Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Generic control system – apparatus or process – Sequential or selective
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-09
2003-05-27
Gordon, Paul P. (Department: 2121)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Generic control system, apparatus or process
Sequential or selective
C700S017000, C700S011000, C700S083000, C345S960000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06571133
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method, in particular for monitoring, controlling, and adjusting a process, wherein a signal processing instruction is synthesized on a computer-assisted user interface by arranging and connecting icons and produced by the computer from base modules containing individual instructions.
Such process monitoring, control, and adjustment systems (PSR) produce from digital data a signal processing instruction, which acts with respect to input and output signals in the same manner as a corresponding hardware structure comprising, for example, digital filters, PID controllers, control cards. Moreover, the signal processing instructions may also be used for simulating a control system or for quality assurance. To keep the programming times of PSR systems low, graphic user interfaces are used as substitutes for the programming environment. In the mathematical sense, the representation is a graph structure, which is built up on the user interface from individual, for example, digital filter icons and PID controller icons. According to this graph structure on the computer, a signal processing instruction is composed from individual instructions. In most cases, these individual instructions are programmed in base modules, with the individual base modules containing certain computing operations with algorithms. The graph structure or the signal processing instruction is finally translated to a useful execution sequence.
A disadvantage of these known PSR systems lies in that the synthesis of the signal processing instruction from the individual instructions is complicated, and that in the further development of the base module groups, problems will arise with the combination of the base modules, since in the event that the entire system is supplemented with further individual instructions, the entire program package with the composite signal instruction will have to be constantly retranslated because of the changing interface. In principle, an addition of a basically new functionality is not possible for that user, who does not possess the source code of the signal processing instruction. The expandability of such PSR systems is limited to functionalities, which were previously provided in the programming of the PSR system.
It is the object of the present invention to further develop a method of the initially described kind such that it simplifies expandability and facilitates the setup of libraries with frequently used base modules.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention are achieved by the provision of a method of the described type wherein a signal processing instruction is synthesized on a computer assisted user interface by arranging and connecting icons, and generated by the computer from base modules containing individual instructions, with one base module being allocated to each icon. The individual instructions of the selected base modules are linked to one another according to the graphic integration of the icons for transmitting and/or processing data.
The allocation of one base module each to a possible icon that can be placed on the user interface, in particular with an exactly predetermined interface, which also permits transferring diverse parameters for adapting the individual instructions, facilitates the reuse of the base modules and a fast development of methods for monitoring, controlling, and adjusting a process. Since it is possible to assign to each individual icon exactly one base module, the icons may be put in program libraries and requested via the user interface, so that it is possible to synthesize in any desired way the signal processing instruction from the individual instructions contained in the base modules. This kind of encapsulated modeling may advantageously be assisted by object-oriented program languages. It is a special advantage that the base modules can be simply linked with their interfaces in accordance with the integration of the icons on the user interface.
In an advantageous further development of the method according to the invention, the input data, in particular from sensors, are processed by the formed signal processing instruction for generating output signals and the thereby developing data flow is controlled by a sequential control. The integration of the icons in the signal processing instruction is depicted on the user interface, for example, as a connection line between an output of a last icon and the input of the following icon. Preferably, this connection line corresponds to an interface between two base modules. The data flow, which is transmitted via such connection lines or interfaces is normally derived from the basic data types of the underlying program language. For example, individual values, matrices, records, or special data fields of these types of basic data are transmitted. Advantageously, the sequential control makes it also possible to assist in the processing of complex data types of any desired structure. A data transmission between the base modules is started by the sequential control. It is the task of the participating base modules to determine the kind of transmission as well as the check for allowability (type checking) of a connection.
Preferably, the data flow is processed by the signal processing instruction in the form of individual data packets associated to individual base modules, the size of the packets being freely determinable, and the sequential control determines the computing readiness of the base modules. For reasons of efficiency, the data are transmitted in the signal processing instruction in blocks. Several blocks together form a data packet. Besides the relevant transmission data, each packet receives further data, in particular packet name, packet status, range of values, physical unit, scaling factor, scanning rate. The packet status informs about the association of data blocks to an icon or base module. Since an icon corresponds to an electronic component, the packet status thus determines likewise the association of the data block to the simulated component, for example, as input data for a PID controller. With the aid of additional data to the scanning rate within the data packet, it is possible to identify and handle different scanning rates of data packets. The processing of signals of different scanning rates is assisted by the sequential control in that at times, when no further processing module is ready to compute, the list of source modules will be polled, until one or more ready-to-compute source modules are found. Depending on the used scanning rate of the source modules, this will be the case at different times. All successors of the ready-to-compute source modules will be handled in the next processing cycle, etc. (data flow principle). The sequential control regulates the processing of individual instructions of the base modules or the processing of the data of a base module in a suitable sequence. In particular, it is necessary to process each base module together with its data several times, so that no data jam occurs at the input of a base module. Preferably, the sequential control generates no static processing sequence, which would depend only on the structure of the graph, so that a particularly efficient data processing is made possible in the case of cycles, multiprocessing of individual instructions, and asymmetrically distributed quantities of data in the signal processing instruction.
In a particularly preferred further development of the invention, the sequential control determines the computing readiness on a base module at each change of the input data. In this connection, the presence of all input data needed on the base module is preferred, and a processing priority allocated to the base module is queried for purposes of releasing the processing of data packets by the individual instruction corresponding to the base module. In this process, the dynamic method described in the following is used, which is in a position to handle cycles. A base module sign
Fuchs Erich
Mandl Roland
Nommer Johann
Sick Bernhard
Gordon Paul P.
Micro-Epsilon Messtechnik GmbH & Co. KG
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