Control method, device, storage medium, and program product

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a control method, device, storage medium and program product, and relates to the technical field of control. The control method comprises: determining at least one fault device in a plurality of conveying devices; determining, according to association information between the plurality of conveying devices, an associated device in the same conveying line as the at least one fault device to create a to-be-processed device set, the to-be-processed device set comprising conveying devices in different communication channels from the at least one fault device; and controlling the conveying devices in the to-be-processed device set to stop. The technical solution of the present disclosure can reduce the response delay in the process of issuing a stop command, thereby improving the control effect on the conveying devices.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This disclosure relates to the field of control technology, and in particular to a control method, apparatus, storage medium, and program product. Background Technology

[0002] In automated warehousing and logistics systems, equipment on conveyor lines (such as conveyors, steering gears, and shuttles) is typically controlled by a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) via a fieldbus protocol. In large systems, PLCs in different areas may use different communication protocols, such as CC-Link (Control & Communication Link) or MC (MELSEC Communication Protocol) / SLMP (Seamless Message Protocol). Control commands for each communication protocol are issued and equipment status is fed back through independent communication channels corresponding to that protocol.

[0003] In related technologies, upper-level scheduling systems such as WMS (Warehouse Management System) poll the status of the transmission equipment controllers under the corresponding communication protocols through various communication channels, thereby determining the equipment status and issuing shutdown commands. Summary of the Invention

[0004] One technical problem this disclosure aims to solve is that the method of determining and issuing shutdown commands by polling the status of the controllers of the conveying equipment in each communication channel results in a large response delay, leading to poor control of the conveying equipment.

[0005] According to one aspect of this disclosure, a control method is proposed, comprising: identifying at least one faulty device among a plurality of conveying devices; identifying associated devices on the same conveying line as the at least one faulty device based on association information between the plurality of conveying devices to create a set of devices to be processed, the set of devices to be processed including conveying devices on different communication channels from the at least one faulty device; and controlling the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed to stop.

[0006] In some embodiments, determining at least one faulty device among a plurality of conveying devices includes: identifying a conveying device as a candidate device in response to the number of transitions in adjacent communication cycles of the plurality of conveying devices within a first time period reaching a threshold number; and identifying a candidate device as at least one faulty device in response to the number of transitions in adjacent communication cycles of the candidate device within a second time period adjacent to the first time period reaching a threshold number.

[0007] In some embodiments, the control method further includes: determining the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device based on the association information between multiple conveying devices; and sending a first control command to the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device to reduce the operating speed of the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device.

[0008] In some embodiments, at least one faulty device includes multiple faulty devices on the same conveyor line, and determining at least one faulty device among the multiple conveyor devices includes: in response to detecting a first device in a faulty state among the multiple conveyor devices at a first time point, detecting a second device in a faulty state among the multiple conveyor devices during a third time period starting from the first time point; and determining the first device and the second device as faulty devices.

[0009] In some embodiments, determining the associated devices on the same conveying line as at least one faulty device based on the association information between the conveying devices includes: determining a set of associated devices corresponding to each of the multiple faulty devices based on the association information between the multiple conveying devices; and creating a set of devices to be processed based on the multiple faulty devices and the set of associated devices corresponding to each faulty device.

[0010] In some embodiments, the control method further includes: in response to the first device returning to a non-faulty state, controlling the conveying device in the set of devices to be processed to restart.

[0011] In some embodiments, controlling the restart of a conveyor in a set of devices to be processed includes: controlling the restart of a conveyor in a set of devices to be processed according to the priority of the conveyor in the set of devices to be processed, wherein the first device has the highest priority.

[0012] In some embodiments, the priority of a third device in the set of devices to be processed is related to the conveying direction of the third device on the conveying line, with the priority of an upstream device being higher than that of a downstream device, and the third device being a conveying device in the set of devices to be processed other than the first device.

[0013] In some embodiments, controlling the restart of the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed according to their priorities includes: for two devices with adjacent priorities in the set of devices to be processed, controlling the higher-priority device to start and verifying the status information of the lower-priority device; and controlling the lower-priority device to start in response to the lower-priority device being in a non-faulty state.

[0014] In some embodiments, the control method further includes adding identification information of at least one faulty device to the status information of the associated device.

[0015] In some embodiments, the association information includes the conveying interval between multiple conveying devices. The more devices that are spaced along the same conveying line, the larger the conveying interval. Based on the association information between multiple conveying devices, determining the associated device that is on the same conveying line as at least one faulty device includes: in the conveying line where at least one faulty device is located, determining the conveying device whose conveying interval with at least one faulty device is not greater than the interval threshold as the associated device.

[0016] In some embodiments, determining at least one faulty device among a plurality of conveying devices includes: in response to detecting at least one faulty device, shortening the communication cycle of the communication channel in which the conveying device is located in the material conveying scenario.

[0017] In some embodiments, in response to receiving a stop command, the conveyor in the set of devices to be processed is controlled to stop; in response to receiving a start command, the stopped conveyor is controlled to restart; in response to detecting a second control command and the communication channel of the conveyor indicated by the second control command being disconnected, the second control command is ignored, the second control command including a stop command or a start command.

[0018] According to a second aspect of this disclosure, a control device is also provided, comprising: a first determining module for determining at least one faulty device among a plurality of conveying devices; a second determining module for determining associated devices on the same conveying line as the at least one faulty device based on association information between the plurality of conveying devices, to create a set of devices to be processed, the set of devices to be processed including conveying devices on different communication channels from the at least one faulty device; and a control module for controlling the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed to stop.

[0019] According to a third aspect of this disclosure, a control device is also provided, comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to execute the control method described above based on instructions stored in the memory.

[0020] According to a fourth aspect of this disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is also provided, on which a computer program is stored, which, when executed by a processor, implements the control method described above.

[0021] According to a fifth aspect of this disclosure, a computer program product is also provided, including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the control method described above.

[0022] In this embodiment, upon detecting a faulty device, associated devices located on the same conveyor line as the faulty device can be identified and shut down based on the association information between multiple conveyor devices. Compared to polling the status of the controllers of conveyor devices in each communication channel to determine and issue shutdown commands, this embodiment directly locates and shuts down devices in different communication channels based on association information. Therefore, it can reduce the response delay during the shutdown command issuance process, thereby improving the control effect on the conveyor devices.

[0023] Other features and advantages of this disclosure will become clear from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. Attached Figure Description

[0024] The accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of this disclosure and, together with the specification, serve to explain the principles of this disclosure.

[0025] This disclosure will become clearer with reference to the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description, wherein: Figure 1 This is a flowchart illustrating some embodiments of the control method disclosed herein; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the fault device detection process in some embodiments of this disclosure; Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the fault device detection process in some other embodiments of this disclosure; Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram comparing the communication cycle before and after some embodiments of this disclosure; Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the material flow topology of the conveying lines in some embodiments of this disclosure; Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the process of controlling the shutdown of associated devices in some embodiments of this disclosure; Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram of device virtual error codes in some embodiments of this disclosure; Figure 8 This is a schematic diagram of the device recovery and startup process in some embodiments of this disclosure; Figure 9 Block diagrams of some embodiments of the control system of this disclosure; Figure 10 Block diagrams of some embodiments of the control device of this disclosure; Figure 11 Block diagrams showing some embodiments of the electronic devices disclosed herein. Detailed Implementation

[0026] Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that, unless otherwise specifically stated, the relative arrangement, numerical expressions, and values ​​of the components and steps set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present disclosure.

[0027] At the same time, it should be understood that, for ease of description, the dimensions of the various parts shown in the accompanying drawings are not drawn according to actual scale.

[0028] The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is merely illustrative and is in no way intended to limit this disclosure or its application or use.

[0029] Techniques, methods, and equipment known to those skilled in the art may not be discussed in detail, but where appropriate, such techniques, methods, and equipment should be considered part of the specification.

[0030] In all examples shown and discussed herein, any specific values ​​should be interpreted as merely exemplary and not as limitations. Therefore, other examples of exemplary embodiments may have different values.

[0031] It should be noted that similar labels and letters in the following figures indicate similar items; therefore, once an item is defined in one figure, it does not need to be discussed further in subsequent figures.

[0032] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of this disclosure clearer, the following detailed description is provided in conjunction with specific embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

[0033] As mentioned earlier, upper-level scheduling systems such as WMS poll the status of conveyor controllers via various communication channels according to corresponding communication protocols. They then rely on the upper-level system to determine the equipment's operating condition and issue shutdown commands. The overall fault management solution depends on the upper-level scheduling. If a conveyor on the CC-Link link side malfunctions, the fault status remains only within the CC-Link controller. If the downstream equipment of the malfunctioning device uses the MC protocol for control and is driven by the MC controller, the downstream controller cannot proactively detect the upstream equipment fault. Continuous operation of the downstream equipment can easily cause material to accumulate at the fault location and suffer damage from impacts. By polling both types of controllers and issuing shutdown commands through upper-level scheduling, the fault response delay can reach seconds or even longer.

[0034] Furthermore, industrial conveyor equipment often exhibits intermittent abnormal characteristics before a real malfunction occurs. The equipment's error codes frequently switch between normal and abnormal states. If protection shutdowns are only triggered when the fault codes are consistently abnormal, the optimal opportunity for early speed reduction and pre-processing during the intermittent abnormal phases will be missed.

[0035] To address at least one of the aforementioned technical problems, this disclosure provides a control method capable of directly locating and stopping devices located on different communication channels based on the correlation information between multiple conveying devices, reducing response delays during the shutdown command issuance process, and improving the control effect on the conveying devices. The solution of this disclosure will now be described in conjunction with specific embodiments.

[0036] Figure 1 This is a flowchart illustrating some embodiments of the control method disclosed herein.

[0037] like Figure 1 As shown, Figure 1 This is a flowchart illustrating some embodiments of the control method disclosed herein. This embodiment can be executed by a controller managing multiple heterogeneous protocols. The controller is, for example, a control box, which is an industrial control host equipped with an x86 processor, 8GB RAM (Random Access Memory), 64GB eMMC (Embedded Multimedia Card), and dual Ethernet interfaces. It is installed entirely within a control cabinet and runs multiple parallel communication clients internally. This embodiment includes steps S11-S13.

[0038] In step S11, at least one faulty device among the multiple conveying devices is identified.

[0039] In step S12, based on the association information between multiple conveying devices, associated devices that are on the same conveying line as at least one faulty device are determined to create a set of devices to be processed. The set of devices to be processed includes conveying devices that are in different communication channels from at least one faulty device.

[0040] For example, the first communication channel can use the CC-Link TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) private frame protocol. In the first communication channel, the status input data of each conveying device is received in each communication cycle. Each device occupies 4 bytes in the status input data. The first byte [0] and the second byte [1] are error codes EC1 and EC2, respectively. Both EC1 and EC2 being zero indicates that the device is normal, and any non-zero error code indicates that the device is faulty. Bytes [2] and [3] are status signal bits.

[0041] The second communication channel 23 adopts the SLMP 3E Binary protocol. In the second communication channel, each device also occupies 4 bytes of IN (Input) address and 4 bytes of OUT (Output) address, and the signal definition method is consistent with the first communication channel (CC-Link).

[0042] For example, the associated information can be determined based on a stored fault dependency table. The fault dependency table records the material flow association information between various conveying devices on a conveyor line, including: the identification information of the source device and its associated communication channel on each conveyor line, the identification information of the associated device and its associated communication channel, the material flow direction identifier, and the start-up delay time. The material flow direction identifier uses the source device as a reference point, indicating whether the associated device is upstream or downstream of the source device.

[0043] In step S13, the conveying equipment in the set of equipment to be processed is stopped.

[0044] In this embodiment, upon detecting a faulty device, the associated devices located on the same conveyor line as the faulty device can be identified and shut down based on the correlation information between multiple conveyor devices. Compared to polling the status of the controllers of conveyor devices in each communication channel to determine and issue shutdown commands, this embodiment directly locates and shuts down devices in different communication channels based on correlation information. Therefore, it can reduce the response delay during the shutdown command issuance process, thereby improving the control effect on the conveyor devices.

[0045] The following examples illustrate the method for determining the faulty device in step S11.

[0046] In some embodiments, in response to the number of transitions in adjacent communication cycles of multiple conveying devices within a first time period reaching a threshold, a conveying device is identified as a candidate device; in response to the number of transitions in adjacent communication cycles of a candidate device within a second time period adjacent to the first time period reaching a threshold, a candidate device is identified as at least one faulty device.

[0047] For example, the length of the first time period is a specified number of W communication cycles, with a threshold value of K, where W and K are natural numbers. The lower limit of W is no less than 4K to ensure sufficient sample points to distinguish between real faults and occasional jumps within the first time period. The upper limit of W is limited by the prediction response time; the larger W is, the longer the delay in issuing fault warnings (i.e., W communication cycles). A smaller K results in greater sensitivity but a higher false alarm rate, while a larger K results in greater robustness but may miss rapidly deteriorating faults. Therefore, the values ​​of W and K are determined based on the historical error code statistical characteristics of the device. Taking device A with a communication cycle of 10ms as an example, the first time period can be an observation window of 50 consecutive communication cycles (i.e., 500ms), with the threshold value K set to 5.

[0048] For example, the error code sequence detected for device A during the first time period is: ..., 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00... If the number of transitions between non-zero and zero in the error code of device A reaches a threshold, then device A is determined to be a candidate device.

[0049] For candidate devices, the number of transitions is monitored in the next time period (i.e., the second time period) which is the same length as the first time period. If the number of transitions still reaches the threshold, a fault event is generated, and device A is identified as a faulty device.

[0050] In some embodiments, based on the association information between multiple conveying devices, the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device are determined; a first control command is sent to the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device to reduce the operating speed of the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device.

[0051] For example, by querying the fault dependency table, a list of downstream devices for a candidate device (such as device A mentioned above) can be obtained. The list of downstream devices for device A includes device B, which is adjacent to device A. A frequency reduction command can be sent to the inverter corresponding to device B, causing the inverter's output frequency to decrease from the rated frequency to a preset reduction ratio (e.g., operating at 60% of the rated frequency). The reduction ratio is pre-configured in the parameter area on the MC PLC side.

[0052] In this way, even if the candidate equipment is subsequently identified as faulty, since equipment B is already in a deceleration state, it can be ensured that the candidate equipment smoothly switches from the deceleration state to the shutdown state, which can reduce the inertial kinetic energy of the material when the equipment stops, thereby reducing the risk of damage to the material caused by inertial impact.

[0053] If the number of transitions of device A is less than the threshold number during the second time period, the candidate device will not be identified as a faulty device, and the operating frequency of the candidate device will be restored to its original operating frequency.

[0054] In some embodiments, in response to detecting at least one faulty device, the communication cycle of the communication channel containing the conveying device in a material conveying scenario is shortened. For example, after a fault occurs, the communication cycle may be shortened to half of the original communication cycle, and then restored to the original communication cycle after the fault is recovered.

[0055] In this way, by shortening the communication cycle, the frequency of data acquisition and control command issuance of equipment in a faulty state can be increased, the issuance of shutdown commands can be accelerated, control delays can be reduced, and the timeliness of fault handling can be improved.

[0056] In some embodiments, at least one faulty device includes multiple faulty devices on the same transmission line. The following examples illustrate methods for determining multiple faulty devices.

[0057] In some embodiments, in response to detecting a first device in a faulty state among a plurality of conveying devices at a first time point, a second device in a faulty state among a plurality of conveying devices is detected during a third time period starting from the first time point; the first device and the second device are identified as faulty devices.

[0058] For example, the length of the third time period This can be set to be greater than the material transfer time between the first device and the farthest conveyor on the same conveying line. Assuming the conveying distance between the first device and the farthest conveyor on the same conveying line is approximately 3 meters, and the conveying speed is approximately 25 m / s, then the material transfer time is approximately 120 ms. You can use 200ms to leave a margin.

[0059] For example, if the first device that malfunctions is detected at time t0, if... +70ms time and At +120ms, other faulty conveyor equipment was detected. Since the faults of these devices all occurred within... If the fault occurs within a +200ms timeframe, the device is identified as the second device, the first device is marked as the root cause device, and the second device is marked as a symptom device caused by the first device. The second device can only start normally after the first device recovers from its fault.

[0060] The following examples illustrate the method for determining the associated device in step S12.

[0061] In some embodiments, based on the association information between multiple conveying devices, a set of associated devices corresponding to each faulty device among multiple faulty devices is determined; and a set of devices to be processed is created based on the multiple faulty devices and the set of associated devices corresponding to each faulty device.

[0062] For example, if a faulty device is detected on any communication channel, the associated devices located on the same transmission line as the faulty device can be identified by querying the fault dependency table and based on the corresponding association information. This allows for shutdown control of the associated devices across channels. Furthermore, when multiple devices fail simultaneously within the same communication cycle, the associated devices of each faulty device can be deduplicated by taking a union of their sets before being processed uniformly.

[0063] In some embodiments, the association information includes the conveying interval between multiple conveying devices. The more devices that are spaced along the same conveying line, the larger the conveying interval. In the conveying line where at least one faulty device is located, the conveying device whose conveying interval with at least one faulty device is not greater than the interval threshold is identified as the associated device.

[0064] For example, taking faulty device A with an interval threshold of 2, if devices B and C have conveying intervals of 1 and 2 respectively, they are identified as associated devices. Device D, with a conveying interval of 3, does not need to be considered an associated device of faulty device A and will not be affected by the shutdown of faulty device A.

[0065] This avoids unnecessary shutdowns of the entire conveyor line due to the failure of a single piece of equipment, thus improving the conveyor line's efficiency.

[0066] In some embodiments, identification information of at least one faulty device is added to the status information of the associated devices. For example, a device status mapping table can be maintained inside the control box. By injecting a virtual error code with the identification information of the first device into the status information of the associated devices, the virtual error code can be pushed along with the device status when the monitoring interface embedded in the control box pushes the device status to the external monitoring system, so that the monitoring system on the other side can obtain the complete chain of reasons for the shutdown without cross-protocol queries.

[0067] In some embodiments, after the set of devices to be processed determined by the aforementioned scheme is shut down, if the fault of the first device has been recovered, the devices in the set of devices to be processed can be restored. For example, in response to the first device returning to a non-faulty state, the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed can be restarted.

[0068] In some embodiments, the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed are restarted according to their priority, with the first device having the highest priority.

[0069] For example, if a first faulty device is detected, the fault dependency table is queried using the first device as the key to retrieve a list of associated devices, which are then sorted from upstream to downstream according to the material flow direction. If a corresponding second device is detected, it will also be automatically added to the recovery list to determine the priority of devices in the pending set.

[0070] In some embodiments, the priority of a third device in the set of devices to be processed is related to the conveying direction of the third device on the conveying line, with the priority of an upstream device being higher than that of a downstream device, and the third device being a conveying device in the set of devices to be processed other than the first device.

[0071] For example, if device B is the first downstream device of device A and device C is the second downstream device of device A, then device B has a higher priority than device A.

[0072] In some embodiments, for two devices with adjacent priorities in the set of devices to be processed, the higher-priority device is controlled to start, and the status information of the lower-priority device is verified; in response to the lower-priority device being in a non-faulty state, the lower-priority device is controlled to start.

[0073] For example, after device A recovers from a fault, a security check can be performed on the adjacent low-priority device B. If the check passes, a start command is issued in the next communication cycle. If the check fails, the device is skipped from startup, and an exception record is written to the control box's log module, awaiting individual handling of device B by maintenance personnel.

[0074] In some embodiments, in response to receiving a stop command, the conveyor in the set of devices to be processed is controlled to stop; in response to receiving a start command, the stopped conveyor is controlled to restart; in response to detecting a second control command and the communication channel of the conveyor indicated by the second control command being disconnected, the second control command is ignored, the second control command including a stop command or a start command.

[0075] For example, after sending a shutdown command, an asynchronous timer with a duration of 500ms can be started. When the 500ms timer expires, the current connection status of the communication channel is checked. If the connection is normal (e.g., the TCP connection is alive and the most recent BatchRead was successful), the device resumes startup in the next communication cycle, and the shutdown time of device B is precisely controlled within 500ms.

[0076] If the communication channel is disconnected due to a network failure within the 500ms timer period, all unfinished pulse timers on the communication channel will be marked as invalid. Even if the communication channel is automatically reconnected successfully, expired stop or start commands will not be executed again. Instead, the system will remain in the state after the last successful command, waiting for maintenance personnel or the upper-level system to reassess the device status and manually restore it, thus avoiding the issuance of erroneous commands.

[0077] The following is through Figure 2 The embodiments described above illustrate the scheme for determining the faulty device.

[0078] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the fault device detection process in some embodiments of this disclosure, such as... Figure 2 As shown, in step S21, error codes EC1 and EC2 of the transmission device are read in each communication cycle.

[0079] In step S22, the read error code EC value is pushed into the error code history circular buffer with length W=50 maintained by the control box for each device, and the number of transitions between non-zero and zero values ​​of the error code is counted.

[0080] In step S23, it is determined whether the number of transitions has reached a threshold (e.g., K=5). If the number of transitions is less than the threshold, step S24 is executed, and the error code EC of the conveyor equipment is monitored normally in the subsequent observation window. If the number of transitions reaches the threshold, step S25 is executed.

[0081] Taking device A (cbox=5, steering gear) in the CC-Link channel as an example, within a continuous observation window of 50 10ms cycles, the EC1 value sequence of device A is: ..., 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, ... The above sequence shows 5 complete oscillations of non-zero-zero-non-zero, meaning the number of transitions reaches the threshold K=5. Therefore, step S25 is executed, determining that conveyor device A has entered a fault warning state and identifying conveyor device A as a candidate device.

[0082] In step S26, the fault dependency table is queried using the candidate device as the key to obtain the downstream device of the candidate device and reduce the operating efficiency of the downstream device. Taking conveyor A as an example, its downstream device includes device B (MC channel, slotIdx=2, conveyor). Therefore, the control box writes the deceleration control bit mask 0x20 (bit5=Decel) to byte[0] of the slot of device B in the output buffer of the MC channel. After the control bit is written by the BatchWrite of the MC PLC, when the ladder diagram program on the MC PLC side detects that bit5=1, it sends a frequency reduction command to the inverter corresponding to device B, so that the inverter output frequency is reduced from the rated frequency to the preset deceleration ratio (such as 60%). The deceleration ratio is pre-configured in the parameter area on the MC PLC side. The control box is only responsible for setting or clearing the deceleration control bit. The actual frequency reduction is executed by the PLC side. There is no direct communication between the control box and the inverter.

[0083] In step S27, it is determined whether the number of transitions of the candidate device in the next observation window has reached the threshold. If the threshold is still reached, step S28 is executed to determine that a fault event has occurred, and step S29 is executed to shut down the faulty device.

[0084] In step S210, after detecting a faulty device, cascaded shutdown control is performed through the cross-protocol fault linkage module. This involves identifying the associated devices of the faulty device and controlling both devices to shut down together. For example, the output buffer byte[0] of downstream device B will be written with a stop bit mask 0x40 (bit6=Stop). This write overwrites the previous deceleration bit 0x20, ensuring a smooth transition from deceleration to a stopped state. Since device B is already in a deceleration state (operating frequency at 60% of the rated speed), the inertial kinetic energy of the material at shutdown is only 36% of that at full speed (0.6²=0.36), reducing the risk of damage caused by inertial impact. The relevant scheme of the cross-protocol fault linkage module will be explained later.

[0085] In step S211, if the number of transitions of the candidate device in the next observation window does not reach the threshold, the fault warning state is canceled and the deceleration control bitmask of the downstream device B is cleared.

[0086] In step S212, downstream device B resumes normal operating speed.

[0087] The following is through Figure 3 The embodiments described herein illustrate a fault detection scheme when there are multiple faulty devices.

[0088] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the fault device detection process in some other embodiments of this disclosure. For example... Figure 3 As shown, the time-series correlation window (i.e., the aforementioned third time period) =200ms. The time should be greater than the material transfer time between the faulty device (i.e., the root cause device A) and its farthest associated device in the same conveyor line (e.g., the symptom device C).

[0089] The conveyor line segment consists of three devices: Device A (CC-Link, cbox=5, steering machine), Device B (MC, slotIdx=2, conveyor), and Device C (CC-Link, cbox=8, conveyor), with the material flow direction being ABC.

[0090] like Figure 3 As shown, at time t0, equipment A experiences a motor overload fault (EC1=0x03), causing the steering mechanism of equipment A to stop, resulting in material accumulation. 70ms later ( +70ms) The accumulated material triggered an malfunction in the photoelectric sensor of device B (EC1=0x07), and another 50ms later ( +120ms) The material continued to accumulate, triggering the belt slippage detection of device C (EC1=0x0A).

[0091] exist At that moment, the fault event of device A (timestamp = Joining the team, in At +70ms, a fault event of device B is added to the fault event queue. The timestamp difference between device B and device A is 70ms, which is less than the timing association window. Since device A has the earliest timestamp, device A is marked as the root cause device (i.e., the aforementioned first device), and device B is marked as the symptom device (i.e., the aforementioned second device).

[0092] exist +120ms: The fault event for device C is added to the fault event queue. The timestamp difference is 120ms, which is less than the timing association window. Therefore, device C is the same as device B and is also marked as the symptom device corresponding to device A.

[0093] When maintenance personnel troubleshoot the motor overload fault of device A and the EC1 of device A returns to 0x00, the control box detects that the root cause device A has recovered and automatically sends a start command to all symptom devices (such as devices B and C) without the need for manual reset of each device.

[0094] Fault events for the root cause device and its corresponding symptom device are managed in the same fault event queue. The maximum capacity of the queue is equal to the total number of devices managed by the system, ensuring that each device has at most one unprocessed fault event in the queue at any given time. At the end of each communication cycle, the queue is scanned and cleared of events with timestamps older than the current time. Furthermore, events that receive physical signals such as operation or failure prevent the queue from growing indefinitely. When two independent sets of cascading failure events overlap in time (e.g., device A on conveyor line segment 1...),... Fault, equipment E in conveyor segment 2 is in (+250ms fault) This is because the timestamp difference between device E and device A when device E was enqueued is 250ms, which is greater than the timing association window. Furthermore, since there is no material flow association between the two, device E will be the first event in a new, independent fault event queue, and will not be confused with the fault event queue of device A.

[0095] When a fault event is detected in device A, the communication channel cycle will be shortened. Figure 4 For example, in the embodiments described above, Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram showing a comparison of the communication cycle before and after some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0096] In the absence of detected faulty equipment (i.e., normal state), the communication channel operates normally according to the baseline cycle. The communication cycle of the first communication channel (CC-LINK) is... =10ms, the communication cycle of the second communication channel (MC) =20ms.

[0097] After detecting the faulty device, the communication cycle is adjusted according to the acceleration factor N=2. Reduced to 5ms Reduced to 10ms. End-to-end latency for cross-protocol cascading shutdowns has been reduced from a maximum of 30ms. The timeout period is reduced to 15ms. This continues until all device error codes return to zero, and the duration is... =After 10s, the communication cycle returns to the baseline cycle.

[0098] The following examples illustrate this principle. Figure 1 The scheme for determining the associated devices in step S12.

[0099] like Figure 5 As shown, Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the material flow topology of the conveying lines in some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0100] Taking a four-device conveyor line as an example: Device A (CC-Link, fault source) → Device B (MC, level 1) → Device C (CC-Link, level 2) → Device D (MC, level 3), the system configuration max_propagation_depth (maximum propagation depth, i.e. the interval threshold mentioned above) = 2.

[0101] After a fault event is detected in device A, the association information between device A, device B, and device C is retrieved through the fault dependency table. The association information in the fault dependency table is shown in Table 1.

[0102] Table 1. Association Information in the Fault Dependency Table

[0103] As shown in Table 1, each record in the fault dependency table also includes a propagation level field. Associated devices with a propagation level of 1 immediately shut down upon the occurrence of a fault event. Associated devices with a propagation level of 2 or higher require confirmation from their next-level associated device to enter a stopped state before shutting down. The maximum propagation level is limited by the configuration parameter `max_propagation_depth`. Associated devices exceeding the maximum propagation depth do not participate in cascading shutdowns. Based on the above association information, according to... Figure 6 The step-by-step processing scheme shown here processes the associated devices sequentially.

[0104] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the process of controlling the shutdown of associated devices in some embodiments of this disclosure. For example... Figure 6As shown, in step S61, since device B is a downstream device adjacent to the fault source, it should be shut down immediately after the fault event occurs, and a stop control bit should be written to the output buffer of the MC channel to which device B belongs.

[0105] In step S62, it is determined whether device B has stopped. For example, the latest status input data of device B can be read, and the "running" flag bit in its status signal bits can be checked to see if it is 0. A flag bit of 0 indicates that device B has stopped. If device B has stopped, step S63 is executed. If device B has not stopped, step S64 is executed.

[0106] In step S63, if device B has confirmed a shutdown, a stop control bit is written to the CC-Link channel output buffer of the adjacent downstream device C. The above steps are then repeated.

[0107] In step S64, if device B has not yet confirmed the stop (for example, the status has not been updated due to MC channel communication delay), it will recheck in the next communication cycle until confirmation is received or the device is forcibly stopped after a preset timeout period.

[0108] Since device D's propagation level in the fault dependency table is 3, exceeding the limit of max_propagation_depth=2 (equivalent to exceeding the interval threshold), device D will not be shut down and will continue to operate normally. This avoids unnecessary full-line shutdowns caused by a single device failure, limiting the impact of the fault to critical sections near the fault source. Maintenance personnel can flexibly adjust the fault propagation range by modifying the propagation level field and max_propagation_depth parameter in each record of the fault dependency table, based on the actual layout and safety requirements of the conveyor line.

[0109] exist Figure 6 In the illustrated technical solution, when writing a stop control bit to a cross-channel associated device, a virtual error code can be injected into the device status mapping table maintained within the control box. The virtual error code is encoded by three fields: the first field is a fixed external stop flag value of 0xFE to distinguish it from error codes generated by the device itself; the second field is the communication channel identifier code of the source device; and the third field is the source device identifier code. When the monitoring interface embedded in the control box pushes the device status to an external monitoring system, it also pushes the virtual error code, allowing the external monitoring system to obtain the complete shutdown cause chain without cross-protocol queries.

[0110] The following is through Figure 7 The embodiments described herein exemplify how virtual error codes are set.

[0111] Figure 7This is a schematic diagram of device virtual error codes in some embodiments of this disclosure. For example... Figure 7 As shown, when a fault in CC-Link channel device A (cbox=5) causes MC channel device B (slotIdx=2) to be shut down in conjunction with the fault, the virtual error code injection module injects a 3-byte virtual error code: byte[0]=0xFE (external stop flag), byte[1]=0x01 (source channel: CC-Link), byte[2]=0x05 (source device: cbox=5). The HTTP / WebSocket monitoring interface of the control box carries the virtual error code when pushing the status of device B. The error code is automatically cleared after device A recovers.

[0112] The following is through Figure 8 The embodiments described above exemplify the recovery and startup scheme for devices in the aforementioned set of devices to be processed.

[0113] Figure 8 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the device recovery and startup process in some embodiments of this disclosure. For example... Figure 8 As shown, in step S81, the EC value of the faulty device A is detected to have recovered from non-zero to 0x00, a recovery event is generated and the recovery process is started.

[0114] In step S82, the fault dependency table is queried using device A as the key to obtain a list of all associated devices and sort them from upstream to downstream according to the material flow direction. For example, device B (first downstream device, MC channel) and device C (second downstream device, CC-Link channel).

[0115] In step S83, it is determined whether a second device (i.e., the symptom device corresponding to device A) exists. If a second device exists, step S84 is executed to add the second device to the recovery list mentioned above.

[0116] In step S85, the next device to be restored is determined according to priority.

[0117] In step S86, a security check is performed to determine whether the device's error code is zero. For example, the device's current error codes EC1 and EC2 are read and checked to see if they are both 0x00.

[0118] In step S87, if the error code is non-zero, the verification fails, the device is skipped from being written to the start bit, and an exception record is written to the log module of the control box: "Recovery skip: Device B (MC, slotIdx=2) own fault EC1=0x12", waiting for maintenance personnel to handle device B separately.

[0119] In step S88, if the error code is zero, such as EC1=0x00 and EC2=0x00, the verification passes and the device (e.g., device A) is restarted.

[0120] In step S89, it is determined whether there are other devices to be restored. If there are no other devices to be restored, step S810 is executed to end the restoration process.

[0121] In step S811, if there is a next device B to be restored, the startup delay time of the next device can be determined by querying the fault dependency table. After the startup delay time, step S86 is executed to perform security verification on device B. For example, the startup delay time from device A to device B is 2000ms, and the startup delay time from device A to device C is 4000ms. Taking device B as an example, the startup delay time is 2000ms. After device A is restored, wait 2000ms, and then write the startup control bit mask 0x80 (bit7=Start) to the slot byte[0] of device B in the MC channel output buffer. The next MC communication cycle is then sent.

[0122] If either EC1 or EC2 of device B is non-zero in step S86, it indicates that device B itself has an independent fault EC1=0x12, and step S87 is executed to skip the device.

[0123] After device B recovers (or is skipped), wait another 2000ms (cumulative 4000ms) and perform the same safety check on device C. If device C's EC1 = 0x0A, the belt slippage fault still exists, the check fails, device C is skipped, and an exception log is recorded. If the fault in device C requires maintenance personnel to manually resolve the belt slippage on the conveyor line, device C's EC1 will naturally recover to 0x00. At this point, the cross-protocol fault linkage module detects the recovery event of device C and will execute a new round of recovery procedures on its downstream related devices.

[0124] By setting a startup recovery time, it's ensured that downstream equipment operates smoothly before starting, preventing downstream equipment from starting before upstream equipment is ready, which could lead to material idling or blockages. The delay time is set based on the material transfer time between upstream and downstream equipment plus the startup ramp-up time required for the equipment to reach stable operation after receiving the startup command. Restarting each piece of equipment sequentially after troubleshooting, based on the startup delay time, avoids secondary failures that can easily occur when all equipment starts simultaneously, thus improving control effectiveness.

[0125] The following is through Figure 9 The embodiments described above exemplify a control system for implementing the above-described technical solutions.

[0126] Figure 9 This is a block diagram of some embodiments of the control system of this disclosure. For example... Figure 9As shown, the control system includes a processor module 91, a first communication client 92, a second communication client 93, and three core modules: an error code oscillation mode monitoring module 94, a fault fingerprint timing association module 95, and a cross-protocol fault linkage module 96; as well as four enhancement modules: an adaptive communication cycle acceleration module 97, a virtual error code injection module 98, a pulse control module 99, and a configuration hot update module 910; and a non-volatile memory module 911.

[0127] Processor module 91 can be used to run the first communication client 91 and the second communication client 92 in parallel. The first communication client 92 establishes a communication connection through a first communication channel using the CC-Link TCP proprietary frame protocol, connecting to the TCP port 4500 of the CC-Link PLC gateway, and operating at a first reference period. (e.g., 10ms) is the interval for sending control output frames and receiving status input frames. In the first communication channel 22, status input data of each remote station device (e.g., conveying equipment) is received in each communication cycle. Each device occupies 4 bytes in the status input data. The first byte byte[0] and the second byte byte[1] are error codes EC1 and EC2, respectively. Both EC1 and EC2 being zero indicates that the device is normal, and any non-zero error code indicates that the device is faulty. byte[2] and byte[3] are status signal bits. In the control output frame, each device also occupies 4 bytes, where byte[0].bit7 is for start, byte[0].bit6 is for stop, byte[0].bit5 is for deceleration, and byte[0].bit4 is for reset. In this embodiment, the first communication channel manages a total of 23 CC-Link remote station devices.

[0128] The second communication client 93 establishes a communication connection via a second communication channel employing the SLMP 3E Binary protocol, connecting to the MC PLC's TCP port 4501. This channel operates at a second reference cycle. At intervals of 20ms, the BatchRead command reads status input data in batches from the D register in the IN area, and the BatchWrite command writes status output data in batches to the D register in the OUT area. In the two communication channels, each device also occupies 4 bytes of IN address and 4 bytes of OUT address, and the signal definition method is consistent with the first communication channel (CC-Link). In this embodiment, the second communication channel manages a total of 8 MC devices.

[0129] The first and second communication channels each maintain independent output buffers. The first communication channel's output buffer operates in full-transmission mode, unconditionally reading a complete copy of the buffer and sending it with each cycle frame. The second communication channel's output buffer operates in slot-selective transmission mode, tracking changes at a fixed number of bytes per device granularity. Each communication cycle, it constructs and sends an independent BatchWrite command only for the slots where write operations have occurred. For example, tracking changes at an 8-byte granularity (slot-selective transmission mode), BatchWrite commands are only constructed for dirty slots.

[0130] The error code oscillation mode monitoring module 94 maintains a circular buffer of error code history of length W for each conveyor. During each communication cycle, the current error code of the device is pushed into the circular buffer, and the number of transitions between non-zero and zero in the buffer is counted. When the number of transitions reaches a threshold K, the device is determined to be in a fault warning state and a warning event is generated. The warning event triggering processor module 91 queries the fault dependency table to obtain the list of downstream associated devices for the device. It writes a deceleration control bit mask into the output buffer of associated devices belonging to different communication channels, causing the downstream cross-protocol devices to reduce their operating speed before the actual fault occurs. The deceleration control bit mask occupies a specified bit in the device's output byte; after being written, it causes the device's frequency converter to reduce its operating frequency by a preset deceleration ratio. When the number of transitions of subsequent error codes of the device drops below K within W consecutive cycles, the error code oscillation mode monitoring module 94 cancels the warning state and clears the deceleration control bit mask, and the associated devices resume normal operating speed.

[0131] The fault fingerprint timing association module 95 maintains a fault event queue sorted by timestamps. When a device error code changes from all zeros to non-zero (e.g., the number of transitions reaches a threshold in two consecutive time periods as mentioned above), a fault event is generated and enqueued (e.g., into the fault event queue) with a microsecond-level timestamp. After each fault event is enqueued, the fault fingerprint timing association module 95 checks whether there is a timestamp difference in the current queue within a preset timing association window. For other fault events within the specified range, if any exist, the device corresponding to the fault event with the earliest timestamp in the queue is marked as the root cause device (i.e., the first device), and the rest are marked as symptom devices (i.e., the second device). The root cause device performs a hard shutdown, writes a stop control bit to its output buffer, and sets a manual reset flag. The symptom device performs a soft shutdown, writes a stop control bit to its output buffer but does not set a manual reset flag, and automatically sends a start command to the symptom device when the root cause device's error code returns to all zeros. When a device transitions from a fault warning state to a fault event occurrence state, the error code oscillation mode monitoring module 94 automatically exits the warning state of that device, and the stop control bit written by the cross-protocol fault linkage module 96 overwrites the previously written deceleration control bit.

[0132] After receiving periodic status data from the first or second communication channel, the cross-protocol fault linkage module 96 checks the error code field of each device. When it detects that the error code of a device changes from all zeros to non-zero, it queries the fault dependency table to obtain a list of all associated devices for that device. For each device in the associated device list that does not belong to the same communication channel as the faulty device, a stop control bit is written to the corresponding byte offset in the output buffer of the communication channel to which that device belongs. When it detects that the error code of the faulty device recovers from non-zero to all zeros, it writes the start control bit to the output buffer of each associated device sequentially in the order from upstream to downstream of the material flow direction, with the start delay time configured in the fault dependency table as the interval. When multiple devices are detected to generate fault events simultaneously within the same communication cycle, the cross-protocol fault linkage module 96 performs cascaded shutdown processing on each fault event sequentially. It takes the union of the associated device lists obtained from the fault dependency table for each event, removes duplicates, and writes the stop control bit only once for each device in the union. For example, if the lists of associated devices of faulty device A and faulty device D overlap, and device B is a downstream device of both faulty device A and faulty device D, then device B only needs to be shut down once.

[0133] Furthermore, when a communication channel is disconnected, if another channel detects a fault event and needs to send a stop command to the associated device of the disconnected channel, the cross-protocol fault linkage module 96 writes the stop command into the output buffer of the disconnected channel and retains it. When the disconnected channel automatically reconnects successfully, the stop commands accumulated in the output buffer are sent in the next communication cycle, ensuring that no cascading shutdown commands are missed.

[0134] After the processor module 91 detects a fault event in any device, the adaptive communication cycle acceleration module 97 shortens the communication cycle of the first communication channel from the first reference cycle to 1 / N of the first reference cycle, and simultaneously shortens the communication cycle of the second communication channel from the second reference cycle to 1 / N of the second reference cycle, where N is a preset acceleration factor. The stop control bit written by the cross-protocol fault linkage module 96 is sent within the shortened communication cycle, and the stop control is activated when all devices have continuously zero error codes for a preset stabilization time. Afterwards, they revert to their respective baseline periods.

[0135] The virtual error code injection module 98, when the cross-protocol fault linkage module 96 writes a stop control bit to the associated device across channels, simultaneously injects a virtual error code into the device status mapping table maintained inside the control box for that associated device. The virtual error code is set as follows: Figure 7 As described in the relevant descriptions, it will not be repeated here.

[0136] The pulse control module 99 receives external control commands or cascade shutdown commands from the cross-protocol fault linkage module 96, writes a control bit mask to the output buffer of the designated device, and simultaneously starts an asynchronous timer. When the timer expires and triggers, it first checks the current connection status of the communication channel to which the device belongs. If the connection has been broken, it abandons the clearing operation to prevent the accidental issuance of outdated commands after the channel is reconnected. If the connection is still alive, it performs the clearing. When the communication channel is disconnected and reconnected within the pulse validity period, the pulse control module 99 marks all unfinished pulse timers on that channel as invalid. The following example illustrates the above scheme using the case of device A on the CC-Link channel needing to perform a cascade shutdown on device B on the MC channel due to a fault.

[0137] The cross-protocol fault linkage module 96 calls the pulse control module 99 to write the stop bit mask 0x40 (bit6=Stop) to the MC channel output buffer byte[0] of device B, and simultaneously starts an asynchronous timer with a duration of 500ms. This stop bit will be added in the next MC communication cycle ( Within 20ms, the data is sent to the MC PLC via BatchWrite. When the 500ms timer expires, the pulse control module 99 checks the current connection status of the MC channel. If the connection is normal (TCP connection is alive and the most recent BatchRead was successful), a clearing operation is performed, clearing bit 6 of byte[0] of device B to zero, and the data is sent in the next MC cycle. The stop time of device B is precisely controlled to 500ms.

[0138] If the MC channel disconnects due to a network failure within the 500ms pulse validity period, the pulse control module 99 will mark all incomplete pulse timers on the MC channel as invalid. When the MC channel automatically reconnects successfully, the invalid timers will not be cleared, preventing the issuance of outdated stop or start commands after reconnection. Maintenance personnel or the upper-level system must manually restore the device after reassessing its status. Thus, if a cascaded shutdown command is issued through the pulse control module 99 and the communication channel disconnects within the command's validity period, the control box will not blindly clear the stop bit after reconnection, preventing accidental restarts of stopped equipment and maintaining the state of the last successfully issued command, awaiting manual confirmation.

[0139] The hot update module 910 monitors changes to the fault dependency table file on the non-volatile storage module 911. Upon detecting a change, it performs parsing and verification of the new fault dependency table outside the mutex lock protection area without interrupting periodic communication between the first and second communication channels. It checks for circular dependencies and refuses to load the table and records an alarm when a circular dependency is detected. Furthermore, it replaces the fault dependency table instance referenced by the cross-protocol fault linkage module 96 during the mutex lock holding period.

[0140] For example, when configuring the hot update module 910 to load a new fault dependency table, it performs a depth-first traversal to check for circular dependencies (such as A→B→C→A) starting from each device. If a circular dependency is detected, the new fault dependency table is rejected, the original fault dependency table is retained and continues to be effective, and an alarm message is sent to the operation and maintenance personnel through the monitoring interface: "Configuration loading failed: Circular dependency chain A→B→C→A detected".

[0141] The following examples illustrate this principle. Figure 9 The control scheme executed by the control system in the system.

[0142] When error code EC1 from device A was detected to oscillate 5 times within 500ms, the error code oscillation pattern monitoring module 94 issued an early warning and identified device A as a candidate device. A deceleration command was sent to downstream device B across protocols, and device B reduced its operating speed to 60%.

[0143] If device A's EC1 remains at 0x03 and does not recover, the cross-protocol fault linkage module generates a fault event, and the error code oscillation mode monitoring module 94 automatically exits A's warning state, with the stop bit overriding the deceleration bit. The adaptive communication cycle acceleration module 97 shortens the dual-channel cycle to 1 / 2. 70ms later, device B also reports a fault due to material accumulation, and the fault fingerprint timing association module 95 marks device A as the root cause device and device B as the symptom device. The error code oscillation mode monitoring module 94 injects 0xFE-0x01-0x05 into device B.

[0144] After maintenance personnel repair device A, device A's error code EC1 returns to 0x00. The symptom device recovery process is automatically triggered after the root cause device is restored. If device B passes verification after a 2000ms delay, device B is automatically restarted. The communication cycle returns to the baseline cycle 10 seconds after all devices stabilize, and the virtual error code is automatically cleared. The above embodiment only uses the faulty device as an example; the handling of related devices is as described above and will not be repeated here.

[0145] The control device of this disclosure will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0146] like Figure 10 As shown, Figure 10 Block diagrams showing some embodiments of the control device of this disclosure.

[0147] The control device includes a first determining module 101, a second determining module 102, and a control module 103.

[0148] The first determining module 101 is used to determine at least one faulty device among multiple conveying devices. The second determining module 102 is used to determine associated devices on the same conveying line as the at least one faulty device based on the association information between the multiple conveying devices, to create a set of devices to be processed, which includes conveying devices on different communication channels from the at least one faulty device. The control module 103 is used to control the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed to stop.

[0149] In this embodiment, upon detecting a faulty device, the associated devices located on the same conveyor line as the faulty device can be identified and shut down based on the correlation information between multiple conveyor devices. Compared to polling the status of the controllers of conveyor devices in each communication channel to determine and issue shutdown commands, this embodiment directly locates and shuts down devices in different communication channels based on correlation information. Therefore, it can reduce the response delay during the shutdown command issuance process, thereby improving the control effect on the conveyor devices.

[0150] In some embodiments, the first determining module 101 determines a conveying device as a candidate device in response to the number of jumps in adjacent communication cycles of multiple conveying devices within a first time period reaching a number threshold; and determines a candidate device as at least one faulty device in response to the number of jumps in adjacent communication cycles of a candidate device within a second time period adjacent to the first time period reaching a number threshold.

[0151] In some embodiments, the second determining module 102 determines the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device based on the association information between multiple conveying devices; and sends a first control command to the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device to reduce the operating speed of the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device.

[0152] In some embodiments, at least one faulty device includes multiple faulty devices on the same conveyor line. In response to detecting a first device in a faulty state among the multiple conveyor devices at a first time point, the first determining module 101 detects a second device in a faulty state among the multiple conveyor devices during a third time period starting from the first time point; and determines the first device and the second device as faulty devices.

[0153] In some embodiments, the second determining module 102 determines a set of associated devices corresponding to each of the multiple faulty devices based on the association information between the multiple conveying devices; and creates a set of devices to be processed based on the multiple faulty devices and the set of associated devices corresponding to each faulty device.

[0154] In some embodiments, the control module 103 controls the conveying equipment in the set of devices to be processed to restart in response to the first device returning to a non-faulty state.

[0155] In some embodiments, the control module 103 controls the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed to restart according to their priority, with the first device having the highest priority.

[0156] In some embodiments, the priority of a third device in the set of devices to be processed is related to the conveying direction of the third device on the conveying line, with the priority of an upstream device being higher than that of a downstream device, and the third device being a conveying device in the set of devices to be processed other than the first device.

[0157] In some embodiments, the control module 103 controls the higher-priority device to start up for two adjacent devices in the set of devices to be processed, and verifies the status information of the lower-priority device; in response to the lower-priority device being in a non-faulty state, it controls the lower-priority device to start up.

[0158] In some embodiments, the second determining module 102 adds identification information of at least one faulty device to the status information of the associated device.

[0159] In some embodiments, the association information includes the conveying interval between multiple conveying devices. The more devices that are spaced along the same conveying line, the larger the conveying interval. The second determining module 102 determines the conveying devices whose conveying interval with the at least one faulty device is not greater than the interval threshold as associated devices in the conveying line where the at least one faulty device is located.

[0160] In some embodiments, the first determining module 101 shortens the communication cycle of the communication channel where the conveying equipment is located in the material conveying scenario in response to detecting at least one faulty device.

[0161] In some embodiments, the control module 103 controls the conveying equipment in the set of devices to be processed to stop in response to receiving a stop command; controls the stopped conveying equipment to restart in response to receiving a start command; and ignores the second control command in response to detecting a second control command and the communication channel of the conveying equipment indicated by the second control command being disconnected, wherein the second control command includes a stop command or a start command.

[0162] It should be noted that the above modules are logical modules divided according to their specific functions, and are not intended to limit the specific implementation method. For example, they can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of both. In actual implementation, the above modules can be implemented as independent physical entities, or they can be implemented by a single entity (e.g., a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), integrated circuit, etc.). Furthermore, the modules shown in the accompanying drawings with dashed lines indicate that these modules may not actually exist, and the operations / functions they perform can be implemented by the processing circuitry itself.

[0163] In some embodiments of this disclosure, the control device may be presented as an electronic device. For example... Figure 11 As shown, Figure 11 Block diagrams showing some embodiments of the electronic devices disclosed herein.

[0164] The electronic device 11 includes a memory 111 and a processor 112. The memory 111 is coupled to the processor 112 and is used to store instructions. When the instructions are executed by the processor 112, the processor 112 performs the control method described above.

[0165] Memory 111 is used to store one or more computer-readable instructions. Memory 111 may include any combination of various forms of computer-readable storage media, such as volatile memory and / or non-volatile memory, including but not limited to random access memory (RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), read-only memory (ROM), and flash memory. Memory 111 may, for example, store operating systems, applications, bootloaders, databases, and other programs, as well as various applications and various data.

[0166] The processor 112 is configured to execute computer-readable instructions to implement the control method of any of the foregoing embodiments. Specific implementations of each step of the method can be found in the above embodiments; repeated details will not be elaborated here.

[0167] Processor 112 can be configured to perform the steps described above. Processor 112 can be various processing devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), etc.; it can also be a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, or discrete hardware components. The central processing unit (CPU) can be based on an X136 or ARM architecture, etc.

[0168] The processor 112 and the memory 111 can communicate with each other directly or indirectly. For example, the processor 112 and the memory 111 can communicate via a network. The network can include a wireless network, a wired network, and / or any combination of wireless and wired networks. The processor 112 and the memory 111 can also communicate with each other via a system bus, which is not limited in this disclosure.

[0169] It should be noted that Figure 11 The components of the electronic device 11 shown are merely exemplary and not limiting; the electronic device 11 may have other components as needed for the actual application. The processor 112 can control other components in the electronic device 11 to perform desired functions.

[0170] In some embodiments, the processor 112 is coupled to the memory 111 via a BUS bus 113. The electronic device 11 can also be connected to an external storage device 115 via a storage interface 114 to access external data, and can also be connected to a network or another computer system (not shown) via a network interface 116. Further details are omitted here.

[0171] In other embodiments, a computer-readable storage medium is protected that stores computer program instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the methods described above. Those skilled in the art will understand that embodiments of this disclosure can be provided as methods, apparatus, or computer program products. Therefore, this disclosure can take the form of a completely hardware embodiment, a completely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, this disclosure can take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable non-transitory storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program code.

[0172] In some embodiments, a computer program product is protected, comprising a computer program or instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the methods described above. The computer program product includes a computer program carried on a computer-readable medium, the computer program containing program code for performing the methods shown in the flowchart. In such embodiments, the computer program can be downloaded and installed from a network via a communication device, or installed from a storage device, or installed from ROM. When the computer program is executed by a CPU, it performs the functions defined in the methods of embodiments of this disclosure.

[0173] In some embodiments, a computer program is protected, the computer program comprising: instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the methods of any of the foregoing embodiments. For example, the instructions may be embodied in computer program code.

[0174] This disclosure is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of this disclosure. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create a machine for implementing the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams. Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1A device that provides the functions specified in one or more boxes.

[0175] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means, which are implemented in a process Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The function specified in one or more boxes.

[0176] These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable equipment to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby providing instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable equipment for implementing the process. Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The steps of the function specified in one or more boxes.

[0177] This concludes the detailed description of the present disclosure. To avoid obscuring the concept of the disclosure, some details known in the art have not been described. Those skilled in the art will fully understand how to implement the technical solutions disclosed herein based on the above description.

[0178] The methods and apparatus of this disclosure may be implemented in many ways. For example, they may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination of software, hardware, and firmware. The above-described order of steps for the methods is for illustrative purposes only, and the steps of the methods of this disclosure are not limited to the order specifically described above unless otherwise specifically stated. Furthermore, in some embodiments, this disclosure may also be implemented as a program recorded on a recording medium, the program including machine-readable instructions for implementing the methods according to this disclosure. Thus, this disclosure also covers recording media storing programs for performing the methods according to this disclosure.

[0179] While specific embodiments of this disclosure have been described in detail by way of example, those skilled in the art should understand that the examples are for illustrative purposes only and not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure. Those skilled in the art should understand that modifications can be made to the above embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of this disclosure. The scope of this disclosure is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A control method, comprising: Identify at least one faulty device among multiple conveying devices; Based on the association information between the multiple conveying devices, the associated devices that are on the same conveying line as the at least one faulty device are determined to create a set of devices to be processed, the set of devices to be processed including conveying devices that are in different communication channels from the at least one faulty device; Control the conveying equipment in the set of devices to be processed to stop.

2. The control method according to claim 1, wherein, The determination of at least one faulty device among multiple conveying devices includes: In response to the number of jumps in adjacent communication cycles of the plurality of conveying devices within a first time period reaching a threshold, the conveying devices are identified as candidate devices. In response to the candidate device reaching the number of jumps in adjacent communication cycles within the second time period adjacent to the first time period, the candidate device is identified as the at least one faulty device.

3. The control method according to claim 2 further includes: Based on the association information between the multiple conveying devices, determine the conveying devices adjacent to the candidate device; A first control command is sent to the conveyor adjacent to the candidate device to reduce the operating speed of the conveyor adjacent to the candidate device.

4. The control method according to claim 1, wherein, The at least one faulty device includes multiple faulty devices on the same transmission line. The determination of at least one faulty device among multiple conveying devices includes: In response to detecting a first device in a faulty state among the plurality of conveying devices at a first time point, a second device in a faulty state among the plurality of conveying devices is detected within a third time period starting from the first time point; The first device and the second device are identified as the faulty devices.

5. The control method according to claim 4, wherein, The step of determining the associated equipment on the same conveying line as the at least one faulty equipment based on the association information between the conveying equipment includes: Based on the association information between the multiple conveying devices, a set of associated devices corresponding to each of the multiple faulty devices is determined; Based on the multiple faulty devices and a set of associated devices corresponding to each faulty device, the set of devices to be processed is created.

6. The control method according to claim 5 further includes: In response to the first device returning to a non-faulty state, the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed are restarted.

7. The control method according to claim 6, wherein restarting the conveying device in the set of devices to be processed comprises: According to the priority of the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed, the conveying devices in the set of devices to be processed are controlled to restart, with the first device having the highest priority.

8. The control method according to claim 7, wherein, The priority of the third device in the set of devices to be processed is related to the conveying direction of the third device on the conveying line. The priority of the upstream device is higher than that of the downstream device. The third device is the conveying device in the set of devices to be processed other than the first device.

9. The control method according to claim 7, wherein, The step of controlling the restart of the conveyor devices in the set of devices to be processed according to their priority includes: For two adjacent priority devices in the set of devices to be processed, the higher priority device is started, and the status information of the lower priority device is verified. In response to the low-priority device being in a non-faulty state, the low-priority device is controlled to start.

10. The control method according to any one of claims 1-9, further comprising: Add the identification information of the at least one faulty device to the status information of the associated device.

11. The control method according to any one of claims 1-9, wherein, The associated information includes the conveying intervals between the multiple conveying devices; the more devices spaced along the same conveying line, the larger the conveying interval. The step of determining the associated equipment on the same conveying line as the at least one faulty equipment based on the association information between the plurality of conveying equipment includes: In the conveyor line where the at least one faulty device is located, the conveyor device whose conveyor interval with the at least one faulty device is not greater than the interval threshold is identified as the associated device.

12. The control method according to any one of claims 1-9, wherein, The determination of at least one faulty device among multiple conveying devices includes: In response to the detection of the at least one faulty device, the communication cycle of the communication channel where the conveying device in the material conveying scenario is located is shortened.

13. The control method according to any one of claims 1-9, wherein, In response to receiving a stop command, control the conveying equipment in the set of equipment to be processed to stop; In response to receiving a start command, the system restarts the conveyor equipment that has been stopped. In response to the detection of a second control command and the disconnection of the communication channel of the conveying device indicated by the second control command, the second control command is ignored, the second control command including the stop command or the start command.

14. A control device, comprising: The first determining module is used to determine at least one faulty device among multiple conveying devices; The second determining module is used to determine the associated devices on the same conveying line as the at least one faulty device based on the association information between the multiple conveying devices, so as to create a set of devices to be processed, the set of devices to be processed including conveying devices that are in different communication channels from the at least one faulty device; The control module is used to control the shutdown of the conveying equipment in the set of equipment to be processed.

15. A control device, comprising: Memory; and A processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to execute the control method of any one of claims 1-13 based on instructions stored in the memory.

16. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implements the control method according to any one of claims 1-13.

17. A computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the control method according to any one of claims 1-13.

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