JP3189417B2 - Production management device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a production management apparatus capable of displaying the operation status of a production line on a screen in real time.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, production lines have often been provided with a display device so that the operating status of each production line can be seen at a glance. Such a need arises because it is necessary to easily recognize the operation status of the line at one place for production management, etc. In order to be able to respond quickly. A conventional production management device incorporating such functions is configured as shown in FIG. The programmable logic controller 1 in the figure is a sequencer that controls the operation of a robot or a machine tool arranged on a production line. The programmable logic controller 1 is connected to a production management device 2. Although FIG. 1 illustrates an example in which one programmable logic controller 1 is connected to the production management device 2, all the programmable logic controllers 1 provided on the line are actually connected. Note that the production management device 2 may be provided for each production line, or may be provided one for the entire factory. How and how many of them are provided is determined as appropriate according to the purpose of use of the production management device. This programmable logic controller 1
The connection between the device and the production management device 2 is made via a communication processing unit 3 provided therein. The communication processing unit 3 controls bidirectional communication between the programmable logic controller 1 and a screen control unit 4 described later. The screen control data storage unit 5 stores various data related to screen creation to be displayed on the display device 6, and specifically includes data related to screen display, data related to a screen rewriting procedure, and data related to screen switching. Etc. are stored. The image component data storage unit 7 is a storage device that stores all display components (switches, displays, and the like) arranged on the display device 6. In the screen control data, based on various data output from the programmable logic controller 1, an appropriate one is selected from the data stored in the image component storage unit 7 and the component is displayed on the display device. The setting to display is also included. Further, according to the operation of the touch panel 9 arranged on the screen, a designated bit of the programmable logic controller 1 is turned on, or another menu is opened to prompt the next input, and data according to the input result is transmitted to the programmable logic controller. It also includes an operation procedure such as outputting to 1. In addition, the arrangement control data storage unit 8 includes operation elements such as switches arranged on the display device 4 based on various data stored in the image component data storage unit 7 and the screen control data storage unit 5 described above. Correspondingly, an arrangement for setting a portion functioning as a switch in the area of the displayed switch so that a command is actually output to the programmable logic controller 1 just by touching the switch displayed on the screen. It stores data. In other words, the touch panel 9 corresponding to the component arranged on the screen of the display device 4 by this arrangement data
Is formed. In addition to the touch panel 9, a mouse 10, a keyboard (not shown), and the like are provided as input devices of the production management device 2. The screen control unit 4 displays a screen for production management on the display device 6 based on the data of the screen control data storage unit 5 and the screen component data storage unit 7 and a touch panel formed on the screen. 9 outputs command data to the programmable logic controller 1 by operation of the input device, forms a new screen in accordance with this operation, and conversely, moves the data in accordance with data output from the programmable logic controller 1. This part has a function of displaying a situation or the like by changing the display color of a component displayed on the screen. In the conventional production management device 2 configured as described above, the screen display and the formation of the touch panel 9 in the screen control unit 4 are performed in the following order according to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. First, the screen control unit 4 inputs the above-described various screen control data stored in the screen control data storage unit 5 (S1), and forms a predetermined screen on the screen of the display device 6 according to the data. I do. At this time, various image parts stored in the image part data storage unit 7 are arranged at predetermined positions based on the above data (S2). When the formation of the image is completed, various data output from the programmable logic controller via the communication processing unit 3 are analyzed, and the display of the currently displayed screen is changed based on the analysis result. For example, if the power supply of a programmable logic controller trips,
The display component of the portion for displaying the state of the power supply trip is changed in color from green to red and displayed (S3, S
4). When the command to switch the current screen is not output in the data output from the input device or from the programmable logic controller 1, the steps S3 and S4 are repeated. That is, an appropriate screen is formed on the display device 6 in accordance with the input conditions given by the input device and the communication processing unit 3. On the other hand, when the output to switch the screen is output,
Returning to step 1, the processing of S1 to S4 is repeatedly performed according to the data for forming a new screen (S5). The procedure for forming the touch panel 9 on the screen is performed according to the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG. The screen control unit 4 selectively inputs layout data corresponding to the screen currently displayed on the screen from among the layout data stored in the layout control data storage unit 8,
The touch panel 9 is formed on the screen according to the data. The touch panel 9 is formed by setting a portion functioning as a switch in an arbitrary area of the screen (S
10, S11). When the part functioning as a switch set on the screen is pressed in this way, the screen control unit 4
Then, it recognizes which area has been pressed, and outputs a signal corresponding to the switch to the programmable logic controller 1 or in the screen control unit 4. The programmable logic controller 1 or the image control unit 4 controls the operation or switches the screen based on this signal (S12, S1).
3).

In such a conventional production control device, parts and the like to be displayed on a display device are displayed on an individual basis based on individual independent data. Since these displays have no relation at all, there is a problem that the set amount of the number of items and the number of times of communication are increased, and the responsiveness of the display is deteriorated. In other words, there is a problem that the changing status of various signals output from the programmable logic controller 1 cannot be instantaneously displayed in real time. This is because processes such as creation of a graphic on a screen and setting of characters to be displayed in the graphic are sequentially performed. The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and has as its object to provide a production management device capable of displaying input information in real time and instantaneously.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides control means for controlling the operation of various production machines, and signals transmitted and received between the control means and the various production machines. Alternatively, in a production management device having a display unit for outputting a display corresponding to a signal generated individually by the control unit and the various production machines on the same screen, data on a matrix element to be displayed on the display unit is stored. Screen configuration data storage means, variable specification data storage means for storing data related to the relationship between variables handled in the production management device and the control device, and display according to the state of the variables, and the screen configuration data For displaying a matrix on the display means based on data stored in the storage means and the variable specification data storage means, respectively. To generate a matrix specification data,
Image output means for outputting an image to the display means based on the matrix specification data.

According to the present invention, the image output means includes data relating to matrix elements stored in the screen configuration data storage means and variable specification data stored in the variable specification data storage means. Based on the respective data, matrix specification data for displaying the matrix on the display means is generated. Since the matrix specification data is data having a mutual relationship between the matrices displayed on the screen, real-time instant display becomes possible because the time required for communication processing for the display can be short.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the position of the production management device according to the present invention. The production management apparatus according to the present invention includes a programmable logic controller group A for controlling the operation of production equipment such as robots provided on a line, a host computer for centrally managing and controlling these programmable logic controller groups, That is, it is connected to an intermediate position of a line production instruction device (not shown). The information of the line production instruction device is once input to a computer called a cell controller B, and the input information is reorganized by the programmable logic controller group A into an actually usable information form. . The information of the cell controller B can be directly accessed by a host computer such as a BCR, an EWS, a personal computer, a notebook personal computer, etc. through a LAN in the factory. Further, the cell controller B has a function of storing various events (abnormal information, work delay, etc.) occurring in the line together with the time at which the event occurred. The production control device 2 of the present invention is connected to the cell controller B. The production control device 2 displays event information stored in the cell controller B and displays the occurrence of a new event in real time. It also has a function of giving an appropriate instruction to this event. That is, as shown, the production management device 2 can be used as a line main operation panel. Therefore, by looking at the display screen of this production management device, you can see what kind of vehicles are flowing in the line in what order, what the progress of the work in each stage is, When a problem occurs, it is possible to search in detail what is the cause, for example, whether it is due to a failure of the programmable logic controller itself or a short circuit of the limit switch. become. FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram of a control system of the production management device according to the present invention. The programmable logic controller 1 in the figure is a sequencer for controlling the operation of a robot or a machine tool arranged on a production line, and has exactly the same function as a conventional one. The programmable logic controller 1 is connected to a production management device 2. Although FIG. 1 illustrates an example in which one programmable logic controller 1 is connected to the production management device 2, actually, a programmable logic controller group A provided on a line as shown in FIG. Have been. The connection between the programmable logic controller 1 and the production management device 2 is made via a communication processing unit 3 provided therein. The communication processing unit 3 controls bidirectional communication between the programmable logic controller 1 and a screen control 4 described later. The screen configuration data storage unit 20 stores, for example, screen configuration data configured as shown in FIG. When displaying based on this data,
The display is as shown in FIG. In this data, "BO
The portion related to "X" is data for displaying the title of the screen. This data draws a rectangle of 150 horizontal by 20 vertical with the position of the coordinates (100, 5) as the origin, and the A-line operation It has the meaning of writing with the situation. Further, the portion relating to the “table” thereunder is data for performing a display drawn under the title, and has a horizontal item number 4 and a vertical item number 7 with the position of coordinates (10, 30) as an origin. This means that emergency stop, operation mode, abnormality, and oil pressure should be displayed for the line consisting of stations # 10 to # 70.When a screen is created based on this data, these lines are displayed. The information is output as a table as shown in Fig. 4. Since this data is a series of data necessary for screen creation, this processing is performed much faster than in the past. The variable specification data storage unit 21 stores a variable specification data for giving a unique identifier such as a name to a signal obtained through the communication processing unit 3 and treating the signal as a variable. The variable specification data is provided for each of the A lines composed of stations # 10 to # 70 as shown in FIG. 5, for example, as shown in FIG. The file corresponding to each variable is stored in a box of .. More specifically, data as shown in Fig. 7 is written in the file. The variable specification data is combined with the above-mentioned screen configuration data to generate one screen configuration data. Is generated based on the screen configuration data and the variable specification data, and is stored in the matrix specification data storage unit 22. The matrix specification data is data obtained by integrating data relating to display on the display device 6 and data input from the programmable logic controller 1. In the communication processing unit 3, the matrix specification data is converted from the programmable logic controller 1 into the matrix specification data. The input data is applied and sent to the image control unit 4. The image control unit 4 creates a screen as shown in Fig. 4 based on the sent data and causes the display device 6 to display the screen. 8 is
1 shows a more detailed configuration of a production management device according to the present invention. In this figure, the same members as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. The touch panel 9 is set on the screen of the display device 6 and includes a mouse 10
Are the same as those used in ordinary computers and the like. The first communication processing unit 25 is a part that performs signal transmission and reception between the communication processing unit 3 and a matrix generation unit 26 described below. The second communication processing unit 27 is for performing mutual communication between the programmable logic controller 1 and a matrix element state refresh processing unit 27 described later. The matrix generation processing unit 26 is a part that calculates information for causing the display device 6 to display a matrix. The matrix element state refresh processing unit 27
This is a part for refreshing a character element to be set (written) in a matrix displayed on the screen based on a signal input from the program controller 1 and outputting the refreshed element to the first communication processing unit 25. The matrix element data storage section 30 stores character elements to be written in a matrix to be displayed on the display device 6. The production management device of the present invention configured as described above operates as shown in the flowchart of FIG. First, the screen control unit 4 inputs screen configuration data suitable for a display request from the screen configuration data storage unit 20 (S1), and stores variable specification data related to the input screen configuration data in the variable specification data storage unit. Search out from 21 (S2). The found data is applied to the screen configuration data to form a series of data and stored in the matrix specification data storage unit 22. The communication processing unit 3 reads the matrix specification data stored in the matrix specification data storage unit 22 at regular intervals, reads necessary data from the program controller 1, and stores this data in the matrix specification data. It is stored (S3). Then, the screen controller 4 causes the display device 6 to display a screen as shown in FIG. 4 based on the matrix specification data (S4). As described above, since the data relating to the screen to be displayed is given by one series of data called matrix specification data, the screen display only needs to perform one process in accordance with the data, and thus real-time instantaneous display is possible. This eliminates the need to perform the processing one by one in order to update and display one data as in the related art. By employing the configuration shown in FIG. 8, the amount of information to be held on the terminal side provided with the screen control unit 4 is extremely small, and the communication load can be reduced. For this reason, since the terminal can be realized by an inexpensive device, it is possible to reduce the cost when the facility information is to be displayed in a matrix at a plurality of places.

As described above, according to the present invention, since the screen is displayed based on one series of data, the equipment information can be displayed in real time and instantaneously. In addition, when displaying, it is only necessary to set the items to be displayed, so that the number of setting steps for displaying the display is small, and it is easy to change the display items and the matrix layout. I can deal with it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a position of a production management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control system of the production management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of screen configuration data of the production management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display mode of the production management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a line configuration of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an image diagram of variable specification data of the production management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of variable specification data of the production management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a more detailed block diagram of the production management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the production management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a control system of a conventional production management device.

11 is a flowchart for creating a display screen of the apparatus shown in FIG.

12 is a flowchart for creating a display screen of the apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Programmable logic controller 2 ... Production management apparatus 3 ... Communication processing part 4 ... Screen control part 5 ... Screen control data storage part 6 ... Display device 7 ... Screen part data storage part 8 ... Arrangement control data storage part 9 ... Touch panel 10 ... Mouse 20: Screen configuration data storage unit 21: Variable specification data storage unit 22: Matrix specification data storage unit

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 17/60 108 G06F 3/147 B23Q 41/08 JICST file (JOIS)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A control means for controlling the operation of various production machines, and signals transmitted and received between the control means and the various production machines or individually generated by the control means and the various production machines. A display device for outputting a display corresponding to a signal to be displayed on the same screen, a screen configuration data storage device for storing data related to a matrix element to be displayed on the display device, Variable specification data storage means for storing data relating to the display according to the relationship between the variable and the control device and the state of the variable, and stored in the screen configuration data storage means and the variable specification data storage means, respectively. Generating matrix specification data for displaying the matrix on the display means based on the data Production control apparatus characterized by comprising an image output means for outputting an image on the display means based on the specification data.