Controller support device, simulation method of control program, support program for a controller, and computer readable storage medium for storing the support program of the controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9607112-B2
Application number	US-201113634907-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 14, 2011
Priority date	Mar 15, 2010
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

A sequence control portion of a control program is configured to execute simulation for one period to generate an execution result related to the sequence control portion. A motion control portion is configured to execute simulation for one period to generate an execution result related to the motion control portion. A control period number is then increment updated. Whether or not a resumable control period is determined, and if determined as the resumable control period, content of a resuming data buffer ( 828 ) updated in the previous control period is saved in a resuming data storage section ( 826 ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A controller support device for simulation of a control program including a sequence control portion and a motion control portion executed for every control period in a controller for controlling movement of a machine, the controller support device including a computer comprising:
a simulation unit configured for simulating execution of the control program and generating execution result data;
a display data creating unit configured for creating display data for displaying temporal change in the execution result data generated by the simulation unit;
an accepting unit configured for accepting an instruction of a user on the simulation unit; and
a display for displaying the display data created by the display data creating unit;
wherein the simulation unit includes:
a sequence calculation executing part configured for simulating execution of the sequence control portion of the control program and generating execution result data related to the sequence control portion;
a sequence variable storage part configured to be used by the sequence calculation executing part for executing the simulation;
a motion calculation executing part configured for simulating execution of the motion control portion of the control program and generating execution result data related to the motion control portion;
a motion variable storage part configured to be used by the motion calculation executing part for simulating execution;
a control period counting section configured for counting a number of executions of a control period;
a resuming data storage section configured for saving resuming data, the resuming data including data of the number of executions corresponding to a resumable control period in which re-execution of the simulation can be started, sequence variable data used to start the re-execution of the simulation from the resumable control period of the data stored in the sequence variable storage part and the motion variable storage part, and motion variable data used to start the re-execution of the simulation from the resumable control period of the data stored in the motion variable storage part; and
a resuming data buffer for temporarily saving the resuming data being stored in the resuming data storage section, wherein the simulation unit: determines that the control period is the resumable control period, a previous resuming data corresponding to the resumable control period saved in the resuming data buffer is stored in the resuming data storage section and
if the simulation unit determines that the control period is not the resumable control period, the resuming data buffer is updated based on the execution result data generated in the sequence calculation executing part and the motion calculation executing part; and
wherein the simulation unit acquires a specification for specifying the control period to start the re-execution from the accepting unit, specifies the control period to start the re-execution using the specification, and starts the re-execution of the simulation from the specified control period to control the movement of the machine with the controller using the resuming data stored in the resuming data storage section and corresponding to the specified control period.

2. The controller support device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a control program editing unit configured for editing the control program; wherein
the control program editing unit is configured to accept an operation of the user to correct the control program simulation executed in the simulation unit; and
the simulation unit is configured to accept an operation of the user to start the re-execution of the simulation using the resuming data saved before the control program is corrected for the control program corrected by the control program editing unit.

3. The controller support device according to claim 2 , wherein
the control program editing unit is configured to correct the motion control portion of the control program by the operation of the user; and
the simulation unit is configured to acquire information for specifying the corrected motion control portion from the control program editing unit, specify the control period in which re-execution can be carried out from the most recently corrected motion control portion from the resumable control periods, and start the re-execution of the simulation from the control period.

4. The controller support device according to claim 2 , wherein
the control program editing unit is configured to list display content of the control program on the display;
the accepting unit is configured to accept specification of the motion control portion to start the re-execution on the list display; and
the simulation unit is configured to specify a control period in which re-execution can be carried out from the specified motion control portion from the resumable control periods, and to start the re-execution of the simulation from the control period.

5. The controller support device according to claim 1 , wherein
the motion control portion of the control program is in either an active state which is a state of calculating a command value, or an inactive state which is not the active state, in each control period; and
the simulation unit is configured to specify the resumable control period with the control period in which the motion control portion becomes the active state from the inactive state as a reference.

6. The controller support device according to claim 1 , wherein
the motion control portion of the control program is in either an executing state in which the motion control portion is in execution, or a non-executing state which is not the executing state, in each control period; and
the simulation unit is configured to specify the resumable control period with the control period in which the motion control portion becomes the executing state from the non-executing state as a reference.

7. The controller support device according to claim 1 , wherein the simulation unit is configured to specify the control period for every constant interval as the resumable control period.

8. The controller support device according to claim 1 , wherein
the display data creating unit is configured to create the display data for displaying the temporal change in the execution result data as a graph;
the accepting unit is configured to accept the instruction of the user on a position on the graph displayed on the display; and
the simulation unit is configured to specify a control period corresponding to the position on the graph instructed by the user from the resumable control periods, and to start re-execution of the simulation from the control period.

9. The controller support device according to claim 1 , wherein
the display data creating unit is configured to create display data for displaying the temporal change in the execution result data for the position generated by the simulation unit as a trajectory in a two-dimensional space or a three-dimensional space;
the accepting unit is configured to accept the instruction of the user on the position on the trajectory; and
the simulation unit is configured to specify a control period corresponding to the position on the trajectory instructed by the user from the resumable control periods, and to start re-execution of the simulation from the control period.

10. The controller support device according to claim 1 , wherein
the display data creating unit is configured to create display data for displaying the temporal change in the execution result data as a list of positions;
the accepting unit is configured to accept the instruction of the user on the position in the list of positions

Assignees

• Sakaguchi Yasunori
• Mori Kenichiro
• Omron Tateisi Electronics Co

Inventors

• Sakaguchi Yasunori
• Mori Kenichiro

Classifications

• G06F30/20

  Design optimisation, verification or simulation (optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30) · CPC title

• G05B19/4069 Primary

  Simulating machining process on screen (G05B19/4068 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G05B2219/32352

  Modular modeling, decompose large system in smaller systems to simulate · CPC title

• G06F30/3308 Primary

  using simulation · CPC title

• G06F17/5009 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic