Controlling and/or monitoring device using at least a transmission controller

• US 7,486,169 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2003
• Issued: 02/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Inventio AG (Schindler Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Inventio AG (Schindler Holding AG)
• Inventors: Gielis, Michel
• Primary Examiner(s): Holloway, III; Edwin C
• Application Number:
  US10/517,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20060097842A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,063 Days
• Field of Search: 340/3.1, 340/3.43, 340/3.51, 340/10.1, 340/572.1, 340/506, 340/505, 187/391
• US Class Current: 340/3.1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0428 Safety, monitoring G05B19/0423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24195 Compare data in channels at timed intervals, for equality
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 9/03 with multiple-channel loop, i.e. redundant control systems

Abstract

The invention concerns a controlling and/or monitoring device, comprising a plurality of peripherals (Pa, Pb, Pc, Pn), a central control unit (4) and a communication network (5) connecting the central unit (4) to the various peripherals (Pa, Pb, Pc, Pn). The central control unit (4) comprises one or two transmission controllers (41, 42) connected to the various peripherals through a transmission channel (50), each transmission controller (41, 42) comparing context codes (Ka, Kb, Kc, Kn) received from the peripherals with stored reference codes (Ra, Rb, Rc, Rn) to set a security circuit (6) in a security configuration or in a fault configuration, depending on whether or not the compared codes show identical one-to-one correspondence.

Claims

1. A control and/or monitoring device, comprising:

a number of peripheral devices;

a control central processing unit;

a communication network connecting the control central processing unit to the various peripheral devices; and

an independent, second electrical security circuit selectively adopting a security configuration or an anomaly configuration, the security circuit being separate from the communication network, the security circuit forms a dedicated electrically conductive closed loop in the security configuration, which is broken in the anomaly configuration, each peripheral device at all times being subject to a condition which affects it at least partially, that belongs to a number of possible conditions including a reference condition that corresponds to a normal operating condition, and for which the peripheral device selectively reports as a context code, the control central processing unit includes at least a first transmission controller which has, for each peripheral device, a stored reference code formed by the context code transmitted by the peripheral device for its reference condition, which takes the context code of each of the peripheral devices by periodic polling of the peripheral devices according to a predetermined addressing order, which carries out comparisons of the context codes one by one that have been taken by polling of the peripheral devices and stored reference codes stored in the transmission controller, and which commands the passage of the security circuit from the security configuration to the anomaly configuration in response to a detection of an absence of one of the codes to be compared or a disparity between the codes compared.

2. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 1, wherein each peripheral device is identified by an identification code that is specific to the peripheral device, the peripheral device being operative to send the identification code to the control central processing unit, as a context code, in a situation where the peripheral device is in its reference condition, and only in this situation.

3. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the control central processing unit includes a second transmission controller that also has, for each peripheral device, a stored reference code formed by the context code that each peripheral device provides for its reference condition, the second transmission controller, independently of the first transmission controller, carries out comparisons, one by one, of the context codes taken by polling of the peripheral devices and the reference codes stored by the second transmission controller, and commands passage of the security circuit from the security configuration to the anomaly configuration in response to the detection of the absence of one of the codes to be compared or a disparity between the codes compared.

4. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 3, wherein each of the transmission controllers comprises, in memory, a fixed table of reference codes stored during an installation phase of the device and a dynamic table registering the context codes taken by polling of the peripheral devices, each of the transmission controllers being operative to compare the respective contents of the fixed table and the dynamic table by periodically updating the contents of the dynamic table.

5. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the peripheral devices are electrically powered by the control central processing unit via the communication network.

6. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the communication network comprises a wire bus that connects all of the peripheral devices to the central processing unit.

7. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 1, wherein each peripheral device includes a pair of interactive organs including a master organ and a slave organ associated to one another, the communication network being arranged to connect the central processing unit to the control master organs, for each peripheral device, the condition represented by the context code being a condition affecting the slave organ or a relationship between the slave organ and the master organ of the peripheral device, the master organ of each peripheral device being operative to electrically power the slave organ of the peripheral device and constitutes an interface between the slave organ and the first transmission controller of the control central processing unit.

8. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 7, wherein the peripheral devices are electrically powered by the control central processing unit via the communication network, the master organs being electrically powered by the first controller via the communication network.

9. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 7, wherein each peripheral device is identified by an identification code that is specific to the peripheral device, the peripheral device being operative to send the identification code to the control central processing unit, as a context code, in a situation where the peripheral device is in its reference condition, and only in this situation, the slave organ of each peripheral device including an electronic label in which the identification code of the peripheral device is stored, the master organ of this same peripheral device comprising a correspondence electronic label reader.

10. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 9, wherein each peripheral device also comprises a state encoder producing a state signal that depends on the condition to which the peripheral device is subjected, and that is transmitted by the electronic label of the peripheral device to the corresponding master organ, or that is created directly by the master organ.

11. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 10, wherein the slave organ of each peripheral device is mobile with respect to the master organ of the peripheral device, the state signal produced by the state encoder of the peripheral device being representative of a relative position of the slave organ with respect to the master organ, the relative position constituting the condition to which the peripheral device is subjected.

12. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 10, wherein, for each peripheral device, the state encoder comprises at least one permanent magnet carried by one of the interactive organs of the peripheral device, and a magnetic field sensor carried by the other interactive organ of the peripheral device.

13. The control and/or monitoring device of claim 12, wherein, for each peripheral device, the state encoder essentially includes a pair of permanently magnetized tracks distant from one another carried by the slave organ of the peripheral device, and a corresponding pair of Hall effect sensors carried by the corresponding master organ, the magnetized tracks being positioned opposite the corresponding Hall effect sensors for a reference relative position of the slave organ with respect to the master organ, that is unique and which constitutes the reference condition, the state signal taking at least two different logic values, depending on whether the slave organ is in its reference relative position with respect to the master organ or not.