Control apparatus for industrial machine, control system for industrial machine, and method for controlling industrial machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11526148-B2
Application number	US-201916660043-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 22, 2019
Priority date	Oct 23, 2018
Publication date	Dec 13, 2022
Grant date	Dec 13, 2022

Abstract

A control apparatus for performing control processing and user period processing within a control period for an industrial machine includes processing circuitry that sets content of the control processing, and sets an upper limit of the user period processing. The user period processing is different from the control processing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A control apparatus for performing control processing and user period processing within a control period for an industrial machine, comprising:
processing circuitry configured to
prior to performing the control processing and the user period processing, set content of the control processing, and set an upper limit of the user period processing, the upper limit corresponding to a longest allowable period in which the user period processing can be performed and the longest allowable period being less than the control period, wherein the user period processing is different from the control processing, and
in response to receiving a content command input from a first input device communicatively coupled to the control apparatus, set content of the user period processing and, in response to the content of the user period processing being in excess of the longest allowable period, apply restrictions on the content of the user period processing so that the content of the user period processing can be performed at or below the upper limit, wherein

the processing circuitry is further configured to set the content of the control processing in response to a content command input from a second input device that is different from the first input device, and the processing circuitry is further configured to set the upper limit in response to an upper-limit command input from the second input device that is different from the first input device.

2. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to set the control period in response to a control-period command input from the second input device.

3. The control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the user period processing within the control period.

4. A method for controlling an industrial machine in a control system that includes a control apparatus for performing control processing and user period processing within a control period for the industrial machine, comprising:
setting, prior to performing the control processing, content of the control processing using processing circuitry of the control apparatus;
setting, prior to performing the user period processing, an upper limit of the user period processing using the processing circuitry of the control apparatus, the upper limit corresponding to a longest allowable period in which the user period processing can be performed and the longest allowable period being less than the control period, and the user period processing being different from the control processing; and
in response to receiving a content command input from a first input device communicatively coupled to the control apparatus, setting content of the user period processing and, in response to the content of the user period processing being in excess of the longest allowable period, applying restrictions on the content of the user period processing so that the content of the user period processing can be performed at or below the upper limit, wherein
the setting of the content of the control processing is set in response to a content command input from a second input device that is different from the first input device, and the setting of the upper limit is set in response to an upper-limit command input from the second input device that is different from the first input device.

5. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the user period processing within the control period.

6. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control processing and the user period processing are at least partially performed simultaneously in time, within the control period.

7. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the control processing is performed within a control processing performing period and the user period processing is performed within a user period processing performing period, which is less than or equal to the longest allowable period, and
the control processing performing period and the user period processing performing period are collectively less than the control period.

8. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the control processing corresponds to instructing a mechanism to perform a desired motion,
the user period processing corresponds to data logging processing, and
the content of the user period processing corresponds to a kind of data obtained during the data logging processing or a number of data obtained during the data logging processing.

9. The control apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry applies restrictions on the content of the user period processing by limiting the kind of data obtained during the data logging processing or the number of data obtained during the data logging processing.

10. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the first input device is connected to the processing circuitry and used by a user to operate the control system, and
the second input device is used by a manufacturer of the industrial machine.

11. A control system, comprising:
an industrial machine; and
a control apparatus for performing control processing and user period processing within a control period for the industrial machine,
wherein the control apparatus includes processing circuitry configured to
prior to performing the control processing and the user period processing, set content of the control processing, and set an upper limit of the user period processing, the upper limit corresponding to a longest allowable period in which the user period processing can be performed and the longest allowable period being less than the control period, and the user period processing being different from the control processing, and
in response to receiving a content command input from a first input device communicatively coupled to the control apparatus, set content of the user period processing and, in response to the content of the user period processing being in excess of the longest allowable period, apply restrictions on the content of the user period processing so that the content of the user period processing can be performed at or below the upper limit, wherein

the processing circuitry is further configured to set the content of the control processing in response to a content command input from a second input device that is different from the first input device, and the processing circuitry is further configured to set the upper limit in response to an upper-limit command input from the second input device that is different from the first input device.

12. The control system according to claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to set the control period in response to a control-period command input from the second input device.

13. The control apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the user period processing within the control period.

14. The control system according to claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the user period processing within the control period.

15. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising the performing of the user period processing within the control period.

Assignees

• Yaskawa Electric Corp

Inventors

• Okamoto Hiroshi
• Nagata Takeshi
• Hashimoto Ayaka
• KATONO Yu
• Sakimura Naohide
• Kudo Masaomi
• Shogaki Takaaki
• Yasuda Megumi

Classifications

• G05B19/056

  Programming the PLC · 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

• G05B19/05 Primary

  Programmable logic controllers, e.g. simulating logic interconnections of signals according to ladder diagrams or function charts · CPC title

• G05B19/409 Primary

  characterised by using manual data input [MDI] or by using control panel, e.g. controlling functions with the panel; characterised by control panel details or by setting parameters (G05B19/408, G05B19/4093 take precedence) · CPC title

• G06F9/4881

  Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues · CPC title