Ultra-fast protection method for distributed control system

Abstract

The invention discloses an ultra-fast protection method for a distributed control system, the system adopts a star-shaped connection topological structure, a main node unit comprises an MCU unit and a main FPGA unit, the main node unit comprises an MCU unit and a main FPGA unit, and the MCU unit and the main FPGA unit are connected with each other. The main FPGA unit comprises a communication coding protection processing unit, a data interaction unit, a protection configuration unit, a protection output unit and a multi-path main communication interface; the system can comprise a plurality of slave node units, and each slave node unit comprises a slave FPGA unit and a slave communication interface corresponding to the master communication interface. According to the invention, the original communication channel in the distributed control system is utilized, the whole system is protected more quickly in real time through the design of a communication protocol and a protection strategy, and when any node in the distributed control system fails, the super-fast protection of the whole system is realized, and further expansion of the failure is avoided. Meanwhile, the control method can be flexibly adjusted according to different application requirements, balance between rapid protection and high availability is achieved, and therefore the control method has wider applicability.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application belongs to the technical field of industrial control and variable frequency control, and relates to a fast protection implementation of an industrial automation control device and a variable frequency control device, in particular to a super-fast protection method of a distributed control system. BACKGROUND

[0002] In the field of industrial automation control, protection is a very important function in the device, especially for the scene that the control scale is getting larger and larger and the control device is getting more and more complex. How to realize the fast protection of the device under abnormal conditions has important practical significance for protecting the property and the safety of life of personnel.

[0003] In today's large control system, a distributed control system is mostly adopted. With the increase of the number of system nodes and the increase of the control level, it causes great difficulty to the fast protection of the system. Especially in the field of variable frequency control, due to its high voltage and high power characteristics, if the system cannot be protected in time when a fault occurs, it will cause serious property loss and personal safety problems.

[0004] In the traditional way of adopting special fault protection connection, on the one hand, due to the need for signal isolation, the signal is generally transferred through a relay, causing a large delay. On the other hand, the additional wiring not only increases the cost, but also causes reliability problems. In another way of communication polling, due to the long communication polling period, generally more than 100 milliseconds, it cannot realize the fast protection of the system.

[0005] In summary, for the fast protection problem faced by the current distributed system, the several methods commonly used at present all have obvious shortcomings. SUMMARY

[0006] In order to overcome the shortcomings and deficiencies of the prior art, the purpose of the present application is to provide a super-fast protection method of a distributed control system.

[0007] The technical scheme adopted by the present application to solve its technical problems is: a super-fast protection method of a distributed control system, the entire distributed control system being composed of a master node unit and a plurality of slave node units connected through communication cables, the master node unit and the slave node units adopting a star connection topology and each containing an FPGA unit for realizing communication and super-fast protection functions, the master node unit comprising an MCU unit and a master FPGA unit, the master FPGA unit mainly comprising a communication coding and protection processing unit and a data interaction unit, a protection configuration unit, a protection output unit and a plurality of master communication interfaces connected with the communication coding and protection processing unit, the data interaction unit being connected with the protection configuration unit and the MCU unit, and the data communication and fast protection functions being realized through cooperation and matching of the above modules; the communication coding and protection processing unit comprising a fault information summarizing and processing unit connected with the data interaction unit and the protection configuration unit and a path control unit connected between the fault information summarizing and processing unit and the plurality of master communication interfaces, the path control unit being connected with the data interaction unit; the slave node unit containing a plurality of slave communication interfaces corresponding to the master communication interfaces and based on slave FPGA units; and the steps being as follows: S1, in the system working initialization stage, the MCU unit defines and configures according to the system topology structure and the nodes and the node fault types needing protection, writes the related configuration information into the protection configuration unit through the data interaction unit, and realizes definition of the protection strategy of the entire control system; S2, then the protection configuration unit generates the related protection logic according to the protection configuration information, and outputs the related configuration results to the fault information summarizing and processing unit for realizing automatic protection of faults, after completion of the initialization configuration stage work, the system can enter a normal working state; S3, the communication coding and protection processing unit is responsible for communication and fault processing, the fault information summarizing and processing unit of the communication coding and protection processing unit automatically summarizes, judges and processes different units and different fault problems according to the configuration results in the protection configuration unit after collecting all the node fault data, generates protection instructions for faults needing protection through the protocol coding unit to the corresponding slave node units, and at the same time, protection instructions are also generated locally for generation of protection actions of the master node unit; S4, when the master node unit receives the data returned by the slave node unit, the communication coding and protection processing unit converts the serial data sent by the slave node unit into parallel data, and then the data interaction unit transmits the data into the MCU unit to realize data interaction.

[0008] Further, the passage control unit includes a protocol coding unit connected with the data interaction unit and the fault information collection and processing unit, and a data processing unit connected with the data interaction unit and a fault information extraction unit connected with the fault information collection and processing unit, the protocol coding unit is connected with the main communication interface through a parallel-serial conversion unit, the data processing unit is connected with the main communication interface through a serial-parallel conversion unit, and the data processing unit is connected with the data processing unit.

[0009] Further, when there is no data transmission between the master node unit and the slave node unit, the communication coding and protection processing unit automatically sends an empty frame containing fault information at a high frequency; the empty frame is initiated by the master node unit, the slave node unit adds 1 to the frame sequence number after receiving the empty frame, inserts the fault information of the node, and returns the communication frame, thereby completing the fault information interaction and realizing the integrity check of the communication link.

[0010] Further, in step S1, when the master FPGA unit receives the data sent by the MCU unit, the communication coding and protection processing unit uniformly encodes the data to be interacted, system fault information, system control information and other related information, forms a complete communication frame protocol data, converts the parallel data into serial data through a parallel-serial conversion unit, and sends the serial data to the corresponding slave communication interface of the corresponding slave node unit through the main communication interface; when the slave node unit receives the communication frame protocol data of the master node unit, the slave node unit decodes and performs related actions, and then returns the information frame data with the slave node data and the fault information to the master node unit; after receiving the returned information frame data, the master node unit converts the serial data into parallel data through a serial-parallel conversion unit, extracts the fault information of the slave node from the corresponding field of the data, and sends the fault information to the fault information collection and processing unit.

[0011] Further, in step S2, the protection configuration unit is used to define the subsequent processing actions of the faults encountered in the master node unit and the slave node unit, which can generally be divided into: immediate protection of the unit itself, immediate protection of the whole system, immediate protection of related units, alarm and the like, when the corresponding fault occurs, the communication coding and protection processing unit directly issues a protection instruction or sends a related instruction to each slave node unit through communication according to the pre-configuration of the protection configuration unit, and the slave node unit performs the related protection actions.

[0012] Further, the communication frame protocol in step S1 can detect the state of the communication link in real time, and when a link fault occurs, the fault reporting and protection can be performed quickly and in real time.

[0013] Further, the MCU unit can generally use a control chip such as DSP and ARM, which is connected with the master FPGA unit through a bus and performs data interaction.

[0014] The beneficial effects of the present application are: The control system of the present application adopts a star communication topology of one master node unit to multiple slave node units, each of the master and slave nodes has an independent communication link, and is connected through a communication cable. The master node unit can simultaneously interact with all star slave node units in the system without affecting each other, thereby realizing efficient and rapid interaction of node fault information in the system and rapid response of protection actions. The master and slave node units of the present application both contain an FPGA chip. When the corresponding slave node unit in the system receives the fault information and control information sent by the master node unit, it can perform protection actions according to the configuration. The distributed control system ultra-fast protection can be realized through a specific communication protocol and protection method. When any node in the control system fails, the entire system can be efficiently and rapidly protected, thereby avoiding further expansion of the fault and protecting the equipment assets.

[0015] The communication coding and protection processing unit of the present application can generate a specific communication frame protocol for the data to be sent by the data interaction unit, and interact with the slave node. At the same time, when there is no data transmission, the communication coding and protection processing unit can automatically send a high-frequency empty frame with node fault information to realize the propagation of fault information in the system. The communication coding and protection processing unit can automatically collect the fault information of the connected slave nodes, and automatically send the fault information to each slave node unit according to the configuration of the protection configuration unit, thereby realizing the control of the slave node protection.

[0016] The protection method of the present application utilizes the original communication channel in the distributed control system, and realizes more real-time and faster protection of the entire system through the design of the communication protocol and protection strategy. At the same time, the control method of the present application can be flexibly adjusted according to different application requirements to balance between rapid protection and high availability, thereby having wider applicability. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0017] Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of the control system of the present application; Figure 2 is a functional schematic block diagram of the communication coding and protection processing unit of the present application; Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the communication frame protocol of the present application.

[0018] The reference signs are as follows: 1 - communication coding and protection processing unit, 11 - fault information collection and processing unit, 12 - path control unit, 121 - protocol coding unit, 122 - parallel-serial conversion unit, 123 - data processing unit, 124 - serial-parallel conversion unit, 125 - fault information extraction unit, 2 - data interaction unit, 3 - protection configuration unit, 4 - protection output unit, 5 - master communication interface, 6 - MCU unit, 7 - slave communication interface. Detailed Implementation

[0019] To more clearly illustrate the present invention, the following description, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and examples, further explains the invention. It should be understood that the specific implementation examples described herein are for illustrative purposes only, and the scope of protection is not limited to the examples described.

[0020] Reference Figure 1 As shown, the distributed control system of this invention consists of a master node unit and multiple slave node units. The master and slave nodes are connected via communication cables in a star topology. The number of interfaces in this star distributed control topology can be increased or decreased according to actual needs, and the protection functions of the entire system can be configured through software configuration. Each master and slave node unit includes an FPGA chip for communication and ultra-fast protection functions. The ultra-fast protection function described in this solution is implemented through the communication and protection modules within the FPGA. Through specific communication protocols and protection methods, the distributed control system achieves ultra-fast protection of the entire system when any node in the system fails, preventing further escalation of the fault. In this embodiment, the relevant protection and communication processing are implemented in the FPGA unit. The MCU unit can be set up when there are other external control requirements, for implementing relevant control algorithms and controlling the communication content.

[0021] The master node unit includes an MCU unit 6 and a master FPGA unit. The master FPGA unit mainly includes a communication encoding and protection processing unit 1, a data interaction unit 2, a protection configuration unit 3, a protection output unit 4, and a multi-channel master communication interface 5, all connected to the communication encoding and protection processing unit 1. The data interaction unit 2 connects the protection configuration unit 3 and the MCU unit 6. The MCU unit 6 typically uses a DSP, ARM, or other control chip, and connects to the master FPGA unit via a bus for data interaction. The data interaction unit 2 in the master FPGA unit is used to relay and convert communication between the master FPGA unit and the MCU unit 6, forwarding data sent by the MCU unit 6 to various internal functional units, and simultaneously sending data from the communication encoding and protection processing unit 1 to the MCU unit 6. The slave node unit includes multiple slave FPGA units and slave communication interfaces 7, corresponding in number to the master communication interfaces 5. The master FPGA units in the master node unit and the slave FPGA units in the slave node unit use the same configuration, but the external fault summary function does not need to be enabled in the FPGA units of the slave node unit.

[0022] The communication coding and protection processing unit 1 can generate a specific communication frame protocol for the data required to be transmitted by the data interaction unit 2, and interact with the nodes; meanwhile, when there is no data transmission, the communication coding and protection processing unit 1 can automatically transmit the empty frame with the node fault information at a high frequency to realize the propagation of the fault information in the system. After the communication coding and protection processing unit 1 completes the collection of all node fault data, the communication coding and protection processing unit 1 can make a judgment and processing for different units and different fault problems according to the configuration value in the protection configuration unit 3, and automatically send the corresponding action instructions to the corresponding slave node unit.

[0023] The protection configuration unit 3 is used for defining the subsequent processing actions of the faults encountered in the master node unit and the slave node unit, and generally can be divided into the following processing means: immediate protection of the unit itself, immediate protection of the whole system, immediate protection of the related unit, alarm and the like. When the corresponding fault occurs, the communication coding and protection processing unit 1 can directly send the protection instructions or send the related instructions to each slave node unit through the communication according to the pre-configuration of the protection configuration unit 3, so that the slave node unit can execute the related protection actions. Through the cooperation of the above modules, the data communication and the rapid protection function can be realized.

[0024] The protection configuration unit 3 can receive the configuration data sent by the data interaction unit 2, and pre-configure the states required to be protected by the system, so that the system can be quickly and automatically protected without manual intervention when the corresponding fault occurs.

[0025] The communication coding and protection processing unit 1 is responsible for the communication and fault processing. When the master FPGA unit receives the data sent by the MCU unit 6, the communication coding and protection processing unit 1 can convert the parallel data into serial data, and send the serial data to the slave node unit through the corresponding port.

[0026] The communication coding and protection processing unit 1 includes a fault information collection and processing unit 11 connected with the data interaction unit 2 and the protection configuration unit 3, and a path control unit 12 connected between the fault information collection and processing unit 11 and the plurality of master communication interfaces 5, and the path control unit 12 is connected with the data interaction unit 2. Meanwhile, when the slave node unit sends data to the master node unit, the communication coding and protection processing unit 1 can convert the serial data sent by the slave node unit into parallel data, and then the data interaction unit 2 can transmit the parallel data into the MCU unit 6 of the master node to realize the data interaction. When there is no data transmission between the master node and the slave node, the communication coding and protection processing unit 1 can automatically transmit the empty frame containing the fault information at a high frequency; the empty frame is initiated by the master node unit, and after the slave node unit receives the empty frame, the slave node unit can add 1 to the frame sequence number, insert the fault information of the node, and return the communication frame. While completing the interaction of the fault information, the communication coding and protection processing unit 1 can also realize the integrity check of the communication link.

[0027] The communication encoding and protection processing unit 1 comprises a plurality of path control units 12, each of which corresponds to a communication interface and is connected to a slave node unit, and is responsible for the processing of relevant communication and protection. Referring to Figure 2 As shown in the figure, the path control unit 12 comprises a protocol encoding unit 121 connected to the data interaction unit 2 and the fault information aggregation and processing unit 11, and a data processing unit 123 connected to the data interaction unit 2 and a fault information extraction unit 125 connected to the fault information aggregation and processing unit 11. The protocol encoding unit 121 is connected to the main communication interface 5 through a parallel-serial conversion unit 122, and the data processing unit 123 is connected to the main communication interface 5 through a serial-parallel conversion unit 124. The data processing unit 123 is connected to the data processing unit 123.

[0028] When the master node has no data to send, the path control unit 12 will automatically send a communication null frame containing fault information and control information at a high frequency (about every 3-5 μs to send a frame), which does not contain the data segment content as Figure 3 shown. In this way, even without data transmission, the master node unit and the slave node unit can exchange system fault and control information at a high speed, and at the same time, will not occupy any resources of the MCU unit 6.

[0029] In normal operation, during the system operation initialization phase, the MCU unit 6 needs to be defined and configured according to the system topology and the nodes to be protected and the node fault type, and writes the relevant configuration into the protection configuration unit 3 through the data interaction unit 2, to realize the definition of the protection strategy of the entire control system. Then the protection configuration unit 3 will generate relevant protection logic according to the protection configuration information, and output the relevant configuration results to the fault information aggregation and processing unit 11 for automatic protection of faults. After completing the initialization configuration phase work, the system can enter the normal working state.

[0030] When the MCU unit 6 needs to interact with the slave node unit, it sends the data to the main FPGA unit through the data interaction unit 2. The communication encoding and protection processing unit 1 encodes the data to be interacted, system fault information, system control information and other related information, and forms a complete protocol frame format as Figure 3 shown. Then the parallel data is converted into serial data through the parallel-serial conversion unit 122 and sent to the slave node unit through the main communication interface 5.

[0031] In the protocol frame format as Figure 3 shown, the frame state is used to identify the protection control information, and the system state is used to indicate the fault information of the node.

[0032] When the slave node receives the data frame from the master node, it decodes and performs relevant actions, and then returns the information frame of the slave node, which carries the slave node data and the fault information of the slave node. After the master node receives the data frame returned by the slave node, it first converts the serial data into parallel data through the serial-parallel conversion unit 124, and then extracts the fault information of the slave node from the field corresponding to the communication frame, and sends the fault information to the fault information aggregation and processing unit 11.

[0033] The specific communication frame protocol adopts a unified frame format for the data frame and the idle frame, which both contain the node fault information and the protection action information, and the difference lies in whether the data segment in the frame protocol contains the data to be transmitted. The communication frame protocol can detect the state of the communication link in real time, and when a link fault occurs, it can quickly and timely report the fault and perform protection.

[0034] When there are multiple slave nodes in the system, the fault information of all the slave nodes will be sent to the fault information aggregation and processing unit 11 at the same time, and the fault information aggregation and processing unit 11 will automatically aggregate and process the relevant faults according to the configuration of the protection configuration unit 3 in the system initialization stage, and will generate protection instructions for the faults that need protection and send them to the corresponding slave node unit through the protocol encoding unit 121, and at the same time, the local will also generate protection instructions for the generation of the protection actions of the master node.

[0035] The above embodiments only exemplarily illustrate the principles and effects of the present application, and part of the applied embodiments, and for those skilled in the art, without deviating from the inventive concept, a number of modifications and improvements can be made, which all belong to the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. An ultra-fast protection method for a distributed control system, wherein the distributed control system comprises a master node unit and multiple slave node units connected by communication cables, characterized in that: The master node unit includes an MCU unit (6) and a master FPGA unit. The master FPGA unit includes a communication coding and protection processing unit (1), a data interaction unit (2) connected to the communication coding and protection processing unit (1), a protection configuration unit (3), a protection output unit (4), and a multi-channel master communication interface (5). The data interaction unit (2) is connected to the protection configuration unit (3) and the MCU unit (6). The communication coding and protection processing unit (1) includes a fault information collection and processing unit (11) connected to the data interaction unit (2) and the protection configuration unit (3), and a path control unit (12) connected between the fault information collection and processing unit (11) and the master communication interface (5). The path control unit (12) is connected to the data interaction unit (2). The slave node unit includes multiple slave communication interfaces (7) based on the slave FPGA unit corresponding to the master communication interface (5). The steps are as follows: S1, MCU unit (6) defines and configures the nodes to be protected and the node fault types as needed, and writes the relevant configuration information into the protection configuration unit (3) through the data interaction unit (2). S2, the protection configuration unit (3) generates protection logic based on the configuration information and outputs the configuration result to the fault information collection and processing unit (11). S3, after collecting all node fault data, the fault information collection and processing unit (11) collects, summarizes, judges and processes different units and different fault problems according to the configuration results in the protection configuration unit (3), automatically generates protection instructions to be sent to the slave node unit, and at the same time generates protection instructions locally for the generation of protection actions of the master node unit. S4, when the master node unit receives the data returned by the slave node unit, the communication encoding and protection processing unit (1) converts the serial data sent by the slave node unit into parallel data, and then the data interaction unit (2) transmits it to the MCU unit (6) to realize data interaction.

2. The ultra-fast protection method for a distributed control system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The access control unit (12) includes a protocol encoding unit (121) that connects the data interaction unit (2) and the fault information collection and processing unit (11), and also includes a data processing unit (123) that connects the data interaction unit (2) and a fault information extraction unit (125) that connects the fault information collection and processing unit (11). The protocol encoding unit (121) is connected to the main communication interface (5) through a parallel-to-serial conversion unit (122). The data processing unit (123) is connected to the main communication interface (5) through a serial-to-parallel conversion unit (124). The data processing unit (123) is connected to the data processing unit (123).

3. The ultra-fast protection method for a distributed control system according to claim 2, characterized in that, In step S1, when the main FPGA unit receives the data sent by the MCU unit (6), the communication encoding and protection processing unit (1) encodes the data to be exchanged, system fault information, system control information and other related information in a unified manner to form a complete communication frame protocol data. Then, through the parallel-to-serial conversion unit (122), the parallel data is converted into serial data and sent to the corresponding slave node unit through the main communication interface (5). After receiving the communication frame protocol data from the main node unit, the slave node unit returns information frame data containing slave node data and fault information to the main node unit. After receiving the returned information frame data, the main node unit first converts the serial data into parallel data through the serial-to-parallel conversion unit (124), then extracts the fault information of the slave node from the field corresponding to the data, and sends the fault information to the fault information aggregation and processing unit (11).

4. The ultra-fast protection method for a distributed control system according to claim 1, 2, or 3, characterized in that, In step S2, the protection configuration unit (3) defines the subsequent processing actions of the fault in the master node unit and the slave node unit as follows: immediate protection of the unit itself, immediate protection of the whole system, immediate protection of the relevant unit and alarm. When the corresponding fault occurs, the communication coding and protection processing unit (1) directly issues protection instructions to each slave node unit, and the slave node unit performs the relevant protection actions.

5. The ultra-fast protection method for a distributed control system according to claim 4, characterized in that, When there is no data transmission between the master node unit and the slave node unit, the communication coding and protection processing unit (1) sends an empty frame containing fault information; after receiving it, the slave node unit increments the frame sequence number by 1, inserts the fault information of its own node, and then returns a communication frame.

6. The ultra-fast protection method for a distributed control system according to claim 5, characterized in that, In step S1, the communication frame protocol detects the status of the communication link in real time, and when a link failure occurs, it quickly and in real time reports and protects against the fault.

7. The ultra-fast protection method for a distributed control system according to claim 6, characterized in that, The MCU unit (6) uses a DSP or ARM control chip and is connected to the main FPGA unit via a bus for data interaction.

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