METHOD FOR PROGRAMMING A PLANT CONTROL SYSTEM

Abstract

In a method for programming a plant control system having a plurality of control units (6) connected to one another and to sensors and/or actuators, a plurality of component templates (2) of plant parts are called up from a component template memory (1), and components (4) are created from these templates and are linked to one another in a plant description (3). For each component (4) of the plant description (3), a component program code is transmitted to an allocated control unit (6). The method makes it possible to start up a plant control system easily and time-efficiently with minimal testing and maintenance effort, even in the case of complex plants.

Claims

1. A method for programming a plant control system having a plurality of control units connected to one another and to sensors and/or actuators, said method comprising: retrieving a plurality of component templates of plant parts from a component template memory; and creating components said component templates and linking said components to one another in a plant description; and transmitting, for each component of the plant description, a component program code to an assigned control unit; wherein the component templates have function descriptions and interface descriptions with one or more connection descriptions for data exchange, the created components comprise interfaces corresponding to the interface descriptions, and matching interfaces of different components are connected via component connections; and selecting a control unit of the plant control system for each component of the plant description, and then generating by a code generator a component program code adapted to the control unit and the sensors and/or actuators connected thereto from the function description of the component template of the component and from the connected interfaces; and transmitting the component program code to the selected control unit.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the function descriptions of the component templates comprise function program code that is translated by the code generator into the component program code for the components generated from the component template on the basis of the connected interfaces before transmission to the selected control unit.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the component templates comprise parameter descriptions and the components comprise predetermined parameters corresponding to the parameter descriptions, and said parameters are transmitted together with the component program code to the selected control units.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the code generator adapts the component program code on the basis of the predetermined parameters before said component program code is transmitted to the selected control unit.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the plant description forms a graph having nodes that are components linked to each other via an intermediate edge in each case.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the component templates comprise parameter descriptions and the components comprise predetermined parameters corresponding to the parameter descriptions, and said parameters are transmitted together with the component program code to the selected control units.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the code generator adapts the component program code on the basis of the predetermined parameters before said component program code is transmitted to the selected control unit.

8. The method according to claim 2, wherein the plant description forms a graph having nodes that are components linked to each other via an intermediate edge in each case.

9. The method according to claim 3, wherein the plant description forms a graph having nodes that are components linked to each other via an intermediate edge in each case.

10. The method according to claim 4, wherein the plant description forms a graph having nodes that are components linked to each other via an intermediate edge in each case.

11. The method according to claim 6, wherein the plant description forms a graph having nodes that are components linked to each other via an intermediate edge in each case.

12. The method according to claim 7, wherein the plant description forms a graph having nodes that are components linked to each other via an intermediate edge in each case.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] In the drawing, the subject matter of the invention is shown by way of example, wherein:

[0011] FIG. 1 shows a schematic overview of the component template memory, the plant description, the code generator, the individual control units and the actuators and sensors connected to them, and

[0012] FIG. 2 shows a schematic flow diagram of the method according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013] For the method according to the invention, a component template memory 1 is provided in which individual component templates 2 are stored. These component templates 2 comprise both a function description and an interface description, as shown symbolically in FIG. 1. From these component templates 2, components 4 are generated in a plant description 3, which are interconnected within the plant description 3 via component connections 5. The plant description 3 is preferably represented as a graph whose nodes form the components 4 and whose edges form the component connections 5.

[0014] As explained in detail above, each component 4 is assigned a control unit 6, although several components 4 can also each be assigned to a control unit 6. A code generator 7 is used to generate component program code from each component, which is subsequently transmitted to the assigned control unit 6. In FIG. 1, some connections 8 are designated by way of example.

[0015] This component program code includes code artifacts generated from the function description of the component template 2 of the respective component 4 and code artifacts generated from the interfaces of the respective component 4 connected via component connections 5. In addition, the component program code also includes code artifacts that connect the individual connections 8 of the control units 6 to the code artifacts of the interfaces in the sense of glue logic.

[0016] A method according to the invention for programming a plant control system comprises several steps shown in FIG. 2 in a preferred embodiment. First, component templates are retrieved from the component template memory (9) and one or more components with interfaces are created from each component template, which are linked to one another in a plant description via component connections (10). In the process, each component is assigned a physical control unit, wherein a control unit can in principle also comprise several components. Each component connection thus preferably maps the complete communication between two components, which can run via several physical connections of the selected control unit. Based on such a plant description, a component program code for the control unit assigned to the component is then created for each component with the aid of a code generator (11, 12, 13), which maps both the function description and the interfaces defined in the plant description and associated with component connections in a program code that can be executed by the control unit. For example, the analog preset value for an actuating cylinder and the analog measured value of an incremental encoder that records the actuating travel of the actuating cylinder can be combined as two connections to form a common interface that provides the functionality of the actuating cylinder for a component or for its function description. Then the respective program code is transferred to the individual control units (14, 15, 16).