JP3240576B2 - Plant monitoring equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plant monitoring apparatus which receives signals from a process or various kinds of electric equipment installed in the process, and monitors the control and operation states thereof. The present invention relates to a plant monitoring device provided with a TV camera that captures an image of the state of a plant device controlled by the system, and which can grasp the operation state of the plant device even with video.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a plant monitoring apparatus called a distributed control system for performing a control operation and monitoring of a plant using a CRT display device. Such a plant monitoring device displays various information necessary for control and operation of the plant on the CRT screen of the display device, and, when an abnormality occurs in the plant, displays an alarm to notify the operator of the abnormality. The operator is configured to give an appropriate instruction and process for the abnormality.

Also, an ITV camera is installed so that the operation status of plant equipment such as valves, pumps and various sensors constituting the plant can be visually monitored, and video information from the ITV camera is monitored. (See Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
JP-A-1-94483, JP-A-64-35697, JP-A-3-65795).

[0004] In the plant monitoring apparatus having such a configuration, image information obtained from the ITV and information displayed on the monitoring screen are recorded on a video recording apparatus (VTR) as necessary. Here, in the conventional device, the image information recorded on the video recording device is continuously recorded over time on a recording medium such as a video tape,
Alternatively, recording is performed by thinning out the time.

[0005]

As a result, the amount of the recording medium increases with time, and when an accident occurs, the work of verifying the accident later becomes inefficient. The present invention has been made in view of such a point,
Efficient monitoring and control information by recording video information for monitoring the operation status of plant equipment and video information indicating the operation status of the plant operation / monitoring device in association with the operation status and operation status of the process control device It is an object of the present invention to provide a plant monitoring device that can well confirm and verify.

[0006]

According to the present invention for achieving the above object, a control device for controlling a plant, and various kinds of information which are connected to the control device via a communication line and are handled by the control device are displayed. In a plant monitoring device including an operation monitoring device having an operation monitoring function of performing an operation driving instruction, a first TV camera that captures an operation status and an operation monitoring screen in an operation unit of the operation monitoring device, A second TV camera group that captures an image of the state of plant equipment controlled by the control device, a video recording device that records image information captured by each of the TV cameras, and an abnormality in the process.
If any, an abnormality is detected in the second TV camera group.
Select the camera that is capturing the process that was
When operating the viewing device, the first TV camera
Selecting the selected TV camera against the video recording device
And a video recording instructing means for instructing to record an image including the video captured in the above .

[0007]

The first and second TV cameras detect an image in a range to be monitored by themselves and transfer a video signal to the operation monitoring device. The video recording instruction means receives a signal from the operation monitoring device, and captures, for example, a timing at which an operator attempts to operate the operation unit or a timing at which a process controlled by the control device has an abnormality. Then, the video recording device is instructed to start recording the video signal from each TV camera.

Thus, the video recording apparatus records the video from each TV only at the time of the process control operation, the start of the operation, or at an important time when the status of the process control becomes abnormal.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, OP is an operation monitoring device (operator station), a display means 1 such as a CRT, which is a man-machine interface function, an operation keyboard 2 for inputting operation / operation of a process and inputting data, and a pointing device such as a mouse. It has.

The FC is a distributed control device (control station). This control device is connected to the operation monitoring device OP via the communication line BS. In this control device, signals from various sensors SN installed in the process are input, and actuators such as valves and pumps are input.
Multiple function blocks to control T (or internal instrument)
3 are prepared. Each of these functional blocks 3 has, for example, a PID control calculation function and a function of monitoring upper and lower limits for input data and output data from a process, and the like.
When the value exceeds the upper / lower limit range, an alarm signal indicating the fact is transmitted to the operation monitoring device OP via the communication line BS.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a first TV camera, which is an operation monitoring device O
The operation keyboard 2 as the operation unit of P and the screen of the display unit 1 are installed so as to be able to simultaneously capture the operation status, the operation monitoring image displayed on the screen, and the like of the operation unit. . 5 is the second T
In the V camera group, various plant equipment controlled by the control device FC (here, in addition to the sensor SN, the actuator ACT such as a valve or a pump, various equipment such as a pipe, a distillation tower, a chimney, etc.) Are collectively referred to as).

[0012] Image information captured by each TV camera can be recorded by a six video recording device (VTR). 7
Is a video controller, each TV camera and video recording device 6
And to the operation monitoring device OP. The video controller 7 receives the signal from the operation monitoring device OP, and switches the video signal from each TV camera, and performs zooming and zooming on the selected TV camera.
It has a function of transmitting signals for pan and tilt operations.

Numeral 8 denotes a video recording instruction means, which is provided in the operation monitoring device OP, and controls the video recording device 6 based on an operation on the operation monitoring device OP or occurrence of an abnormal state of the process. It is configured to give an instruction to start or stop recording of image information captured by each TV camera. The operation of the device configured as described above will be described below.

The distributed control devices FC perform predetermined control calculations and the like using signals from various sensors SN, and operate each actuator ACT to control the process. Various types of control information handled by the control device FC are sent to the operation monitoring device OP via the communication line BS, and the operation monitoring device OP displays process control information, monitoring results, and the like on its display screen. Further, the operation monitoring device OP transmits control information for performing operation and operation of the process to the control device FC via the communication line BS. Such an operation is an operation of a general distributed control device.

On the other hand, each T for imaging various process equipment
The monitoring video signal from the V camera 5 is transmitted to the video controller 7
Sent to The video controller 7 includes an operation monitoring device OP
The video signal from each TV camera 5 is switched and selected according to the command from the TV monitor 5, and is input to the display unit 1 of the operation monitoring device OP. The display unit 1 of the operation monitoring device OP displays the video information sent from the video controller 7 on the screen, superimposed on the control information of the process and the monitoring result, or in a window format.

FIG. 2 is a view showing an example of a screen displayed by the display means 1 of the operation monitoring device OP. Here, the video information from the TV camera 5 installed on the site is displayed in a window format in the graphic display indicating the monitoring plant. A selection key (I) for switching and displaying video information from another TV camera is displayed at the bottom of this window.
TV1, ITV2, ITV3) are prepared,
A key (video) for selecting and displaying a video image is provided.

Accordingly, the operator operates these keys by using, for example, a pointing device or the like,
It is possible to sequentially switch to video information from another TV camera for monitoring. The video information displayed on the screen is
The images from each TV camera may be switched and displayed at regular intervals. Further, a plurality of pieces of video information from the TV camera may be simultaneously displayed in a plurality of windows.

Returning to FIG. 1, the first TV camera 4 simultaneously captures the operation status of the operation section of the operation monitoring device OP and the image displayed on the operation monitoring screen as shown in FIG. The video signal is input to the controller 7. The video recording instruction means 8 provided in the operation unit of the operation monitoring device OP receives a signal from the operation monitoring device OP, and controls the timing when the operator tries to operate the operation unit (operation keyboard or the like). At a timing when an abnormality occurs in a process controlled by the device FC, the video recording device 6 is instructed to start recording a video signal from the first TV camera 4.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation performed by the video recording instruction means 8. The video recording instructing means 8 receives a signal from the operation monitoring device OP,
Is constantly determining whether an error has occurred in the process being monitored (step 1). If any abnormality occurs in the process (the abnormality of the process can be recognized by an alarm signal or the like transferred from the control device FC), the abnormal location is recognized from the tag name attached to the alarm signal, and the second A video signal from the TV camera capturing the abnormal place is selected from the TV camera group 5 (step 2).

Even if no abnormality has occurred in the process, it is determined whether or not an operation unit (keyboard or the like) has been operated (step 3), and the operation is performed or the operator arrives at the operation position. Is detected (such detection can be performed by installing an infrared sensor or the like), the video signal from the first camera 4 is selected (step 4).

Subsequently, the video recording device 6 is instructed to record a video signal from the selected TV camera (step 5). Thus, the video recording device 6 starts recording a video signal from the selected TV camera. Here, in the case where the video signal from the first TV camera 4 is selected and recorded, the operation monitoring screen of the plant monitored by the operation monitoring device OP and the second screen displayed in the window, for example, in a window format are displayed. Is recorded together with the video information from the TV camera, and the video of what operation the operator is performing using the keyboard or the pointing device is also recorded at the same time.

In the case where the video signal from the second TV camera is selected and recorded, the video displayed on the monitor screen and the video indicating the operation state of the plant equipment at the location where the abnormality has occurred are recorded. It will be. Thereafter, it is determined whether the process has returned to a normal state (when step 1 has been performed) or whether a certain period of time has elapsed since the operation of the operation unit (when step 3 has been performed). If YES is determined, the video recording device 6
Instructs to stop recording. Thereby, the video recording device 6
Stops recording video (step 7).

By such an operation, the video recording device 6 is provided with an important time when the status of the process control becomes abnormal or when the operator operates a keyboard or the like (for example, at the time of process start-up, The video recording device records the video from each TV camera only at the time when the user manually controls the process).

The video recording on the video recording device 6 is performed by T
In addition to the video from the V camera, data such as time, alarm information, and operation information may be recorded together. Further, the video recording device 6 may be configured to be able to start / stop recording by a manual instruction from an operator, in addition to starting / stopping the recording by an instruction from the video recording instructing means 8.

[0025]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, video information for monitoring the operation state of plant equipment,
The video information indicating the operation status of the plant operation / monitoring device is
When an important event occurs, it can be recorded in association with the operation status and operation status of the process control device, and various monitoring control information can be efficiently confirmed and verified. Also, when an operator or the like operates the operation unit of the operation monitoring device, the video including the operation of the operator is recorded as it is, so that it is possible to verify whether the operation of the operator has been performed correctly together with the control and operation status of the process. Etc. can also be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example of a screen displayed by a display unit 1 of the operation monitoring device OP.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation performed by a video recording instruction unit 8;

[Explanation of symbols]

 OP Operation monitoring device (operator station) FC control device (control station) BS communication line SN sensor AC actuator 1 Display means 2 Operation keyboard 3 Function block 4 First TV camera 5 Second TV camera 6 Video recording device 7 Video controller 8 Image recording instruction means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G09G 5/00 G05B 23/02 H04N 7/18 G06F 17/40 G06T 1/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A control device for controlling a plant, and an operation monitoring device connected to the control device via a communication line and having an operation monitoring function for displaying various information handled by the control device and giving an operation instruction. A first TV camera that captures an operation status and an operation monitoring screen of an operation unit of the operation monitoring device, and a second that captures a state of plant equipment controlled by the control device. TV camera group, a video recording device for recording image information captured by each of the TV cameras, and a second TV camera group when an abnormality occurs in the process.
Turtle capturing the process in which an error was detected
If you select a device and operate the operation monitoring device,
Select the first TV camera and tell the video recording device
Record images including video captured by the selected TV camera
And a video recording instructing means for instructing the plant monitoring.