Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Generic control system – apparatus or process
Utility Patent
1996-11-05
2001-01-02
Kemper, M. (Department: 2764)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Generic control system, apparatus or process
Utility Patent
active
06169927
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a control system for an industrial application with a control level hierarchically situated below a management level and above an automation level. Such industrial installations may include, for example, fossil fuel or nuclear power plants, and manufacturing or process plants.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a power plant, monitoring equipment must display the current operating status of the system and report any deviations from a reference status. A comprehensive system for measuring actual values of the operating states of all system components, a comprehensive system for evaluating the measured values that is commensurate with the complexity of the system, and a system component status display prepared in the visual form with a high degree of information compression are required for this purpose.
A control system must meet the aforementioned requirements. Due to the high complexity of such industrial installations, such a control system must be of a simple linear design. This means, on one hand, that system components should be capable of being monitored and adjusted by the control system and, on the other hand, it should be possible to integrate new and/or revised and modified control, adjustment, and/or evaluation options into the existing control system.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The aforementioned characteristics are not achieved with the prior art control systems. Therefore, the object of the invention is to provide a control system, in particular, a computer-aided control system, wherein the level for estimating and evaluating the measured values is highly configurable.
This problem is solved according to the invention by the modular construction of the control level, which includes a plurality of functional units for processing input values according to their respective functions, wherein said units are interconnectable according to a plurality of industrial tasks to be performed.
Due to this modular design of the control level and its systems, the control system at this level can be structured and graphically configured in almost any desired manner. Functional units can be modified, expanded, removed, or reconnected at any time in order to perform an industrial task, such as, for example, management of certain system components, information processing, parameter calculation or balancing. The input values processed can be measured values directly acquired by the automation level, measured values calculated with an appropriate function, intermediate results of other functional units, and configurable parameters that can be provided via the management level.
In such a mostly computer-aided control system, it is desirable that the control level and the levels connected to the control level be managed within a common system environment. For this purpose, it is convenient if an operating system, preferably a commercially available operating system such as, for example, UNIX or OS-2, supporting the management level, control level and automation level, as well as data transfer among these levels, is provided. Such operating systems also support free connectivity of the functional units arranged on the control level. In addition, a high degree of independence of the control system in relation to the rate of innovation of the computer hardware is achieved in this way.
In an especially advantageous refinement of the invention, the functional units can have a modular design. In this way, an arbitrarily definable task can be assigned to each functional unit, and the functional unit can be created using pre-storable elements.
An especially advantageous embodiment of a modular functional unit is obtained if it comprises an arbitrarily configurable input area, a functional area, and an output area. In this way, each area of the functional unit can be configured independently. Furthermore, each area can be adapted to changed conditions even during the operation of the industrial system. The inputs of functional units can be connected to the outputs of other functional units by standardizing the interfaces of the functional units.
In order to design particularly simple configurable input areas, it is desirable to define a data type, a connection type, and a mode of supply for the input area. Similarly, a data type, a connection type, and a mode of disposal can be defined for the output area.
Under the keyword “data type,” the type of data reaching and leaving the functional unit is defined. These can have, for example, the character of real values (real numbers), integer values (integers), Boolean values (true/false statements), or strings, which can also be transmitted in any desired, but definable, sequence as a data block or data set.
Under the keyword “connection type,” the connection of the functional unit to other functional units is defined. The connection can, in particular, consist of a ring connection or a queue connection or a service order connection or a data container connection. The buffer mechanism is indirectly defined by the connection type. For example, in the case of a ring connection, a configurable number of values from different function runs are stored in a cyclic buffer.
The keywords “mode of supply” and “mode of disposal” are defined so that an input is explicitly supplied or an output is explicitly disposed of if the functional unit explicitly (also with any desired frequency) initiates the data reception or data output when performing its function. An implicit supply or disposal mode is present if it has been determined that the functional unit has data available basically prior to executing its function or outputs data basically after it has executed its function without additional measures being required for this purpose.
On the basis of the aforementioned options for defining the input and/or output area, it is ensured that the input and/or output area can be adapted to the technological problem to be solved in any desired manner, but using pre-defined means. The ensures uniform, and thus reliable, data exchange for all functional units and uniform and reliable data management for all functional units.
In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the functional area may contain a functional unit program, for example, a program written in any desired programming language, which includes at least one function set consisting of at least one logic and/or at least arithmetic function, depending on the technological problem to be solved. In this manner, technical experts can program their special technological know-how without needing tie their algorithm (function set) itself into the control system. This will be taken by them from the standardized environment, in particular, through the configurable input and output areas of the functional units. Furthermore, logical operations, ready-made by technological experts, such as for example AND, OR, XOR, and NOR relationships and arithmetic functions such as, for example, differentiation, averaging, and integration, can be available to the technological experts, so that a function set is obtained in part through structuring and in part through programming.
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Fritz Peter
Kessler Karl-Otto
Schönthal Hagen
Walz Horst
Kemper M.
Kenyon & Kenyon
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
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