Industrial Control Simulation with Timestamped State Reload
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current simulation methods for industrial controllers require restarting from the beginning when errors occur, making it time-consuming and material-intensive to determine the causes of errors during the simulation process.
Innovation Solution
A simulation method and system that stores intermediate states with timestamps, allowing for reloading of these states at a later time, enabling the simulation to be resumed from a specific point and allowing changes to the control program or memory contents before restarting, with virtual components corresponding to real components of the controller.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the simulation is restarted from the beginning when an error occurs, then the complete simulation sequence can be executed, but the troubleshooting time is significantly increased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by storing intermediate simulation states at regular intervals during the simulation process. When an error occurs, the system can directly reload the most recent intermediate state instead of restarting from the beginning, thereby preserving complete error detection capability while significantly reducing the time lost to troubleshooting.
2Measurement precision
If trial machining is performed to check workpiece machining, then the actual machining result can be verified, but the process becomes time-consuming and material-intensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies copying by creating a virtual copy of the machining process through simulation. The simulation system replicates the entire machining sequence in a virtual environment, allowing verification of machining results without consuming actual materials or machine time. This virtual copying enables accurate measurement verification while dramatically improving productivity.
3Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If the simulation stores all intermediate states with timestamps, then fault finding capabilities are enhanced, but the memory requirements and data management complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the simulation process into discrete intermediate states that are stored at regular intervals with timestamps. Each intermediate state represents a segmented snapshot of the simulation at a specific point. This segmentation enables efficient fault detection by allowing direct navigation to specific time points, while the structured segmentation also simplifies data management compared to storing continuous data streams.
Data Source
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AI summary
In a simulation method for simulating a real control (2) for an industrial process, a system, or a machine, errors occurring in the course of the simulation are to be ascertained in a simpler manner. According to the invention, this is achieved in that a simulation system (7) stores intermediate states during the simulation process and provides the intermediate states with a time stamp. A stored intermediate state is loaded into the simulation system (7) again at a later point in time, and based thereon, a simulation can be carried out. Thus, simulations must not always start at the beginning of the control program to be simulated.