Program generating device, program generating method, and information storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11960925-B2
Application number	US-202017118501-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2020
Priority date	Dec 16, 2019
Publication date	Apr 16, 2024
Grant date	Apr 16, 2024

Abstract

A program generating device comprising circuitry configured to: display a schedule screen, in which, for each of a plurality of processes executed in a system including a plurality of industrial devices, at least a name of a process is associated with a variable that is at least either referenced or changed in a process program representing an operation of one or more of the plurality of industrial devices and executed in the process, a plurality of names of the plurality of processes obtained from a process database that is stored as process information are included, and an execution order of the plurality of processes can be specified; receive a specification of the execution order on the schedule screen; and generate a system program based on the execution order and the variable of each process included in the execution order.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A program generating device comprising:
at least one memory that stores an engineering tool, and
at least one processor executing the engineering tool and configured to:
display a schedule screen, in which, for each of a plurality of processes executed in a system including a plurality of industrial devices, at least a name of a process is associated with a variable that is at least either referenced or changed in a process program representing an operation of one or more of the plurality of industrial devices and executed in the process, a plurality of names of the plurality of processes obtained from a process database that is stored as process information are included, and an execution order of the plurality of processes can be specified, the variables of each of the plurality of processes include a start variable indicating a start of execution of the process and an end variable indicating an end of execution of the process;
receive a specification of the execution order on the schedule screen;
generate a system program that operates each of the plurality of industrial devices in the specified execution order based on the execution order and the variable of each process included in the execution order,
wherein when the start variable in any one of the processes is changed to a first predetermined value this process starts,
wherein when this process ends, the end variable in this process is changed to a second predetermined value and the start variable in the next process is changed to the first predetermined value, and
wherein the system program controls the start variable and the end variable in each of the plurality of processes so that the processes according to the execution order are sequentially executed.

2. The program generating device according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least one processor is configured to generate the system program by associating a change variable that is changed in at least one process in the execution order with the start variable of one or more other processes that are executed in conjunction with the one process so that the processes according to the execution order are sequentially executed.

3. The program generating device according to claim 2 , wherein
the at least one processor is configured to set a condition of at least one of the start variable or the change variable for a new process that is not registered in the process database; and
the at least one processor is configured to store, in the process database, at least one of the set start variable or the set change variable as the process information in association with a name of the new process.

4. The program generating device according to claim 3 , wherein
the at least one processor is capable of setting a predetermined default variable as at least one of the start variable or the change variable and adding a variable specified by a user.

5. The program generating device according to claim 4 , wherein
the at least one processor is configured to display a series program screen in which a part corresponding to the process program can be specified in already generated series of programs,
the at least one processor is configured to receive a specification of the part corresponding to the process program on the series program screen, and
the at least one processor is configured to generate a new process program corresponding to the new process based on the specified part of the series of programs and at least one of the set start variable or the set change variable.

6. The program generating device according to claim 4 , wherein
the at least one processor is configured to display a timing chart as the schedule screen based on the execution order and the names and the variables of the respective processes included in the execution order,
the names of the plurality of respective processes included in the execution order are arranged on a process axis in the timing chart, and
a plurality of process images, which respectively indicate the execution of the plurality of processes by respective lengths on a timing axis perpendicular to the process axis, are arranged in the timing chart so that the plurality of process images are disposed at substantially same positions of the respective names on the process axis and in the execution order on the timing axis.

7. The program generating device according to claim 3 , wherein
the at least one processor is configured to display a series program screen in which a part corresponding to the process program can be specified in already generated series of programs,
the at least one processor is configured to receive a specification of the part corresponding to the process program on the series program screen, and
the at least one processor is configured to generate a new process program corresponding to the new process based on the specified part of the series of programs and at least one of the set start variable or the set change variable.

8. The program generating device according to claim 7 , wherein
the variable to be referenced is entered in the process database as the process information, and the process database stores a name of the process corresponding to calculation processing for outputting a result to the variable to be changed and the variable associated with the name of the process, and
in a case where the execution order includes the process corresponding to the calculation processing, the at least one processor is configured to display a process image of a process corresponding to the calculation processing together with other process images.

9. The program generating device according to claim 7 , wherein
the at least one processor is configured to obtain an actual execution time of each of the plurality of processes based on an execution result of the system program,
the at least one processor is configured to display a timing chart based on the execution order, the names and the variables of respective processes included in the execution order, and the execution time of each of the processes, and
the names of the plurality of processes included in the execution order are arranged on a process axis in the timing chart, and
a plurality of process images, which respectively indicate the execution of the plurality of processes by respective lengths on a timing axis perpendicular to the process axis, are arranged in the timing chart so that the plurality of process images are disposed at substantially same positions of the respective names on the process axis in the execution order on the timing axis.

10. The program generating device according to claim 3 , wherein
the at least one processor is configured to display a timing chart as the schedule screen based on the execution order and the names and the variables of the respective processes included in the execution order,
the names of the plurality of respective processes included in the execution order are arranged on a process axis in the timing chart, and
a plurality of process images, which respectively indicate the execution of the plurality of processes by respective lengths on a timing axis perpendicular to the process axis, are arranged in the timing chart so that the plurality of process images are disposed at substantially same positions of the respective names on the process axis and in the execution order on the timing axis.

11. The program generating device according to claim 2 , wherein
the at least one processor is configured to display a timing chart as the schedule screen based on the execution order and the names and the variables of the respective processes included in the execution order,
the names of the plurality of respec

Assignees

• Yaskawa Electric Corp

Inventors

• Mizuno Naoki
• Kamiya Yosuke
• Obata Shinichiro
• Matsunaga Aya

Classifications

• G06F9/4881 Primary

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

• G06F9/30043

  LOAD or STORE instructions; Clear instruction · CPC title

• G06F9/3856

  Reordering of instructions, e.g. using queues or age tags · CPC title

• G06F9/451

  Execution arrangements for user interfaces · CPC title

• G06F11/328

  Computer systems status display (G06F11/327 takes precedence) · CPC title