JPH1115521A - Plant monitoring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a function at a low cost to minimize the sound output frequency of a plant monitoring device which shows the plant operating state in sounds. SOLUTION: A central processor 3 of every monitoring device 1 controls the output time of a voice device 5 based on the voice output time that is inputted to an input device 2. The devices 1 can share a function to monitor plural plants 6. When plural devices 1 have such functions, the voice output times can be collectively and conveniently set by inputting the vice output time to one of these devices 1. It's desirable to prepare a means that can stop the voice output when the processor 3 has its operating abnormality.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plant monitoring device for monitoring an operation state of a plant.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A monitoring apparatus for centrally monitoring the operating state of an entire plant needs to transmit a great deal of information on the operating state to an operator of the apparatus. For this information transmission method, in addition to a visual method using a display device or the like, for example, an auditory method of outputting an alarm sound, a synthesized voice, or the like is added. By adding the information transmission by this sound, there is an effect of reducing erroneous recognition of information by the operator.

[0003] In a plant where the operation is continued at night, some monitoring stations in which a monitoring device for monitoring the plant is installed include a monitoring room in which the room is unmanned only at night. In order to prevent noise at night, it is preferable to stop the sound output of the monitoring device installed in such a room.

[0004]

There has been a sound output unit of a conventional plant monitoring device which can be temporarily stopped by operating a sound output stop switch. With such a switch, there is a problem that even if the operation of stopping the audio output is performed once, if new monitoring information is generated, the sound is continuously output unless the operation of stopping the audio is performed again.

[0005] It is conceivable to provide a switch for constantly stopping audio output in the monitoring device. In this case, however, when monitoring manned operation in the daytime, the user may forget to release the switch for constantly stopping audio output. It was a problem.

In view of such a problem, there has been a conventional plant monitoring apparatus provided with a voice stop timer. This timer automatically stops after a certain period of time from when an audio output for transmitting information is generated, and is provided with a hardware configuration for each monitoring device. Therefore, there are a plurality of timers having the same function in the entire plant, and the cost becomes high.
When changing the setting of the audio stop time, it was necessary to repeat complicated operations.

An object of the present invention is to realize a voice stop timer function of a plant monitoring device at low cost.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an audio output means for outputting an operation state of a plant by sound, and an input of a time-related value. Input means, semiconductor storage means for storing the value related to the time, timer means for detecting the lapse of time related to the value stored in the semiconductor storage means, and A stop processing means for stopping the output of the voice means, wherein the timer means and the stop processing means are constituted by a central processing unit. Automatically stop after the time input to the means.

The invention described in claim 2 is the first invention.
In the invention described in the above, further comprising operating state information receiving means for receiving information on the operating state of another plant, wherein the voice means, the operating state of another plant for the information received by the operating state information receiving means In this configuration, one automatic audio stop function is shared by a plurality of plants.

[0010] Further, the invention according to claim 3 is based on claim 1.
Or the invention according to claim 2, further comprising network information receiving means for receiving information on a network, wherein the input means sets the information received by the network information receiving means to a value relating to an input time. age,
With this configuration, it is possible to collectively set the audio output time of a plurality of automatic audio stop functions.

The invention described in claim 4 is the first invention.
4. The invention according to any one of items 1 to 3, further comprising a normal operation return unit that returns to a normal operation when the plant monitoring device has an abnormality in the operation, wherein the normal operation return unit includes It is characterized by having a means for stopping the output. With this configuration, it is possible to stop the output of the sound even when the output of the sound of the sound means does not stop due to an operation abnormality of the plant monitoring device.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a monitoring device 1 includes an input device 2 for an operator to give an instruction to the monitoring device 1, a central processing device 3 for collectively performing processing of each component of the monitoring device 1, and a central processing device 3 The semiconductor memory device 4 stores data that needs to be held in performing the processing of each of the constituent elements 1 and a sound device 5 that indicates the operating state of the plant 6 by sound. Further, the plant 6 is provided with a sensor 7 for acquiring information on the operating state of the plant 6, and the output of the sensor 7 is connected to the monitoring device 1. The information on the plant 6 acquired by the sensor 7 includes, for example, the temperature and pressure inside the plant, the weight of the substance put into the plant, and the like, but is not limited thereto. The monitoring device 1 is usually provided with other components such as a display device for displaying information on the operating state of the plant 6 obtained by the sensor 7 and the like. Not.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIG.
The operator of the monitoring device 1 inputs in advance the time from when the sound device 5 starts outputting sound to when the sound device 5 stops sound (hereinafter, referred to as sound output time) to the input device 2. In this embodiment,
This audio output time is input in seconds. When this input is completed, the central processing unit 3 recognizes this and writes the audio output time data input to the input device 2 to the area 4a of the semiconductor storage device 4. When the audio output time input to the input device 2 is not performed, it is determined that the automatic audio output stop function is not used, and the central processing unit 3 stops the sound output shown in FIG. Shall not be performed.

The sensor 7 transmits various information on the operation state of the plant 6 to the monitoring device 1. The central processing unit 3 selects an appropriate sound from the sounds that can be output by the audio device 5 according to this information, and causes the audio device 5 to output the sound. The sound that can be output by the audio device 5 includes, for example, the sensor 7
The warning sound output when the information such as the temperature and pressure inside the plant 6 acquired by the sensor indicates an abnormal value, or the numerical value such as the temperature and pressure inside the plant 6 periodically acquired by the sensor 7 is synthesized by voice synthesis or the like. There are vocal sounds read out in words.

The central processing unit 3 performs a process for causing the audio device 5 to output the above-described sound in accordance with the information obtained by the sensor 7, and starts the process shown in the flowchart of FIG.
Hereinafter, the operation of each step in the figure will be described.

Step 11: The audio output time data in the area 4a of the semiconductor memory device 4 in FIG. Step 12: Write data to an area 4b different from the area 4a of the semiconductor memory device 4 (hereinafter, data stored in this area 4b is referred to as remaining time data), and proceed to Step 13.

Step 13: The remaining time data written in the area 4b is read out, and the routine proceeds to step 14. Step 14: It is determined whether or not the remaining time data is greater than 0 (determination of whether or not the audio output time has elapsed). If it is larger (the audio output time has not elapsed), the process proceeds to step 15, otherwise. If the voice output time has elapsed, the process jumps to step 18.

Step 15: The remaining time data read out in step 13 is reduced by one second, and the process proceeds to step 16. Step 16: Write to the area 4b and proceed to step 17.

Step 17: Jump to step 13 after a pause of one second. Step 18: A process for causing the audio device 5 to stop outputting sound is performed, and a series of processes shown in FIG.

With the above processing, the output of the sound by the audio device 5 is stopped after the elapse of the audio output time. Since each component of the monitoring device 1 shown in FIG. 1 is normally provided in a conventional monitoring device, the present embodiment makes it possible to provide a voice stop timer function in the monitoring device at extremely low cost. Is what you do.

In the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, the monitoring device 1 and the plant 6 are connected on a one-to-one basis. However, the present invention can be applied to a monitoring device for monitoring a plurality of plants. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a connection between such a monitoring device and a plant. In the figure, sensors 7 a to 7 k provided in each of k plants 6 a to 6 k are connected to a network 8. The internal configuration of the monitoring device 1 is the same as that of FIG. 1 and is connected to the network 8 via the interface device 9. The audio device 5 included in the monitoring device 1 can indicate by sound a sound indicating which of the plants 6a to 6k the information on the operating state of the plant is. With this configuration, the monitoring device is provided for one of the plurality of plants.
In addition, since the function of stopping voice according to the present invention is shared by a plurality of plants, the effect of cost reduction is extremely high. If necessary, it is easy to prepare a plurality of areas 4a of the semiconductor memory device 4 and set a plurality of audio output times so that the audio output time can be switched for each plant.

As shown in FIG. 4, there is also a configuration in which a plurality of monitoring devices 1a ', 1b',... Are connected to the network 8 via interface devices 9a ', 9b',. When adopting the configuration shown in the figure,
The input device of any one of the monitoring devices (in FIG.
k '), the audio output time data is input via the interface device 9k', the network 8, and the interface devices 9a ', 9b',. Monitoring device 6
a ′, 6b ′,... On the other hand, the monitoring devices 6a ′, 6b ′,... On the receiving side substitute the audio output time data received via the network 8 for the values input to the input devices 2a ′, 2b ′,. Are written in a predetermined area of the semiconductor memory device of each of the monitoring devices 6a ', 6b',.... With this configuration, the input of the audio output time to the plurality of monitoring devices 6a ', 6b',... Is completed only by the input of the audio output time at one time, so that the labor is greatly reduced. In this case, if the audio output time data received via the network 8 is always used, the monitoring devices 6a ', 6b',. It is no longer necessary to have
It is possible to reduce costs. The receiving monitoring devices 6a ′, 6b ′,... Are input to the audio output time data received via the network 8 and the input devices 2a ′, 2b ′,. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which any of the audio output time data can be selected. Furthermore, the device itself for transmitting the audio output time data to the network 8 may not have any plant monitoring function.

Incidentally, the plant monitoring device normally operates continuously for a considerable period of time during which the plant operates, so that the operation may sometimes become abnormal due to some cause. For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 1, the central processing unit 3 may cause an abnormal operation for some reason while executing the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. In this case, the process of causing the audio device 5 to stop outputting the sound is not executed, so that the audio device 5 keeps outputting the sound. This is a problem since such a problem did not occur in a conventional plant monitoring device having a hardware stop function and a voice stop timer function. In order to cope with such a case, a process of stopping the sound output of the audio device 5 is added in advance to the process of returning the plant monitoring device from the abnormal operation to the normal operation. By doing so, the operator simply executes the above-described process for returning the plant monitoring device 1 to the normal operation, and the sound output of the audio device 5 is stopped, which is convenient.

[0024]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, the plant monitoring apparatus can be provided with a voice stop timer function at low cost, and the setting of the voice stop timer function is troublesome. Can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a timer process executed by a central processing unit 3;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of connection between a plurality of plants and a monitoring device that monitors the plants.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration for connecting a plurality of monitoring devices via a network.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1a 'to 1k' Monitoring device 2, 2a 'to 2k' Input device 3 Central processing unit 4 Semiconductor storage device 4a, 4b Predetermined area in semiconductor storage device 5 5 Audio device 6, 6a to 6k, 6a 'to 6k 'Plant 7, 7a to 7k Sensor 8 Network 9, 9a' to 9k 'Interface device 11 to 18 Operation steps

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sound means for outputting an operating state of a plant by sound; an input means for inputting a value related to time; a semiconductor memory means for storing the value related to time; and a value stored in the semiconductor memory means Timer means for detecting the passage of time relating to, and stop processing means for stopping the output of the audio means in accordance with the passage of time detected by the timer means, the timer means and the stop processing means, A plant monitoring device comprising a central processing unit. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation state information receiving unit configured to receive information on an operation state of another plant, wherein the voice unit also displays an operation state of another plant regarding information received by the operation state information reception unit. The plant monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the output is performed by sound. 3. A network information receiving means for receiving information on a network, wherein the input means sets the information received by the network information receiving means to a value relating to the input time. Item 3. The plant monitoring device according to item 1 or 2. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a normal operation return unit configured to return to a normal operation when the operation of the plant monitoring apparatus becomes abnormal. The normal operation return unit includes a unit configured to stop an output of the audio unit. The plant monitoring device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: