Automation Equipment and Method for Operating Automation Equipment

• US 20160320762A1
• Filed: 04/18/2016
• Published: 11/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2015
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: WOLF, Gerrit, LUTZ, Benjamin
• Application Number:
  US15/131,660
• Publication Number:
  US 20160320762A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/05 Programmable logic controllers, e.g. simulating logic interconnections of signals according to ladder diagrams or function charts
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23258 GUI graphical user interface, icon, function bloc editor, labview
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24116 Reprogram inserted module, reread parameters to enable operation machine
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25011 Domotique, I-O bus, home automation, building automation

Abstract

The invention relates to an automation system and a method for operating automation equipment that includes an operator system for displaying a technical process to be controlled and at least one automation device that is configured to process, for process control, CFC functions of a control program which are loaded onto the at least one automation device and are created by means of a Continuous Function Chart editor. The load on an automation device in such a system is operatively reduced in accord with the monitored load on the device, without the need to upgrade or change the hardware of the automation device, by loading corresponding CFC functions onto the operator system and switching between corresponding CFC functions on the automation device and the operator system.

Claims

1. A method for operating automation equipment that includes an operator system for displaying a technical process to be controlled and at least one automation device which is configured to process, for process control, CFC functions of a control program that are loaded onto the at least one automation device and are created by means of a Continuous Function Chart editor, the method comprising:

capturing a processing load of the at least one automation device;

loading onto the operator system CFC functions that correspond to the CFC functions of the control program that are loaded onto the at least one automation device; and

activating and processing, by means of at least one selector of the at least one automation device as a function of the processing load, one of (i) at least one of the CFC functions in the at least one automation device and (ii) a CFC function in the operator system corresponding to the at least one CFC function.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting to a process image of the operator system, by means of the selector, a process value to activate the CFC function in the operator system.

3. In an automation system that includes an operator system for displaying a technical process to be controlled, and at least one automation device that is configured to process, for process control, CFC functions of a control program that are loaded onto the at least one automation device and are created by means of a Continuous Function Chart editor,

the at least one automation device being configured to capture its processing load,

the operator system being configured to process CFC functions that are loaded onto the operator system and which correspond to the CFC functions of the control program that are loaded onto the at least one automation device, and

further comprising an execution selector of the at least one automation device for at least one of the CFC functions in the at least one automation device, the execution selector being configured to, as a function of the captured processing load, one of (i) activate one of the CFC functions in the at least one automation device and (ii) activate one of the CFC functions in the operator system corresponding to the one CFC function in the at least one automation device.

4. The automation device of claim 3, wherein the execution selector is configured to transmit a process value to a process image of the operator system to activate the one CFC function in the operator system.