Control Program Dependency Mapping With Device Log Visualization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing program creation support systems cannot display log data for device values, limiting their ability to visualize dependency relationships between devices in control systems.
Innovation Solution
A program creation support program that extracts dependency relationships between devices in a control program, collects log data based on predefined settings, and generates display information to visualize both dependency relationships and device values, enabling the display of log data alongside real-time and historical data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If online monitoring is used to acquire real-time device values, then real-time monitoring capability is improved, but the ability to display log data on device values deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the monitoring system into two distinct modes: online monitoring for real-time device values and offline monitoring for log data. The information processing apparatus separately handles real-time data acquisition and historical log data acquisition, allowing each mode to function independently without interfering with the other. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by enabling both real-time monitoring and log data display through separate processing paths.
Solution Approach 2:
The information processing apparatus is designed with multi-functionality to perform both online monitoring and offline monitoring operations. The same apparatus can switch between acquiring real-time device values and acquiring historical log data based on operational mode, making it universally capable of handling both real-time monitoring requirements and historical data analysis requirements without needing separate systems.
2Ease of operation
If dependency relationships between devices are visualized, then understanding of control system relationships is improved, but the ability to provide comprehensive log data visualization deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the visualization of dependency relationships with the display of log data in a unified graphical interface. The graph that shows device dependency relationships also incorporates log data display capabilities, allowing users to see both the structural relationships between devices and the historical operational data within the same visualization framework. This combining approach ensures that neither dependency visualization nor log data information is lost.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a temporal dimension to the dependency relationship visualization by incorporating time-series log data into the graphical display. While the dependency graph shows static relationships between devices, the integrated log data display adds the dimension of time, showing how device values changed historically. This multi-dimensional approach provides comprehensive insights without sacrificing the clarity of dependency relationships.
Data Source
AI summary
A program creation support program to display devices that store data indicating the operating status of a control system and associated device values, based on a control program executed by a control apparatus, causes a computer to perform a dependency relationship extraction step of extracting the dependency relationships between the devices described in the control program, a log data input step of acquiring, as log data information, log data collected by the control apparatus during the operation of the control system, based on recording setting information describing a condition for collecting the log data information, a display information generation step of generating display information that visualizes the dependency relationships and visualizes the device values associated with the devices, based on the dependency relationships and the log data information, and a generation result output step of displaying the display information.