Redundant supervisory control system, and redundancy switching method of the same

• US 7,613,108 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2006
• Issued: 11/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Toko, Makoto, Kusakabe, Hiroyuki, Umeda, Yuuji, Takehara, Jun, Sawada, Akira, Kono, Shinya
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, IV; William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jiang; Charles C
• Application Number:
  US11/566,310
• Publication Number:
  US 20070147232A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,065 Days
• Field of Search: 370/216, 370/221, 370/222, 370/223, 370/224, 709223-226
• US Class Current: 370/222
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 9/02 electric

Abstract

An object is to provide a redundant supervisory control system and a redundancy switching method thereof. In the redundant supervisory control system, remote I/O apparatuses are less likely to be inaccessible, even in a case where failures occur in plural locations. Thus, the reliability of the system is enhanced. The redundant supervisory control system including a plurality of first loop interface units in each of a pair of controllers, second loop interface units, and communication cables each connecting the plurality of first and second loop interface units with one another in a circular loop. The redundant supervisory control system is configured by connecting the controllers and the remote I/O units to one another in a plurality of loop networks. In a case where abnormality in the loop networks is detected by use of received data in the networks, the first and second loop interface units that can perform normal reception are automatically selected.

Claims

1. A redundant supervisory control system having a pair of network loops in parallel in a single loop network, comprising:

a pair of controllers each collecting input data from a controlled subject, and outputting control data based on the input data;

a plurality of remote input/output units each connected to both of the pair of network loops in the single loop network for collecting the input data from the controlled subject, transmitting the input data to both of the controllers, and outputting, to the controlled subject, the control data transmitted from an active one of the pair of controllers currently executing control;

communication cables each connecting the pair of controllers and the plurality of remote input/output units to make the pair of network loops in parallel; and

a pair of redundant control interface units for mutually monitoring abnormality statuses of the pair of controllers, and setting a control right allowing any one of the pair of controllers to execute control in an active state, and the other controller to be in a standby state, and

the redundant supervisory control system being configured to control the controlled subject by performing communications in two directions of clockwise and counterclockwise in each of the pair of network loops in the single loop network composed of the pair of controllers, the plurality of remote input/output units and the communication cables, in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol,

wherein each of the pair of controllers includes;

a pair of first loop interface units each communicate the input data and the control data in the two directions with the counterpart controller and the remote input/output units, and judge whether the input data is normally received;

a first switching controller which selects, among the pair of first loop interface units, one of the first loop interface units which is capable of performing normal reception, based on results of the judgments of the respective first loop interface units;

a first data distributor-selector which receives the input data outputted from one of the first loop interface units selected by the first switching controller, and distributes the control data among the pair of first loop interface units; and

a control computation unit which receives the input data outputted from the first data distributor-selector, performs arithmetic processing on the input data, and outputs, as the control data, the result of the arithmetic processing to the first data distributor-selector, and

wherein each of the plurality of remote input/output units includes;

a pair of second loop interface units each communicate the input data and the control data in the two directions through each one of the pair of network loops with the pair of the controllers, and judge whether the control data is normally received;

a second switching controller which selects, among the pair of second loop interface units, one of the second loop interface units which is capable of performing normal reception based on results of the judgments of the second loop interface units;

a second data distributor-selector which outputs the control data outputted from one of the second loop interface units selected by the second switching controller, and distributes the input data collected from the controlled subject among the pair of second loop interface units; and

an input/output unit which transmits the control data outputted from the second data distributor-selector to the controlled subject, and transmits the input data from the controlled subject to the second data distributor-selector, whereby

when a reception failure is detected in at least one portion on one of the pair of network loops including one or both of the pair of first loop interface units and one or both of the pair of second loop interface units in one or plural remote I/O units, one or plural first loop I/F units capable of normally communicating and one of the pair of second loop I/F units in one or plural remote I/O unit, capable of normally communicating are automatically selected, so that transmissions are performed in one or both transmittable directions of each of the pair of network loops; and

in a case where plural failure portions of the respective network loop do not overlap with each other, each of the portions starting from each of the pair of controllers, and ending at a location of a failure, the control is able to be continued without switching the control rights.

2. The redundant supervisory control system according to claim 1, wherein each of the redundant control interface units includes:

loop status judgment means which judges connection statuses of the respective network loop by collecting reception information on whether communications between the controller and each of the plurality of remote input/output units are performed normally; and

control right setting means which sets the control right in one of the pair of controllers based on both an output from the loop status judgment means and a priority judgment table beforehand set for each of the remote input/output units.

3. The redundant supervisory control system according to claim 2, wherein the pair of control right setting means of the respective redundant control interface units mutually monitor outputs respectively of self-diagnoses of abnormality statuses of the pair of controllers themselves, and reception status judgment tables generated respectively by the pair of the loop status judgment means, and thereby set the control right.

4. The redundant supervisory control system according to claim 2, wherein:

each of the remote input/output units cyclically transmits any one of a message and data to the corresponding controller in the transmittable circulation directions; and

each of the loop status judgment means receives response statuses, tabulates connection statuses in which communication can be made in each of the pair of network loops in the single loop network, and thereby judges a portion where the communication cannot be made.

5. The redundant supervisory control system according to claim 2, wherein:

the pair of control right setting means cause a control operation to continue without switching the control rights, in a case where the pair of the loop status judgment means judge that portions respectively in the pair of network loops in the single loop network do not overlap with one another, each of the portions starting from each of the pair of controllers to a location of a failure; and

,

the pair of control right setting means set the control right again based on information in the preset priority judgment table, in a case where each of the pair of network loops in the single loop network is segmented, and where the pair of loop status judgment means judge that the communication statuses each of the pair of the network loops are different from one another in a range where each of the controllers can access the remote input/output units.

6. The redundant supervisory control system according to claim 1, wherein, the second switching controller generates a selection signal of selecting any one of the second loop interface units depending on reception information representing whether or not the input data is normally received by the second loop interface units.

7. A redundancy switching method for a redundant supervisory control system having a pair of network loops in parallel in a single loop network, the redundant supervisory control system including:

a pair of controllers each collecting input data from a controlled subject, and outputting control data based on the input data;

a plurality of remote input/output units each connected to both of the pair of network loops in the single loop network for collecting the input data from the controlled subject, transmitting the input data to both of the controllers, and outputting, to the controlled subject, the control data transmitted from an active one of the pair of controllers currently executing control;

communication cables each connecting the pair of controllers and the plurality of remote input/output units to make the pair of network loops in parallel in the single loop network; and

a pair of redundant control interface units for mutually monitoring abnormality statuses of the pair of controllers, and setting a control right allowing any one of the pair of controllers to execute control in an active state, and the other controller to be in a standby state, and

the redundant control system being configured to control the controlled subject by performing communications in two directions of clockwise and counterclockwise in any one of the pair of network loops in the single loop network composed of the pair of controllers, the plurality of remote input/output units and the communication cables, in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol,

wherein each of the pair of controllers includes;

a pair of first loop interface units each communicate the input data and the control data in the two directions with the counterpart controller and the remote input/output units, and judges whether the input data is normally received;

a first switching controller which selects, among the pair of first loop interface units, one of the first loop interface units which is capable of performing normal reception, based on results of the judgments of the respective first loop interface units;

a first data distributor-selector which receives the input data outputted from one of the first loop interface units selected by the first switching controller, and distributes the control data among the pair of first loop interface units; and

a control computation unit which receives the input data outputted from the first data distributor-selector, performs arithmetic processing on the input data, and outputs, as the control data, the result of the arithmetic processing to the first data distributor-selector, and

wherein each of the plurality of remote input/output units includes;

a pair of second loop interface units each communicate the input data and the control data in the two directions through each one of the pair of network loops with the pair of the controllers, and judges whether the control data is normally received;

a second switching controller which selects, among the pair of second loop interface units, one of the second loop interface units which is capable of performing normal reception based on results of the judgments of the second loop interface units;

a second data distributor-selector which outputs the control data outputted from one of the second loop interface units selected by the second switching controller, and distributes the input data collected form the controlled subject among the pair of second loop interface units; and

an input/output unit which transmits the control data outputted from the second data distributor-selector to the controlled subject, and transmits the input data from the controlled subject to the second data distributor-selector,

the redundancy switching method comprising;

detecting reception information on whether the input data and the control data are received normally at the receiver sides in each of the pair of network loops;

selecting one of the pair of first loop interface units for each of the pair of controllers and one of the pair of second loop interface units for each of the plurality of remote input/output units which are capable of performing reception, based on the reception information;

judging connection statuses of the pair of network loops based on the reception information; and

setting a control right each of the pair of controllers again, based on a result of the network loop judging step,

wherein the pair of redundant control interface units cause a control to continue without switching the control rights, in a case where the pair of redundant control interface units judge that portions respectively in the pair of network loops do not overlap with one another, each of the portions starting from each of the pair of controllers to a location of a failure; and

the pair of redundant control interface units set the control right in one of the pair of controllers again, in a case where failures occur in a plurality of portions in each of the pair of network loops, and where the pair of redundant control interface units judge that the communication statuses of the respective network loop are different from one another in a range where each of the controllers can access the remote input/output units.