Control system, control program transmission method, and recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12596344-B2
Application number	US-202118033578-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 8, 2021
Priority date	Jun 8, 2021
Publication date	Apr 7, 2026
Grant date	Apr 7, 2026

Abstract

The control system ( 1000 ) includes a programmable logic controller (PLC) ( 40 ) to control a device, and a program transmission apparatus ( 10 ) to transmit a control program ( 70 ) for causing the PLC ( 40 ) to control the device. The program transmission apparatus ( 10 ) includes a first code generator ( 113 ) to generate a first code ( 71 ) for verification of presence or absence of a change from the control program ( 70 ) by using the control program ( 70 ) and confidential data ( 80 ). The PLC ( 40 ) includes a second code generator ( 433 ) to generate a second code by using a receiving program as the control program ( 70 ) and the confidential data ( 80 ) that is shared with the program transmission apparatus ( 10 ), and an executor ( 435 ) to execute the receiving program when the first code ( 71 ) is identical to the second code.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A control program transmission method to be performed by (i) a programmable controller to control a device and (ii) a program transmission apparatus to transmit a control program for causing the programmable controller to control the device, the control program transmission method comprising:
generating, by the program transmission apparatus and in response to issuance of a transmission instruction for the control program from one user of a plurality of users that is a user of the control program, a first code from (i) the control program and (ii) predetermined data that corresponds to the one user, the first code being for verification of presence or absence of a change from the control program; transmitting, by the program transmission apparatus, the control program and the first code; receiving, by the programmable controller, the first code and a receiving program as the control program transmitted by the program transmission apparatus; generating, by the programmable controller, by the predetermined procedure, a second code from (i) the receiving program and (ii) the predetermined data that is shared in advance with the program transmission apparatus and that corresponds to a specific user of the plurality of users; determining, by the programmable controller, whether the first code generated by the program transmission apparatus is identical to the second code generated by the programmable controller; and executing, by the programmable controller, the receiving program when the first code generated by the program transmission apparatus is identical to the second code generated by the programmable controller.

2 . A control system comprising:
a programmable controller to control a device; and a program transmission apparatus to transmit a control program for causing the programmable controller to control the device, the program transmission apparatus including
program acquiring circuitry to acquire the control program,
first code generating circuitry to generate, in response to issuance of a transmission instruction for the control program from one user of a plurality of users that is a user of the control program, a first code from (i) the control program and (ii) predetermined data that corresponds to the one user by a predetermined procedure, the first code being for verification of presence or absence of a change from the control program, and
a transmitter to transmit the control program and the first code,
the programmable controller including
a receiver to receive the first code and a receiving program as the control program transmitted by the transmitter,
second code generating circuitry to generate, by the predetermined procedure, a second code from (i) the receiving program and (ii) the predetermined data that is shared in advance with the program transmission apparatus and that corresponds to a specific user of the plurality of users,
collator circuitry to determine whether the first code generated by the first code generating circuitry of the program transmission apparatus is identical to the second code generated by the second code generating circuitry of the programmable controller, and
executing circuitry to execute the receiving program when the first code generated by the first code generating circuitry of the program transmission apparatus is identical to the second code generated by the second code generating circuitry of the programmable controller.

3 . The control system according to claim 2 , wherein, when the first code generated by the first code generating circuitry of the program transmission apparatus is not identical to the second code generated by the second code generating circuitry of the programmable controller, the executing circuitry discards the receiving program without executing the receiving program.

4 . The control system according to claim 2 , wherein
the first code generating circuitry generates, as the first code, a hash value of (i) the predetermined data and (ii) the control program, and the second code generating circuitry generates, as the second code, a hash value of (i) the predetermined data and (ii) the receiving program.

5 . The control system according to claim 2 , wherein
the program transmission apparatus includes a plurality of program transmission apparatuses, the first code generating circuitry of each of the plurality of program transmission apparatuses generates the first code from (i) the control program and (ii) the predetermined data that corresponds to the program transmission apparatus including the first code generating circuitry, and the second code generating circuitry of the programmable controller generates the second code from (i) the receiving program and (ii) the predetermined data that is shared in advance with a specific program transmission apparatus of the plurality of program transmission apparatuses.

6 . The control system according to claim 2 , wherein
the program transmission apparatus further includes encrypting circuitry to encrypt the control program and the first code, the transmitter transmits the control program and the first code encrypted by the encrypting circuitry, the receiver receives the encrypted receiving program and the encrypted first code, and the programmable controller further includes decoding circuitry to decode the encrypted receiving program and the encrypted first code.

7 . The control system according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a server, wherein
the transmitter of the program transmission apparatus transmits the control program and the first code to the server, and
the server receives the control program and the first code transmitted by the transmitter and transmits, to the programmable controller, the received first code and the receiving program as the received control program.

8 . The control system of claim 2 , wherein the predetermined data is a random bit sequence.

9 . The control system of claim 2 , wherein the predetermined data is shared from the program transmission apparatus to the programmable controller via a non-transitory recording medium.

10 . The control system of claim 2 , wherein the predetermined data is shared from the program transmission apparatus to the programmable controller via a direct communication line.

11 . The control system of claim 2 , wherein the program transmission apparatus further includes file generating circuitry to generate a file comprising both the control program and the first code.

12 . The control system of claim 11 , wherein the programmable controller further includes extractor circuitry to decompress and decode the file to extract the receiving program and the first code.

13 . The control system of claim 2 , wherein the first code generating circuitry generates the first code for each of a plurality of modules included in the control program.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Ichikawa Eiji
• Sasaki Ryoichi
• Tanide Hajime

Classifications

• G05B19/058

  Safety, monitoring · CPC title

• G05B19/056 Primary

  Programming the PLC · CPC title