information indicating the content of the abnormality in addition to the information for specifying the maintenance target in which the abnormality has occurred. The information can include information for identifying the maintenance target as well as information on the content of the expected repair work.

If the receiving terminal is a pager, the maintenance personnel can easily receive the information necessary for the maintenance work via the message displayed on the pager machine.

When the local computer delivers the maintenance command information to at least two receiving terminals, one receiving terminal serves as a backup for the other, and the maintenance staff does not respond to the maintenance command information at all. Can be prevented.

By connecting the local computer to the central computer, the central computer can form a computer network having the central computer as its core, and even if it is a wide area system covering the whole of Japan, it can be easily implemented. Can be built into. Since each controller sends an error notification to both the local computer and the central computer, the central computer monitors the subsequent work completion notification to notify the local computer of the repair work in the monitoring area. It is possible to grasp and manage the progress situation.

When the support computer is connected to the central computer, the support computer distributes new technical assistance information to each local computer via the central computer, and each local computer uses the technical assistance information. As a result, for example, for a new model installed in the monitoring area, it is possible to provide the maintenance staff with appropriate repair work instruction information.

[0016]

Embodiments Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The remote maintenance management system is a public telephone line K.
Through the local computer 11 and the maintenance target 12,
Controllers 12a, 12a ... Attached to 12 ... And pagers 13, 13 ... Are connected (FIG. 1). Note that the maintenance target 12, 12 ... Is the local computer 1
It is assumed that the pagers 13 are installed in one monitoring area, and that there are two or more pagers 13 regardless of FIG.

The maintenance objects 12, 12 ... Are exemplified by elevator type multi-level parking devices. That is, each maintenance target 12 is provided with a high-rise building that houses automobiles in multiple stages and an elevator device incorporated in the same building, and the controller 12a responds to a storage command given via an operation panel (not shown). Correspondingly, the vehicle can be stored in a predetermined target position of the building and stored, and the predetermined vehicle can be stored in response to the leaving command. It should be noted that an automobile that is loaded and unloaded is configured to be transported in a building by an elevator device via a pallet (not shown).

Each controller 12a is attached to the maintenance target 12 and is connected to the local computer 11 via the public telephone line K. Controller 12a
Is capable of loading and unloading an automobile by sequence-controlling a series of constituent devices in the maintenance target 12 including the elevator device in a predetermined order, and detects an abnormal operation of the constituent devices. It is possible to stop the currently operating device and to send an abnormality notification TX to the outside.

The local computer 11 is bidirectionally connected to the public telephone line K. Further, the pagers 13, 13 ... Are connected to the local computer 11 via the public telephone line K. Therefore, the local computer 11 sends the controller 12 of the maintenance target 12, 12, ...
a, 12a ..., Pagers 13, 13 ... Compose a network 11a. It should be noted that each pager 13 is carried by a maintenance person in the surveillance area and forms a receiving terminal for the local computer 11.

A central computer 2 is connected to the public telephone line K.
1 is bidirectionally connected, and a support computer 22 is bidirectionally connected to the central computer 21.
The support computer 22 may be connected to the central computer 21 via the public telephone line K. Also, FIG.
In the above, it is assumed that a plurality of local computers 11 are installed for each of the central computer 21 and the support computer 22. Therefore, the public telephone line K has a plurality of networks 11a by each local computer 11, 11a ... Are bidirectionally connected, and as a whole, a central computer 21 and a support computer 22.
Has formed a large computer network.

Each maintenance target 12 is disconnected from the public telephone line K in a normal state. That is, each maintenance target 12 can load and unload a vehicle independently of the local computer 11, the central computer 21, and the support computer 22 by the controller 12a.

When an abnormality occurs in the maintenance target 12, the controller 12a sends an abnormality notification TX to both the local computer 11 and the central computer 21 via the public telephone line K.

The data format of the abnormality notification TX is as shown in FIG. 2 (A), for example. Abnormality report T
X consists of serial data with a total length of 70 bytes (see Fig. 2
(A), (B)), a specific number ID of the multi-level parking device as the maintenance target 12, an error code indicating the content of the error other than the date and time of the error, a storage instruction at the time of the abnormality, a target position of the delivery command, an elevator The information includes the stop position of the apparatus, the number of vehicles in the garage, the presence / absence of vehicles on the elevator apparatus, and input / output data for the controller 12a.

Here, the error code is a code indicating the cause analysis result of the abnormality executed by the controller 12a, and two types can be displayed. In addition, the input / output data is input / output data information of each sensor or actuator that detects the operating state of the maintenance target 12,
By using a maximum of 36 bytes, the controller 12a can collect ON / OFF data of 144 points of sensors and actuators and transmit them collectively (FIG. 2).
(C)). However, in FIG. 2C, the left column is 16
The group code of the input / output data for each point is shown. The middle 4 columns show an on / off display example of each input / output data, and the right column shows
The results of hexadecimal display examples of the on / off display examples of the middle four columns are shown.

In the local computer 11, technical assistance information for abnormality analysis regarding the maintenance target 12 specified by the specified number ID is input and stored in advance. Therefore, when the local computer 11 receives the abnormality notification TX from the controller 12a, it analyzes the contents of the abnormality notification TX by referring to the corresponding technical support information of the maintenance target 12, identifies the cause of the abnormality, and corrects the repair work procedure. It is possible to create and output the repair work instruction information including the. At the same time, the local computer 11 searches for the maintenance personnel in charge of the maintenance target 12 identified by the specific number ID and the maintenance personnel who are their direct managers, and the pager 13 carried by these maintenance personnel, It is possible to deliver the maintenance instruction information to 13. The contents of the maintenance command information at this time are, for example, the specific number ID of the maintenance target 12, the error code, and the stop position of the elevator device.

The maintenance staff in charge goes directly to the location of the maintenance target 12 while contacting his / her direct supervisor, and starts maintenance work for repairing the abnormality. At this time, the maintenance staff can refer to the repair work instruction information output from the local computer 11 by contacting the installation location of the local computer 11.

When the maintenance staff starts the maintenance work,
Local computer 1 via controller 12a
1. The work start notification WX is transmitted to the central computer 21 (FIG. 3 (A)). Further, when the maintenance work is completed, the maintenance staff issues a work completion notification CX ((B) in the same figure). As a result, the local computer 11
It is possible to grasp and manage the progress of maintenance work for all of the maintenance targets 12, 12 ... In the monitoring area. The same applies to the central computer 21.

The central computer 21 can also function as a backup of the local computer 11. That is, when the work start notification WX or the work completion notification CX corresponding to the abnormal notification TX is transmitted from the specific maintenance target 12 within a predetermined time, the central computer 21 causes the central computer 21 to Anomalies can be alerted and appropriate action can be taken.

The above operation can be displayed by the flowchart of FIG. That is, when an abnormality occurs in the maintenance target 12 in the monitoring area, the controller 12a of the maintenance target 12 sends an abnormality notification TX to the local computer 11 and the central computer 21 (step (1) in FIG. , Just like (1)). On the other hand, since the local computer 11 delivers the maintenance command information to the maintenance personnel in charge and the pagers 13 and 13 carried by his / her direct supervisor (2), the maintenance personnel in charge stops due to an abnormality. It is possible to go straight to the place of the maintenance target 12. At the time of starting work, the maintenance staff sends a work start notification WX to the local computer 11 and the central computer 21 via the controller 12a (3), and when the work is completed, similarly sends a work completion notification CX. (4).

When carrying out maintenance work for preventive maintenance on the maintenance targets 12, 12, ..., The maintenance staff, via the controller 12a, the local computer 11,
A maintenance start notification MX can be transmitted to the central computer 21 (FIG. 3 (C)). In addition, maintenance personnel,
When the maintenance work is completed, the work completion notification CX is similarly transmitted to the local computer 11 and the central computer 21 (FIG. 9B). That is, the local computer 11 and the central computer 21 can manage the progress of maintenance work for preventive maintenance as well, and together with repair work in the event of an abnormality,
A daily work report can be created and output. The central computer 21 also reports the daily work report to the support computer 22, and the support computer 22 receives all the maintenance targets 12 included in the computer network.
With respect to 12 ..., Technical data such as the frequency and cause of the abnormality occurrence and the operating status can be collected.

A new maintenance target 12 may be additionally installed in the monitoring area of the local computer 11. At this time, the data regarding the new maintenance target 12 is additionally registered in the local computer 11, and the local computer 11 also notifies the central computer 21 of that fact.

When the newly installed maintenance target 12 is a new model, the support computer 22 is the central computer 2.
1. The technical support information for abnormality analysis for the same model is distributed to the local computers 11, 11. Therefore, thereafter, each local computer 11 and the central computer 21 can perform abnormality analysis for the same model without any trouble.

In the above description, the maintenance target 12, 12
Is not limited to the multilevel parking device, and may be any other mechanical device or system. In addition, maintenance target 12, 12
Is not limited to the same type of mechanical devices and systems, but may be a mixture of different types of mechanical devices and systems.

On the other hand, the pagers 13, 13, ... Are carrying terminals carried by respective maintenance personnel and receive maintenance command information from the local computer 11. Therefore, this may be, for example, a mobile phone having a facsimile function, or any wired or wireless communication device similar thereto, as long as the same function can be executed.
Further, the local computer 11 responds to the abnormality notification TX by one or more arbitrary number of pagers 13, 13, ...
The maintenance instruction information can be distributed to.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention, by connecting the local computer, the controller to be maintained in the monitoring area, and the receiving terminal via the public telephone line, the controller can be maintained. When an abnormality occurs in the target, an abnormality notification is sent, and the local computer can deliver the maintenance command information to a predetermined receiving terminal in response to the abnormality notification from the controller. It is possible to arrive at the maintenance target after the shortest time and complete the maintenance work for restoration. Therefore, it is possible to easily realize a good overall operation rate even though it is the post-repair maintenance. is there.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the overall configuration

[Fig. 2] Data format for error notification

[Figure 3] Data format for work start notification, work completion notification, and maintenance start notification

[Fig. 4] Operation flowchart

[Explanation of symbols]

 K ... Public telephone line TX ... Abnormality notification 11 ... Local computer 12 ... Maintenance target 12a ... Controller 13 ... Pager 21 ... Central computer 22 ... Support computer

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A local computer and each security target in a monitoring area of the local computer,
A plurality of controllers connected to the local computer via a public telephone circuit, and a receiving terminal connected to the local computer via a public telephone line,
The controller detects that an abnormality has occurred in the maintenance target and sends an abnormality notification to the local computer, and the local computer responds to the abnormality notification from the controller and issues a maintenance command to a predetermined receiving terminal. A remote maintenance management system characterized by distributing information. 2. The remote maintenance management system according to claim 1, wherein the receiving terminal is a pager carried by a maintenance staff. 3. The remote maintenance management system according to claim 1, wherein the local computer simultaneously delivers the maintenance command information to at least two receiving terminals. 4. The local computer is connected to a central computer via a public telephone line, and the controller issues an abnormality notification to both the local computer and the central computer. The remote maintenance management system according to claim 3. 5. The remote maintenance management system according to claim 4, wherein a support computer is connected to the central computer.