Remote monitoring system, and remote monitoring method

Abstract

To appropriately and remotely monitor water supply and sewage facilities to be a monitoring object.SOLUTION: In a remote monitoring system 1000 in which a plurality of machine fields 100 and a monitoring system 200 are connected by a communication line, each machine field stores monitoring information acquired from on-site equipment in a memory of an I / F terminal 1012, and outputs the acquired monitoring information to a communication terminal 1013 for summarizing and outputting the monitoring information in each on-site equipment. The on-site equipment 1011, an interface terminal, a communication terminal and a line connecting terminal 1014 are connected by a first network 1016 in the machine field, and the line connecting terminal and the interface are connected by a second network 1015 for redundancy different from the first network. In the case that a failure occurs in the communication terminal, a communication terminal of another machine field acquires the monitoring information stored in the memory of the interface terminal through the second network for redundancy, stores the monitoring information in a memory in place of the communication terminal of the machine field, and transmits the monitoring information to the monitoring system through the communication line.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a remote monitoring system and a remote monitoring method for water supply and sewerage facilities. [Background technology]

[0002] There have been various technologies for monitoring water supply and sewerage facilities. For example, Patent Document 1 describes that "a monitoring and control system 20 for a water supply and sewerage plant has monitoring and control support means 22 to 24 that monitor changes or failures in the operating state or process state of the plant, extract the causes of the changes or failures, generate monitoring information indicating the causes and the extent of the impact, and display it on a display screen." [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-234025 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, a monitoring and control support function extracts the causes of plant status changes and failures and displays monitoring information indicating the causes and their impact range on a screen, allowing operators to easily understand the information on the screen. However, since Patent Document 1 directly displays the monitoring information obtained from the causes of changes or failures in the monitored plant on a display screen, it does not address the problems that arise when a monitoring system installed in a remote location monitors the monitoring information. For example, if the monitored facility is a water supply or sewerage facility, the facility may be installed near the mouth of a river or on a mountain slope. In such cases, the monitoring system and the monitored water supply or sewerage facility are not directly physically connected, so the monitoring information must be transmitted to the monitoring system via a communication line. However, if a communication failure occurs in the communication equipment installed alongside the monitored facility, the monitoring information cannot be transmitted to the monitoring system.

[0005] Fig. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of such a monitoring system in the related art. As shown in Fig. 10, in conventional monitoring system 9000, water supply and sewerage facilities 1002 (stations 1 to X) to be monitored are connected to monitoring system 902, which has a central monitoring device configured by a computer, via communication line 903. Each of stations 1 to X has water supply and sewerage facilities for maintaining and managing water supply and sewerage systems, such as drainage pumping stations and pumping stations, and is equipped with various facilities and devices including pumps. For example, each of stations 1 to N has field facilities 9011a including pumps, an I / F (interface) terminal 9012a for connecting field facilities 9011a and communication terminal 9013a, a communication terminal 9013a that acquires monitoring information from one or more field facilities 9011a and tallying the monitoring information of each field facility, and a line connection terminal 9014a for connecting communication terminal 9013a to monitoring system 902 via communication line 903.

[0006] In such an environment, when no communication failure occurs, the communication terminal 9013a stores 9901 monitoring information acquired from the field equipment 9011a via the I / F terminal 9012a, and the central monitoring device of the monitoring system 902 can periodically acquire 9902 the monitoring information from the communication terminal 9013a via the line connection terminal 9014a. However, as shown in FIG. 11 , if a communication failure 9903 occurs at the plant 1 due to a malfunction of the communication terminal 9013a, the central monitoring device of the monitoring system 902 will be unable to acquire 9904 the monitoring information from the communication terminal 9013a via the line connection terminal 9014a. In this case, the loss of the periodically acquired monitoring information will degrade the monitoring accuracy of the monitored objects in the monitoring system, making it impossible to predict changes in the conditions of the water supply and sewerage equipment and making it impossible to perform appropriate control (for example, drainage control in response to a sudden increase in rainfall).

[0007] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a technology that enables appropriate remote monitoring of water supply and sewerage facilities that are the subject of monitoring. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] The remote monitoring system according to the present invention is a remote monitoring system that monitors water supply and sewerage facilities owned by a terminal using a monitoring system configured by a computer, the terminal and the monitoring system are connected by a predetermined communication line, the terminal includes field equipment including the water supply and sewerage facilities, a communication terminal that stores monitoring information obtained from the field equipment in a memory and aggregates and outputs the monitoring information for each field equipment, an interface terminal that outputs the monitoring information obtained from the field equipment, the communication terminal that stores the monitoring information output from the interface terminal in a memory, and a line terminal that transmits the monitoring information stored in the memory of the communication terminal between the communication terminal and the monitoring system wherein the field equipment, the interface terminal, the communication terminal, and the line terminal are connected by a first network at the plant, and the line terminal and the interface terminal are further connected by a second network different from the first network, and when a failure occurs in the communication terminal, a communication terminal at another plant acquires the monitoring information stored in the memory of the interface terminal via the second network, stores the acquired monitoring information in memory on behalf of the communication terminal at the plant, and transmits the monitoring information stored in memory on behalf of the communication terminal at the plant to the monitoring system via the specified communication line. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately remotely monitor the water supply and sewerage facilities to be monitored. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a remote monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention (in normal operation); [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a remote monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention (when a communication failure occurs). [Figure 3] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a computer. [Figure 4] 10 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a communication terminal of another station that communicates with a station having a communication terminal in which a communication failure has occurred due to a malfunction or the like. [Figure 5] 10 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a process in a communication terminal of an associated station; [Figure 6] 10 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of processing performed by a central control device of the monitoring system. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of monitoring information acquired by a communication terminal of a related station under normal circumstances. [Figure 8] 10 is a diagram showing an example of monitoring information acquired by a communication terminal of a related facility on behalf of the communication terminal of the related facility where a communication failure has occurred due to a malfunction or the like. FIG. [Figure 9] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of information (aggregated monitoring information) stored in a central monitoring device of the monitoring system. [Figure 10] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a monitoring system in the prior art (in normal operation); [Figure 11] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a monitoring system in the prior art (when a communication failure occurs). DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The examples are illustrative for explaining the present invention, and appropriate omissions and simplifications have been made for clarity of explanation. The present invention can be implemented in various other forms. Unless otherwise specified, each component may be singular or plural. The position, size, shape, range, etc. of each component shown in the drawings may not represent the actual position, size, shape, range, etc., in order to facilitate understanding of the invention. Therefore, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the position, size, shape, range, etc. disclosed in the drawings.

[0012] Examples of various types of information may be described using expressions such as "table," "list," and "queue," but the various types of information may also be expressed using data structures other than these. For example, various types of information such as "XX table," "XX list," and "XX queue" may also be expressed as "XX information." When describing identification information, expressions such as "identification information," "identifier," "name," "ID," and "number" are used, but these are interchangeable.

[0013] When there are multiple components with the same or similar functions, they may be described using the same reference numeral with different subscripts. When there is no need to distinguish between these multiple components, the subscripts may be omitted.

[0014] In the embodiments, processing performed by executing a program may be described. Here, a computer executes the program using a processor (e.g., a CPU or a GPU) and performs processing defined by the program using storage resources (e.g., a memory) and interface devices (e.g., a communication port). Therefore, the entity performing the processing by executing the program may be the processor. Similarly, the entity performing the processing by executing the program may be a controller, device, system, computer, or node having a processor. The entity performing the processing by executing the program may be any computing unit, and may include a dedicated circuit that performs specific processing. Here, the dedicated circuit may be, for example, an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or a CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device).

[0015] A program may be installed on a computer from a program source. The program source may be, for example, a program distribution server or a computer-readable storage medium. When the program source is a program distribution server, the program distribution server may include a processor and a storage resource for storing the program to be distributed, and the processor of the program distribution server may distribute the program to be distributed to other computers. In addition, in an embodiment, two or more programs may be realized as one program, or one program may be realized as two or more programs.

[0016] 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a remote monitoring system 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The remote monitoring system 1000 is a system for monitoring water supply and sewerage facilities, which are on-site facilities to be monitored in remote locations. In this embodiment, a case will be described in which the monitored facilities are water supply and sewerage facilities, but the present invention may be applied to various types of facilities to be monitored.

[0017] As shown in Fig. 1, remote monitoring system 1000 comprises pumping stations 100a-100n (Pumping Stations 1-X) having water supply and sewerage facilities to be monitored, monitoring system 200 having a central monitoring device implemented by a computer, and wired and / or wireless communication line 300 for connecting the pumping stations with monitoring system 200. Each of pumping stations 1-X has water supply and sewerage facilities for maintaining and managing the water supply and sewerage systems, such as a drainage pumping station and a pumping station, and is equipped with various facilities and equipment including pumps. The following will describe pumping station 1 of pumping stations 1-X, but the same applies to the other pumping stations.

[0018] As shown in Figure 1, the plant 1 has one or more field equipment 1011a which are the water supply and sewerage equipment, an I / F (interface) terminal 1012a for connecting the field equipment 1011a with a communication terminal 1013a, a communication terminal 1013a for acquiring monitoring information from the one or more field equipment 1011a and aggregating the monitoring information of each field equipment, and a line connection terminal 1014a for connecting the communication terminal 1013a with the monitoring system 200 via a communication line 300.

[0019] The on-site equipment 1011a is a water supply or sewerage equipment such as a pump, and outputs monitoring information to be monitored by the monitoring system 200, including operation information measured by various devices constituting the equipment or detection information detected by sensors, to the I / F terminal 1012a. The operation information includes, for example, information such as air temperature or water temperature measured by a thermometer or a water thermometer, and the integrated flow rate of a pump. The detection information includes, for example, information such as values ​​detected by a pressure sensor or a water level gauge, and alarms.

[0020] The I / F terminal 1012a is a communication device such as a gateway, and converts protocols between the industrial Ethernet on the field equipment 1011a side and the Ethernet on the communication terminal 1013a side. The I / F terminal 1012a is connected to one or more field equipment 1011a, and monitoring information obtained from each field equipment is stored in the memory of the I / F terminal 1012a and output to the communication terminal 1013a via the interface terminal. The I / F terminal 1012a may be a conventionally known general terminal as its hardware.

[0021] The communication terminal 1013a is a communication device such as an intelligence hub, and stores monitoring information obtained from one or more field facilities 1011a via the I / F terminal 1012a in a memory, aggregates the information for each field facility 1011a, and outputs the aggregated monitoring information to the line connection terminal 1014a. The communication terminal 1013a may be a conventionally known general terminal as its hardware.

[0022] The line connection terminal 1014a is a communication device such as a modem, and periodically transmits the aggregated monitoring information received from the communication terminal 1013a to the monitoring system 200. As hardware for the line connection terminal 1014a, a conventionally known general terminal may be used.

[0023] Furthermore, at the plant 100a, the I / F terminal 1012a and the line connection terminal 1014a are connected to each other via a redundant, communicable network 1015a, separate from the network 1016a. That is, at the plant 100a, the line connection terminal 1014a is connected to the I / F terminal 1012a and the communication terminal 1013a via a general network 1015a, such as a LAN (Local Area Network). This is to provide redundancy in case a communication failure occurs in the communication terminal 1013a due to a malfunction or the like. The network 1016a is a general network that communicably connects the on-site equipment 1011a, the I / F terminal 1012a, the communication terminal 1013a, and the line connection terminal 1014a.

[0024] Specifically, as will be described later, if a communication failure occurs due to a malfunction of communication terminal 1013a, monitoring system 200 will be unable to acquire monitoring information from communication terminal 1013a via line connection terminal 1014a, and the monitoring information that is acquired periodically will be lost. As a result of this loss, the accuracy of monitoring water supply and sewerage facilities in monitoring system 200 will deteriorate, and changes in the water supply and sewerage facilities will not be predicted, making it impossible to appropriately perform control such as drainage control in response to a sudden increase in rainfall.

[0025] Therefore, a communication terminal 1013b provided at another station (station 100b, which is station 2 in this example) acquires monitoring information accumulated during the occurrence of the communication failure at I / F terminal 1012a via line connection terminal 1014a at station 100a, and transmits the information to monitoring system 200. During normal times when the communication failure does not occur, communication terminals 1013 at each station establish communication with each other via line connection terminal 1014, and periodically check 1100 the status of the other party. In FIG. 1, communication terminal 1013b at station 101b checks the status of communication terminal 1013a at station 101a. As a method of checking, for example, it is determined that the check has been successful when a reply to a PING command is received.

[0026] 2, when a communication failure occurs in the communication terminal 1013a of a certain station (station 100a in this example) due to a malfunction or the like, the communication terminal 1013b of another station (station 100b in this example) accesses the I / F terminal 1012a via the line connection terminal 1014a of station 100a and the network 1015a, and acquires 2100 the monitoring information output from the field equipment 1011a that is stored in the memory of the I / F terminal 1012a. After performing the acquisition 2100, the communication terminal 1013b of station 100b acquires 2200 the monitoring information output from the field equipment 1011b that is stored in the memory of the I / F terminal 1012b that is provided at station 100b. Then, the central monitoring device of the monitoring system 200 acquires (2300) the monitoring information of the on-site equipment 1011a acquired (2100) above and the monitoring information of the on-site equipment 1011b acquired (2200) above.

[0027] Returning to FIG. 1, the monitoring system 200 will be described. The monitoring system 200 is a system installed in a remote location relative to the terminal 100 for remotely monitoring the on-site equipment 100. The monitoring system 200 stores aggregated monitoring information that aggregates the monitoring information transmitted from each terminal. The monitoring system 200 has a central monitoring device configured by a computer. A conventionally known general computer may be used as the central monitoring device. The computer can be realized, for example, as shown in Figure 3 (schematic diagram of a computer), by a general computer 1600 having a CPU 1601, memory 1602, an external storage device 1603 such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a reading / writing device 1607 that reads and writes information from a portable storage medium 1608 such as a CD (Compact Disk) or USB memory, an input device 1606 that accepts input of various information such as a keyboard, mouse, reader, or scanner, an output device 1605 such as a display that outputs various information that has been input and is used for processing, a communication device 1604 such as a NIC (Network Interface Card) for connecting to a communication network, and an internal communication line (referred to as a system bus) 1609 such as a system bus that connects these.

[0028] Furthermore, various data stored in the monitoring system 200 or used for processing can be realized by the CPU 1601 reading and using the data from the memory 1602 or the external storage device 1603. Furthermore, each function of the monitoring system 200 can be realized by the CPU 1601 loading a predetermined program stored in the external storage device 1603 into the memory 1602 and executing it.

[0029] The above-mentioned predetermined programs and data may be stored (downloaded) into the external storage device 1603 from the storage medium 1608 via the reading / writing device 1607 or from the network via the communication device 1604, and then loaded onto the memory 1602 and executed by the CPU 1601. Alternatively, the programs and data may be directly loaded onto the memory 1602 from the storage medium 1608 via the reading / writing device 1607 or from the network via the communication device 1604, and then executed by the CPU 1601.

[0030] In the following, an example is shown in which monitoring system 200 is configured by a single computer, but all or part of these functions may be distributed across one or more computers, such as a cloud, and similar functions may be realized by communicating with each other via a network. Specific processing performed by monitoring system 200 will be described later using flowcharts.

[0031] The communication line 300 is a conventionally known general communication line network such as a broadband line or a mobile terminal line. The data held by the devices and terminals constituting this system and used for processing will be described later. Next, the processing performed by this system will be described.

[0032] 4 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of a communication terminal of another facility that communicates with a facility having a communication terminal that has experienced a communication failure due to a malfunction or the like. Hereinafter, the facility 100 having the communication terminal 1013 that has experienced a communication failure due to a malfunction or the like is referred to as an associated facility. Below, as an example, a case will be described in which the associated facility and its communication terminal are facility 100a and communication terminal 1013a, and another facility that is the other party communicating with the associated facility and its communication terminal are facility 100b and communication terminal 1013b.

[0033] As a method of determining whether or not an airport is related to a related airport, if the distance between the airport and the related airport is close enough to each other, the two may be determined to be related. Alternatively, if the on-site equipment of the airport and the on-site equipment of the related airport have similar functions, the airport and the related airport may be determined to be related. Furthermore, whether or not the two are related may be determined by a combination of these. Similar functions will be described later using Figures 7 and 8.

[0034] 4, the communication terminal 1013b of the station 100b periodically executes a process of confirming the existence of the communication terminal 1013a via the line connection terminal 1014a of the related station 100a (S401). The process of confirming the existence of the communication terminal 1013a may be, for example, a process of issuing a ping command to confirm communication, and the existence of the communication terminal 1013a may be confirmed depending on whether or not there is a response to the ping command.

[0035] The communication terminal 1013b determines whether or not a response has been received from the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a (S402). If the communication terminal 1013b determines that a response has been received from the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a (S402; YES), the communication terminal 1013b proceeds to S410 and remains in standby. On the other hand, if the communication terminal 1013b does not determine that a response has been received from the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a (S402; NO), the communication terminal 1013b determines that a communication failure has occurred in the communication terminal of the associated station due to a malfunction or the like, and performs the following two processes.

[0036] In a first process, the communication terminal 1013b transmits information to the central monitoring device of the monitoring system 200 indicating that the communication terminal 1013a of the associated facility 100a has experienced an error (S403). The information indicating the error is displayed on the display device of the computer included in the monitoring system 200, together with information for identifying the facility and the communication terminal at that facility. This allows the monitoring system 200 (or the system administrator) to quickly determine which of the multiple facilities it is unable to receive monitoring information from. The information for identifying the facility and the communication terminal at that facility can be obtained by previously storing identification information for the associated facility and its communication terminal in the memory of the communication terminal 1013 of each facility 100, and reading out this information when no response is received.

[0037] 6, which will be described later, from the monitoring system 200, and in accordance with the instruction, acquires monitoring information obtained from the on-site equipment 1011a from the I / F terminal 1012a via the line connection terminal 1014a of the associated plant 100a and the network 1015a (S404). The monitoring information obtained from the on-site equipment 1011a is stored in the memory of the I / F terminal 1012a.

[0038] After carrying out these two processes, the communication terminal 1013b records the monitoring information obtained from the field equipment 1011a in S404 in the memory of the terminal itself as a proxy (S405).

[0039] The communication terminal 1013b executes a process to check whether the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a is alive (S406). The process to check whether the communication terminal 1013a is alive is the same as S401.

[0040] The communication terminal 1013b determines whether or not a response has been received from the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a (S407). If the communication terminal 1013b determines that a response has been received from the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a (S407; YES), the communication terminal 1013b proceeds to S408. On the other hand, if the communication terminal 1013b does not determine that a response has been received from the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a (S407; NO), the communication terminal 1013b returns to S404 and repeats the subsequent processing to continue obtaining monitoring information of the field equipment 1011a from the I / F terminal 1012a of the associated station 100a.

[0041] When a response is received from the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a (S407; YES), the communication terminal 1013b transmits information to the central monitoring device of the monitoring system 200 that the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a has been restored (S408). The information that the communication terminal 1013b has been restored is displayed on the display device of the computer included in the monitoring system 200, together with information for identifying the station and the communication terminal of the station. This allows the monitoring system 200 (or the administrator of the system) to quickly grasp which of the multiple stations it is once again able to receive monitoring information from.

[0042] When S408 is executed, the communication terminal 1013b transmits the monitoring information of the field equipment 1011a recorded on behalf in S405 to the communication terminal 1013a of the associated plant 100a whose recovery was confirmed in S408 (S409), and then waits (S410). When S410 ends, the processing of the communication terminal of the plant shown in Figure 4 ends. Next, the processing in the communication terminal of the associated plant will be described.

[0043] 4, when the communication terminal 1013a of the associated facility 100a is restored, the communication terminal 1013b of the facility 100b transmits the monitoring information stored in its memory as a proxy to the communication terminal 1013a of the restored associated facility 100a, and the communication terminal 1013a transmits the monitoring information received from the communication terminal 1013b of the facility 100b and stored in its memory as a proxy during the period when the communication failure occurred, and the monitoring information received from the field equipment 101a via the 1 / F terminal 1012a after the recovery, to the monitoring system 200. However, as described in the explanation of FIG. 2, the communication terminal 1013b may transmit the monitoring information stored in its memory as a proxy to the monitoring system 200 together with its own monitoring information, without transmitting it to the associated facility 100a.

[0044] In this case, since there is no need to transmit the monitoring information stored in memory as a proxy to the associated terminal 100a, for example, when the associated terminals 100a and 100b are a certain distance apart and the communication speed is slow, the monitoring information can be transmitted quickly to the monitoring system 200. Also, immediately after the communication terminal 1013a of the associated terminal 100a is restored, various applications other than the monitoring information may need to be reset, which may increase the processing load on the communication terminal 1013a. In such a case, the communication terminal 1013b can transmit the monitoring information stored in memory as a proxy directly to the monitoring system 200, thereby reducing the processing load on the communication terminal 1013a.

[0045] 4, when the monitoring information obtained from the on-site equipment 1011a in S404 is recorded in the memory of the terminal, it is determined in S405 whether the identification information of the on-site equipment 1011a included in the monitoring information (for example, the identification information "ID0001" of the pump shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 described later) is the identification information of on-site equipment having the same type of function, and if it is determined that both are the identification information of on-site equipment having the same type of function, the recording may be performed. For example, a drainage pump and a lifting pump may be determined to have the same type of function because they are both on-site equipment having a facility called a pump and have the same numbering system.

[0046] If communication terminal 1013b determines that the two have the same type of function, since the monitoring information formats are the same, it may merge the monitoring information of its own facility with the monitoring information of the related facility and transmit the merged information to monitoring system 200, for example, as shown in FIG. 9 (described later). The central monitoring device of monitoring system 200 reads the merged monitoring information, classifies the monitoring information stored in memory on behalf of the facility and the monitoring information stored in memory at the original facility by referring to the acquisition facility indicating the facility from which the monitoring information was acquired, and aggregates the monitoring information by facility. This process allows monitoring information output in the same format to be sent to monitoring system 200 at once, allowing monitoring system 200 to efficiently grasp the status of the facility.

[0047] If the communication terminal 1013b determines that the two do not have the same type of function, the formats of the monitoring information are different, so when it receives a response from the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a (S407; YES) and transmits information to the central monitoring device of the monitoring system 200 that the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a has recovered (S408), it performs the processing of S409 on the communication terminal 1013a of the recovered associated station 100a. As a result, the communication terminal 1013a can merge the monitoring information of the on-site equipment 1011a recorded as a proxy in S405 above and the monitoring information of the on-site equipment 1011a output after the communication terminal 1013a has recovered in the same format and transmit the merged information to the monitoring system 200.

[0048] Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the communication terminal of the related terminal. In the following, it is assumed that a communication failure has occurred due to a malfunction or the like, but has since been restored, and that a response is being sent to the communication terminal 1013b of the terminal 100b. Furthermore, it is assumed that the communication terminal 1013b of the terminal 100b has received an instruction to change the source of the monitoring information from the monitoring system 200 in S608 of Fig. 6 (described later), and has cancelled the instruction received in S606 of Fig. 6 (described later) in accordance with the instruction, and has switched back to the original state in which the monitoring information of its own terminal 100b was being acquired (i.e., the state before the monitoring information was stored as a proxy).

[0049] As shown in FIG. 5, the communication terminal 1013a of the related plant 100a acquires post-recovery monitoring information obtained from the field equipment 1011a via the I / F terminal 1012a and starts recording it in memory (S501).

[0050] The communication terminal 1013a receives from the communication terminal 1013b the monitoring information that the communication terminal 1013b of the terminal 100b stored on behalf of the communication terminal 1013a (S502), and integrates the monitoring information recorded in S501 with the monitoring information received in S502 (S503). The communication terminal 1013a performs the integration by referencing the terminal access time and the acquisition time of the monitoring information in chronological order and aggregating the information into a single piece of data, as shown in FIG. 9, which will be described later. When the processing of S503 ends, the processing of the communication terminal of the associated terminal shown in FIG. 5 ends. Next, the processing performed by the central control device of the monitoring system 200 will be described.

[0051] Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure performed by the central control device of the monitoring system. As shown in Fig. 6, the central control device of the monitoring system 200 acquires monitoring information from a plurality of terminals including terminals 100a and 100b (S601), stores the monitoring information for each terminal in a database held by the central control device (S602), and waits (S603).

[0052] The central control device of the monitoring system 200 then determines whether or not it has received information from each of the terminals 100, including the associated terminal, indicating that the communication terminal 1013 described in S403 of Fig. 4 is in an error (S604). If the central control device determines that it has received information indicating that the communication terminal is in an error (S604; YES), it reads the information indicating that the communication terminal is in an error and recognizes the associated terminal 100a and the terminal 100b from which the monitoring information was obtained (S605).

[0053] The central control device of the monitoring system 200 issues an instruction to change the source of the monitoring information of the associated terminal 100a to the terminal 100b (S606), and the process returns to S601 to repeat the subsequent processes.

[0054] In S604, if the central control device of the monitoring system 200 determines that it has not received information indicating that the communication terminal is in error (or has stopped receiving the information) (S604; NO), it further determines whether it has received information indicating that the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a has recovered (S607). If the central monitoring device determines that it has received information indicating that the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a has recovered (S607; YES), it issues an instruction to change the source of the monitoring information of the associated station 100a back to the original station 100a (S608), and returns to S601 to repeat the subsequent processes.

[0055] On the other hand, if the central control device of the monitoring system 200 determines that it has not received information indicating that the communication terminal 1013a of the associated station 100a has been restored (S607; NO), it does nothing and returns to S601 to repeat the subsequent processing. With the above processing, the processing of the central control device of the monitoring system 200 shown in FIG. 6 is completed.

[0056] Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of monitoring information acquired by a communication terminal of an associated plant under normal circumstances. As shown in Fig. 7, the monitoring information 700 stores at least an operation failure signal of a pump, which is an example of field equipment, a water level signal of a water level meter, a pressure signal of the pump, an integrated flow rate of the pump, the acquisition time of the monitoring information, and the associated plant to which the pump that output the monitoring information belongs, in association with each other. In Fig. 7, "ON / OFF" is stored as the operation failure signal of the pump, "XXm" is stored as the water level signal of the water level meter, "YYPa" is stored as the pressure signal of the pump, and "ZZ m" is stored as the integrated flow rate of the pump. 3 " is stored. The pump operation failure signal includes pump identification information "ID0001" that indicates which pump output the monitoring information. Furthermore, it indicates that the monitoring information was obtained from the pump identified by "ID0001" at the time "YYYY / MM / DD HH:mm:ss" together with "ID000A", which is the identification information of the plant 100a where the pump is installed.

[0057] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of monitoring information acquired by a communication terminal of a related facility on behalf of a communication terminal of the related facility where a communication failure due to a failure or the like has occurred. As shown in FIG. 8, the monitoring information acquired by proxy is substantially the same as the monitoring information under normal conditions shown in FIG. 7, but the identification information of the facility differs from that shown in FIG. 7. The identification information of the facility 100a is stored along with the identification information of the communication terminal 1013a of the facility 100a where the communication failure due to a failure or the like has occurred. If a communication failure due to a failure or the like occurs in the communication terminal 1013a, the I / F terminal 1012a will no longer be able to output monitoring information to the communication terminal 1013a. Therefore, the identification information of the communication terminal 1013a, which was outputting the monitoring information under normal conditions before the communication failure, is stored together with the identification information of the facility. This allows the communication terminal 103b of the facility 100b and the monitoring system 200 to identify which communication terminal has experienced the communication failure due to a failure or the like.

[0058] FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of information (aggregated monitoring information) stored by the central monitoring device of the monitoring system. As shown in FIG. 9, the following information is stored in association with each other: an access time, which indicates the time when a plant or related plant is accessed; an acquisition time of the monitoring information acquired at the plant or related plant; an output plant, which indicates the plant from which the monitoring information was output; an acquisition plant, which indicates the plant from which the monitoring information was acquired; and actual measurements and signals, such as pump operation failure signals. In FIG. 9, records 901, 902, and 906 of the aggregated monitoring information indicate that an I / F terminal 1012a of the related plant 100a, which is the local plant, accessed a field equipment 101a at the time indicated by the access time and acquired monitoring information of the field equipment 101a of the related plant 100a, which is the local plant, at the acquisition time. The records also indicate that the monitoring information was output from the field equipment 101a and that the monitoring information was acquired by the related plant 100a, which is the local plant. Meanwhile, records 903, 904, and 905 of the consolidated monitoring information indicate that, due to a communication failure occurring in communication terminal 1013a of associated plant 100a, communication terminal 1013b of another plant 100b accessed I / F terminal 1012a via line connection terminal 1014a and network 1015a of associated plant 100a at the time indicated by the access time, and acquired monitoring information of field equipment 101a of associated plant 100a stored in the memory of I / F terminal 1012a at the acquisition time. The records also indicate that the monitoring information was output from field equipment 101a and acquired by another plant 100b. The consolidated monitoring information shown in FIG. 9 is rearranged and merged in chronological order by the central monitoring device or associated plant 100a or plant 100b in the order of plant access time and monitoring information acquisition time.

[0059] In this way, in the monitoring system 200, the monitoring information transmitted from each terminal 100, including the terminal 100 where a communication failure has occurred in the communication terminal 1013, is merged and aggregated in the same format. Since the monitoring information transmitted by proxy records this fact, the monitoring system 200 can recognize which terminal 1013 in which terminal 100 a communication failure has occurred.

[0060] As described above, according to the present system, the central monitoring device of the remote monitoring system that manages water supply and sewerage facilities can appropriately remotely monitor the water supply and sewerage facilities that are the monitoring targets.

[0061] Specifically, as described with reference to Figures 1, 2, 9, etc., in a remote monitoring system (e.g., remote monitoring system 1000) that monitors water supply and sewerage facilities of a terminal (e.g., terminals 100a, 100b) by a monitoring system (e.g., monitoring system 200) configured by a computer, the terminal and the monitoring system are connected by a predetermined communication line (e.g., communication line 300), the terminal has field equipment (e.g., field equipment 1011a, 1011b) including the water supply and sewerage facilities, communication terminals (e.g., communication terminals 1013a, 1013b) that store monitoring information (e.g., the monitoring information shown in Figures 7 and 8) obtained from the field equipment in a memory and output the monitoring information for each field equipment, interface terminals (e.g., I / F terminals 1012a, 1012b) that output the monitoring information obtained from the field equipment, the communication terminals that store the monitoring information output from the interface terminals in a memory, and the The monitoring system has line terminals (e.g., line terminals 1014a, 1014b) that transmit the monitoring information stored in the memory of the communication terminal between the communication terminal and the monitoring system, and the field equipment, the interface terminal, the communication terminal, and the line terminal are connected by a first network (e.g., networks 1016a, 1016b) at the plant, and the line terminal and the interface terminal are further connected by a second network (e.g., 1015a, 1015b) different from the first network, and when a failure occurs in the communication terminal, a communication terminal at another plant (e.g., communication terminal 1013b at plant 100b) acquires the monitoring information stored in the memory of the interface terminal via the second network, stores the acquired monitoring information in memory on behalf of the communication terminal at the plant, and transmits the monitoring information stored in memory on behalf of the communication terminal at the plant to the monitoring system via the specified communication line. This allows the monitoring system to efficiently grasp the situation at the airport, and reduces the processing load on the communication terminal 1013a.

[0062] 7, 8, etc., the communication terminal and the interface terminal receive the monitoring information, including the pump operation failure signal, the water level signal of the water level meter, the pump pressure signal, and the pump integrated flow rate, from the on-site equipment, and the communication terminal of the other plant stores the monitoring information in memory on its behalf and transmits it to the monitoring system. This allows appropriate remote monitoring of these signals and values ​​when a pump is included as on-site equipment.

[0063] Furthermore, as explained using Figure 9 etc., the communication terminal of the other plant merges the monitoring information stored in memory on behalf of the other plant with the monitoring information of the on-site equipment of the other plant, and transmits the merged monitoring information to the monitoring system via the line terminal of the other plant.

[0064] Furthermore, as explained using Figure 9 etc., when the communication terminal of the related station is restored, the communication terminal of the other station transmits the monitoring information stored in memory on its behalf to the communication terminal of the restored related station, and the communication terminal of the related station merges the monitoring information stored in memory on its behalf received from the communication terminal of the other station with the monitoring information of the field equipment of the station after recovery, and transmits the merged monitoring information to the monitoring system via the line terminal of the station.

[0065] This allows monitoring information output in the same format to be sent to the monitoring system at once, allowing the monitoring system to efficiently grasp the situation at the airport.

[0066] 9 and the like, when the distance between the other plant and the above plant is equal to or shorter than a certain distance, or when the on-site equipment of the other plant and the on-site equipment of the above plant have similar functions (for example, the relationship between a drainage pump and a lifting pump), the communication terminal of the above other plant stores the monitoring information acquired via the second network in a memory as the proxy, and transmits the monitoring information stored in the memory as the proxy to the monitoring system via the predetermined communication line. This makes it possible to select a route for providing monitoring information to the monitoring system depending on the distance between the plants and the functions of the on-site equipment of each plant.

[0067] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments as they are, and in the implementation stage, the components can be modified and embodied within the scope of the gist of the present invention, or multiple components disclosed in the above-described embodiments can be appropriately combined. [Explanation of symbols]

[0068] 1000 Remote Monitoring System 100 station 1011 Field equipment 1012 I / F (interface) terminal 1013 Communication terminal 1014 Line connection terminal 1015 Network (redundant) 1016 Network 200 Surveillance System 300 communication lines

Claims

1. A remote monitoring system that monitors water supply and sewerage facilities at an airport using a monitoring system configured by a computer, The airport and the monitoring system are connected by a predetermined communication line, The airport is On-site facilities including the water supply and sewerage facilities; an interface terminal that stores the monitoring information obtained from the field equipment in a memory and outputs the monitoring information obtained from the field equipment to a communication terminal that aggregates and outputs the monitoring information for each field equipment; the communication terminal that stores the monitoring information output from the interface terminal in a memory; a line terminal for transmitting the monitoring information stored in the memory of the communication terminal between the communication terminal and the monitoring system; the field equipment, the interface terminal, the communication terminal, and the line terminal are connected to a first network at the station; the line terminal and the interface terminal are further connected by a second network different from the first network; When a failure occurs in the communication terminal, a communication terminal of another station acquires the monitoring information stored in the memory of the interface terminal via the second network, stores the acquired monitoring information in memory on behalf of the communication terminal of the station, and transmits the monitoring information stored in memory on behalf of the communication terminal to the monitoring system via the specified communication line. A remote monitoring system comprising:

2. The communication terminal and the interface terminal receive the monitoring information from the field equipment, the monitoring information including a pump operation fault signal, a water level signal from a water level meter, a pump pressure signal, and a pump flow rate accumulation amount; The communication terminal of the other station stores the monitoring information in a memory on behalf of the other station and transmits the monitoring information to the monitoring system.

2. The remote monitoring system according to claim 1.

3. The communication terminal of the other airport, Merging the monitoring information stored in the memory on behalf of the other plant with the monitoring information of the on-site equipment of the other plant, and transmitting the merged monitoring information to the monitoring system via a line terminal of the other plant.

2. The remote monitoring system according to claim 1.

4. The communication terminal of the other airport, When the communication terminal of the related airport is restored, the monitoring information stored in the memory as a proxy is transmitted to the communication terminal of the restored related airport; The communication terminal of the related airport, Merging the monitoring information stored in the memory on behalf of the other terminal with the monitoring information of the field equipment of the own terminal after recovery, and transmitting the merged monitoring information to the monitoring system via the line terminal of the own terminal.

2. The remote monitoring system according to claim 1.

5. The communication terminal of the other airport, When the distance between the other terminal and the terminal is equal to or shorter than a certain distance, or when the on-site equipment of the other terminal and the on-site equipment of the terminal have the same type of function, the monitoring information acquired via the second network is stored in a memory on the behalf of the terminal, and the monitoring information stored in the memory on the behalf of the terminal is transmitted to the monitoring system via the predetermined communication line.

2. The remote monitoring system according to claim 1.

6. A remote monitoring method in a remote monitoring system that monitors water supply and sewerage facilities of an airport using a monitoring system configured by a computer, comprising: The airport and the monitoring system are connected by a predetermined communication line, On-site facilities including the water supply and sewerage facilities; an interface terminal that stores the monitoring information obtained from the field equipment in a memory and outputs the monitoring information obtained from the field equipment to a communication terminal that aggregates and outputs the monitoring information for each field equipment; the communication terminal that stores the monitoring information output from the interface terminal in a memory; a line terminal for transmitting the monitoring information stored in the memory of the communication terminal between the communication terminal and the monitoring system; the field equipment, the interface terminal, the communication terminal, and the line terminal are connected to a first network at the station; The line terminal and the interface terminal are further connected by a second network different from the first network, When a failure occurs in the communication terminal, a communication terminal of another station acquires the monitoring information stored in the memory of the interface terminal via the second network, stores the acquired monitoring information in memory on behalf of the communication terminal of the station, and transmits the monitoring information stored in memory on behalf of the communication terminal to the monitoring system via the specified communication line. A remote monitoring method comprising:

7. The communication terminal and the interface terminal receive the monitoring information from the field equipment, the monitoring information including a pump operation fault signal, a water level signal from a water level meter, a pump pressure signal, and a pump flow rate accumulation amount; The communication terminal of the other station stores the monitoring information in a memory on behalf of the other station and transmits the monitoring information to the monitoring system.

7. The remote monitoring method according to claim 6.

8. The communication terminal of the other airport, Merging the monitoring information stored in the memory on behalf of the other plant with the monitoring information of the on-site equipment of the other plant, and transmitting the merged monitoring information to the monitoring system via a line terminal of the other plant.

7. The remote monitoring method according to claim 6.

9. The communication terminal of the other airport, When the communication terminal of the related airport is restored, the monitoring information stored in the memory as a proxy is transmitted to the communication terminal of the restored related airport; The communication terminal of the related airport, Merging the monitoring information stored in the memory on behalf of the other terminal with the monitoring information of the field equipment of the own terminal after recovery, and transmitting the merged monitoring information to the monitoring system via the line terminal of the own terminal.

7. The remote monitoring method according to claim 6.

10. The communication terminal of the other airport, When the distance between the other terminal and the terminal is equal to or shorter than a certain distance, or when the on-site equipment of the other terminal and the on-site equipment of the terminal have the same type of function, the monitoring information acquired via the second network is stored in a memory on the behalf of the terminal, and the monitoring information stored in the memory on the behalf of the terminal is transmitted to the monitoring system via the predetermined communication line.

7. The remote monitoring method according to claim 6.

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