Automation plant having a reduced-power stoppage operating mode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10108214-B2
Application number	US-201514933808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 5, 2015
Priority date	Nov 6, 2014
Publication date	Oct 23, 2018
Grant date	Oct 23, 2018

Abstract

A method of reducing power consumption by components of an automated plant during a production stoppage. Control apparatus transmits stoppage time data to the plant components via a data network to initiate the stoppage. Each automated plant component automatically changes to a respective given target state at a respective given stoppage time if the stoppage time data received by that plant component includes that stoppage time for that target state and if at least one other plant component is in a respective operating state expected for this target state. The invention sets a coordinated combination of consumption-minimized plant-component states. The control apparatus transmits respective component-specific stoppage times to the plant components in the stoppage time data, said stoppage time being different from at least one stoppage time transmitted to another plant component. As a result, the component states can be matched to one another.

First claim

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims and includes equivalents of the elements recited therein:

1. A method of operating an automated plant in the event of a production stoppage so as to reduce power consumption by the automated plant during the production stoppage, said automated plant having control apparatus adapted to communicate with multiple plant components that consume power, said method comprising:
initiating a production stoppage by transmitting stoppage time data from the control apparatus to the plant components;
automatically changing each component to a target state when the received stoppage time data specifies a component-specific stoppage time expected for the target state and when at least one other plant component has a respective operating state expected for the target state, the component-specific stoppage time transmitted by the control apparatus to each component being different from at least one stoppage time transmitted to another of the plant components;
defining a target state for a first plant component using the control apparatus;
determining the expected component-specific stoppage time and the respective expected operating state of the at least one other plant component for the defined target state via a rule based on the reverse assignment of time to the target state, the control apparatus controlling the at least one other plant component in the respective determined expected operating state; and
transmitting the determined expected stoppage time to the first plant component using the control apparatus, the first plant component being changed by said determined expected stoppage time to the defined target state.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending a respective expected component-specific stoppage time to the at least one other plant component, the at least one other plant component, the respective expected component-specific stoppage time automatically changing the at least one other plant component to the respective determined expected operating state.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least the first plant component consumes less power in its target state than it consumed in its state prior to the production stoppage.

4. Control apparatus for controlling plant components of an automation plant using a data network, said control apparatus comprising:
a connection device connecting the control apparatus to the data network;
a processor coupled to the connection device and configured to transmit stoppage time data into the data network to the plant components using the connection device so as to initiate a production stoppage of the automation plant, said stoppage time data including a respective component-specific stoppage time to the plant components, said stoppage time being different from at least one stoppage time transmitted to another of the plant components.

5. The control apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the processor device is configured to transmit the component-specific stoppage times at different points in time and to define a wait period between the transmission of two respective stoppage times depending on transition time data that specify respective periods in which the plant components transition into their respective target states.

6. The control apparatus of claim 4 wherein in the processor device is configured to call up descriptive data from each of the plant components that describes at least one target state of the plant component and a respective stoppage time expected for the provided target state in each case using the data network and to generate a respective state model of the plant component on the basis of the descriptive data.

7. The control apparatus of claim 6 wherein the descriptive data is called up from each of the plant components that describes at least one target state of the plant component and a respective stoppage time expected for the provided target state in each case using the PROFIenergy command “Query_Modes”.

8. The control apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to generate a respective assignment rule assigning an expected stoppage time to a target state using state models.

9. The control apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to link the state models to a component-universal overall model using dependence data that describes a respective expected operating state of at least one other plant component for at least one provided target state of at least one state model.

10. The control apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to determine a state combination of the target states of the plant components that minimizes energy consumption by the automation plant using the overall model for the production stoppage.

11. The control apparatus of claim 9 wherein a user interface is provided that is configured for receiving the dependence data from a user of the automation plant.

12. The control apparatus of claim 9 wherein the processor is configured to determine a switching sequence in which the plant components are to be changed into a respective defined target state and/or switched so as to be operation-ready again on the basis of the overall model and to generate the stoppage time data and/or a respective wake command depending on the determined switching sequence.

13. The control apparatus of claim 9 wherein the processor is configured to receive a respective present operating state from plant components and to store the respective present operating states of each plant component in the overall model as initial states and to determine the stoppage time data depending on the present initial states.

14. An automation plant for implementing an automated process, said automation plant comprising:
a plurality of plant components that are connected to a data network and are each configured for controlling and/or monitoring at least part of the process;
a control apparatus having a connection device coupling the control apparatus to the data network and a processor configured to transmit stoppage time data to the plant components so as to initiate a production stoppage of the automation plant, said stoppage time data including a respective component-specific stoppage time that is different from at least one component-specific stoppage time transmitted to another component of the plurality of plant components;
said control apparatus defining a target state for a first plant component, determining the expected component-specific stoppage time and a respective expected operating state of an at least one other plant component for a defined target state via a rule based on the reverse assignment of time to the target state, controlling the at least one other plant component in the respective determined expected operating state, transmitting the determined expected stoppage time to the first plant component, the first plant component being changed by said determined expected stoppage time to the defined target state.

15. The automation plant of claim 14 , wherein the processor device is configured to transmit the component-specific stoppage times at different points in time and to define a wait period between the transmission of two respective component-specific stoppage times depending on transition time data that specify respective periods in which the plant components transition into their respective target states.

16. The automation plant as claimed in claim 14 wherein each plant component is a PROFIenergy device in accordance with the PROFIenergy standard.

17. A metho

Assignees

• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Himmler Matthias
• Peschke Jörn
• Volkmann Patrick

Classifications

• G05B19/041

  Function-oriented details · CPC title

• G05B2219/34306

  Power down, energy saving · CPC title

• G05B19/41865 Primary

  characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow · CPC title

• G05F1/66 Primary

  Regulating electric power · CPC title

• G05B19/418

  Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] or computer integrated manufacturing [CIM] · CPC title