Distributed graphical program development platform based on lightweight reconstruction mechanism

Abstract

A distributed graphical program development platform based on a lightweight reconstruction mechanism relates to the technical field of computers and comprises an upper computer and a lower computer. The upper computer comprises an equipment manager component, a development platform main body and a server which are mutually independent; wherein the equipment manager component is used for interacting field equipment and data information with the lower computer; the development platform main body is used for designing, managing, compiling and running a graphical program; the server provides role authentication, program version uploading / downloading of distributed development management and shared variable transfer functions for a user based on a C / S architecture; the lower computer comprises an Agent system service and is connected with the equipment manager component; the development platform can improve the program debugging and deployment efficiency.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of computer technology, and in particular to a distributed graphical program development platform based on a lightweight reconstruction mechanism. Background Art

[0002] Thermal-hydraulic measurement and control programs refer to software programs used to monitor and control thermal or hydraulic systems in the fields of thermal energy engineering and fluid mechanics. These programs are usually used in various industrial processes, such as power plants (especially nuclear power plants), heating systems, air-conditioning systems, and cooling circulation systems. When compiling thermal-hydraulic measurement and control programs, they are generally used in the field of measurement and control because of the ease of operation and readability of graphical programming.

[0003] At present, most of the thermal hydraulic measurement and control programs are developed by using PLC, DCS based on IEC61131, or other dedicated graphical programming platforms, such as LABVIEW. However, in the field of thermal hydraulic measurement and control, the measurement and control programs have the characteristics of distributed deployment, and the development terminal where the user compiles the program and the operating terminal where the program runs are often inconsistent, or different programs need to be run on different operating terminals.

[0004] Therefore, in order to deploy the developed graphical measurement and control program from the development terminal to the program running terminals in different environments, it is often necessary to use a cross-compilation tool. Therefore, the cross-compilation environment also needs to be integrated into the above-mentioned program development platform, but the cross-compilation tools between different platforms are not perfect; at the same time, different running terminal environments require corresponding compilers to perform compilation operations. Therefore, when involving multiple running terminal environments, the use of cross-compilation environment integration will cause the development platform to be too bloated.

[0005] A Chinese patent (CN114706569A) discloses a graphical embedded development platform that can meet the real-time requirements and intelligent needs of embedded systems and is very convenient to use. However, the development platform still does not have an integrated compilation function.

[0006] Therefore, we propose a program development platform that can improve the efficiency of program debugging and deployment by reducing compilation time. Summary of the invention

[0007] In order to overcome the deficiencies in the background technology, the present invention discloses a distributed graphical program development platform based on a lightweight reconstruction mechanism.

[0008] In order to achieve the above-mentioned invention object, the present invention adopts the following technical scheme:

[0009] A distributed graphical program development platform based on a lightweight reconstruction mechanism, comprising a host computer and a slave computer;

[0010] The host computer includes a mutually independent device manager component, a development platform body and a server; wherein the device manager component is used to interact with the lower computer for on-site equipment and data information;

[0011] The development platform is mainly used for designing, managing, compiling and running graphical programs;

[0012] The server is based on a C / S architecture and provides users with role authentication, program version upload / download for distributed development management, and shared variable transfer functions;

[0013] The lower computer includes an Agent system service, which is connected to a device manager component.

[0014] Preferably, the device manager component includes a management module, devices and interfaces, software and drivers, and a gRPC framework interface, wherein the management module is used to manage received lower-level machine data and field device distribution structure data;

[0015] The device and interface are used to connect external input devices;

[0016] A variety of driver software is written into the software and driver;

[0017] The gRPC framework interface interacts with the lower computer for data.

[0018] Preferably, the development platform body includes a program development component, a system management component and a program running component;

[0019] The program development component uses graphical programming and wiring to complete the development of graphical programs, and can build data and logical relationships between elements in the graphical program;

[0020] The system management component is responsible for providing engineering project management, distributed development management, shared variable management, user authority management, operation log management and auxiliary explanation functions;

[0021] The program running component is used to run the graphical program.

[0022] Preferably, the graphical programming is a three-layer model composed of views, scenes and elements.

[0023] Preferably, the data and logical relationships are modularized to separate the fixed function codes of the graphical programming elements from the non-fixed configuration relationships of the program;

[0024] The non-fixed configuration relationship includes the logical relationship within the measurement and control program and the logical relationship between the measurement and control programs. The logical relationship within the measurement and control program includes the configuration information of the graphical programming elements and the connection configuration information, and the logical relationship between the measurement and control programs is the shared variable configuration information.

[0025] Preferably, the logical relationship within the measurement and control program includes a horizontal relationship and a parent-child relationship, wherein the horizontal relationship is a sequential execution and the parent-child relationship is a nested execution.

[0026] Preferably, the program running component includes a non-fixed configuration relationship to form a lightweight program file, and a fixed-function code to form a terminal program template, wherein the lightweight program file contains configuration information of the graphical programming elements, connection configuration information and shared variable configuration information, and the terminal program template contains the fixed-function code of the graphical programming elements, and there are different templates for different running terminals.

[0027] Preferably, the lightweight program file includes programming control information, programming connection information and shared variable information, wherein the programming control information and programming connection information store the data and logical relationship configuration information within the program, and the shared variable information stores the data and logical relationship configuration information between programs.

[0028] Due to the adoption of the above-mentioned technical solution, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0029] The present invention discloses a distributed graphical program development platform based on a lightweight reconstruction mechanism.

[0030] 1. By designing the device manager component, the development platform and the server as independent components, the stability, reliability and maintainability of the system can be improved, and resource management and distributed deployment can be facilitated. In addition, the development platform can directly design and compile graphical programs, effectively reducing the overall compilation time of the program development platform and improving the efficiency of program debugging.

[0031] 2. The server based on C / S architecture not only provides strong security protection, but also supports efficient distributed development process. At the same time, it enhances the collaboration ability between programs through shared variable transfer service. The combination of these functions provides users with an efficient, secure and easy-to-expand development environment;

[0032] 3. The use of graphical programming and wiring to complete the development of graphical programs makes program development more intuitive and reduces the learning curve;

[0033] 4. The program running component adopts the running architecture of terminal program template + lightweight program file, which effectively reduces the compilation time and speeds up the deployment process. In addition, since the terminal program template is generated based on the running environment, a terminal program template is applicable to all measurement and control programs in the running environment, thus ensuring the compatibility between measurement and control programs in the same running environment;

[0034] In addition, the terminal program template can be regarded as a type of formal parameter. Different terminal program template concrete parameters are generated for different target terminal operating environments, ensuring compatibility and scalability in multiple target terminal operating environments. At the same time, the terminal program template can be obtained through a cross-compiler or local compilation, avoiding the defects of an imperfect cross-compilation chain, and also making it unnecessary for the platform to integrate a complete compilation environment, greatly simplifying the component content of the development platform. At the same time, there is no real-time compilation step during program deployment and operation, which reduces time costs and improves the debugging efficiency of the measurement and control system.

[0035] 5. The platform has a modular packaging design for measurement and control subroutines, which can realize the nested reuse of graphical subroutines, greatly improving the efficiency of graphical program development and forming various special programming control libraries for different user needs. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the system architecture of the development platform in the present invention.

[0037] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the shared variable communication process in the present invention.

[0038] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the device tree visualization management process in the present invention.

[0039] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the data tree visualization management process in the present invention.

[0040] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the terminal device verification process in the present invention.

[0041] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of the Agent service architecture in the present invention.

[0042] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the terminal program management process in the present invention.

[0043] Figure 8 It is a schematic diagram of the compatible implementation mechanism of the multi-target terminal in the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0044] The technical solution of the present invention will be described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. In the description, it should be understood that if there are terms such as "upper", "lower", "front", "back", "left", "right" and the like indicating directions or positional relationships, they are only corresponding to the drawings of the present invention, for the convenience of describing the present invention, and do not indicate or imply that the devices or components referred to must have a specific direction:

[0045] Embodiment 1 is:

[0046] Combined with Figure 1 The distributed graphical program development platform based on lightweight reconstruction mechanism comprises a host computer and a slave computer;

[0047] The host computer includes a mutually independent device manager component, a development platform body, and a server. The mutually independent settings can improve the stability, reliability, and maintainability of the system, and also facilitate resource management and distributed deployment;

[0048] The device manager component is used to interact with the lower computer for on-site equipment and data information. This component is mainly used to enable the upper computer to obtain the lower computer device information, obtain the network topology relationship between the lower computer devices, perform hardware data management, and execute device verification.

[0049] The development platform is mainly used for designing, managing, compiling and running graphical programs;

[0050] The server is based on C / S architecture and provides users with role authentication, program version upload / download for distributed development management, and shared variable transfer functions; and the server based on C / S architecture not only provides strong security protection, but also supports efficient distributed development processes, and at the same time enhances the collaboration ability between programs through shared variable transfer services. The combination of these functions provides users with an efficient, secure and easily expandable development environment;

[0051] The lower computer includes an Agent system service, which is connected to a device manager component.

[0052] Embodiment 2 is:

[0053] On the basis of Example 1, the device manager component is further defined, and the device manager component includes a management module, a device and an interface, software and a driver, and a gRPC framework interface, wherein the management module is used to manage the received lower machine data and field device distribution structure data;

[0054] The device and interface are used to connect to external input devices, and some data is input through the external input devices. Common external input devices include keyboards, mice, card readers, etc.

[0055] A variety of driver software is written into the software and driver;

[0056] The gRPC framework interface exchanges data with the lower computer. It should be noted that the Agent system service of the lower computer also has a corresponding gRPC interface for realizing information interaction between the two.

[0057] Embodiment 3 is:

[0058] Based on Example 1, the development platform body is further limited to include a program development component, a system management component, and a program running component;

[0059] The program development component uses graphical programming and wiring to complete the development of graphical programs, and can build data and logical relationships between elements in the graphical program;

[0060] In particular, graphical programming is implemented based on the three-layer model of Qt's view QGraphicsView, scene QGraphicsScene and element QGraphicsItem. Among them, QGraphicsView is used to display the elements in the scene and realize the visualization of programming elements; QGraphicsScene is an abstract element management container; QGraphicsItem is the basic unit of graphic programming elements and is the basic class for the implementation of various graphic programming element function codes.

[0061] In the three-layer model, each layer has its own independent coordinate system. The view is the display window, and its coordinates are the same as the device coordinates by default, with the upper left corner as the origin. The scene coordinate system can be customized. In order to simplify the logic, the scene coordinate system is the same as the view coordinate system. Figure 1 The coordinate system is like this, with the upper left corner as the origin; the element coordinate system can be customized. In order to facilitate drawing custom images, the center of the element is taken as the origin of the coordinate axis.

[0062] In the three-layer model, the view is the entrance to human-computer interaction. Mouse clicks, drags, hovers, and other events are transmitted to the scene through event penetration, and finally to the element. After the three-layer coordinate system is defined, by setting the appropriate coordinate conversion formula, the control can be correctly mapped from its own element coordinates to the view coordinates and displayed at the specified position.

[0063] In addition, the data and logical relationships are modularized to separate the fixed function codes of the graphical programming elements from the non-fixed configuration relationships of the program;

[0064] The non-fixed configuration relationship includes the logical relationship within the measurement and control program and the logical relationship between the measurement and control programs. The logical relationship within the measurement and control program includes the configuration information of the graphical programming elements and the connection configuration information, and the logical relationship between the measurement and control programs is the shared variable configuration information.

[0065] According to the needs, the logical relationship within the measurement and control program includes a level relationship and a parent-child relationship, wherein the level relationship is a sequential execution, and the parent-child relationship is a nested execution.

[0066] The system management component is responsible for providing engineering project management, distributed development management, shared variable management, user authority management, operation log management and auxiliary explanation functions; wherein the distributed development management, shared variable management and user authority management are all connected to the server, serving as the connection and operation port between the server and this development platform;

[0067] The program running component is used to run the graphical program; the program running component includes a non-fixed configuration relationship to form a lightweight program file, and a fixed function code to form a terminal program template, wherein the lightweight program file includes configuration information, connection configuration information and shared variable configuration information of the graphical programming element, and the terminal program template includes the fixed function code of the graphical programming element, and there are different templates for different running terminals;

[0068] According to needs, the lightweight program file includes programming control information, programming connection information and shared variable information, wherein the programming control information and programming connection information store the data and logical relationship configuration information within the program, and the shared variable information stores the data and logical relationship configuration information between programs;

[0069] The programming control is initially designed with an abstract base class ControlItemBase that inherits from the QGraphicsItem element. This base class contains common properties such as length, control type, control unique identifier, number / coordinate / value / type / state of input and output nodes, etc. At the same time, based on the different designs of the interactive panel and the logic panel, two new second-level abstract base classes are extended from the first-level abstract base class ControlItemBase: the view abstract base class ViewControlItemBase and the logic abstract base class LogicControlItemBase.

[0070] The various programming controls in the platform are visualized by generating the third-level derived classes of the interactive panel and the logic panel in the second-level abstract base class ViewControlItemBase and the logic abstract base class LogicControlItemBase respectively, and the specific UI and function functions of the corresponding controls are encapsulated in them;

[0071] The operating platform is based on the program operating architecture of terminal program template + lightweight program file, which separates the fixed function code of graphical programming elements from the non-fixed configuration relationship of the program. The non-fixed configuration relationship forms the lightweight program file, and the fixed function code forms the terminal program template. The terminal program template is a general program configuration parser, which has compiled the internal function code of each programming element into an executable file for the target operating environment.

[0072] A lightweight program file contains three items of information: programming control information Items, programming line information Lines, and shared variable information Progarm. The first two items store the data and logical relationship configuration information within the program, and the third item stores the data and logical relationship configuration information between programs.

[0073] Programming control information Items includes common parameters such as BackObjectName, BackPosotionX / Y, Title, InputCount, OutputCount, and some control-specific parameters. The configuration information of programming controls is restored when the program is loaded.

[0074] The programming line information Lines contains parameters such as RranchUUID, SourceObject, TargetObject, SourceLinkedPointID, TargetLinkedPointID, etc. When the program is running and loaded, the configuration information of the programming line is restored. Among them, according to the four parameter information of the starting control unique identifier SourceObject, the target control unique identifier TargetObject, the starting control output node port number SourceLinkedPointID, and the target control input node port number TargetLinkedPointID, the uniqueness and directionality of a single programming line are realized. At the same time, during the program running process, when the programming line element receives the data stream, it compares the unique identifier and output node port number of the data sender with the SourceObject and SourceLinkedPointID in the line configuration information. If the verification is consistent, the line element forwards the data to the TargetLinkedPointID port of the specified TargetObject control according to the stored configuration information.

[0075] The shared variable information Progarm contains parameters such as SharedVariant, MqttServerIp, LibSharedVariant, etc., and the configuration information of the shared variables is restored when the program is running and loaded.

[0076] like Figure 2As shown in the figure, shared variables communicate through the MQTT service. When importing a project or program file, the MQTT client will connect to the server and subscribe to all shared variables on the server. At the same time, each time a program containing a shared variable control is run, a temporary MQTT client will be created to publish the latest shared variable value.

[0077] Each shared variable has a unique identifier uuid, which is generated when the shared variable is created. When modifying, deleting, and saving operations, the shared variable is uniquely located based on the unique identifier uuid. There are two operating logics of the shared variable control. One is the read mode, which finds the shared variable through the uuid in the control, takes out the last written value, and passes it to the downstream control; the other is the write mode, which writes the data input upstream of the shared variable into the variable, and publishes the latest value to the MQTT server with the uuid as the topic through the target IP set by the shared variable. The server then distributes it to other clients that have subscribed to the topic. In each program that uses the same shared variable, each write operation will modify the shared variables on all target machines to the latest value, ensuring the synchronization of all the same shared variable values.

[0078] In the development platform of the present invention, the execution logic of the graphical measurement and control program is: when the program starts, the program operation management module of the programming platform will first traverse and find all the running starting points in the graphical program, and then execute according to the level relationship or parent-child relationship in the program. A certain control must meet the following two points at the same time as the running starting point: ① The control has no input port; ② The control has no parent node.

[0079] In addition, if Figure 3 As shown in the figure, the device manager component interacts with the Agent service of all terminals to realize the visual management of the device tree. The Agent service collects the terminal device information, collects the device information and board data, and processes and classifies them. The device manager component obtains the device information from the Agent service through the network and displays it;

[0080] like Figure 4 As shown in the figure, the device manager component interacts with the Agent service of all terminals to realize the visual management of the data tree. The terminal measurement and control program sends business data to the Agent service through the client, and the Agent processes and saves the received data. The device manager component obtains these business data information from the Agent service through the network and displays and saves them.

[0081] like Figure 5 As shown, the device manager component presets the device information of the known terminal, performs online scanning, obtains online device information through the Agent service, and issues an alarm prompt for device information that does not meet expectations.

[0082] like Figure 6 As shown in the figure, the Agent service is a resident service of the lower computer, which provides the upper computer with functions such as equipment online detection, data collection, download control of the lower computer measurement and control program, and management of the running status of the lower computer measurement and control program. Main control loop: controls the timing of the Agent engine and maintains the latest channel value table. In each iteration, the main control loop performs the following tasks:

[0083] S1. Read and write I / O and asynchronous custom device cycle data.

[0084] S2. Apply scaling to the data.

[0085] S3. Execute a step of the real-time sequence of the currently running program.

[0086] S4. Send data to the data processing loop to synchronize channel data values.

[0087] S5. Send the data to the model execution loop as program data input.

[0088] S6. Prompts data processing loop, model execution loop and asynchronous custom device loop execution.

[0089] S7. Perform software fault insertion.

[0090] S8. Create a mapping connection.

[0091] S9. Execute inline custom device.

[0092] Model Execution Loop: Executes the corresponding program executable file. The number of models in the system definition determines the number of loops. At each iteration, each model execution loop performs the following tasks:

[0093] S1. Read the data sent by the main control loop and map this data to the model input port.

[0094] S2. Execute one step of the model.

[0095] S3. Read the model output value and send this data to the main control loop.

[0096] like Figure 7 As shown in the figure, the Agent starts the server, and the host computer platform sends program operation instructions to the Agent service through the client. The Agent service responds to the received program operation instructions (add / delete / modify / check / start / stop) and updates the program registry and program auto-start registry. The next time the Agent service starts, it starts the registered program according to the auto-start registry, and manages the running and non-running programs.

[0097] The platform program operation instructions include "Get all registered measurement and control programs and their running status GET_PROCESS_LIST", "Deploy the measurement and control program and register and run SEND_PROCESS_AND_RUN", "Deploy the measurement and control program and register but do not run SEND_PROCESS_NOT_RUN", "Start the registered measurement and control program START_PROCESS", "Stop the registered measurement and control program STOP_PROCESS", "Delete the registered measurement and control program DELETE_PROCESS", "Stop the registered and running measurement and control program and delete STOP_DELETE_PROCESS".

[0098] The user authority management of the development platform described in the present invention is designed using RBAC (rights-based role control), and is divided into three user roles according to the usage scenarios of different personnel: administrator, ordinary user, and visitor.

[0099] The permission management adopts C / S architecture, and the client uses POST method to initiate a request to the server. The server-side permission management module runs after the system is deployed. An administrator role is created by default. This account can be used to create new users or modify existing user information. The account information is saved in the server-side database. The database uses SQLite3 to store user account information.

[0100] The client-side permission management module displays the login interface when the software development platform is started. After filling in the user information, a login request is initiated to the server. The server receives the information, parses it, verifies it through the database, and returns the verification result corresponding to the user's login request.

[0101] The version control module of the development platform of the present invention adopts C / S architecture, and the client initiates a request to the server using POST method. The user uploads the currently used project file to the remote server, and downloads or deletes the specified version of the project file from the remote server, realizing multi-person collaboration and remote sharing of distributed development operations.

[0102] In the development platform described in the present invention, all programming controls have a unified description style. In the three-layer design of the programming control class diagram, when designing the abstract base class LogicControlItemBase of the second layer, it has a virtual function of virtual boolrun(), which is used to provide derived classes with rewriting operation logic. Each programming element control integrated in the platform writes specific logic code into this virtual function, and the program operation manager module automatically calls this function.

[0103] Based on the design of control virtual functions, modular encapsulation of measurement and control subroutines is realized. By reconstructing the subroutine management operation logic, the subroutine operation logic is separated from the interface to form an independent pure logic module. At the same time, an independent program operation management module is abstracted, which automatically parses the operation logic according to the control logic created by the user in the scene, and then loads the separated subroutine file into the scene, and finally connects to the program operation management module for operation.

[0104] like Figure 8 As shown in the figure, the platform realizes lightweight reconstruction and operation of the program through the terminal program template + lightweight program file, without complicated compilation components. In the actual use environment, the platform can generate multiple terminal program templates in advance for the program running environment in different terminal devices and integrate them into the development platform to realize the development and operation of measurement and control programs across multiple platform running environments.

[0105] The parts of the present invention that are not described in detail are prior art. It is obvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the details of the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments, and the present invention can be implemented in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or basic characteristics of the present invention; therefore, no matter from which point of view, the embodiments should be regarded as exemplary and non-restrictive. The scope of the present invention is limited by the appended claims rather than the above description. Therefore, it is intended to include all changes within the meaning and scope of the equivalent elements of the claims in the present invention, and any figure marks in the claims should not be regarded as limiting the claims involved.

Claims

1. A distributed graphical program development platform based on a lightweight reconstruction mechanism, characterized by: Including upper computer and lower computer; The host computer includes a mutually independent device manager component, a development platform body and a server; wherein the device manager component is used to interact with the lower computer for on-site equipment and data information; The development platform is mainly used for designing, managing, compiling and running graphical programs; The server is based on a C / S architecture and provides users with role authentication, program version upload / download for distributed development management, and shared variable transfer functions; The lower computer includes an Agent system service, which is connected to a device manager component.

2. The distributed graphical program development platform based on lightweight reconstruction mechanism as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The device manager component includes a management module, devices and interfaces, software and drivers, and a gRPC framework interface, wherein the management module is used to manage the received lower-level machine data and field device distribution structure data; The device and interface are used to connect external input devices; A variety of driver software is written into the software and driver; The gRPC framework interface interacts with the lower computer for data.

3. The distributed graphical program development platform based on lightweight reconstruction mechanism as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The development platform body includes a program development component, a system management component and a program running component; The program development component uses graphical programming and wiring to complete the development of graphical programs, and can build data and logical relationships between elements in the graphical program; The system management component is responsible for providing engineering project management, distributed development management, shared variable management, user authority management, operation log management and auxiliary explanation functions; The program running component is used to run the graphical program.

4. The distributed graphical program development platform based on lightweight reconstruction mechanism as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that: The graphical programming is a three-layer model composed of views, scenes and elements.

5. The distributed graphical program development platform based on lightweight reconstruction mechanism as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that: The data and logic relationships are modularized to separate the fixed function codes of the graphical programming elements from the non-fixed configuration relationships of the program; The non-fixed configuration relationship includes the logical relationship within the measurement and control program and the logical relationship between the measurement and control programs. The logical relationship within the measurement and control program includes the configuration information of the graphical programming elements and the connection configuration information, and the logical relationship between the measurement and control programs is the shared variable configuration information.

6. The distributed graphical program development platform based on lightweight reconstruction mechanism as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that: The logical relationship within the measurement and control program includes a level relationship and a parent-child relationship, wherein the level relationship is a sequential execution and the parent-child relationship is a nested execution.

7. The distributed graphical program development platform based on lightweight reconstruction mechanism as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that: The program running component includes a non-fixed configuration relationship to form a lightweight program file, and a fixed function code to form a terminal program template, wherein the lightweight program file contains configuration information of graphical programming elements, connection configuration information and shared variable configuration information, and the terminal program template contains the fixed function code of the graphical programming elements, and there are different templates for different running terminals.

8. The distributed graphical program development platform based on lightweight reconstruction mechanism as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that: The lightweight program file includes programming control information, programming connection information and shared variable information, wherein the programming control information and programming connection information store the data and logical relationship configuration information within the program, and the shared variable information stores the data and logical relationship configuration information between programs.

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