JPH10320005A - Constitution management method for distributed control system and data used for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce development work by performing verification in a logic model preparation stage and the verification in the stage of deciding the specifications of an equipment by the same model. SOLUTION: A system 21 is indicated by a logic model 22 and a mounting model 23 and the constitution information 25 of a control program, the constitution information 26 of a control system, the constitution information 30 of the equipment and the constitution information 31 of a workpiece are constituted as the respectively independent branches of a tree structure. The logic model for which a state transition model is connected is prepared based on the cooperating relation of an event and the mounting model 23 constituted of the constitution information 25 of the control program for controlling a controller, the constitution information 29 of the controller, the constitution information 30 of the equipment and the constitution information 31 of the workpiece is prepared. Then, at least one of relating information for managing the relation of the constitution information of the mounting model 23 and the logic model 22 and the relating information for managing the relation among the constitution information of the mounting model 23 is prepared and the design, simulation and control of a distributed control system are performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to, for example, a system design,
The present invention relates to a controller for controlling a system when performing development and operation, and a method for managing configuration information used by a development environment for creating a control program for the controller.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a distributed control system such as a factory production line, a controller for controlling the system,
For example, PLC used in sequence control of manufacturing line
(Programmable Logic Contr
ler) has the minimum necessary configuration information for execution.
Specifically, for the input / output unit, the type, number of contacts,
It has information such as the number and inserted slot number. The control program to be executed has information such as a program name, an execution cycle, an execution order, and an execution priority. For the configuration of the controller body, see CP
It has information such as U format and memory size.

In a complicated production line, a plurality of controllers may be used. In such a system, each controller has only the configuration information of the input / output device mounted on itself. For this reason, when a part of the devices constituting the system is changed, it is difficult to determine the range of the change, and it is necessary to separately reset each controller. Usually, in this resetting work, the operator reconsidered the specifications described in the system design document according to the change of the equipment, and changed the configuration of the input / output unit and the control program for each controller one by one. Such an operation has a problem that it is complicated and time-consuming, and that errors easily occur.

In order to easily change the system configuration, a macro or another name may be used for creating a control program. A macro defines a series of routine processing with a command name and is easy to execute. For example, an input / output device name or the like can be changed by replacing a specific character string in the definition of a macro with a character string given as an argument. As a result, the work of changing the control program when the system is changed can be reduced. An alias is a method of giving a meaningful name to an input / output device name and using it in a control program. By rewriting the table for managing aliases, it is possible to reduce the work of changing the control program when the system configuration is changed. However, these methods only change the input / output device name in the control program, and do not guarantee the consistency of the change of the controller accompanying the change of the device configuration.

In some cases, the behavior of a device controlled by a controller is simulated for debugging a control program. By performing the simulation, the operation of the control program can be confirmed even without an actual device, so that the development and ordering of the device and the control program can be performed simultaneously, and the development period can be shortened. In the simulation of the behavior of the device, an output signal from the controller to the device is received, and an input signal from the device is generated. For example, in a simulation of a processing machine, an output signal of processing start is received, and an input signal of processing completion is generated after a predetermined time. In addition, a human may look at the state of the output signal from the controller and give an input signal. In such a simulation, it is difficult to simulate the influence of a workpiece existing on an actual production line. For example, in a production line that handles a plurality of types of workpieces, the processing time may be different for each workpiece, and accurate debugging cannot be performed by a simulation that does not take this into account.

In some cases, a simulation is performed to confirm the logical operation of the entire system. At this time,
Usually, it is necessary to create a simulation model in a language different from the control program. This simulation language includes, for example, SLAM, GPSS, and the like. The production line is modeled using these simulation languages, and simulation is performed using a discrete system simulator. The optimal system configuration can be determined by changing the device configuration and operating parameters of the system and repeating the simulation. These are described in "Measurement and Control" Vol. 20, no. 2, page 101-104
Page, 1991. The simulation models described in these languages have no relation to the control program or the configuration of the control system. Therefore, when constructing an actual system, the system developer has to examine the specifications based on the simulation results and create a control program using a new control language.

[0007]

In recent years, in order to reduce the cost of development and improvement of a production line, and to enhance market competitiveness by shortening the delivery time, software development using actual equipment without simulation has been performed. It has been demanded. Further, there is a need for a development environment that matches the simulation model with the actual factory as much as possible, and that efficiently supports work for changes in the system configuration.

However, as described above, the conventional configuration information of a controller merely has parameters necessary for the execution of the controller, such as the configuration of an input / output device and the cycle of a task. For this reason, in a distributed control system including a plurality of controllers, when a controller that executes a task is changed or a device configuration is changed, it is necessary to separately set and re-adjust each controller.

In the conventional control program creation method and simulation method, a system behavior model and
The physical specifications of the system and the control program of the system are independent, and the relationship is managed by the developer as the system specification of paper or electronic data. For this reason, simulations are repeated for system development,
Each time we redesigned for system improvement, we needed to describe the relationship between these data in the system specifications and to consider the consistency by the developers. In addition, the execution parameters adjusted on site need to be changed each time and reflected in the system specifications, but the same operation is required. As described above, the work is complicated, and it has been difficult to shorten the development period.

Further, in the development of a distributed control system composed of a plurality of controllers, (1) when a task executed by one controller is changed to another controller in order to equalize the processing load of the controller ( 2) When the equipment is changed (3) When the object to be processed is changed In order to cope with system changes such as changes, it is necessary to re-design considering the inter-relationship between multiple controllers, and development costs are reduced. There was a problem of increasing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and includes not only the configuration information of the controller body, but also the equipment to be controlled by the controller and the processing objects handled by the equipment. By modeling the entire system as an integrated model, the purpose is to integrate the models used for simulation and control. Even if there is a change in equipment, the relationship between data is automatically reconstructed, An object of the present invention is to provide a distributed control system configuration management method and data for a distributed control system that can guarantee model consistency.

[0012]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a distributed control system configuration management method comprising: a distributed control system development environment including a plurality of devices and a plurality of controllers for controlling the devices; The device behavior is represented by a state transition model consisting of events and device states, a logical model is created by combining the state transition models based on the cooperative relationship between the events, and the configuration information of a control program for controlling the controller Related information that manages the relationship between the logical model and the configuration information of the implementation model by creating a mounting model composed of the configuration information of the device, the configuration information of the device, and the configuration information of the processing target handled by the device, and the configuration information of the mounting model At least one of the related information managing the relationship between
It creates the related information and designs, simulates, and controls the distributed control system.

Further, the configuration management method for a distributed control system according to the second configuration of the present invention, in the first configuration, includes a control program configuration information, a controller configuration information, a device configuration information, and a processing target object. The configuration information is configured as independent branches of the tree structure, and is downloaded and uploaded to the controller for each branch.

In the configuration management method for a distributed control system according to a third configuration of the present invention, when the configuration information A for each of the controllers is downloaded from the development environment in the second configuration, the configuration information is downloaded on the controller side. Based on the configuration information A, a task required to execute the control program is generated and resources related to securing a memory area are acquired. As a result, the configuration information A is changed as necessary, and the changed configuration information A is stored in a development environment. To change the configuration information.

Further, in the configuration management method for a distributed control system according to a fourth configuration of the present invention, in the second configuration, the configuration information A relating to the change of input / output generated in the controller being executed is automatically or previously stored. The configuration information is uploaded to the development environment at the set timing, and the existing configuration information and the configuration information A are combined to reconstruct the configuration information.

The data for a distributed control system according to a fifth configuration of the present invention is a control program for controlling a controller in a development environment for a distributed control system composed of a device and a plurality of controllers for controlling the device. , The controller configuration information, the device configuration information, and the processing object configuration information handled by the device are configured as independent branches of a tree structure.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Embodiment 1 FIG. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a distributed control system of a production line using a distributed management system configuration management method according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a development environment for programming a control program of a controller, 2 is a configuration management system, 3 is a configuration determination module, 4 is a configuration check module, 5 is a configuration information file, 6 is a user program file, and 7 is a controller. , 8 is a configuration management module on the controller 7, 9 is a resource management module, 10 is configuration information A, and 11 is a user program A. The configuration information A10 and the user program A11 are, among the data constituting the configuration information 5 and the user program 6 in the development environment 1, the controller 7
Is the data of only the part related to. When the distributed control system includes a plurality of controllers, a plurality of controllers having the same configuration as the controller 7 are provided.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the data structure of the configuration information 5 according to the present embodiment. The configuration information 5 has a tree structure and includes a controller constituting a system,
Information about the device and the workpiece to be controlled is connected as a branch, and its route represents the system 21. And
Information for managing the distributed control system is classified and forms an independent branch. As shown in FIG. 2, a logical model 22 and an implementation model 23 are provided below the system 21.
Below the logical model 22, there are a plurality of behavior models 24.
The mounting model 23 includes a control program 25, a control system 26, and a control target 27. Here, the control program 25 is actually composed of the configuration information 28 of the user program.
Is a management table under which there is one or a plurality of user program configuration information 28. Control system 2
Numeral 6 is a management table of the configuration information 29 of the controller, and there is one or a plurality of configuration information 29 of the controller under the management table. The control target 27 is actually a management table of the device configuration information 30 and the workpiece configuration information 31, and one or a plurality of device configuration information 3 under the management table.
There is zero and one or more workpiece configuration information 31. Reference numeral 32 denotes data such as variables connected to the configuration information 28 of the user program, and reference numeral 33 denotes configuration information 29 of the controller.
, Data such as controller I / O connected to the device, data 34 such as device I / O connected to the device configuration information 30,
Reference numeral 35 denotes data such as process information connected to the workpiece configuration information 31. A branch is constituted by these pieces of information, and the one closer to the system 21 which is the root is referred to as upper, and the one closer to the end is referred to as lower, and each branch has information on the upper and lower branches connected thereto.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the system 21 is represented by the logical model 22 and the mounting model 23, and the control program configuration information 25 and the control system configuration information 2
6. The configuration information 30 of the device and the configuration information 31 of the workpiece to be processed are configured as independent branches of a tree structure. The configuration information related to the control program such as the user program 28 and the variable 32 is connected as a lower branch of the branch that is the configuration information 25 of the control program. Similarly, the controller 29 and the controller I / O
The configuration information relating to the control system such as 33 is connected as a lower branch of the branch which is the configuration information 26 of the control system. The configuration information relating to the device such as the device I / O 34 is connected as a lower branch of the branch which is the configuration information 30 of the device, and the configuration information relating to the workpiece such as the process information 35 is the configuration information 31 of the workpiece. Is connected as a lower branch of the branch which is.

FIG. 3 shows an example of information held by each branch of the configuration information 5. Each branch has a pointer 4 as a branch name 41, a branch attribute 42, and upper branch information for forming a tree structure.
3, pointer 44, data 45, and the like are held as lower branch information. Here, the pointer 43 to the upper branch is 1
Only one pointer 44 to the lower branch,
You can have more than one. The branch of the system 21, which is the root, does not have the pointer 43 to the higher branch. Also, the terminal branch does not have the pointer 44 to the lower branch. Branch attribute 4
Reference numeral 2 is used at the time of downloading and uploading, and has two types, a common attribute and an individual attribute.

Further, the data 45 has, for example, the structure shown in FIG. 4 in more detail. The data 45 includes a name N1, a data attribute N2, a data type N3, and a data value N4. Data attribute N2 is read only, read / write 2
There are types. Fixed specifications such as the model name of the controller CPU have read-only attributes. The data type N3 includes a character string, an integer, and a real number. The data type N3 determines the type of the value contained in the data value.

The operation of this distributed control system will be described with reference to the explanatory diagram of the production line shown in FIG. The production line shown in FIG. 5 is a processing line including devices such as an input conveyor 51, an output conveyor 52, a processing machine 53, and a robot 54 for loading and unloading the processing machine 53. 55 is an arrival detection sensor, 56 is a discharge detection sensor, and 57 is an object to be processed, for example, a workpiece.

When the workpiece 57 is conveyed to the robot 54 by the input conveyor 51, the arrival detection sensor 55 operates and an arrival signal is output. Upon receiving this arrival signal, the input conveyor 51 is stopped, a load command is sent to the robot 54, and the robot 54 loads the workpiece 57 into the processing machine 53. When the processing is completed, a completion signal is output from the processing machine 53. Upon receiving this completion signal, an unload command is sent to the robot 54, and the robot 54
7 is unloaded and placed on the output conveyor 52. When the workpiece 57 is placed on the output conveyor 52, the discharge detection sensor 5
6 is activated and a discharge signal is issued. The output conveyor 52 is moved in response to the discharge signal.

The configuration management method for the distributed management of the system having the configuration shown in FIG. 5 will be described below. First, the configuration information 5 is created as the development environment 1. Configuration information 5
Will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
In step ST1, a logical model is created. Here, the logical model is, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, a behavior model of a device constituting the system expressed by a state transition model. The state transition model includes a state of a device represented by a circle and an event such as a sensor input represented by a square.
A device operation command is assigned to the device state. The state changes in response to the occurrence of the event, and the device performs a command operation. Equipment cooperation is 2
This is done by associating events from one or more devices and generating events at the same time. All the devices constituting the distributed control system operate in response to some event, and the behavior of the devices of the entire system is expressed by setting the above-mentioned cooperative relationship among all the devices.
To build.

Further, a logical model will be described in detail using the production line shown in FIG. 5 as an example. There are four devices, an input conveyor 51, a robot 54, a processing machine 53, and an output conveyor 52, and each behavior is represented by a state transition model.
For example, events constituting the state transition model of the input conveyor 51 are ON of the arrival detection sensor 55 and OFF of the arrival detection sensor 55, and the commands are stop and operation.
The state transition is expressed by a model that stops when the arrival detection sensor 55 is turned on and operates when the arrival detection sensor 55 is turned off. Further, the robot 54 starts the loading operation at the event of the arrival detection sensor 55 being ON, and stops at the event of the end of loading. That is, the arrival detection sensor 55
Can be defined as a cooperative relationship between the input conveyor 51 and the robot 54 by using the event of ON. In this way, a logical model of the entire distributed control system is created.

Next, an implementation model is set in steps ST2 to ST5 in the flowchart of FIG.
The user program 28 includes, as a control program for the entire system, a program that describes the flow of events and commands of the logical model 22 in a control language, for example, a ladder, and a control that downloads and moves a control object like a robot program. There are programs, each of which is created by a dedicated editor (step ST2). Then, the created user program body is stored in the file 6 of the user program, and the configuration information 28 of the user program is generated as a branch of the mounting model 23. However, a control program for the entire system can be automatically generated from the logical model 22. The configuration information 5 holds, as data, configuration information relating to the created user program, variables 32 used in the program, and execution parameters of the program such as an execution cycle.

Next, in step ST3, the configuration information 29 of the controller is set. Controller configuration information
The data 33 has the specifications of the controller itself and the configuration of the input / output device (controller I / O). The specifications of the controller itself include the type of CPU, the processing speed, the memory size, the presence / absence and size of the secondary storage device, the type of communication function, and the communication speed. The configuration of the controller I / O includes the type of the I / O unit, the position of the slot, the number of input / output points, and the like.

Next, in step ST4, the configuration information 30 of the device to be controlled is set. Device configuration information 30
Has data 34 such as a type, a shape, an I / O configuration of a device, and a command. Here, the device I / O is information for connecting to the controller I / O. The commands are, for example, opening and closing a door and starting and stopping processing in a processing machine.

Next, in step ST5, the configuration information 31 of the workpiece to be controlled is set. Workpiece configuration information 3
1 has data 36 such as mold, shape, and process information. Here, the process information describes the processing order of the workpiece and the necessary processing machine.

This completes the creation of each branch in FIG. 2 and the configuration information 5 connected to each branch by a solid line.
At T6, related information between these pieces of information is defined. The related information is indicated by a dotted arrow in FIG. 2 and indicates the relation between information belonging to other branches, and an example of the content is shown in FIG. The related information includes a name T1, a related attribute T2,
There are items such as a position T3 of the tree structure of the related source data, a position T4 of the tree structure of the related destination data, and a parameter T5. Here, there are two related attributes T2, search required and search unnecessary, which are used for tracing the relationship between branches at the time of download.

A plurality of parameters T5 can be set, and each parameter T5 is set as shown in FIG.
Consists of a constraint condition expression P1 and a calculation expression P2. Constraint expression P
1 is a relational expression between the data of the branch of the relation source and the data of the branch of the relation destination. The description of the relational expression is, for example, == (equal sign),
! = (Inequality sign),> (greater than),> = (greater than or equal to), <
(Smaller), <= (below)
It is composed of logical operations by D and OR. The expression used here can use a data name and four arithmetic operations. Also, sin
A general function such as () may be used. The calculation formula P2 is obtained by placing a data name on the left side and an expression on the right side and connecting them with = (assignment). Here, as for the expression on the right side, four arithmetic operations and functions can be used similarly to the expression of the constraint condition. In addition, a plurality of these constraint condition expressions and calculation expressions may or may not be described. For example, the configuration check module 4 can check the configuration based on the parameter T5. For example, if all the evaluation results of the constraint expression are true, the relation is established and the calculation expression is executed. At this time, if at least one false constraint expression exists, the relation is not established and the calculation expression is not executed.

As shown by the dotted arrows in FIG. 2, the types of related information are: 1) the relation between the behavior model 24 and the user program 28; 2) the user program 28 and the controller 29.
3) Relationship between variable 32 and I / O 33 of controller 4) I / O 33 of controller and I / O of device
5) There are five types of relationships between the device 30 and the process information 35 of the workpiece.

The relationship between the behavior model 24 and the user program 28 defines the correspondence between the behavior model 24 of each device and the user program 28 that controls the entire system. Also,
The relationship between the command in the behavior model 24 and the user program 28 to be downloaded to each device is defined.

User program 28 and controller 29
In relation to the above, it is defined which controller 29 executes each user program 28. At this time, the type of program is compared with the type of engine of the controller as the constraint condition expression P1. For example, in the case of a ladder program, a ladder engine is required for execution, so the data name of the program type and the data name of the engine type are
Connect with. In addition to this, it is necessary to describe a constraint condition expression such as a CPU type and a memory size. In addition, an assignment formula for setting the execution cycle, which is data of the user program 28, to the task cycle of the controller 29 is described as the calculation formula P2.

The variable 32 and the controller I / O3
The association with 3 is a function of the alias. Here, a constraint condition expression relating to a variable type and an I / O type is described. For example, if the type of I / O is a contact, the data type of the variable must be an integer.

Controller I / O 33 and device I / O
The association with 34 is used to create connection information between the controller and the device. Here, a constraint condition expression relating to the I / O type and the input / output direction is described. The type of I / O must exactly match the electrical signal specifications. Also,
The input and output directions must be opposite or both are bidirectional. For example, if the I / O 33 of the controller is an output, the I / O 34 of the related device must be an input. If the I / O 33 of the controller is bidirectional like a serial connection, the I / O 34 of the device must also be bidirectional.

Device configuration information 30 and work process information 3
6 is related to the type of equipment processing as a constraint condition expression,
Describe the matching of the processing type in the process information of the workpiece.
This makes it possible to check the behavior of the workpiece when executing the simulation of the system. Specifically, for example, in the related information between the device 30 and the data 35 connected to the workpiece, the constraint condition expression P1 is: robot hand size> workpiece size, and the calculation expression P2 is The plane on which the robot moves = the height of the workpiece +
X (X is a width that allows the robot to move up and down) and the like.

After setting the relevant information in step ST6 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 as described above, the configuration determining module 4 is executed in step ST7. The configuration determination module 4 evaluates the constraint expression of the related information, and executes the calculation expression if all the constraint expressions are true, and writes the value to the branch. If the constraint condition expression does not hold, the designer is notified to that effect.

With the above processing, the configuration information 5 in the development environment 1 can be generated. As described above, by modeling not only the configuration information of the controller main body but also a device to be controlled by the controller and a processing target to be handled by the device, the entire system can be represented as an integrated model. In addition, the model used in simulation and control is integrated, and the relationship between data is automatically reconstructed even when equipment changes,
Model consistency can be guaranteed.

Embodiment 2 In the first embodiment, the format of configuration information when creating a distributed control system in a development environment has been described. In the second embodiment, a form in which the distributed control system is actually managed using the configuration information created in the above embodiment will be described.

The configuration information A10 used by the controller 7 is downloaded to each of the controllers 7 constituting the distributed control system. The download procedure will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step ST11, the configuration information 5 created according to the processing of the first embodiment is downloaded from the development environment 1 to the controller 7 using the communication function. The configuration information A10 to be downloaded is determined based on the branch attribute as shown in FIG. That is, if the branch attribute is common information, it is downloaded to all controllers. If the branch attribute is the individual information, the branch having the configuration of the corresponding controller and the branch having the related information for the branch are recursively searched to extract all the related branches and download them. This search is terminated when there is an attribute that does not need to be searched in the related attribute of the related information.

After the download is completed, the resource management module 9 of the controller 7 requests the OS to generate a task or a process in step ST12 based on the configuration of the user program A set in the configuration information A10. At this time, the execution cycle of the task specified by the designer in the configuration information A10 may not be accurately realized due to restrictions such as the resolution of the timer of the OS. For example, even if the specification of the configuration information A10 is 10 milliseconds, if the resolution of the timer of the controller 7 is 3 milliseconds, it cannot be executed accurately in 10 milliseconds. In such a case, a task or a process is generated by setting the actual execution cycle to 9 milliseconds or 12 milliseconds. The resource management module 9 determines the actual execution cycle of the task or the process and the memory size as the configuration information A1 as a result of the creation of the task or the process.
Write to 0. The above task or process generation process is performed for all user programs executed by the controller 7, and updated configuration information A10 including actual execution parameters is created (step ST13).

After generating all the tasks or processes, the configuration management module 8 of the controller transmits a resource securing end message to the development environment 1. Upon receiving this message, the development environment 1 uploads the updated configuration information A10 from the controller 7 (step ST14).
The uploaded configuration information A10 is replaced with the original configuration information 5. At this time, the related information is not changed. In a similar procedure, the development environment 1 uploads the updated configuration information A10 including the actual execution parameters from all downloaded controllers 7, and replaces the original configuration information 5.

Next, the configuration check module 4 is executed in step ST15. The configuration check module 4
It is determined whether the distributed control system can be executed on the updated configuration information 5 (step ST16). Specifically, the constraint condition formula and the calculation formula of the related information are checked.
At this time, if it is determined that the updated configuration information 5 including the actual execution parameters satisfies all the constraint condition expressions and calculation expressions, the normal completion of the download is notified to the designer by display or the like (step ST17). . If all the constraint condition expressions and calculation expressions are not satisfied in the judgment in step ST16, an error to that effect is notified to the designer by display or the like in step ST18, and the configuration information is re-edited.

As described above, the configuration information is distributed and downloaded to the controller 7, and resources are secured on the controller 7 side based on the configuration information. You do not need to have detailed controller information. Further, the configuration determination module 3 and the configuration check module 4 can be processed only with simple rules. Further, the system management can be easily performed such that the configuration information is changed by an on-site adjustment operation, and the configuration information is reconstructed by uploading immediately when the development environment 1 is connected.

Embodiment 3 If the distributed control system is managed as in the first embodiment, it is relatively easy to change the controller 7 during the execution of the control or during the debugging. For example, when the configuration of the input / output device is changed by inserting or removing the input / output unit, the change can be detected depending on the type of the controller. The change of the configuration information A detected by the controller 7 is notified to the development environment 1 using an upload process, and the development environment 1 combines the existing configuration information and reconstructs the configuration information 5. In addition, the upload timing may be configured to upload at a predetermined time interval set in advance, or at any time upon detecting that the configuration information A10 has been changed,
It may be configured to upload automatically.

If there is no corresponding development environment 1 in the upload process, or if the communication between the development environment 1 and the controller 7 is cut off, the development environment 1 is notified when the configuration information is changed. Can not. In such a case, for example, the controller 7 flags the changed data item. This flag includes types of addition, change, and deletion. The flag is uploaded when communication between the development environment 1 and the controller 7 is started, and data is added to the configuration information 5 of the development environment 1 according to the flag. May be changed and data may be deleted.

After the data has been changed, the configuration information management system 2 of the development environment 1 activates the configuration check module 4 to confirm the validity of the configuration information 5, and generates a constraint condition expression P1 and a calculation expression P2. Check that there are no problems with execution. With this confirmation, if there is no problem, the configuration management system 2 notifies the designer of the configuration change. If there is a problem, notify the designer.

In the first to third embodiments, a case has been described in which a distributed control system is used for a production line in a factory, but it goes without saying that the present invention can be used for other distributed control systems.

[0050]

As described above, according to the first configuration of the present invention, in a development environment of a distributed control system composed of a plurality of devices and a plurality of controllers for controlling the devices, the behavior of the devices is determined by an event. And a state transition model consisting of the states of the devices, create a logical model that combines the state transition models based on the cooperative relationship of the events, and create the configuration information of the control program that controls the controller, the configuration information of the controller, and the configuration of the equipment Creates an implementation model composed of information and configuration information of the processing object handled by the device, and manages the relationship between the logical model and the configuration information of the implementation model. By creating at least one piece of related information and designing, simulating, and controlling the distributed control system, a logical model is created. Because the same model can be used for verification at the creation stage and verification at the stage when the device specifications are determined, development work can be significantly reduced, and even if some devices are changed, the integrity of the entire system is maintained. Therefore, there is an effect that a configuration management method of a distributed control system that can shorten the operation time can be obtained.

According to the second configuration of the present invention, the first
In the configuration of the above, the configuration information of the control program, the configuration information of the controller, the configuration information of the device, and the configuration information of the processing target are configured as independent branches of a tree structure. By doing so, there is an effect that a configuration management method for a distributed control system that can relatively easily change and manage configuration information is obtained.

According to the third configuration of the present invention, the second configuration
In the configuration of (1), when the configuration information A for each of the controllers is downloaded from the development environment, the generation of the tasks necessary for the execution of the control program and the acquisition of resources for securing the memory area are performed based on the configuration information A downloaded on the controller side. As a result, the configuration information A is changed as necessary, and the changed configuration information A is uploaded to the development environment to change the configuration information.
There is an effect that a configuration management method for a distributed control system can be obtained in which the development environment does not need to manage complete information of all controllers constituting the distributed control system.

According to the fourth configuration of the present invention, the second
In the configuration of the above, the configuration information A relating to the change of the input / output generated in the controller being executed is uploaded to the development environment automatically or at a preset timing, and the existing configuration information and the configuration information A are combined to obtain the configuration information. By rebuilding, the configuration information changed at runtime can be rebuilt while guaranteeing system consistency,
This has the effect of providing a configuration management method for a distributed control system that can be adjusted on site or that can easily recover from a failure.

According to the fifth configuration of the present invention, in a development environment of a distributed control system including a device and a plurality of controllers for controlling the device, the configuration information of the control program for controlling the controller, the controller By configuring the configuration information of the device, the configuration information of the device, and the configuration information of the processing target handled by the device as independent branches of a tree structure, a consistent logical model can be used in system design, simulation, and control. Even when the task configuration or the device configuration is changed, there is an effect that data for a distributed control system that can easily update the control system in branch units is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a distributed control system for a production line using a configuration management method for a distributed control system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing configuration information according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing information held in a branch of a tree structure according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing data of information held in a branch according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a production line as an example of the distributed control system according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for creating configuration information of a development environment according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a logical model in which the behavior of the device according to the first embodiment is represented by a state transition model.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing relevant information of a tree structure according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing parameters of related information according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a download procedure of the configuration management system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing download and upload operations of configuration information according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Development Environment, 2 Configuration Management System, 3 Configuration Determination Module, 4 Configuration Check Module, 5 Configuration Information, 6 Control Program, 7 Controller, 8 Configuration Management Module, 9 Resource Management Module, 10 Configuration Information A, 11 User Program A, 21 system, 2
2 logical model, 23 implementation model, 24 behavior model, 25 control program, 26 control system, 27
Control objects, 28 user programs, 29 controllers, 30 devices, 31 objects to be processed.

Claims (5)

[Claims] In a development environment of a distributed control system including a plurality of devices and a plurality of controllers for controlling the devices, the behavior of the devices is represented by a state transition model including events and states of the devices, A logical model in which the state transition models are combined based on the cooperative relationship of the event is created, and configuration information of a control program for controlling the controller, configuration information of the controller, configuration information of the device, and processing handled by the device Create an implementation model composed of the configuration information of the object, among the related information that manages the relationship between the logical model and the configuration information of the implementation model and the related information that manages the relationship between the configuration information of the implementation model Creating at least one piece of related information and designing, simulating, and controlling a distributed control system; A configuration management method for a distributed control system. 2. The configuration information of the control program, the configuration information of the controller, the configuration information of the device, and the configuration information of the object to be processed are configured as independent branches of a tree structure. 2. The configuration management method for a distributed control system according to claim 1, wherein the upload is performed for each branch. 3. Downloading configuration information A for each of the controllers from the development environment, based on the configuration information A downloaded on the controller side, generation of tasks necessary for execution of a control program and creation of a memory area. Acquiring the resources related to the securing, changing the configuration information A as necessary, uploading the changed configuration information A to the development environment, and changing the configuration information. 2. The configuration management method for a distributed control system according to item 2. 4. Uploading configuration information A relating to an input / output change occurring in a running controller to the development environment automatically or at a preset timing, and synthesizing the existing configuration information and the configuration information A. 3. The configuration management method for a distributed control system according to claim 2, wherein the configuration information is reconstructed by performing the above operation. 5. A development environment for a distributed control system comprising a device and a plurality of controllers for controlling the device,
For a distributed control system in which configuration information of a control program for controlling the controller, configuration information of the controller, configuration information of the device, and configuration information of a processing target handled by the device are configured as independent branches of a tree structure. data.