REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR VIBRATING SUPPLYING DEVICES

Abstract

A remote control system for vibrating supplying devices is described, comprising electromagnetic power means driven to vibrate in frequency at least one element of a power supply through a control device (CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH_IoT), with fixed or multiple channels, with fixed or variable frequency, the control device (CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH_IoT) being designed to be directly interfaced with a central server, the control device (CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH_IoT) being in parallel directly connected to a network supervisor(PLC), such as a PLC or Industrial PC, for its operating aspects, and/or to a secondary server(SERVER) to acquire a history of parameters, on an industrial Ethernet network (ETH).

Claims

1.-6. (canceled)

7. A remote control system for vibrating supplying devices, comprising electromagnetic power means driven to vibrate in frequency at least one element of a vibrating supplying device through a control device, the control device being with fixed or multiple channels, with fixed or variable frequency, the control device being designed to be directly interfaced with a central server, the control device being directly connected to a network supervisor, such as a PLC or Industrial PC, for its operating aspects, and/or to a secondary server to acquire a history of parameters, on an industrial Ethernet network.

8. The remote control system of claim 1, designed to set the control device in order to send its own operating parameters continuously updated to the network supervisor, and/or to the secondary server.

9. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the control device belongs to a family of control devices wherein each device is designed to receive the parameters after a query to the network supervisor and/or to the secondary server.

10. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the control device is designed to communicate its own presence to the network supervisor, and/or to the secondary server, requiring its own operating parameters to be able to operate similarly to a previous control device, newly replaced, using a same IP address on the Ethernet line.

11. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the control device is designed to intervene in parallel as slave in an upper level network, and as master in a sub-network communicating through a dedicate protocol, to drive devices such as solenoid valves.

Description

[0027] The present invention will be better described by some preferred embodiments thereof, provided as a non-limiting example, with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which:

[0028] FIG. 1 shows a functional diagram of an embodiment of the remote control system for vibrating supplying devices according to the present invention;

[0029] FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 show a functional diagram of a first and a second example embodiment of the remote control system for vibrating supplying devices according to the present invention; and

[0030] FIG. 4 shows an example for performing an automatic operating procedure of the remote control system for vibrating supplying devices according to the present invention.

[0031] With reference to FIG. 1, it is possible to note that a remote control system for vibrating supplying devices comprises electromagnetic power means driven to vibrate in frequency at least one element of a vibrating supplying device through a control device CONTROL ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT, such control device CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT being with fixed or multiple channels, with fixed or variable frequency.

[0032] Advantageously, the control device CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT is designed to be directly interfaced with a central server, the control device CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT being in parallel directly connected to a network supervisor PLC, such as a PLC or Industrial PC for the operating aspects, and/or to a secondary server SERVER to acquire a history of the parameters, on an industrial Ethernet network ETH.

[0033] The control system houses devices known at commercial level or proprietary communication cards, designed to change the communication protocol upon changing the above devices or the above cards without having to re-adapt or set the control device CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT.

[0034] In particular, the control device CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT is set in order to send its own, continuously updated operating parameters to the network supervisor PLC, and/or to the secondary server SERVER.

[0035] Moreover, the control device CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT belongs to a family of control devices wherein each of such devices is designed to receive operating parameters after a query to the network supervisor PLC, and/or to the secondary server SERVER.

[0036] In fact, such control device CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT is designed to communicate its own presence to the network supervisor PLC, and/or to the secondary server SERVER, requiring its own operating parameters to be able to operate similarly to a previous, newly replaced control device. Such univocal parameters would be guaranteed by the use of the same IP address on the Ethernet line ETH of a previous device.

[0037] The control device CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT is capable of intervening in parallel as slave in an upper level network, and as master in a sub-network communicating through a dedicate protocol, to drive small devices, such as solenoid valves.

[0038] Preferably, the control system has a control device CONTROL_ETH, CONTROL_ETH IoT compatible with “Industria 4.0” specifications, in parallel with a storage server and having the function of a slave in the network.

EXAMPLES

[0039] FIG. 2 shows, one of the many chances of inserting a control device equipped with Ethernet communication card in an automatic manufacturing line in compliance with “Industra 4.0” specifications.

[0040] SWITCH: device used in the most common network architectures to allow many connected devices to exchange data with supervisors (I.O. PLC, industrial PC, etc.) by suitable addressing the input/output data packets;

[0041] PLC: supervisor of the automatic line (manufacturing side) which deals with monitoring all devices so that they correctly execute the program assigned to the automatic line;

[0042] SERVER: information device (1.0. PC), single or cluster of information devices which can perform several tasks simultaneously, such as for example collecting historical data from all connected devices, sending recipes of instructions to be performed by the PLC, etc.;

[0043] CLIENT: device through which an operator can query the devices (1.0. PC, smartphone, tablet), for example to verify their parameters and/or modify them, update the firmware, remotely manage the line, passing through the server (company intranet) or from outside (internet);

[0044] WWW: network outside the manufacturing line (internet, cloud);

[0045] VPN: control system to manage the accesses from external network (internet) to internal company network (intranet);

[0046] DEV1, DEV2: possible other compatible devices (1.0. servomotors, inverters) which play their role in the automatic manufacturing line by communicating according to the pre-set protocol ETH;

[0047] ETH: industrial Ethernet communication protocol (I.O. Ethernet IP, Profinet, etc.) used for the connection of devices to the supervisor (I.O. PLC) in a company manufacturing network;

[0048] MQTT/OPC UA: two of the possible direct communication protocols between devices and server for the parallel communication, while the device performs its function supervised by PLC;

[0049] CONTROL_ETH: control device equipped with card for communicating on ETH protocol, chosen with the PLC but lacking the direct communication protocol MQTT/OPC UA with the server. In this case, it is possible to access the parameters of the control device, but only passing from PLC. Moreover, in the caso in which a storage of parameters has to be performed, it would not be continuous, but with non-cyclic instructions to be executed through an instruction given to the PLC outside the normal routine of the manufacturing line;

[0050] CONTROL_ETH IoT: control device equipped with card having both the communication protocol ETH for the operating connection to the automatic line, and the direct communication protocol MQTT/OPC UA with the server. In this way, while the control device performs its normal operating functions supervised by the PLC, it can, in parallel and without overlapping, communicate its own parameters upon request of the server on a second channel.

[0051] With reference to FIG. 2, an explicative diagram is shown for the double master/slave function which the control device can adopt.

[0052] ITEM 1 . . . n: elementary auxiliary device (I.E. solenoid valve, temperature sensor, etc.) compatible with the Ethernet communication;

[0053] MODBUS: possible communication protocol different from the one used on the automatic line through which the control device can manage/query the elementary devices autonomously without waiting for instructions from the PLC.

[0054] With reference to FIG. 4, an example is shown for performing the automatic procedure of assigning the parameters to a new control device as replacement of a previous one, whose parameters have been stored. [0055] QCFF ON: turning-on the device not parametrized after insertion in the network; [0056] SET IP: assignment of the IP address of the previous device; [0057] SEND REQ: request to the supervisor (I.E. PLC) for receiving the parameters (in turn directly store on PLC or to be requested to the SERVER); [0058] SENDING: receiving the parameters. If OK one proceeds, otherwise they are requested again, defining a fixed number of requests before a possible error status ERRORE; [0059] READING: the control device reads the received parameters; [0060] CHECK: the control device verifies the correctness of the received parameters. If OK it proceeds, otherwise it requests the parameters again, defining a fixed number of requests before a possible error status ERRORE; [0061] SEND CONFIRM: sends a confirmation of correct parameters received to the supervisor; [0062] OVERWRITE: internal procedure for over-writing the parameters; [0063] SEND READY: sends a ready-to-work signal to the supervisor; [0064] WORK: starts the regular activity of the parametrized control device.