JPH10247142A - Process control program programming system and programming method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a programming system for a process control device using diagrammatic programming that can edit an application in consideration of an execution order of a functional object. When an application is edited in a graphical programming method (401, 402), an execution order is displayed on a display in an execution order determination procedure (403) (404). The user can determine the execution order by moving the function objects whose execution order could not be uniquely determined in the execution order determination procedure along a time axis defined on the display.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a programming system and a programming method for developing a program for controlling a process control device, and more particularly to a diagram for graphically defining on a computer screen the connection relation of functional objects acting as functional components. The present invention relates to a programming system for determining the execution order of functional objects and displaying the execution order in functional programming.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to properly operate a process control apparatus, a process control program for appropriately controlling the components of the process control apparatus is required. Traditionally, the development of this process control program has involved graphical programming,
That is, an attempt has been made to create a program by graphically expressing a process control device using functional components called functional objects on a computer display. Here, a functional object corresponds to a component of a control device having a specific function, such as an input / output (I / O) point in a control system or a control point such as a PID part. It is an object including a set value given thereto, a procedure (program) for realizing the function, and the like.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a programming system for a process control program as described above. The process control programming device includes a display 101 as a display device, a computer main body 102 including a CPU and a storage device, and input / output devices such as a disk drive 102a, a keyboard 103, and a mouse 104. On the display 101, an editing window 110 called an application editing sheet for designing and developing an application program using the functional objects, and an object bar 120 representing a list of available individual functional objects by icons are displayed. I have.

A user of this system, that is, a programmer of a process control program, uses the mouse 104 to select an arbitrary functional object from the object bar 120 and displays it on the application editing sheet 110.
Display above. And application editing sheet 1
Function objects 111, 112, 1 displayed on 10
The flow of data between 13 and 114, in other words, the connection relationship, is graphically described by drawing a block diagram with a line called a link 115. Thereafter, a process control program is generated from the connection relationship represented by the program included in each functional object and the link. The procedure of generating a control program from functional objects and links that graphically represent the process control device is called materialization. By using such a programming system, the user can develop a control program visually by drawing a block diagram of the process control device without being conscious of the program included in each functional object.

At this time, in order for the process control program generated from the function object to operate properly,
It is necessary to appropriately determine the execution order of the functional objects based on the links. Conventional graphical programming systems have an execution order determining means for automatically determining the execution order of functional objects using a process analysis method such as a Petri net or a directed graph. Alternatively, the execution order of the functional objects is determined when executing the program.

[0006]

However, in such a system, the execution order is determined at the time of materializing or executing the program. Therefore, it is necessary to know the execution order of the functional objects when editing the application, that is, at the time of programming. Was difficult. In other words, in a conventional programming system for a process control device using diagrammatic programming, the execution order cannot be known unless the created application is actually operated and debugged. The order of execution had to be predicted according to an algorithm that determines the order of execution. For this reason, it is difficult to consider the execution order of each function object in the development of an application in which a plurality of function objects are connected in a complicated manner, and it is possible to take advantage of the graphical programming that can be visually programmed. Did not.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, two function objects 11 connected to the function
Which one of the functions 1 and 112 should be executed first cannot be uniquely determined unless the function object 113 has information necessary for determining the execution order. That is, an order determination algorithm based on a Petri net or a directed graph may not uniquely determine the execution order of the functional objects. In such a case, the integrity of the application program is lost and a problem occurs due to a difference in data access timing. To avoid such problems,
A structure in which the execution order is not uniquely determined must be discovered during application development, and the user, that is, a programmer, must determine the execution order.

[0008] However, in the conventional programming system using diagrammatic programming, there is no means for specifying a structure having the above-mentioned imperfections in an application. As a result, the execution order is not determined by the user, causing the reliability of the application program to be impaired. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a programming system and a programming method for a process control program that can develop an application in consideration of the execution order of functional objects.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a programming system according to the present invention arranges and displays on a display means functional objects representing the functions of components constituting a process control device, An application editing unit that graphically defines a connection relationship between the function objects on a display unit; an execution order determination unit that automatically determines an execution order of the function objects based on the connection relationship; In a programming system for a process control program, comprising a control program generating means for generating a control program for the process control device based on the connection relationship and the execution order, the application editing means is automatically executed by the execution order determining means. Determined actual of the function object It is characterized in that it has a display control means for displaying an order on the display means. Here, the display control means includes all means for displaying the execution order determined by the execution order determination means together with the function object on the display means. For example, a number indicating the execution order is assigned to the function object displayed on the display. indicate. This allows the user to know the execution order of the functional objects at the time of editing the application, that is, at the time of programming, without actually operating and debugging the completed application. Also, if the execution order cannot be uniquely determined by the execution order determination means, the execution order is not displayed.
The user can know that the application in the program has such a structure, that is, has an imperfection, and can contribute to improvement of the reliability of the application.

The above-described display control means can be specifically realized as follows. That is, data indicating the execution order determined by the execution order determination means is stored in a storage means such as a memory of a computer in association with the corresponding function object. At this time, the execution order data may be stored, for example, in the form of a table paired with the name of the function object, but each function object is defined in advance so as to have a variable for storing data indicating its own execution order. In this case, the data indicating the execution order may be a part of the information constituting the functional object. The execution order data stored in the storage means of the computer in this way is read from the storage means and displayed on the display as a number indicating the execution order. At this time, the computer is stored in the storage means separately. The coordinates on the display means for displaying the number are calculated with reference to the coordinates indicating the display position of each functional block on the display means such as a display. Then, based on the coordinates, the numbers indicating the execution order are displayed together with the function objects on the display means.

The display means includes all information display means capable of graphic display, such as a CRT and a liquid crystal display. Further, the application editing means is means for graphically defining the connection relationship between the functional objects displayed thereon on a display means such as a display using an input means such as a mouse. In particular,
The function objects displayed on the display are connected by a directed graph or the like. At this time, an object including information specifying the two connected functional objects and information on the direction of data flow between the two functional objects, that is, information on the connection direction, is generated and stored in the storage device of the computer. . This object is called a link object or simply a link.

The execution order determining means means means for clarifying the order relation of the function objects based on information relating to the connection relations of the function objects graphically defined on the display means, that is, links. For example, it is realized by executing, on a computer, an algorithm for analyzing a process to be applied, based on a Petri net or a directed graph theory, which is a state transition model for describing parallel processes. Specifically, for example, when obtaining an order based on a Petri net, the functional object is treated as a transition node or a location node, and the link is treated as a branch between these nodes, and the order is analyzed by analyzing the situation in which the transition node fires. Determine the relationship. When a directed graph is used, each functional object and link respectively correspond to a node and a binary relation between nodes. On a computer, these binary relations are stored in a storage means as a matrix, and an arithmetic unit of the computer performs an operation such as exponentiation on the matrix to obtain a structure of a system composed of functional objects connected by links. And determine the execution order. The execution order determination algorithm by the execution order determination means as described above can be activated not only by the realization by the control program generation means but also by the user executing a command at any time during the editing of the application. it can.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when the execution order of the function objects cannot be uniquely determined by the execution order determination means, the function objects whose execution order could not be automatically determined are ordered. The information is displayed on the display means in such a manner that it is undecided. Specifically, a function object whose execution order could not be uniquely determined is displayed in a different color from other function objects, or the function object is displayed along a time axis defined on the display unit. The function objects are arranged and displayed according to the execution order, and the function objects whose execution order could not be uniquely determined by the execution order determination means are displayed at the same time on the time axis.
By doing so, the user can more easily recognize on the display the functional objects whose execution order determination means could not uniquely determine the execution order than before. As a result, it is possible to develop a highly reliable process control program by determining the execution order of these functional objects by the user.

When the user determines the order of the functional objects for which the execution order cannot be uniquely determined by the execution order determining means, the user executes the function objects through an interface such as a dialog box displayed on a display. Although the order may be input, the invention described in claims 3 and 4
The function objects whose execution order has been automatically determined are automatically arranged and displayed according to the execution order with respect to the time axis defined on the display means, while the function objects whose execution order could not be uniquely determined are displayed. The execution order of these functional objects is displayed at the same time on the time axis, and the function objects whose execution order could not be uniquely determined are moved by the user along the time axis on the display means. It is characterized in that it is determined and the execution order is displayed on the display means. That is,
Since the execution order could not be uniquely determined automatically by the execution order determination algorithm, the user drags the function objects arranged and displayed on the display at the same time on the time axis using an input device such as a mouse. By moving along, the display control means detects the coordinates of the functional object on the display and determines the execution order from the relative positional relationship.
Thus, even if the execution order determining means cannot automatically determine the execution order, the user can easily determine the execution order visually by moving the functional object on the display.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. A programming system for a process control program according to the first embodiment of the present invention is configured by devices as shown in FIG. That is, a computer main body 10 including a display 101 functioning as a display means and a disk drive 102a.
And input / output devices such as a keyboard 103 and a mouse 104. FIG. 2 shows a basic hardware configuration of the present system. The computer main body 102 includes a CPU 20
1, a storage means such as an internal memory 202 and a hard disk 203, and a bus 204. Display 101, keyboard 103, mouse 104, C
An input / output device such as a D-ROM drive (or floppy disk drive) 102a is connected to the bus 204 via an interface (not shown in FIGS. 1 and 2).

Here, the program of the present process control programming system is installed in the hard disk 203. When the present programming system is started, this software is read from the hard disk 203 to the internal memory 202. The CPU 201 controls memory management, data processing, data exchange with peripheral devices, and the like in accordance with the program read into the internal memory, and functions as a programming system for a process control program. Further, available function objects prepared in advance are also stored in files on the hard disk 203.

FIG. 3 shows the software configuration of the process control programming system. As shown in FIG. 3, the software basically includes four modules. The function object module 31 is a function object prepared in advance as a library, and is stored in the hard disk 203 as a file. The application editing module 32 performs memory management during application editing, display control of the display 101, input / output control with peripheral devices such as the mouse 104, and functions as an application editing unit together with the hardware. The execution order determination module 33 includes a program for analyzing a system composed of interconnected function objects using a Petri net, and analyzes the connection relationship of the function objects to determine the execution order of the function objects constituting the application. Determined automatically. The program of the execution order determination module 33 is:
An execution order determining unit is configured together with the above hardware. In this embodiment, since the execution order determination module 33 is independent of other software modules, it can function in both the application editing mode and the control program generation mode. The control program generation module 34 instantiates the function objects in which connection relations are defined, and generates a process control program based on the function objects, links, and execution order. The software module as described above is
It is supplied in a form recorded on a storage medium such as a CD-ROM or a floppy disk, and is installed on the hard disk 203 of the computer main body 102.

Next, the programming procedure of the process control program using the present programming system will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 1, 2 and 4. In the application editing mode, an application editing sheet 110 and an object bar 120 are displayed on the display 101 as shown in FIG. When editing an application using a functional object, first, a functional object corresponding to an element of the process control device is selected from the object bar 120 and displayed on the application editing sheet 110 (step 401). As a result, the functional object is displayed on the display 101 as the display means. At this time, the data of these functional objects is read from the hard disk 203 into the work area of the internal memory 202. The application editing sheet 110
The icons displayed on the top are icons representing functional objects, but are simply referred to as functional objects in the following description for simplicity.

When a plurality of functional objects are displayed on the application editing sheet 110, the connection relation is defined (step 402). This is mouse 10
4, the data flow between the functional objects is represented by the link 115. Here, the link is an object representing a connection relationship between the two function objects. That is, the link 11 on the application editing sheet 110
5, two functional blocks 113 and 114 are provided.
And an object including information on the direction of the data flow is generated, and the information is stored in the internal memory 202. In the present embodiment, the link is set via the input / output port 116 provided for the function object. However, the link may be directly connected to the function object displayed on the application editing sheet 110. .

When the connection relationship is defined, the process may be shifted from the application editing mode to the control program generation mode, and the application may be materialized to generate a process control program (step 406). In the application editing mode, the execution order of the function objects is automatically determined in the application editing mode (step 403), and the execution order is displayed on the function object on the application editing sheet 110 (step 404). The user can also store the application created on the application editing sheet 110 as a file on the hard disk 203.

In order to determine the execution order, the user selects "determination and display of execution order" from the pull-down menu to execute the execution order program. At this time, the computer determines the execution order of the functional objects based on the information on the links stored in the internal memory (Step 403). The determined execution order becomes a part of the data included in each function object as a value of a specific slot (hereinafter, referred to as an execution order slot) of the function object. If the execution order determination program cannot determine the execution order uniquely due to the structure of the application, the programming system according to the present embodiment assigns a common execution order to the functional objects whose order relation is not determined. Is to be granted.

The icon of the function object displayed on the application editing sheet 110 is provided with an area for displaying the execution order in advance. After the execution order determination program is executed as described above, the value indicating the execution order is displayed for each function. When the number is entered in the execution order slot of the object, the number is automatically displayed in the icon.
Thus, the user can confirm the execution order of each functional object on the application editing screen (Step 405). As a result of checking the execution order, if there is a problem in the execution order, the process returns to step 402 to redefine the connection relationship, or manually input a value indicating the execution order into the execution order slot in the function object using the object editor. . On the other hand, if there is no problem in the execution order, the process shifts from the application editing mode to the control program generation mode to actualize the application (step 406). By performing the materialization, a source code of an application program, that is, a process control program is generated. Thereafter, the process control program may be actually operated for debugging.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the display on the display before and after the process of determining the execution order. FIG.
(A) is the application editing sheet 110 just after defining the link, that is, before the execution order is determined.
FIG. 5B shows a state in which the execution order determination module is activated and the execution order is displayed in the icon of each functional object on the same application editing sheet 110. The execution order automatically determined by the execution order determination program is stored in the application editing sheet 1
By displaying the function objects together on the display 10, the user can confirm the execution order of each function object in the application editing mode. FIG.
In (b), although the execution order of the function objects 111 and 112 is not uniquely determined with respect to the function object 113, the execution orders 1 and 2 are displayed, respectively. This is because the function object 113 has information about the context of the two inputs in advance, and the execution order determination program can determine the execution order based on this information. That is, the execution order determination program can determine the execution order with reference to the information on the order determination held by each functional object, in addition to the determination of the execution order based on the Petri net.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. When the execution order of the function objects cannot be uniquely determined by the execution order determination unit, the programming system according to the present embodiment explicitly indicates that the function objects for which the execution order could not be automatically determined are unordered. It is displayed on the display means. In this embodiment, the hardware configuration and the software configuration are the same as those in the first embodiment, as shown in FIGS. The procedure for displaying and determining the execution order will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 shows functional objects 61, 62, 63, 64 (object name: A,
B, C, D) are displayed. Here, FIG. 6A is a display in which the connection relation has just been defined. Since the execution order determination program is not started, the number indicating the execution order is not displayed on each function object.

When the execution order determination program is executed, the execution order of each function object is determined in the manner described in the first embodiment. However, in contrast to the example shown in FIG. 6A, the order determination program uses the function object 62 (B) connected to the function object 63 (C).
Since it is not possible to uniquely determine the context between the two functional objects 62 and 64 (D), the same execution order “2” is assigned to these two functional objects 62 and 64 (B, D). The execution order determined as described above is displayed on the application editing sheet 110 as a part of the function objects 61 to 64.

FIG. 6B shows the display of the functional objects when the execution order is determined as described above in the present embodiment. First, in the application editing sheet 110, a time axis is set in the X-axis direction, that is, in the left-right direction, and arranged and displayed in order from the left, starting from the function object ahead of the execution order. Have been. The two function objects 62 and 64 (B, D) for which the execution order is not uniquely determined by the execution order determination program are both displayed at the same time, that is, displayed at the same X coordinate.
Further, FIG. 6B shows a state in which these two functional objects 62 and 64 (B, D) are displayed in a different color from the other functional objects, and display the same execution order “2”. ing. This allows the user to visually recognize that there is a functional object having an overlapping execution order.

Next, the function objects 62 whose execution order cannot be uniquely determined by the execution order determination program,
For 64 (B, D), the user must determine the execution order. At this time, in the programming system according to the present embodiment, the execution order can be determined by the user moving the functional object on the application editing sheet. FIG. 6C shows this state. That is, among the functional objects 62 and 64 (B, D) displayed at the same X coordinate because they have the same execution order as shown in FIG.
4 (see FIG. 1), the function object 64 (D) is moved to the left along the X axis representing the time axis. Then, the value of the X coordinate of the function object 64 (D) becomes smaller than that of the function object 62 (B).
The system detects the magnitude relationship of the X coordinates, and assigns the execution order “2” to the functional object 64 (D) and “3” to the functional object 62 (B). Further, in response to the execution order “3” being assigned to the function object 62 (B), the execution order of the subsequent function objects is sequentially changed so that the execution order of the function object 63 (C) is set to “4”. Bring it down. At this time, if the function object 64 (D) is moved to the right of the function object 62 (B), the function object 62 (B) has the execution order “2”, and the function object 64 (D) has the execution order. It goes without saying that “3” is assigned.

As described above, the user moves the function object along the predetermined time axis on the application editing sheet 110 displayed on the display, so that the function that cannot be uniquely determined by the execution order determination program. The execution order of the objects can be determined by the user. In the present embodiment, the time axis has been described along the X axis, that is, the horizontal direction, but it is needless to say that the time axis may be the Y axis, that is, the vertical direction. In the above description, an example of an application including four functional objects has been described. However, the same applies to a case where a large application including five or more functional objects is edited.

[0030]

According to the present invention, the execution order of the functional objects automatically determined by the execution order determination algorithm based on the Petri net or the directed graph is displayed at the time of editing the application, that is, at the time of programming. There is no need to create a control program by materializing the application for the purpose of confirmation, and then run and debug the control program. Further, since the user can know the execution order of the functional objects at the time of editing the application, the process control program can be developed by utilizing the advantage of the graphical programming that the programming can be performed visually.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the function objects whose execution order could not be uniquely determined automatically by the execution order determination algorithm are clearly displayed as being in an undetermined order. Displayed on the means, the user can discover such a structure during application development. As a result, the user can prevent the problem due to the difference in the data access timing by determining the execution order, and improve the reliability of the application program.

According to the third or fourth aspect of the present invention, the function objects are arranged and displayed on the display means in the order of execution along the predetermined time axis, so that the user can execute the function objects. The order can be more easily recognized when editing the application. Furthermore, the functional objects for which the execution order cannot be uniquely determined automatically by the execution order determination algorithm are displayed side by side on the same time, and the user moves these function objects along the time axis using the mouse or the like. Thus, the execution order can be easily determined. Therefore, the execution order can be easily modified by making use of the characteristic of the graphical programming of visually programming, thereby contributing to the improvement of the productivity of the process control program.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagrammatic programming system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a programming system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a software configuration of a programming system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a programming procedure according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating display of a functional object in the programming system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating display of a functional object in a programming system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: display, 102: computer body, 1
02a: CD-ROM drive, 103: keyboard,
104 mouse, 110 application editing sheet, 111, 112, 113, 114 functional object, 115 link, 116 port, 120 object bar, 201 CPU, 202 internal memory, 2
03: Hard disk, 204: Bus, 31: Function object module, 32: Application editing module, 33: Execution order determination module, 34: Control program generation module, 61, 62, 63, 64: Function object.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An application editing means for arranging and displaying on a display means functional objects representing the functions of respective constituent elements constituting a process control device, and graphically defining the connection relation of the functional objects on the display means. An execution order determining means for automatically determining an execution order of the function object based on the connection relationship; and generating a control program of the process control device based on the function object, the connection relationship, and the execution order. In a programming system for a process control program, comprising a control program generating unit, the application editing unit displays on the display unit an execution order of the functional objects automatically determined by the execution order determining unit. Process system characterized by having Program programming system. 2. The programming system for a process control program according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit changes the execution order when the execution order of the functional objects cannot be uniquely determined by the execution order determination unit. A process control program programming system, characterized in that the function objects that could not be automatically determined are displayed on the display means, clearly indicating that the order is undetermined. 3. The programming system for a process control program according to claim 2, wherein the display control unit defines the functional object whose execution order is determined by the execution order determination unit on the display unit. While automatically arranging and displaying the time axis according to the execution order, the function objects whose execution order could not be uniquely determined are displayed at the same time on the time axis, and the execution order cannot be uniquely determined. A user moving the function objects along the time axis on the display means to determine an execution order of these function objects, and displaying the execution order on the display means. Program programming system. 4. An application editing procedure for arranging and displaying a function object representing a function of each component constituting the process control device on a display means, and graphically defining a connection relation of the function object, An execution order determination procedure for automatically determining an execution order of the functional object based on the control object, a control program generation procedure for generating a control program of the process control device based on the function object, the connection relationship, and the execution order. In the method for programming a process control program, the application editing procedure automatically executes the function object whose execution order is determined in the execution order determination procedure in accordance with the execution order with respect to a time axis defined on the display unit. While the execution order is uniquely determined. The function objects that could not be displayed are displayed at the same time on the time axis, and the function objects for which the execution order could not be uniquely determined are moved by the user along the time axis on the display means. A method for programming a process control program, comprising: a display control procedure for determining an execution order of functional objects and displaying the execution order on the display means.