Progress management system and progress management method

Abstract

To appropriately determine a progress situation of a process even when there is a device which cannot output an end signal of the process, and to suppress delay of start of the next process.SOLUTION: The progress management system holds process information indicating an order of a plurality of processes executed by a device and plan information indicating meta information of an execution result acquired when each of the plurality of processes is completed, estimates meta information of the execution result of each of the plurality of processes from execution result data of each of the plurality of processes acquired from the device, determines a progress status of each of the plurality of processes based on a comparison result between the meta information indicated by the plan information and the estimated meta information, and outputs a start trigger based on the progress status and the order indicated by the process information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a progress management system and a progress management method. [Background technology]

[0002] Background art in this technical field is WO 2023 / 058384 (Patent Document 1). The control device in Patent Document 1 includes an input unit that accepts input of an experimental protocol designed using a directed graph, a generation unit that generates a dependency list including first dependency information indicating that the start of processing of a second node depends on the completion of processing of a first node, a selection unit that selects a node from multiple nodes to start processing based on the dependency list, a command unit that commands the experimental device to process the selected node, and an update unit that updates the dependency list when processing of any of the multiple nodes is completed, wherein the update unit updates the first dependency information from the first information to second information when processing of the first node is completed, and the selection unit selects the second node when the first dependency information is updated from the first information to the second information. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] International Publication No. 2023 / 058384 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] The technology described in Patent Document 1 is premised on the experimental equipment having an interface that can input and output signals, including an experiment completion signal, to and from an external device. If the experimental equipment does not have such an interface, the technology described in Patent Document 1 cannot properly determine the progress of the experiment being performed by the experimental equipment, which may delay the start of the next step.

[0005] Therefore, one aspect of the present invention is to appropriately determine the progress of a process even when there is a device that cannot output a process end signal, thereby suppressing delays in the start of the next process. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above problem, one aspect of the present invention employs the following configuration: A progress management system includes a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores process information indicating a plurality of processes to be executed by a device and the order in which the plurality of processes are to be executed, and plan information indicating meta-information on execution results of each of the plurality of processes that is acquired when the plurality of processes are executed and completed by the device, wherein the processor acquires execution result data for each of the plurality of processes from the device, estimates the meta-information on the execution results of each of the plurality of processes from the execution result data, determines a progress status for each of the plurality of processes based on a comparison between the meta-information indicated in the plan information and the estimated meta-information, and outputs a start trigger for starting a process included in the plurality of processes based on the progress status and the order indicated by the process information. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to one aspect of the present invention, even if there is a device that cannot output a process end signal, the progress of the process can be appropriately determined, and delays in the start of the next process can be suppressed.

[0008] Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a progress management system according to a first embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the data configuration of an experiment protocol table in the first embodiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the data configuration of an experiment condition table in the first embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of a plan table in the first embodiment. [Figure 5] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of a control table according to the first embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of a trigger management table according to the first embodiment. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of advance preparation processing in the first embodiment. [Figure 8] 10 is a flowchart showing an example of an experiment management process in the first embodiment. [Figure 9] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a control information management process according to the first embodiment. [Figure 10] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a trigger management process according to the first embodiment. [Figure 11] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a pre-trigger management process according to the first embodiment. [Figure 12] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a start trigger management process according to the first embodiment. [Figure 13] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the screen configuration of an experiment progress management screen in Example 1. [Figure 14] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a control information management process according to the second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, the same components are generally designated by the same reference numerals, and repeated explanations will be omitted. It should be noted that this embodiment is merely an example for realizing the present invention, and does not limit the technical scope of the present invention. [Example]

[0011] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a progress management system. The progress management system 100 is connected, for example, via a network such as the Internet or an intranet, or directly via a wired connection, to an experiment protocol generation device 200, multiple experiment devices 300, and multiple trigger receiving terminals 400. Note that in this embodiment, an example will be described in which there are multiple experiment devices 300 and multiple trigger receiving terminals 400, but it is also possible to have only one of each.

[0012] The experiment protocol generation device 200 generates an experiment protocol (an example of process information) that indicates multiple processes of an experiment and the order of the processes, and transmits this to the progress management system 100.

[0013] Each of the experimental devices 300 executes at least one step included in the experimental protocol. The experimental devices 300 include, for example, a device for producing a material, a device for measuring the material, a device for evaluating the material, and the like.

[0014] The experimental equipment 300 includes an experimental equipment 300 (an example of a first equipment) that requires operation by a worker (human) to start a process, and an experimental equipment 300 (an example of a second equipment) that can automatically start a process when it receives a process start trigger from the progress management system 100.

[0015] The progress management system 100 does not send a start trigger to experimental equipment 300 that requires an operator to operate it to start a process, but sends a start trigger for that experimental equipment 300 to the trigger receiving terminal 400. The progress management system 100 directly sends a start trigger to experimental equipment 300 that can automatically start the process upon receiving the start trigger.

[0016] The trigger receiving terminal 400 is a terminal held by an operator conducting an experiment, such as a smartphone, a PC (Personal Computer), or a tablet terminal. The operator holding the trigger receiving terminal 400 checks the start trigger received by the trigger receiving terminal 400 and performs the operation required to execute the process on the experimental apparatus 300 associated with the start trigger.

[0017] The progress management system 100 collects experiment result data from the experimental equipment 300, manages the progress of the processes executed by the experimental equipment 300, and determines whether each process has been completed. Specifically, for example, the progress management system 100 determines the progress of the processes executed by the experimental equipment 300 by monitoring the samples and data generated by the experimental equipment 300, as well as the equipment status of the experimental equipment 300, which are indicated by the experiment result data collected from the experimental equipment 300.

[0018] Each experimental device 300 may be equipped with sensors and devices for monitoring these samples and data, as well as the device status (for collecting and transmitting experimental result data). In particular, since the experimental device 300, which is a legacy device, does not have a mechanism for collecting and transmitting experimental result data, it is desirable that it be equipped with these sensors and devices. This allows the progress management system 100 to determine the progress of processes not only for experimental devices 300 that can collect and transmit experimental result data themselves, but also for experimental devices 300 that are legacy devices.

[0019] The experimental equipment 300 includes experimental equipment 300 (an example of a third equipment) that can determine whether a process has been completed by itself and output a completion signal indicating that the process has been completed (has an interface or function for outputting), and experimental equipment 300 (an example of a fourth equipment) that is a legacy equipment that cannot determine whether a process has been completed by itself, or even if it can, cannot output a completion signal (does not have an interface or function for outputting).

[0020] For experimental equipment 300 that is capable of outputting an end signal, the progress management system 100 determines whether the process executed by the experimental equipment 300 has been completed based on the end signal received from the experimental equipment 300. For experimental equipment 300 that is not capable of outputting an end signal, the progress management system 100 determines whether the process executed by the experimental equipment 300 has been completed based on monitoring information obtained by monitoring the experimental equipment 300.

[0021] The progress management system 100 is configured by a computer having, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101, a memory 102, an auxiliary storage device 103, a communication device 104, an input device 105, and a display device 106.

[0022] The CPU 101 is an example of a processor, and executes programs stored in the memory 102. The memory 102 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory), which is a nonvolatile storage element, and a RAM (Random Access Memory), which is a volatile storage element. The ROM stores unchanging programs (e.g., a BIOS (Basic Input / Output System)). The RAM is a high-speed, volatile storage element such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), and temporarily stores programs executed by the CPU 101 and data used when the programs are executed.

[0023] The auxiliary storage device 103 is a large-capacity, non-volatile storage device such as a magnetic storage device (HDD (Hard Disk Drive)) or a flash memory (SSD (Solid State Drive)), and stores programs to be executed by the CPU 101 and data to be used when the programs are executed. That is, the programs are read from the auxiliary storage device 103, loaded into the memory 102, and executed by the CPU 101.

[0024] The input device 105 is a device that receives input from a user, such as a keyboard or a mouse. The display device 106 is a device that outputs the results of program execution in a format that can be viewed by the user, such as a display or a printer.

[0025] The communication device 104 is a network interface device that controls communication with other devices in accordance with a predetermined protocol. The communication device 104 may also include a serial interface such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus).

[0026] Some or all of the programs executed by CPU 101 may be provided to progress management system 100 from removable media (CD-ROM, flash memory, etc.), which are non-transitory storage media, or from an external computer equipped with a non-transitory storage device via a network, and stored in non-volatile auxiliary storage device 103, which is also a non-transitory storage medium. For this reason, progress management system 100 should preferably have an interface for reading data from removable media.

[0027] The progress management system 100 is a computer system that is configured on a single physical computer or on multiple logically or physically configured computers, and may operate in separate threads on the same computer, or on a virtual computer built on multiple physical computer resources.

[0028] The CPU 101 includes, for example, a progress management unit 111 and an equipment monitoring unit 116, which are all functional units. The progress management unit 111 manages the progress of the steps included in the experiment protocol. The progress management unit 111 includes an experiment condition generation unit 112, a control information generation unit 113, a trigger generation unit 114, and a trigger transmission unit 115, which are all functional units. The processing executed by these functional units will be described later.

[0029] The equipment monitoring unit 116 monitors the experimental equipment 300 and trigger receiving terminals 400 connected to the progress management system 100. The equipment monitoring unit 116 includes a plan information generating unit 117, a comparing unit 118, a trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119, and an actual information processing unit 120, all of which are functional units, and the processes executed by these functional units will be described later.

[0030] For example, CPU 101 functions as progress management unit 111 by operating in accordance with a progress management program loaded into memory 102, and functions as device monitoring unit 116 by operating in accordance with a device monitoring program loaded into memory 102. The same relationship between programs and functional units applies to other functional units included in CPU 101.

[0031] Note that some or all of the functions of the functional units included in the CPU 101 may be realized by dedicated circuits such as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) or an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array).

[0032] The auxiliary storage device 103 holds, for example, an experiment protocol table 121, an experiment condition table 122, a plan table 123, a control table 124, and a trigger management table 125. Details of the information stored in these tables will be described later.

[0033] Note that some or all of the information stored in the auxiliary storage device 103 may be stored in the memory 102 or in a database connected to the progress management system 100.

[0034] In this embodiment, the information used by the progress management system 100 does not depend on the data structure and may be expressed in any data structure. For example, the information may be stored in a data structure appropriately selected from a table, a list, a database, or a queue.

[0035] 2 is a diagram showing an example of the data configuration of the experiment protocol table 121. The experiment protocol table 121 includes, for example, a process ID column 1211, a process name column 1212, and a previous process ID column 1213. The process ID column 1211 indicates the process ID of a process included in the experiment protocol. The process name column 1212 indicates the process name corresponding to the process ID.

[0036] The previous process ID column 1213 indicates the process ID of the previous process. A previous process of a certain process is a process that must be completed before the process in question can be started. That is, in the example of FIG. 2, in order to start a process with a process ID of "P2", the process with a process ID of "P1" must be completed beforehand, and in order to start a process with a process ID of "P3", the process with a process ID of "P2" must be completed beforehand. Note that there can be multiple previous processes for one process, and one process can also be the previous process for multiple processes.

[0037] The experiment protocol can be expressed, for example, by a directed graph including nodes representing each process and edges from the previous process to processes that require that previous process. Therefore, a directed graph representing the experiment protocol can be generated from the experiment protocol table 121. Note that the format of the experiment protocol is not limited to the format of the experiment protocol table 121 shown in Fig. 2, and it may also be defined, for example, by data that stores an adjacency matrix representing the directed graph.

[0038] 3 is a diagram showing an example of the data configuration of the experiment condition table 122. The experiment condition table 122 includes, for example, a process ID column 1221 and an experiment condition column 1222. The process ID column 1221 indicates a process ID. The experiment condition column 1222 indicates the experiment conditions for each process, that is, details of the recipe for each process.

[0039] 4 is a diagram showing an example of the data configuration of the plan table 123. The plan table 123 includes, for example, a process ID column 1231 and a process end condition column 1232. The process ID column 1231 holds a process ID. The process end condition column 1232 holds information related to the process end condition, which is a condition for the progress management system 100 to determine that the process indicated in the process ID column 1231 has ended. The process end condition is defined by, for example, values ​​in an end signal column 1233, a sample count column 1234, a data count column 1235, and an apparatus information column 1236.

[0040] The end signal column 1233 holds information indicating whether or not an end signal indicating that the process indicated by the process ID has been sent from the experimental apparatus 300 that executes the process. For example, for a process for which the end signal is "present," the progress management system 100 may determine that the process has ended when it receives an end signal, regardless of other conditions (conditions related to the number of samples, the number of data, and the device information), or may determine that the process has ended when it receives an end signal and the other conditions are met.

[0041] The number of samples field 1234 holds information indicating the termination condition for the number of new material samples generated in a process. For example, in the "mixing" process, different materials are mixed together to generate new material samples, and in the "baking" process, materials are heated to generate new material samples. On the other hand, in the "evaluation" process, no new material samples are generated, so the termination condition for the number of samples in the "evaluation" process with the process ID "P3" is "0."

[0042] The number of data items field 1235 holds information indicating the termination condition regarding the number of data items generated in a process. For example, in the "mixing" process, measurement data of the materials to be mixed is generated, and in the "evaluation" process, photographic data of the sample to be evaluated is generated. On the other hand, since no data is generated in the "baking" process, the termination condition regarding the number of data items in the "baking" process with the process ID "P2" is "0."

[0043] The equipment information column 1236 holds information indicating the experimental equipment 300 (event equipment ID that identifies the experimental equipment 300) that executes the process indicated by the process ID, and the termination condition related to the state of the experimental equipment 300. The termination condition related to the state of the experimental equipment 300 indicates, for example, the state in which the same process can be restarted.

[0044] In the example of Fig. 5 described below, the types of experimental equipment 300 with experimental equipment IDs "D1," "D2," and "D3" are a mixing robot, a baking furnace, and an electron microscope, respectively. In the example of Fig. 4, the termination condition for the equipment state of "D1," which is a mixing robot, is that "D1" has "completed program execution," the termination condition for the equipment state of "D2," which is a baking furnace, is that "D2" has "stopped operation" and its temperature has reached "30°C," and the termination condition for the equipment state of "D3," which is an electron microscope, is that the current and voltage of "D3" have reached "0[A]" and "0[V]," respectively.

[0045] The process termination conditions may include, in addition to or instead of the termination signal, the number of samples, the number of data, and the equipment information, conditions related to timestamps for samples (e.g., timestamps indicating the time when the samples were generated and the interval between those timestamps), timestamps for data (e.g., timestamps indicating the time when the data was generated and the interval between those timestamps), the amount of data generated, etc. Furthermore, the conditions related to the equipment information may include, in addition to or instead of the conditions related to the temperature, current, voltage, and program execution log of the experimental equipment 300 described above, any conditions indicating the state of the experimental equipment 300, such as the degree of vacuum of the experimental equipment 300.

[0046] The end signal, number of samples, number of data, device information, timestamp, and data capacity are all examples of meta-information (meta-information obtained from the experiment result data) of the experiment result (an example of the execution result of the process). Therefore, the process end conditions shown in the plan table 123 indicate the meta-information of the experiment result obtained when each process is executed and completed by the experimental device 300.

[0047] 5 is a diagram showing an example of the data configuration of the control table 124. The control table 124 includes, for example, a process ID column 1241, an experimental equipment ID column 1242, an experimental equipment type column 1243, a control parameter column 1244, a status column 1245, and a meta information column 1246. The process ID column 1241 indicates a process ID. The experimental equipment ID column 1242 holds the experimental equipment ID of the experimental equipment 300 used in the process indicated in the process ID column 1241.

[0048] The experimental equipment type column 1243 holds information indicating the type of experimental equipment 300 indicated by the experimental equipment ID column 1242. The control parameter column 1244 holds control parameters used when the experimental equipment 300 indicated by the experimental equipment ID column 1242 performs a process. For example, the control parameters for "D1", which is a mixing robot, define coordinates indicating the operating position of mechanisms such as the arms of the mixing robot; the control parameters for "D2", which is a baking furnace, define the temperature inside the baking furnace and the time for which that temperature is maintained; and the control parameters for "D3", which is an electron microscope, define the current, voltage, field of view, magnification, etc.

[0049] The status column 1245 holds, for example, information indicating the status of the progress of each process indicated by the process ID. The status includes, for example, "not started" indicating that the process has not started, "in progress" indicating that the process is being executed, and "completed" indicating that the process has ended.

[0050] The meta information column 1246 holds the actual results of meta information of the experiment results (meta information other than the end signal in the process end conditions of the plan table 123) for each process indicated by the process ID. Specifically, for example, the meta information column 1246 includes a sample number column 1247, a data number column 1248, and an equipment status column 1249. The sample number column 1247, the data number column 1248, and the equipment status column 1249 indicate the progress status regarding the meta information conditions other than the end signal in the process end conditions of the plan table 123. The values ​​of the meta information column 1246 in the control table 124 are obtained from the experiment result data described later.

[0051] 6 is a diagram showing an example of the data configuration of the trigger management table 125. The trigger management table 125 includes, for example, a process ID column 1251, a trigger recipient column 1252, a trigger recipient ID column 1253, an email address column 1254, a priority column 1255, and a process start method column 1256.

[0052] The process ID column 1251 holds the process ID. The trigger receiving target column 1252 holds information indicating whether the trigger receiving target, which is the device that receives the trigger to start the process, is the experimental equipment 300 or the trigger receiving terminal 400. The trigger receiving target ID column 1253 holds an ID that identifies the trigger receiving target (an experimental equipment ID if the trigger receiving target is the experimental equipment 300, or a trigger receiving terminal ID that identifies the trigger receiving terminal 400 if the trigger receiving target is the trigger receiving terminal 400). Note that there may be multiple trigger receiving terminals 400 corresponding to one process, or there may be only one trigger receiving terminal 400.

[0053] The email address column 1254 holds the email address of the trigger receiving terminal 400 when the trigger receiving target is the trigger receiving terminal 400. The priority column 1255 indicates the priority as a target for receiving a primary trigger, which will be described later, when the trigger receiving target is the trigger receiving terminal 400.

[0054] The process start method column 1256 indicates the start method of the process indicated by the process ID column 1251. For example, if the trigger receiving target is the experimental equipment 300, the process start method column 1256 stores "start trigger reception", and if the trigger receiving target is the trigger receiving terminal 400, it stores text indicating the start method of the process.

[0055] 7 is a flowchart showing an example of advance preparation processing. The advance preparation processing is executed before the experiment management processing, which will be described later, begins. The experimental condition generation unit 112 generates an experiment protocol table 121 (S701). Specifically, for example, the experimental condition generation unit 112 may store in the experiment protocol table 121 an experiment protocol received from the experiment protocol generation device 200, or may store in the experiment protocol table 121 an experiment protocol input by the user via the input device 105.

[0056] The experimental condition generating unit 112 generates the experimental condition table 122 (S702). Specifically, for example, the experimental condition generating unit 112 may store the experimental conditions for each step received from an external device in the experimental condition table 122, or may store the experimental conditions for each step input by the user via the input device 105 in the experimental protocol table 121.

[0057] The control information generation unit 113 generates the control table 124 (S703). Specifically, for example, the control information generation unit 113 acquires the experimental equipment ID and experimental equipment type corresponding to each process ID through user input via the input device 105 and stores them in the control table 124. The control information generation unit 113 may acquire the control parameters through user input via the input device 105, or may automatically determine the control parameters by referring to the experiment condition table 122 so that the experimental conditions for each process ID are realized. The control information generation unit 113 stores the control parameters in the control table 124. Furthermore, the control information generation unit 113 stores "before start" in the status column 1245 for all process IDs.

[0058] The plan information generating unit 117 generates the plan table 123 (S704). Specifically, for example, the plan information generating unit 117 stores in the plan table 123 the process end conditions for each process input by the user via the input device 105.

[0059] Furthermore, for example, the plan information generating unit 117 may generate information on some or all of the process termination conditions by analyzing the experimental conditions stored in the experimental condition table 122. For example, in the "mixing" process of process ID "P1" shown in the example of FIG. 3, each "mixing target material 1" and each "mixing target material 2" are mixed at a mixing ratio of "70:30." Since "mixing target material 1" consists of three materials, "A1," "A2," and "A3," and "mixing target material 2" consists of two materials, "B1" and "B2," when one each of "mixing target material 1" and "mixing target material 2" are mixed, a total of six samples are generated in the "mixing" process. Therefore, the plan information generating unit 117 can determine the process termination condition for the number of samples for process ID "P1" to be "6."

[0060] Furthermore, when a total of six samples are produced in the "mixing" process, "material to be mixed 1" and "material to be mixed 2" are weighed and weighing data is generated, so that 12 weighing data are generated in the "mixing" process. Therefore, the plan information generating unit 117 can determine the process end condition regarding the number of data for process ID "P1" to be "12."

[0061] Also, for example, in the "baking" process of process ID "P2" shown in the example of FIG. 3, one "heat target material C" is baked, thereby generating one new material. Therefore, the plan information generation unit 117 can determine the process end condition for the number of samples for process ID "P2" to be "1." Furthermore, if it is specified in advance that the experimental apparatus 300 with experimental apparatus ID "D2" that performs the "baking" is a legacy apparatus that cannot generate data, the plan information generation unit 117 can determine the process end condition for the number of data for process ID "P2" to be "0."

[0062] Also, for example, in the "evaluation" step of the process ID "P3" shown in the example of FIG. 3, the "material D to be photographed" is simply photographed using an "electron microscope," and no new material is generated. Therefore, the plan information generation unit 117 can determine the process termination condition for the number of samples for the process ID "P3" to be "0." Furthermore, in the "evaluation" step, the "material D to be photographed" is photographed using combinations of the fields of view "F1," "F2," and "F3" and the magnifications "M1" and "M2," respectively, and six pieces of photographed data are generated. Therefore, the plan information generation unit 117 can determine the process termination condition for the number of data for the process ID "P3" to be "6."

[0063] The trigger generation unit 114 generates the trigger management table 125 (S705). Specifically, for example, the experiment condition generation unit 112 may store information received from an external device in the trigger management table 125, or may store information input by the user via the input device 105 in the trigger management table 125.

[0064] 8 is a flowchart showing an example of experiment management processing. The trigger sending unit 115 refers to the experiment protocol table 121 to identify the first process (i.e., a process that has no previous process), identifies the trigger receiver ID corresponding to the identified first process from the trigger management table 125, identifies the experiment conditions corresponding to the identified first process from the experiment condition table 122, and sends a start trigger and the identified experiment conditions to the device with the identified trigger receiver ID (S801).

[0065] For a process in which the trigger receiving terminal 400 is the target for receiving the trigger, the trigger sending unit 115 sends the start trigger and the identified experimental conditions to the trigger receiving terminal 400 with the highest priority indicated in the trigger management table 125. For a process in which the trigger receiving terminal 400 is the target for receiving the trigger, if the equipment monitoring unit 116 is monitoring the process performed by the experimental equipment 300 and a predetermined time has elapsed since the start trigger and the identified experimental conditions were sent to the trigger receiving terminal 400 and the process has not started, the trigger sending unit 115 may send the start trigger and the identified experimental conditions to the trigger receiving terminal 400 with the next highest priority.

[0066] For example, the control information generator 113 changes the value of the status column 1245 in the control table 124 from "before start" to "in progress" when a start trigger is sent for a process whose trigger receiving target shown in the trigger management table 125 is the experimental equipment 300, or when the process for starting the process shown in the process start method column 1256 is executed for a process whose trigger receiving target shown in the trigger management table 125 is the trigger receiving terminal 400. This also applies to processes other than the first process.

[0067] The first process is started by the processing of step S801. Note that the first process may be started at the discretion of the user using the experimental apparatus 300, without the progress management system 100 sending a start trigger and experimental conditions. In this case, the processing of step S801 is omitted, and the progress management system 100 determines that the process has started by collecting experimental result data from each experimental apparatus 300 and analyzing the collected data, and changes the value of the status column 1245 in the control table 124 to "running."

[0068] The progress management system 100 executes control information management processing (S802) and trigger management processing (S803) in parallel. The comparison unit 118 determines whether the status of all processes indicated in the control table 124 is "completed" (S804). If the comparison unit 118 determines that the status of at least one process is not "completed" (S804: NO), the comparison unit 118 returns to the processing of steps S802 and S803. If the comparison unit 118 determines that the status of all processes is "completed" (S804: YES), the comparison unit 118 ends the experiment management processing.

[0069] 9 is a flowchart showing an example of the control information management process in step S802. The actual information processing unit 120 collects (S901) the performance of experiment result data from each of the experimental devices 300. The experiment result data includes, for example, sensor information and program execution logs, and indicates the aforementioned meta information, end signals, etc.

[0070] The actual information processing unit 120 converts the experiment result data collected in step S901 into performance information in a format that can be stored in each column of the meta information column 1246 of the control table 124 (S902). The control information generation unit 113 updates the values ​​in each column of the meta information column 1246 of the control table 124 in accordance with the performance information converted in step S902 (S903).

[0071] The comparison unit 118 calculates the progress rate of the process whose status is "in progress" (S904). Specifically, for example, the comparison unit 118 calculates the progress rate of each of the number of samples, the number of data, and the equipment status by comparing the values ​​of each column (number of samples, number of data, and equipment status) in the meta information column for the process whose status is "in progress" with the values ​​of each column (number of samples, number of data, and equipment status) other than the end signal in the process end condition column 1232. Furthermore, the comparison unit 118 calculates the overall progress rate of the process based on the progress rates of the number of samples, the number of data, and the equipment status.

[0072] In the example of FIG. 5, the status of process ID "P1" is "in progress," and the meta information indicates that the number of samples is "3," the number of data is "6," and the device status is "50% program execution." Furthermore, in the example of FIG. 4, the process termination condition for process ID "P1" indicates that the number of samples is "6," the number of data is "12," and the device status is "program execution completed" (i.e., 100% program execution). Therefore, the comparison unit 118 calculates the progress rate of the number of samples as 3 / 6=50%, the progress rate of the number of data as 6 / 12=50%, and the progress rate of the device status as 50% / 100%=50%. Furthermore, the comparison unit 118 calculates, for example, 50%, which is the average value (which may be a weighted average value with a predetermined weight) of the progress rates of the number of samples, the number of data, and the device status, as the overall progress rate of process ID "P1."

[0073] 4, the end conditions for the equipment status for process ID "P2" include multiple types of end conditions, such as "stop operation" and "30°C," and the end conditions for the equipment status for process ID "P3" include multiple types of end conditions, such as "0 [A]" and "0 [V]." In such cases, the comparison unit 118 may calculate the progress rate of the equipment status using, for example, a predetermined weight assigned to each of the multiple types of end conditions. Specifically, for example, for the termination conditions related to the equipment status in process ID "P2," if a weight α is assigned to the termination condition related to operation and a weight β is assigned to the termination condition related to temperature (where α+β=1, α>0, β>0), the comparison unit 118 calculates α×f+β×(800°C-current temperature of firing furnace D2) / (800°C-30°C) as the progress rate of the equipment status for process ID "P2" (where f is a flag that is 1 if firing furnace "D2" is stopped and 0 if it is not stopped, and 800°C is the heating temperature for process ID "P2" indicated by the experimental conditions in Figure 3).

[0074] Note that the progress rate of the number of samples is not calculated if the number of samples indicated by the process end condition is 0. Similarly, the progress rate of the number of data is not calculated if the number of data indicated by the process end condition is 0.

[0075] The comparison unit 118 outputs the progress rate calculated in step S904 to the control information generation unit 113 (S905), and ends the control information management process. Note that for a process for which the plan table 123 indicates the presence or absence of an end signal as "absent," the control information generation unit 113 changes the status of the process in the control table 124 to "end" if the total progress rate is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold (however, this is a value greater than the threshold in step S1102 described below, for example, 100%).

[0076] Furthermore, for a process for which the plan table 123 indicates that an end signal is present, if the experimental result data collected in step S901 includes an end signal for that process, the control information generation unit 113 changes the status of that process in the control table 124 to "end." Note that for a process for which the plan table 123 indicates that an end signal is present, if the experimental result data collected in step S901 includes an end signal for that process and the overall progress rate is equal to or greater than the above-mentioned predetermined threshold, the control information generation unit 113 may change the status of that process in the control table 124 to "end."

[0077] Furthermore, the control information generator 113 may display an experiment progress management screen 1300, which will be described later, on the display device 106. Details of the experiment progress management screen 1300 will be described later with reference to FIG.

[0078] By using the control information management process described above, the progress management system 100 can accurately grasp the progress status of the process by each experimental device 300. In particular, even for experimental devices 300 that are legacy devices that cannot output an end signal, the progress management system 100 can automatically determine the end of the process after accurately grasping the progress status of the process.

[0079] 10 is a flowchart showing an example of the trigger management process in step S803. Trigger generation unit 114 acquires the status of each process from control table 124 (S1001). Trigger generation unit 114 determines whether there is a process whose status is "not yet started" and whose previous processes, as indicated in experiment protocol table 121, all have a status of "completed" (S1002).

[0080] If the trigger generation unit 114 determines that there is no process whose status is "not yet started" and whose previous processes indicated in the experiment protocol table 121 are all "completed" (S1002: NO), it determines whether there is any process whose status is "in progress" (S1003). If the trigger generation unit 114 determines that there is no process whose status is "in progress" (S1003: NO), it ends the trigger management process.

[0081] If the trigger generation unit 114 determines that there is a process whose status is "in progress" (S1003: YES), it determines whether there is a next process whose trigger receiving target indicated by the trigger management table 125 is the trigger receiving terminal 400 (S1004). Here, the next process is a process whose status of at least one previous process indicated by the experiment protocol table 121 is "in progress".

[0082] If the trigger generation unit 114 determines that there is no next process whose trigger reception target is the trigger receiving terminal 400 (S1004: NO), it ends the trigger management process. If the trigger generation unit 114 determines that there is a next process whose trigger reception target is the trigger receiving terminal 400 (S1004: YES), it executes pre-trigger management process (S1005) and ends the trigger management process.

[0083] If trigger generation unit 114 determines that there is a process whose status is "before start" and all previous processes indicated in experiment protocol table 121 have a status of "completed" (S1002: YES), it executes trigger management processing (S1006) and proceeds to step S1003. Details of the pre-trigger management processing in step S1005 will be described later using FIG. 11, and details of the start trigger management processing in step S1006 will be described later using FIG. 12.

[0084] 11 is a flowchart showing an example of the pre-trigger management processing in step S1005. The trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119 determines whether a pre-trigger confirmation notification related to the next process identified in step S1004 has been received from the trigger receiving terminal 400 (S1101). The pre-trigger confirmation notification will be described later. When the trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119 determines that a pre-trigger confirmation notification related to the next process identified in step S1004 has been received from the trigger receiving terminal 400 (S1101: YES), the trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119 ends the pre-trigger management processing.

[0085] If the trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119 determines that a pre-trigger confirmation notification for the next process identified in step S1004 has not been received from the trigger receiving terminal 400 (S1101: NO), the trigger generating unit 114 determines whether the overall progress rate calculated in step S904 for the process preceding the next process identified in step S1004 in the experiment protocol table 121 is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold (e.g., 80%) (S1102). Note that the predetermined threshold may be different for each next process.

[0086] In addition, if there are multiple previous processes for the next process identified in step S1004, in step S1102, the trigger generation unit 114 may determine, for example, whether the average value of the multiple overall progress rates (which may be, for example, a weighted average value using a predetermined weight) is greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold, or whether the largest value among the multiple overall progress rates (which may be the smallest value or the value that is a predetermined number greater than the largest) is greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold.

[0087] If the trigger generation unit 114 determines that the total progress rate is less than the predetermined value (S1102: NO), it ends the pre-trigger management process. If the trigger generation unit 114 determines that the total progress rate is equal to or greater than the predetermined value (S1102: YES), it generates a pre-trigger for the next process (S1103).

[0088] The pre-trigger includes, for example, a message indicating the process start method for the next process indicated by the trigger management table 125, a message indicating that the start timing for the next process is approaching, and a link for sending a notification confirming the pre-trigger (hereinafter also referred to as a pre-trigger confirmation notification) to the progress management system 100. Note that the trigger generation unit 114 may include the experimental conditions related to the next process indicated by the experimental condition table 122 in the pre-trigger.

[0089] The trigger generation unit 114 selects a trigger receiving terminal 400 as a pre-trigger transmission destination (S1104). Specifically, for example, among the trigger receiving terminals 400 corresponding to the next step indicated in the trigger management table 125, the trigger receiving terminal 400 that has not transmitted a pre-trigger and has the highest priority is selected as the pre-trigger transmission destination.

[0090] For example, if the progress management system 100 is capable of acquiring schedule information (e.g., indicating the free time of each owner) of the holder of the trigger receiving terminal 400 (e.g., acquireable from an external device or stored in memory 102 or auxiliary storage device 103), the trigger receiving terminal 400 owned by the holder with the highest priority who has not yet sent a pre-trigger and whose current schedule is free may be selected as the pre-trigger transmission destination.

[0091] Furthermore, in the example of Figure 6, the priority is determined in advance, but for example, if the progress management system 100 is able to acquire schedule information of the holder of the trigger receiving terminal 400 and skill information related to the next process (for example, obtainable from an external device or stored in memory 102 or auxiliary storage device 103), and the priority is not determined, the trigger receiving terminal 400 owned by the holder with the highest skill among holders who have not sent a pre-trigger and whose current schedule is open may be selected as the pre-trigger transmission destination.

[0092] The trigger transmitting unit 115 transmits the pre-trigger generated in step S1103 to the trigger receiving terminal 400 selected in step S1104 (S1105). The trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119 determines whether a pre-trigger confirmation notification has been received from the trigger receiving terminal 400 that received the pre-trigger in step S1105 within a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes) since the processing of step S1105 was executed (S1106). Note that the predetermined time may be different for each subsequent step.

[0093] If the trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119 determines that a pre-trigger confirmation notification has not been received from the trigger receiving terminal 400 even after the predetermined time has elapsed (S1106: NO), the process returns to step S1104. If the trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119 determines that a pre-trigger confirmation notification has been received from the trigger receiving terminal 400 before the predetermined time has elapsed (S1106: YES), the trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119 ends the pre-trigger management process.

[0094] In addition, even if the trigger sending unit 115 sends a pre-trigger to all trigger receiving terminals 400 corresponding to the next step and the specified time has elapsed, if no pre-confirmation notification has been received from any of the trigger receiving terminals 400, the pre-trigger management process is terminated.

[0095] The pre-trigger management process transmits a pre-trigger to the operator (holder of the trigger receiving terminal 400) when the start of a process performed by the experimental equipment 300 that requires an operator (human) operation to start the process approaches, allowing the operator to prepare to perform the operation before the time when the process can start, thereby reducing delays in the start of the process. In particular, if the trigger confirmation monitoring unit 119 cannot receive a pre-confirmation notification in step S1106, it reselects the trigger receiving terminal 400 to which the pre-trigger is to be sent and then retransmits the pre-trigger, thereby further reducing delays in the start of the process.

[0096] 12 is a flowchart showing an example of the start trigger management process in step S1006. The trigger generation unit 114 sets the identified process in step S1002 as the next process and generates a start trigger for the next process (S1201). Specifically, if the trigger recipient for the next process indicated in the trigger management table 125 is the experimental equipment 300, the trigger generation unit 114 will include, for example, an instruction to start the next process in the start trigger. Furthermore, if the trigger recipient for the next process indicated in the trigger management table 125 is the trigger receiving terminal 400, the trigger generation unit 114 will include, for example, a message indicating a process start method corresponding to the next process and a message indicating that the start timing for the next process has arrived in the start trigger.

[0097] The trigger generation unit 114 acquires the experimental conditions for the next step from the experimental condition table 122 (S1202). The trigger transmission unit 115 transmits the start trigger generated in step S1201 and the experimental conditions acquired in step S1202 to the trigger receiving terminal 400 corresponding to the next step indicated in the trigger management table 125 (S1203), and ends the start trigger management process.

[0098] If the trigger receiving target for the next process indicated by the trigger management table 125 is the trigger receiving terminal 400, then in step S1203 the trigger sending unit 115 sends the start trigger and the experiment conditions to the trigger receiving terminal 400 that sent the pre-trigger confirmation notice for the next process in step S1106. As a result, the start trigger and the experiment conditions are sent to the worker (the owner of the trigger receiving terminal 400) who has confirmed the pre-trigger and is ready to perform the operation to start the process. Also, if the trigger receiving target for the next process indicated by the trigger management table 125 is the trigger receiving terminal 400 and no pre-confirmation notice has been received from any of the trigger receiving terminals 400, then in step S1203 the trigger sending unit 115 sends the start trigger and the experiment conditions to, for example, the trigger receiving terminal 400 with the highest priority among the trigger receiving terminals 400 for the next process.

[0099] 13 is a diagram showing an example of the screen configuration of an experiment progress management screen 1300. The experiment progress management screen 1300 includes, for example, an experiment protocol display area 1301 and a progress status display area 1302. In the experiment protocol display area 1301, information indicating the experiment protocol indicated by the experiment protocol table 121 is displayed using, for example, a directed graph.

[0100] The progress status display area 1302 includes, for example, a Gantt chart 1303, a plan information display area 1304, and a progress rate display area 1305. The Gantt chart 1303 shows the overall progress rate of each step included in the experiment protocol.

[0101] The plan information display area 1304 displays, for example, information indicating the process end conditions in the plan table 123. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 13, the plan information display area 1304 may be provided with importance check boxes that allow the user to assign a flag indicating whether each item of the process end conditions is important or not.

[0102] If importance check boxes are provided, the progress rate is calculated only for the items whose check boxes are checked in step S904. Therefore, in this case, the overall progress rate is calculated using only the progress rates corresponding to the items whose check boxes are checked.

[0103] 13, the importance checkboxes can be used to select whether each item is important or not, but the importance may be set as a numerical value, for example. In this case, in step S904, the overall progress rate is calculated as a weighted average value of each item, with each numerical value being used as a weight for the progress rate corresponding to that numerical value.

[0104] If the presence or absence of an end signal in the process end conditions is "absent," it is impossible to check the check box corresponding to the end signal in the plan information display area 1304. Also, if the number of samples and the number of data in the process end conditions are both "0," it is impossible to check the check boxes corresponding to the number of samples and the number of data in the plan information display area 1304. Also, if a process end condition related to the equipment status is not defined, it is impossible to check the check box corresponding to the equipment status in the plan information display area 1304.

[0105] In the progress rate display area 1305, for example, information indicating each progress rate calculated in step S903 is displayed.

[0106] The experiment progress management screen 1300 allows the user to easily grasp the experiment protocol, the overall progress rate of each step included in the experiment protocol, and the progress rate related to the step completion conditions for each step. Furthermore, by allowing the user to set the importance level in the plan information display area 1304, the progress management system 100 can calculate a more accurate progress rate based on the user's knowledge, and more accurately determine the completion of the step.

[0107] In this embodiment, the progress management system 100 has been described as an example of managing the progress of an experimental protocol, but it can also be applied to managing the status of devices that execute processes (including devices that can and cannot output an end signal, and devices that can and cannot start a process by themselves), such as managing the progress of work in a factory, managing the progress of maintenance work, managing the progress of cooking, managing the schedule of a large-scale event, managing railway operations, and managing the progress of processing in an IT (Information Technology) system. [Example]

[0108] The progress management system 100 of this embodiment monitors whether an abnormality has occurred in the process in the control information management process, and outputs corrective experiment conditions if an abnormality has occurred. Below, explanations of the same points as in Example 1 will be omitted as appropriate, and differences from Example 1 will be mainly explained.

[0109] 14 is a flowchart showing an example of the control information management process of this embodiment. Following step S904, the comparison unit 118 determines whether there is a process that is currently being executed or has finished in which an abnormality has occurred, based on the progress rate calculated in step S904 (S1401).

[0110] Specifically, for example, for a process for which the plan table 123 indicates the presence or absence of an end signal, if an end signal is transmitted even though the overall progress rate is less than a predetermined threshold (e.g., 100%), the comparison unit 118 determines that an abnormality has occurred in the process. Alternatively, for example, for a process for which the plan table 123 indicates the presence or absence of an end signal, if an end signal is not transmitted even though the overall progress rate has reached a predetermined threshold (e.g., 100%) or more and a predetermined time has elapsed, the comparison unit 118 may determine that an abnormality has occurred in the process. The predetermined time may vary depending on the process. Alternatively, for example, the comparison unit 118 may determine that an abnormality has occurred in a process whose status is "in progress" and whose overall progress rate has not changed for a predetermined time or more. Alternatively, for example, the comparison unit 118 may determine that an abnormality has occurred in the process when an abnormality signal indicating an abnormality has occurred in the process is received from the experimental apparatus 300 (or a sensor or device provided in the experimental apparatus 300).

[0111] When the comparing unit 118 determines that there is no process in which an abnormality has occurred (S1401: NO), the process proceeds to step S905. When the comparing unit 118 determines that there is no process in which an abnormality has occurred, the comparing unit 118 may display information indicating that there is no process in which an abnormality has occurred on the display device 106.

[0112] When the comparison unit 118 determines that there is a process in which an abnormality has occurred (S1401: YES), it searches for corrective experimental conditions for the process (S1402). Note that, when it determines that there is a process in which an abnormality has occurred, the comparison unit 118 may display information indicating the process and information indicating the abnormality on the display device 106.

[0113] For example, in the example of FIG. 4, for the process with process ID "P1," the number of samples in the process termination condition is "6" and the number of data is "12." Here, suppose that even though the number of samples in the performance data of the meta information shown in the control table 124 is "5" and the number of data is "10," an end signal is transmitted from the mixing robot. At this time, the comparison unit 118 analyzes the program execution log included in the experiment result data transmitted from the mixing robot and determines, for example, that "A3" of "Mixing Target Material 1" and "B2" of "Mixing Target Material 2" were not weighed and mixed (as a result, one sample generated by mixing "A3" and "B2" was missing, and two weighed data were missing). In this case, in step S1402, the comparison unit 118 may determine corrective experiment conditions that require remixing "A3" and "B2," or may determine corrective experiment conditions that require remixing all of the mixing associated with the process ID "P1."

[0114] Furthermore, in step S1402, the comparison unit 118 may display information indicating the process in which the abnormality has occurred on the display device 106, so that the user can check the process, and may acquire corrective experimental conditions through input by the user to the input device 105. Furthermore, if a database indicating corrective experimental conditions (measures) corresponding to each abnormality that has occurred is prepared in advance (for example, stored in the memory 102 or the auxiliary storage device 103, or prepared as an external database), the comparison unit 118 may refer to the database to acquire corrective experimental conditions corresponding to the abnormality that has occurred.

[0115] The trigger sending unit 115 sends the corrective experiment conditions found in step S1402 to the trigger receiving target corresponding to the process in which the abnormality has occurred in the trigger management table 125 (S1403), and ends the control information management process. By the processing of step S1403, the experimental equipment 300 that executes the process in which the abnormality has occurred can be made to execute the process based on the corrective experiment conditions. Note that if the trigger receiving target corresponding to the process in which the abnormality has occurred is the trigger receiving terminal 400, the owner of the trigger receiving terminal 400 who has confirmed the corrective experiment recipe will perform the necessary operations and tasks to start the process based on the corrective experiment recipe.

[0116] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but includes various modifications. For example, the above-described embodiments have been described in detail to clearly explain the present invention, and the present invention is not necessarily limited to those including all of the described configurations. Furthermore, it is possible to replace part of the configuration of one embodiment with the configuration of another embodiment, or to add the configuration of another embodiment to the configuration of one embodiment. Furthermore, it is possible to add, delete, or replace part of the configuration of each embodiment with other configurations.

[0117] Furthermore, the above-described configurations, functions, processing units, processing means, etc. may be partially or entirely implemented in hardware, for example, by designing them as integrated circuits. The above-described configurations, functions, etc. may also be implemented in software, with a processor interpreting and executing a program that implements each function. Information such as the programs, tables, and files that implement each function can be stored in a memory, a recording device such as a hard disk or SSD (Solid State Drive), or a recording medium such as an IC card, SD card, or DVD.

[0118] In addition, the control lines and information lines shown are those that are considered necessary for the explanation, and do not necessarily show all the control lines and information lines in the product. In reality, it can be assumed that almost all components are interconnected. [Explanation of symbols]

[0119] 100 Progress management system, 101 CPU, 102 memory, 103 auxiliary storage device, 104 communication device, 105 input device, 106 display device, 111 progress management unit, 112 experiment condition generation unit, 113 control information generation unit, 114 trigger generation unit, 115 trigger transmission unit, 116 device monitoring unit, 117 plan information generation unit, 118 comparison unit 118, 119 trigger confirmation monitoring unit, 120 actual information processing unit, 121 experiment protocol table, 122 experiment condition table, 123 plan table, 124 control table, 125 trigger management table, 200 experiment protocol generation device, 300 experiment device, 400 trigger receiving terminal

Claims

1. A progress management system, a processor and a memory, The memory includes: process information indicating a plurality of processes to be performed by the device and the order in which the plurality of processes are performed; and plan information indicating meta-information of execution results of the respective processes, which is acquired when each of the plurality of processes is executed and completed by the device; The processor: acquiring execution result data for each of the plurality of processes from the device; estimating meta information of the execution results of each of the plurality of steps from the execution result data; determining a progress status of each of the plurality of processes based on a comparison result between meta information indicated by the plan information and the estimated meta information; a progress management system that outputs a start trigger for starting a process included in the plurality of processes based on the progress status and the order indicated by the process information.

2. The progress management system according to claim 1, Connected to the trigger receiving terminal, the apparatus includes a first device that requires human interaction to initiate a process performed by the first device; The processor outputs the start trigger for the process to be executed by the first device to the trigger receiving terminal.

3. The progress management system according to claim 2, The processor: Calculating a progress rate for each of the plurality of processes based on the comparison result; If the next process in the order of the process whose progress rate is equal to or greater than a predetermined first threshold is a process to be executed by the first device, output a pre-trigger related to the next process to the trigger receiving terminal; If the next process in the order of the process whose progress rate is equal to or greater than a predetermined second threshold is a process to be executed by the first device, output a start trigger for the next process to the trigger receiving terminal; The second threshold is greater than the first threshold.

4. The progress management system according to claim 3, connected to a plurality of the trigger receiving terminals, The processor: If the next step in the sequence of the step whose progress rate is equal to or greater than the first threshold is a step to be executed by the first device, outputting the pre-trigger to any one of the plurality of trigger receiving terminals, the pre-trigger including a request for transmission of a confirmation notification indicating that the pre-trigger has been confirmed; A progress management system that, if it determines that the confirmation notification has not been received from the trigger receiving terminal to which the pre-trigger is output even after a predetermined time has elapsed, re-outputs the pre-trigger to one of the multiple trigger receiving terminals that is not the output destination of the pre-trigger.

5. The progress management system according to claim 4, A progress management system in which, if the next step in the sequence of a step whose progress rate is greater than or equal to the second threshold is a step to be executed by the first device, the processor outputs a start trigger for the next step to the trigger receiving terminal that sent the confirmation notification.

6. The progress management system according to claim 4, the memory holds schedule information indicating free time of each of the holders of the plurality of trigger receiving terminals; The processor: If the next step in the order of the step whose progress rate is equal to or greater than the first threshold is a step to be executed by the first device, select a trigger receiving terminal to be an output destination of the pre-trigger from the plurality of trigger receiving terminals based on the available time indicated by the schedule information, and output the pre-trigger; If it is determined that the confirmation notification has not been received from the trigger receiving terminal to which the pre-trigger is to be output even after the specified time has elapsed, the progress management system selects a trigger receiving terminal to which the pre-trigger will be output from among the plurality of trigger receiving terminals that are not the output destination of the pre-trigger, based on the available time indicated by the schedule information, and re-outputs the pre-trigger.

7. The progress management system according to claim 2, the apparatus includes a second device that initiates a process performed by the apparatus upon receiving the start trigger; The processor outputs the start trigger relating to the process to be executed by the second device to the second device.

8. The progress management system according to claim 1, the apparatus includes a third apparatus capable of outputting a completion signal indicating that a process executed by the third apparatus has been completed, and a fourth apparatus incapable of outputting the completion signal; The processor: determining a progress status of the process executed by the third device based on whether the execution result data includes the end signal output from the third device; A progress management system that determines the progress of the process performed by the fourth device based on the comparison result.

9. The progress management system according to claim 8, A progress management system in which the processor determines whether an abnormality has occurred in the process performed by the third device based on whether or not the end signal has been output from the third device and the comparison result regarding the third device.

10. The progress management system according to claim 1, The processor determines whether an abnormality has occurred in each of the plurality of processes based on changes in the progress status over time.

11. The progress management system according to claim 1, The meta information includes a plurality of types of items, A level of importance is assigned to each of the plurality of types of items in advance; The processor determines the progress status based on the comparison result and the importance.

12. The progress management system according to claim 1, the device is a laboratory device; the plurality of steps are experimental steps; The meta information of the execution result is Meta information of the experimental results in the step; A progress management system including information indicating at least one of the number of new samples generated by the experimental process, the number of data generated in the experimental process, a timestamp for the data, the volume of the data, and the status of the experimental equipment.

13. A progress management method using a progress management system, The progress management system includes a processor and a memory, The memory includes: process information indicating a plurality of processes to be performed by the device and the order in which the plurality of processes are performed; and plan information indicating meta-information of execution results of the respective processes, which is acquired when each of the plurality of processes is executed and completed by the device; The progress management method includes: the processor acquires execution result data of each of the plurality of steps from the device; the processor estimates meta information of the execution results of each of the plurality of steps from the execution result data; the processor determines a progress status of each of the plurality of processes based on a comparison result between meta-information indicated by the plan information and the estimated meta-information; A progress management method in which the processor outputs a start trigger for starting a process included in the plurality of processes based on the progress status and the order indicated by the process information.

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