WO2020209447A1

WO2020209447A1 - Device modeling device and method

Info

Publication number: WO2020209447A1
Application number: PCT/KR2019/009586
Authority: WO
Inventors: 이광호
Original assignee: 주식회사 드림시스얼
Priority date: 2019-04-10
Filing date: 2019-08-01
Publication date: 2020-10-15
Also published as: CN113615126B; KR102007484B1; CN113615126A

Abstract

Disclosed in the present specification are a device and method for conveniently modeling a device by means of a user interface. A device modeling device according to the present specification can comprise: a communication unit having at least one LAN communication port and at least one serial communication port; a memory unit for storing configurations of a device which transmits and receives data by means of the LAN communication port or the serial communication port; and a processor which provides an interface for setting the configurations of the device to an administrator terminal connected by means of the LAN communication port, stores, in the memory unit, configurations of the device input by means of the interface, and controls the communication unit so as to communicate with the device connected to the LAN communication port or the serial communication port in accordance with the device configurations stored in the memory unit.

Description

Device modeling apparatus and method

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for modeling a device, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for easily modeling a device through a user interface.

This application claims priority based on Korean Patent Application No. 10-2019-0042082 filed on March 13, 2019, and all matters described in the specification and drawings are incorporated in this application.

Thanks to the rapid growth of the IT industry, numerous systems are being built with the emergence of numerous business models. This phenomenon has spread not only to the IT industry, but also to numerous industries such as communication/semiconductor/automobile/logistics/distribution related to IT. In particular, automation systems such as semiconductor and LCD manufacturing industries are composed of many devices/equipments.

The present applicant has applied for an invention (No. 10-1209005) that converts different protocols used when these devices/equipment exchange data with other systems. In the above invention, a serial-to-Ethernet protocol converter is disclosed to enable communication between an upper system and devices/equipment using various protocols for each manufacturer.

On the other hand, in recent years, with the development of IoT technology, a technology for collecting data through various sensors in a device and managing it in a higher system has been developed. For example, a temperature/humidity sensor, a vibration sensor, an infrared sensor, etc. may be attached to monitor whether a device included in the semiconductor production automation system is normally operating (or malfunctioning).

In general, sensors convert analog signals into digital signals and output them. At this time, it is necessary to convert the digital signal output from the sensors into a form of data that can be recognized by the upper system and transmit it. In this case, the output method of the sensor every time the sensor is first installed or replaced because each sensor type has different output methods for each type of sensor, for each manufacturer of the same type of sensor, and for each sensor model even for sensors made by the same manufacturer Depending on the program, there is a hassle to program each.

An object of the present specification is to provide an apparatus and method for easily modeling a device through a user interface.

The present specification is not limited to the above-mentioned tasks, and other tasks that are not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

A device modeling apparatus according to the present specification for solving the above-described problem includes: a communication unit having at least one LAN communication port and at least one serial communication port; A memory unit for storing settings for a device transmitting and receiving data through the LAN communication port or the serial communication port; And a device that provides an interface for setting details on the device to an administrator terminal connected through the LAN communication port, stores the setting information on the device input through the interface in the memory unit, and stores the device in the memory unit. It may include a; processor for controlling the communication unit to communicate with the LAN (LAN) communication port or a device connected to the serial communication port according to the setting.

According to an embodiment of the present specification, the interface may include a device registration interface, a communication protocol registration interface, a command registration interface, and a variable registration interface.

In this case, the device registration interface may be an interface through which settings for at least one or more of a device name, a device communication server, and a physical communication method can be input.

In this case, the communication protocol registration interface may be an interface capable of inputting settings for at least one or more of an encoding and a control type.

In this case, the command registration interface may be an interface through which a request for extracting data from the device and a setting for a response can be input.

In this case, the variable registration interface may be an interface through which setting of a variable indicated by data extracted from the device can be input.

The device modeling method according to the present specification for solving the above problems is a device modeling method using an apparatus including a communication unit, a memory unit, and a processor having at least one LAN communication port and at least one serial communication port. and (a) providing, by the processor, a device registration interface for a device transmitting and receiving data through the LAN communication port or the serial communication port; (b) the processor providing a communication protocol registration interface for the device; (c) the processor providing a command registration interface for the device; And (d) providing, by the processor, a variable registration interface for the device.

According to an embodiment of the present specification, step (a) may be a step of further storing, by the processor, a setting for at least one or more of a device name, a device communication server, and a physical communication method in the memory unit. .

According to an embodiment of the present specification, step (b) may be a step of further storing, by the processor, a setting for at least one of an encoding and a control type in the memory unit.

According to the exemplary embodiment of the present specification, step (c) may be a step of further storing, by the processor, a request for extracting data from the device and a setting of a response in the memory unit.

According to an embodiment of the present specification, step (d) may be a step of further storing, by the processor, a setting of a variable indicated by data extracted from the device in the memory unit.

The device modeling method according to the present specification may be implemented as a computer program written in a computer-readable recording medium and written to perform each step in a computer.

Other specific details of the present invention are included in the detailed description and drawings.

According to the present specification, it is possible to easily model a device through a user interface.

The effects of the present invention are not limited to the effects mentioned above, and other effects not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

1 is a schematic block diagram of a device modeling apparatus according to the present specification according to the present specification.

2 is an exemplary diagram of an environment in which the device modeling apparatus according to the present specification is used.

3 is a flowchart of a device modeling method according to the present specification.

4 is an exemplary diagram of a device registration interface according to the present specification.

5 is an exemplary diagram of a communication protocol registration interface according to the present specification.

6 is an exemplary diagram of a command registration interface according to the present specification.

7 is an exemplary diagram of a variable registration interface according to the present specification.

Advantages and features of the invention disclosed in the present specification, and a method of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described later in detail together with the accompanying drawings. However, the present specification is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but may be implemented in a variety of different forms, and only the present embodiments are intended to complete the disclosure of the present specification, and are common in the technical field to which the present specification belongs. It is provided to completely inform the scope of the present specification to a technician (hereinafter, "the person in charge"), and the scope of the rights of the present specification is only defined by the scope of the claims. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, the device modeling apparatus 100 according to the present specification may include a communication unit 110, a memory unit 120, and a processor 130.

The communication unit 110 may have at least one LAN communication port and at least one serial communication port.

The memory unit 120 may store setting items for a device that transmits and receives data through the LAN communication port or the serial communication port.

The memory unit 120 may be inside or outside the processor 130, and may be connected to the processor 130 by various well-known means. The memory unit 120 is a known semiconductor device known to be capable of recording and erasing data such as RAM, ROM, and EEPROM, as a mass storage medium such as a hard disk, and collectively refers to a device in which information is stored regardless of the type of device. As such, it does not refer to a specific memory device.

The processor 130 may provide an interface for setting details on the device to an administrator terminal connected through the LAN communication port. In addition, the processor 130 may store settings for the device input through the interface in the memory unit. In addition, the processor 130 may control the communication unit 110 to communicate with the LAN communication port or a device connected to the serial communication port according to device settings stored in the memory unit 120. The processor 130 includes a CPU, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), another chipset, a logic circuit, a register, a communication modem, a data processing device, etc. known in the art to execute the logic to be described below. It may include.

In order to help understand the present specification, an example environment in which the device modeling apparatus 100 is used will be described.

Referring to FIG. 2, it can be seen that the device modeling apparatus 100 according to the present specification is shown in the center. The device modeling apparatus 100 may be connected to various devices, which are shown below the device modeling apparatus in FIG. 2. The various devices correspond to a lower level based on the device modeling apparatus 100. The various devices may be PLCs, vibration sensors, ultrasonic sensors, infrared sensors, photosensors, magnet sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, and the like. Most of the various devices may be connected through a serial communication port of the device modeling apparatus 100, but may also be connected through a LAN communication port. An example of a communication protocol through the serial communication port is RS232, and an example of a communication protocol through the LAN communication port is TCP/IP. However, the device modeling apparatus 100 according to the present specification is not limited to the communication protocol presented as an example. The device modeling apparatus 100 may be connected to various servers or systems shown above the device modeling apparatus in FIG. 2 through a LAN communication port. The various servers or systems correspond to a higher level based on the device modeling apparatus 100. The various servers or systems may serve as data analysis, equipment analysis, equipment control, and the like.

Various servers or systems corresponding to the upper level need to receive data from various devices corresponding to the lower level or transmit a control command to the devices. At this time, the various servers or systems may be programmed using different communication protocols or different variable values. Similarly, the various devices may use various communication protocols according to manufacturers, characteristics, product model numbers, etc., output data or receive commands using various variable values. The device modeling apparatus 100 according to the present specification, in particular, can reduce the hassle of programming a device that is frequently added, replaced, etc. each time, and can provide convenience in modeling through an interface. In this case, the administrator may connect to the device modeling apparatus 100 through the LAN communication port using a manager terminal (eg, a laptop, a smart phone, a smart pad, etc.). The manager may receive an interface for setting details on the device from the device modeling apparatus 100. In addition, the manager may input settings for the device in an interface provided on the screen of the manager terminal. The setting information is stored in the memory unit 120, and the processor 130 may control the communication unit 110 so that the device performs communication according to the setting information.

Hereinafter, a device modeling method according to the present specification will be described. However, in describing the device modeling method according to the present specification, the description of the configuration of the device modeling apparatus described above is repeated, and thus will be omitted. In addition, it is assumed that the manager terminal and the device modeling apparatus are connected to each other through a communication network.

Referring to FIG. 3, first, in step S100, the processor 130 may provide a device registration interface for a device transmitting and receiving data through the LAN communication port or the serial communication port to the manager terminal. .

Referring to FIG. 4, the device registration interface may be an interface through which settings for at least one or more of a device name, a device communication server, and a physical communication method can be input.

Since the device name is used as an ID that identifies the device, it must be unique (Primary Key). In addition, in connection with the communication of the device, the IP address of the device in which the device is installed may be input. In addition, the device registration interface may further input a physical space in which the device is installed, a model name provided by a manufacturer of the device, and a device type. As an example of the physical communication method, an RS-232 communication standard may be used, and a transmission rate, a data bit, a stop bit, and a parity may be input for mutual communication.

The manager may input a device-related item in the device registration interface displayed on the manager terminal screen. The manager terminal may transmit data on the inputted information to the device registration device through a communication network. In addition, the processor 130 may store in the memory unit 120 a setting for at least one or more of a device name, a device communication server, and a physical communication method in step S110.

In the next step S120, the processor 130 may provide a communication protocol registration interface for the device.

Referring to FIG. 5, the communication protocol registration interface may be an interface that can input settings for at least one or more of an encoding and a control type.

The communication protocol registration interface is a setting for dividing communication data in units of frames. For example, as an encoding type, ASCII type and BINARY type can be input. For example, as a control type, a regular expression, an end string, a fixed length, a use header, and a custom logic method may be input. In addition, if you select End String as the control type, you can also enter the end string. Also additionally

In order to prevent data loss due to exceeding the buffer capacity between the receiving unit and the transmitting unit, whether to use the flow control that is sent and the special control characters (Xon, Xoff) used for software flow control, Flow Script can be entered.

The administrator may input items related to the communication protocol of the device in the communication protocol registration interface displayed on the screen of the administrator terminal. The manager terminal may transmit data on the inputted information to the device registration device through a communication network. In addition, the processor 130 may store a setting for at least one of an encoding and a control type in the memory unit 120 in step S130.

In the next step S140, the processor 130 may provide a command registration interface for the device.

Referring to FIG. 6, the command registration interface may be an interface for inputting a request for extracting data from the device and a setting for a response.

For example, sensor devices such as temperature, humidity, and 3-axis acceleration (vibration sensor) not only have a small amount of data, but the format of request and response is mostly uncomplicated, so the format of the request and response is set as a regular expression. You can obtain the data (variables) you need by modeling. As an example, input items according to the standard of the 3-axis acceleration sensor may be as the following example.

[example]

Transmit Format: <1> + Check-sum + CR

Receive Format: [1 0 "X""Y""Z"] + Check-sum + CR

The format of the above sensor is modeled as follows using regular expressions and converted into variables.

Transmission format: <1>33\r

Receive format: .1+\s0+\s(?<x>.+)\s(?<y>.+)\s(?<z>.+)]

The administrator may input items related to a command for controlling a device in the command registration interface displayed on the screen of the administrator terminal. The manager terminal may transmit data on the inputted information to the device registration device through a communication network. In addition, the processor 130 may store in the memory unit 120 a request for extracting data from the device and a response setting in step S150.

In the next step S150, the processor 130 may provide a variable registration interface for the device.

Referring to FIG. 7, the variable registration interface may be an interface through which a setting for a variable indicated by data extracted from the device can be input.

The variable registration interface is an interface for registering the variables extracted from the command registration interface to integrate units, etc. and assigning a unique ID to provide variables to the upper solution software. Examples of input items include Unique Identifier (UID) items for managing variables, alias input items for names that are easy to remember or meaningful, and input items related to the encoding type of the extracted variable (e.g.: ASCII Basic, Decimal Integer, Hexadecimal Integer, Float, Double Float, Binary, Binary Float, Binary Double Float, etc.), inputs about the input format of the extracted variable (e.g. %d, %2f, etc.), upper solution Input for the variable name to be used as the source of the software (Source VID) and the script for processing the extracted variables (e.g., temperature sensor, 35.6 degrees per sensor, detection accuracy and implementation such as 365, 3652, 36523, etc.) Depending on the technology, the value of the variable may be different in various forms.In order to match this to 36.5 degrees, enter'Source * 0.1' in the script for 365, and'Source * 0.01' in the case of 3652, 36523 In this case, input'Source * 0.001')

The manager may input items related to variables for contents expressed by device data in the variable registration interface displayed on the screen of the manager terminal. The manager terminal may transmit data on the inputted information to the device registration device through a communication network. In addition, the processor 130 may store a setting of a variable indicated by the data extracted from the device in the memory unit 120 in step S170.

Thereafter, the processor 130 will control the communication unit 110 to communicate with the LAN communication port or a device connected to the serial communication port according to device settings stored in the memory unit 120.

Meanwhile, the device modeling method according to the present specification may be a computer program written to perform each step in a computer and recorded in a computer-readable recording medium. The computer program includes C/C++, C#, JAVA, Python that can be read by the computer's processor (CPU) through the computer's device interface in order for the computer to read the program and execute the methods implemented as a program. , May include a code coded in a computer language such as machine language. Such code may include a functional code related to a function defining necessary functions for executing the methods, and a control code related to an execution procedure necessary for the processor of the computer to execute the functions according to a predetermined procedure. can do. In addition, such code may further include additional information required for the processor of the computer to execute the functions or code related to a memory reference to which location (address address) of the internal or external memory of the computer should be referenced. have. In addition, when the processor of the computer needs to communicate with any other computer or server in the remote in order to execute the functions, the code uses the communication module of the computer to determine how It may further include a communication-related code for whether to communicate, what kind of information or media should be transmitted and received during communication.

The stored medium is not a medium that stores data for a short moment, such as a register, cache, memory, etc., but a medium that stores data semi-permanently and can be read by a device. Specifically, examples of the storage medium include, but are not limited to, ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage device, and the like. That is, the program may be stored in various recording media on various servers to which the computer can access, or on various recording media on the user's computer. In addition, the medium may be distributed over a computer system connected through a network, and computer-readable codes may be stored in a distributed manner.

As described above, embodiments of the present specification have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings, but those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present specification pertains to that the present invention can be implemented in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features. You can understand. Therefore, the embodiments described above are illustrative in all respects, and should be understood as non-limiting.

100: device modeling device

110: communication department

120: memory unit

130: processor

Claims

A communication unit having at least one LAN communication port and at least one serial communication port;

A memory unit for storing settings for a device transmitting and receiving data through the LAN communication port or the serial communication port; And

Provides an interface for setting details on the device to an administrator terminal connected through the LAN communication port, stores setting details for the device input through the interface in the memory unit, and sets the device stored in the memory unit Device modeling apparatus comprising a; processor for controlling the communication unit to communicate with the LAN (LAN) communication port or a device connected to the serial communication port according to a matter.
The method according to claim 1,

The interface includes a device registration interface, a communication protocol registration interface, a command registration interface, and a variable registration interface.
The method according to claim 2,

The device registration interface,

A device modeling device that is an interface through which settings for at least one or more of a device name, a device communication server, and a physical communication method can be input.
The method according to claim 2,

The communication protocol registration interface,

A device modeling apparatus that is an interface through which settings for at least one of encoding and control types can be input.
The method according to claim 2,

The command registration interface,

A device modeling apparatus that is an interface through which a request for extracting data from the device and a setting for a response can be input.
The method according to claim 2,

The variable registration interface,

A device modeling apparatus that is an interface through which a setting for a variable represented by data extracted from the device can be input.
A device modeling method using an apparatus including a communication unit, a memory unit, and a processor having at least one LAN communication port and at least one serial communication port,

(a) providing, by the processor, a device registration interface for a device transmitting and receiving data through the LAN communication port or the serial communication port;

(b) the processor providing a communication protocol registration interface for the device;

(c) the processor providing a command registration interface for the device; And

(d) providing, by the processor, a variable registration interface for the device.
The method of claim 7,

In the step (a), the processor further stores a setting of at least one of a device name, a device communication server, and a physical communication method in the memory unit.
The method of claim 7,

In the step (b), the processor further stores a setting for at least one of an encoding and a control type in the memory unit.
The method of claim 7,

In the step (c), the processor further stores a request for extracting data from the device and a response setting in the memory unit.
The method of claim 7,

In the step (d), the processor further stores a setting of a variable indicated by the data extracted from the device in the memory unit.
A computer program written in a computer to perform each step of the method according to any one of claims 7 to 11 and recorded in a computer-readable recording medium.