JPS63187302A - Tracking system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To cope with a change of a tracking table, by only changing a tracking program and its related individual processing program, even if said change is generated, by executing the data delivery of the tracking program and the individual processing program, as an inter-program message communication. CONSTITUTION:A computer 120 for control inputs a material existence signal from plural sensors 100 installed on a working inspection line, executes tracking of a material position, and executes necessary setting to an external apparatus 170. The material existence signal of the sensor 100 is received by a processing input/output device 110, and a tracking program 130 in the computer 120 for control is started. The tracking program manages the material position, on a tracking table, and sends a material No. in the tracking table to an individual processing program 160 by an inter-program message communication 150 in accordance with necessity. The individual program 160 performs a necessary processing by the received material No., and executes a set output and an actual result collection to the external apparatus 170 by the process input/output device 110.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applicable to a soft rolling finishing line control computer system and F
This relates to the material tracking method of the processing inspection line of the A system.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional control computers on machining inspection lines, the tracking program that recognizes the position of materials separates machining inspection lines based on material presence signals and equipment operating status signals from sensors on the line and each piece of equipment.

These boundaries are defined as individual tracking zones, and it is possible to manage which tracking zone each material exists in. When a material enters a tracking zone, it issues commands to processing equipment and inspection equipment belonging to the tracking zone into which the material entered. The ring program that collects results refers to a tracking table in which the tracking program has previously stored material Nα, etc. for each zone, searches for the zone it needs, takes out the material Nα, etc., and processes it.

[Problem 1 to be solved by the invention As described above, data is transferred between the tracking program and the individual processing program by file transfer, which causes the following problems.

(1) When the tracking zone is changed during system design or due to equipment changes, the tracking table needs to be changed, and all individual processing programs that refer to the tracking table need to be reviewed and changed.

(2) Since the method by which the individual processing program refers to the tracking table is described individually within the individual processing program, there is a lack of uniformity in the system as a whole, and software problems are likely to occur due to poor reference methods.6 (3) Individual When testing a unit of a processing program,
Test data must be prepared on a tracking table as a test environment, making it difficult to test individual processing programs.

(4) The individual processing program is designed and created after the tracking table design is completed, making parallel work difficult.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and provide a tracking system with high maintainability and expandability.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above purpose, we changed the method of data exchange between the tracking program and the individual processing program, so that the tracking program sends the material Na required by the individual processing program as a message, and the individual processing program receives the message between programs. The message communication method will be used.

In the program-to-program message communication method, the reception program prepares an FC (function code) indicating the content type of the transmission data and the transmission data, and executes a transmission macro command to send multiple reception signals that are associated with the FC in advance. This is a data transfer method between programs in which the program is started and the receiving program side executes a receiving macro instruction, thereby importing the FC and the transmitted data into the work area within the program. The correspondence between the FC and the receiving program can be changed independently of the sending program and the receiving program.

[Effect]

By using inter-program message communication for data exchange between the tracking program and the individual processing program, (1) Even if a change in the tracking table occurs, it can be handled by only changing the tracking program and the related individual processing program.

If there is no need to change the FC and data of inter-program message communication between the tracking program and other individual processing programs, there is no need to review or change the individual processing programs, and maintainability and expandability can be improved.

(2) Individual processing programs do not need to refer to a tracking table, and data can be easily input using a reception macro for inter-program message communication, thereby reducing the occurrence of software defects.

(3) When performing unit tests of individual processing programs,
As a test environment, it is sufficient to prepare only the messages required by individual programs, making testing easier.

(4) Parallel work of one individual processing program is possible even when the design of the entire tracking table is not completely completed.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

The control computer 120 is a system that receives material presence signals from a plurality of sensors 100 installed on the processing inspection line, tracks the material position, and makes necessary settings to the external device 170.

The material presence signal from the sensor 100 is transferred to the process input/output device 110.
The tracking program 130 in the control calculation 120 is started. The tracking program manages the material position on the tracking table, and transmits the material Nα in the tracking table to the individual processing program 160 by inter-program message communication 150 as necessary.

The individual program 160 performs necessary processing using the received material Nα, and outputs settings and collects results to the external device 170 using the process input/output bag [110].

The details of how to hold the material numbers in the tracking table and the method of starting individual processing will be explained with reference to FIG.

Figure 2 shows an example of the tracking table and FC table when the processing inspection line has 3 zones, with 5 materials in zone 1, 3 materials in zone 2, and 4 materials in zone 3. be.

Numerical values 10 to 14 in the tracking table indicate materials Nα, and the materials Nα existing in each zone are stored first in each zone. In the example shown in FIG. 2, there are materials No. 10 and Nα11 from the beginning in zone 3, and only one material Nα12 exists in zone 2.

The tracking program recognizes that the material has entered zone 1 based on the signal from the sensor at the entrance of zone 1, and stores the material Nα of the material that entered zone 1 first. Material H
It is assumed that a has been entered in advance by the operator in the entry category.

Next, based on the sensor signal at the boundary between zone 1 and zone 2, the leading material in zone 1 is moved to the tail end in zone 2. Tracking of the material is performed in this manner, and finally, based on the sensor signal installed on the exit side of zone 3, tracking of the leading material of zone 3 is completed and the material is erased, and zone 3 is brought to the front.

Message communication from the tracking program to the individual processing program is managed by the FC table shown in FIG. For tracking, if a new material enters zone 1, the FCII stored at the beginning of the FC table is F
As C, a message is transmitted using the entered material Nα as transmission data.

The individual processing program that is responsible for processing the material that has entered Zone 1 can be automatically started by registering it to be started in FCll in advance, and the receiving macro can easily handle the material Nα that has entered Zone 1. can be imported.

As mentioned above, when the material moves into the zone, the tracking program uses the FC specified by the FC table,
By sending the message, the individual program side can easily take in the material Nα using the receiving macro and start individual processing.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a tracking system with excellent maintainability and extensibility, and it is also possible to easily create and test individual programs, thereby improving the quality of the programs.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a tracking table and an FC table. 100... Sensor, 110... Process input/output device, 120... Control computer, 130... Tracking program, 140... Tracking table, 15
0...Message communication, 160...Individual processing program, 170...External device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a control computer that automatically issues commands and collects results to the processing and inspection equipment of the processing and inspection line, which consists of transport equipment that transports processed materials, and material processing equipment and inspection equipment installed on the transport equipment. A tracking program that recognizes the location of the material from the material presence signals and equipment operating status signals from sensors on the line and each equipment, and individual processing that is started from the tracking program to issue commands to processing equipment and inspection equipment and collect results. A tracking method characterized in that data exchange with the program is such that the tracking program transmits material information to be processed by the individual processing program, and the individual processing program receives and processes the material information.