WO2000039645A1

WO2000039645A1 - Programmable controller

Info

Publication number: WO2000039645A1
Application number: PCT/DE1999/004062
Authority: WO
Inventors: Fridolin Egle; Gerald Spiegel
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 1998-12-28
Filing date: 1999-12-21
Publication date: 2000-07-06
Also published as: DE29823119U1

Abstract

The invention relates to a programmable controller for controlling a technical process. Said controller can be connected to an observation device via a network in the form of an internet and/or intranet network. The observation device is designed for process observation. The controller permits an improved observation of the process to be controlled.

Description

description

Automation device

The invention relates to an automation device for controlling a technical process, which can be connected via a network in the form of an Internet and / or intranet network to an observation device which is provided for process monitoring.

In automation technology, measured variables, state variables and calculation results are usually displayed on the user interface (human / machine interface) predominantly in graphic form. For example, the fill level of a boiler is represented by a realistic representation of the boiler and its contents, whereby the representation of the boiler is always constant, but the representation of the contents is derived from a previously recorded measured value. In addition to ready-made graphic elements, specially designed graphic representations are also provided for plant-specific automation functions.

An automation device of the type mentioned at the outset is known from WO 97/26587. Two manufacturing locations of a globally distributed automation network are connected to one another via a known global network “Internet”, these locations comprising several devices in the form of automation devices, programming devices, servers, operator control and monitoring devices and workstations. Process operation and process control of the processes to be controlled in the production locations is carried out by an operator control and monitoring device. This generates an operating and monitoring software module comprising an operating and monitoring program for creating and displaying a process image comprising several image objects, the image objects being

Software function blocks of the control program in the automation device are related (in interaction). The Operating and monitoring software modules are object-oriented and can be ^transmitted directly via the Internet via ^¬ .

A manufacturing management information system (MMI system) is known from the web pages httpAwww.wonderware.de/produkte/fsuite.htm from Wonderware, which enables means and measures for the visualization and monitoring of production processes via the Internet / intranet.

The present invention has for its object to provide an automation device of the type mentioned, with which an improved observation of a technical process to be controlled is made possible.

This object is achieved by the measures specified in the characterizing part of claim 1.

HTTP servers are known per se. These support a so-called "Hyper Text Transport Protocol", which is used in the World Wide Web by distributed hypermedia systems as a search and transmission protocol to access distributed objects. This protocol enables HTML pages ("Hyper Text Markup Language "pages) which can be displayed using suitable HTML browsers. In addition, so-called applets can be integrated into these HTML pages, which comprise a bytecode that can be interpreted by an HTML browser and executed by this browser.

It is advantageous that a dynamic component, for. B. a component in the form of a graphically displayed boiler fill level can be displayed dynamically. It is for essentially static components that never or rarely change, for. B. for system parts to be replaced, reload the corresponding HTML page to be displayed. For themselves frequently changing components, e.g. B. for values of process variables, the corresponding applets are generated in the automation device, loaded into the observation device and executed by this.

The automation device, which is designed as an HTTP server, generates dynamic graphic process variables in such a way that appropriate information and user interfaces can be easily created in common HTML browsers (e.g. Netscape, Internet Explorer) and HTML editors for specific automation systems.

Further advantageous refinements of the invention result from the measures specified in the subclaims.

The invention is explained below using an exemplary embodiment with reference to the single figure of the drawing. The figure of the drawing shows the generation of an HTML page in a schematic representation.

An automation device 1 designed as an HTTP server can be connected via a network 2 in the form of an Internet and / or intranet network known per se to an observation device 3 which is provided for process monitoring of a technical process to be controlled by the automation device 1. The observation device 3 is designed as an HTML browser, to which 2 HTML pages can be fed via the network for the preparation and graphic representation of the technical process. The automation device 1 notifies the observation device 3 of a change in essentially static components of the technical process, as a result of which the latter reloads and displays the corresponding HTML page from the automation device 1. This z. B. Configurations of a technical system can be displayed.

In the event that dynamic components of the technical process (e.g. values of measured variables) within an HTML To represent the page graphically, the automation device generates so-called applets which can be loaded into the observation ^device for displaying the HTML page and can be executed by the observation device. In the exemplary embodiment, a Java applet 4 is shown, which generates the graphic process variables (dynamic components) to be displayed by Java applets running in the HTML browser (observation device 3). The Java applet 4 uses a so-called template class 5. This class receives the name of an ASCII file as the initialization parameter, which contains a number of parameterizable graphics primitives (e.g. circle, rectangle, etc.), color definitions or the call contains another template file 6. In addition to fixed values, the parameters of the graphic primitives can also be arithmetic expressions that contain one or more process variable values.

The size and position of the graphic elements shown are stored in an element file 7 and can change depending on one or more process values. Input parameters of a template instance, which are stored in a variable value file 8, are the current variable value (s) in the form of an array of floating point values with double precision or an array of strings that contain the numerical values as ASCII text contain. In addition, an upper and lower limit value are specified for each variable value, which are stored in a limit value file 9, so that the values used in an arithmetic expression of a graphic element can always be normalized to a range between 0 and 999 . The standardized variable values are inserted in the template, i. that is, the arithmetic expressions that contain variable values are evaluated and the graphic elements that are created are displayed. This process is preferably repeated cyclically and the graphic elements shown are adapted to the current variable values.

To display multiple templates or additional information that complements the templates in a Java applet you can define the size and position of a template as a whole within the applet area shown or within a calling template.

An example of the generation of graphic process variables is shown in the following table.

Syntax of the template file

The syntax of a template file is described in the Backus-Naur form as follows:

<Terαplate>: = {<Line> <Terminator> t <CRLF>]}

<VarDecl>: = "var" {<Separator> <Variable>}

<Corament>: = "rem" {<Character> | <Quote> | <Blank>}

<Parameter list> :: = <Separator> <Parameter> {<Separator> <Parameter>}

<Expression>: = arithmetic expression

<Variable>: = variable identifier according to Step7 convention

<Character> ASCII 33 to ASCII 126 except ASCII 34 and ASCII 59

<Quote> Come up (ASCII 34)

<blank> space (ASCII 32)

<terminator>:: = ";" (ASCII 59)

<CRLF>:: = <CR> [<LF>]

<CR> :: = Carriage Return (ASCII 13)

<LF> :: = Line Feed (ASCII 10) The syntax rules for arithmetic expressions apply to the type <Expression>.

Keyword parameters

Coordinates and sizes are shown in italics below (e.g. x start). The values are always in a range between 0 and 999 and are to be understood as relative values. This ensures the scalability of the graphic display. The absolute value x or y is calculated as x • WIDTH / 1000 or y • HEIGHT / 1000 with WIDTH as applet width and HEIGHT as applet height.

Strings are always enclosed in single quotes. If a string should contain an apostrophe, a backslash "\" must be placed in front.

A comment begins with the keyword rem, can then contain any characters (except ";") and ends with the terminator character ";".

The variables used in arithmetic expressions (preferably at the beginning of the template file) must be declared using the var statement.

image filename

Uses the pixel graphics from the file named filename as the background for the applet. The value is of type <String> and the syntax rules for file names apply. The pixel graphic can contain all graphic elements that are not changed by variable values.

bkgnd red_intensity green_intensity blue__intensity

Sets the background color of the applet; the values range from 0 to 255. The values are of type <Expression>.

color red_intensity green_intensity blue__intensity

Sets the color for all subsequent graphic operations; the values are in the range between 0 and 255. The values are of the type <Expression>.

line x_start y_start x_end y_end

Draws a line between the two points (x_start, y_start) and (x_end, y_end). The values are of the type <Expression>.

oval modifier x start y start x_end y_end

Draws an ellipse, the circumscribing rectangle of which is given by the two coordinates (x_start, y_start) and (x_end, y_end). The values are of the type <Expression>. For modifiers equal to “d *, the ellipse contour is drawn; for modifiers equal to "f *, the ellipse is filled in. box modifier x_start y_start x_end y_end

Draws a rectangle, which is given by the two coordinates (x_start, y_start) and (x_end, y_end). The values are of the type <Expression>. For modifiers equal to "d *, the rectangular contour is drawn; for modifiers equal to "f ^w , the rectangle is filled. rbox modifier x_start y start width height arc_width arc_height

Draws a rectangle with rounded corners, which is given by the two coordinates (x_start, y_start) and (x_end, y_end); the horizontal (vertical) diameter of the arc at all four corners is given by arc_width (arc_height). The values are of the type <Expression>. For modifiers equal to "d", the Rectangular contour drawn; the rectangle is filled in for modifiers equal to "f *". arc modifier xy width height start_angle arc_angle

Draws an arc, the circumscribing rectangle of which is given by the two coordinates (x_start, y_start) and (x_end, y_end). The start angle is given by start_angle and the end angle by end_angle. The O-degree mark is at the “three o'clock” position; the maximum value for start_angle and arc_angle is 360 degrees. The values are of the type <Expression>. For modifiers equal to "d *, the circular arc contour is drawn; for modifiers equal to “f ^λ , the circular arc is filled in. blow dries name style size

Specifies the name, style, and size of all subsequent text output. The following strings are currently possible as names: Serif, SansSerif, Monospaced. The following strings are possible: bold, italic, bold_italic, piain. The size size is to be specified as a relative size to the applet height. text x y string | Variable {string | Variable}

Returns a text at the position (x, y) given by one or more character string (s) or variable name (s).

Claims

claims

1. automation device for controlling a technical process, which processing device via a network (2) in the form of internet and / or intranet network, using a obser ^¬ (3) is connected, which is provided for process monitoring, characterized in that

- The automation device (1) is designed as an HTTP server, with the observation device (3) by the HTTP server

(1) HTML pages for the preparation and graphic representation of the technical process can be fed,

- The automation device (1) for dynamic components of the technical process generates applets (4) which can be loaded as components of HTML pages into the observation device (3) and can be executed in the observation device (3), and

- The automation device (1) indicates a change in an essentially static component of the technical process to the observation device (3), as a result of which the observation device reloads the HTML page.

2. Automation device according to claim 1, characterized in that in the automation device (1) embedded in HTML pages Java applets (4) in the observation device (3) can be loaded, which enable the generation of graphic process variables, the graphic process variables by in the observation device (3) running Java applets are generated.

3. Automation device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the automation device (1) generates the applets (4) cyclically.