Background
Referring to fig. 1, the industrial equipment includes a host controller 10, such as a PC, and the operation of the industrial equipment, the setting and modification of process parameters, the monitoring and display of various parameters, etc. are controlled by the host controller 10. In many processes, the status of a plurality of peripheral hardware needs to be continuously monitored, but many information generated by the hardware is analog data, or the corresponding speed of the peripheral hardware is not synchronous with the host computer, so that the host computer cannot directly detect and control the peripheral hardware for various reasons, and an underlying controller 20 is generally required to detect and control parameters of the peripheral hardware. The underlying controller is typically a PLC. The PLC as the bottom layer controller can store part of parameters, and can write a fixed program as required. Parameters of the peripheral hardware are input into the bottom controller through a plurality of input ports 20a, processed or operated and then output to the upper computer controller 10 of the industrial equipment through a data line 30. The upper computer controller 10 determines control strategies for external hardware according to the input state parameters and parameters input through a user interface, and the control strategies are output to the bottom controller 20 through the data line 30. The underlying controller 20 converts the control signals into control parameters according to the control signals, and outputs the control parameters to corresponding peripheral hardware through a plurality of output ports 20 b. The peripheral hardware can be various sensors or actuators, wherein the sensors can be temperature sensors, flow sensors, optical sensors, power sensors and the like, and the actuators can be various fluid valves, electronic switches, controllers in the peripheral hardware and the like.
In the prior art, industrial equipment generally uses a general file form (e.g., excel) that is convenient for people to read and is not easily recognized by a machine to describe all relevant information stored in an underlying controller, such as hardware configuration information including network communication ports, names, types, ranges, units of signals, positions where signals are located in bus communication, logic interlocking information among signals, and the like. And the hardware configuration information is maintained by a lower computer (PLC) developer and an upper computer (PC) developer together, and any one party is notified to the other party after modification so as to enable the other party to make synchronous modification. The host computer 10 and the underlying controller 20 each store a fixed control program that matches these hardware configuration information. When an industrial equipment system is upgraded or equipment is updated, the hardware configuration information in a general file form (such as Excel) is necessarily changed, and at this time, a developer needs to modify and recompile the control programs in the bottom layer controller 20 (such as a PLC) and the upper computer controller 10 (such as a PC) according to the modification content in the general file, so that the recompiled control programs control the operation of the whole industrial equipment.
The system architecture shown in fig. 1 can effectively realize effective monitoring and control of various parameters of industrial equipment, but has obvious defects that when peripheral hardware needs to add or modify data definition (such as data range) or logic interlock is changed, a control program in the bottom layer controller 20 needs to be rewritten, and a fixed control program of the upper computer controller 10 also needs to be rewritten to adapt to new hardware settings. The industrial equipment needs continuous improvement, even if the industrial equipment is not improved, the change of hardware parameters caused by the replacement of suppliers can possibly lead to the need of re-writing all programs of the two controllers, which brings the problems of overhigh research and development cost and overlong period, so that the control system can only be applied to application environments with small peripheral hardware change, and is difficult to adapt to various rapidly-changed application occasions.
Meanwhile, the traditional Excel file contains a large amount of format information, so that the different version information of the general description file is inconvenient for industrial equipment to automatically identify, and the modification history of different versions is required to be read and known manually, so that version control cannot be performed.
Therefore, there is a need for an industrial device capable of adaptively controlling input and output, which can adaptively update a system or update a device without manually modifying programs in an underlying controller (e.g., PLC) and an upper computer controller (e.g., PC) after system update or peripheral hardware update, so that the industrial device can operate smoothly in various industrial environments.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of this, the present invention provides an industrial device with adaptive input/output control, which effectively solves the problems existing in the prior art, so that the industrial device can adapt to the input/output control program to complete the operation. The invention provides an industrial device with self-adaptive control, which comprises a bottom layer controller and an upper computer controller, wherein the bottom layer controller comprises a plurality of signal input/output ports and a plurality of peripheral hardware, the bottom layer controller comprises a plurality of input ports for connecting with a plurality of sensors and a plurality of signal output ports for connecting with a plurality of executors, and the bottom layer controller also comprises at least one data line connected with the upper computer controller through the data line, and is characterized in that at least one device description file is stored in the bottom layer controller and the upper computer controller, and a control program of the bottom layer controller is stored in the bottom layer controller and is used for processing signals of the plurality of signal input/output ports; the upper computer controller is stored with an upper computer control program for processing signals from the bottom layer controller, and the bottom layer controller and the upper computer controller both comprise a device description file identification program for reading the device description file and modifying the bottom layer controller control program and the upper computer control program according to the content of the device description file.
The device description file identification program can also be arranged in one of the upper computer or the bottom layer controller, such as the upper computer. The device description file identification program arranged in the upper computer controller is used for reading the device description file, modifying the bottom layer controller control program and the upper computer control program according to the content of the device description file, and transmitting the modified bottom layer controller control program to the bottom layer controller. Thus, the control programs in the two controllers are updated through one device description file identification program.
The invention also provides an operation method, which comprises the steps of stopping the operation of the upper computer controller and the bottom layer controller in the industrial equipment, modifying at least one peripheral hardware of the industrial equipment, inputting an equipment description file into the bottom layer controller or the upper computer controller so that the content of the equipment description file is updated, restarting the upper computer controller and the bottom layer controller, and identifying the updated equipment description file by an equipment description file identification program in the upper computer controller or the bottom layer controller, and selecting whether to regenerate a new bottom layer controller control program and an upper computer control program according to the information in the equipment description file.
Detailed Description
For the purpose of making the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention more apparent, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are some embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.
In the prior art, the above-mentioned various input parameters are stored in fixed addresses defined by the bottom layer controller 20 and the upper computer controller 10 when the industrial equipment is running, so that once these parameters need to be modified or added, the original program cannot be executed, and the parameters need to be modified and compiled again to be executed effectively.
The inventors have found that the hardware structure of the underlying controller (PLC) can read a markup language file (XML) in addition to the existing stored data and simple logic operations. The inventor proposes a control system architecture as shown in fig. 2, in which the markup language document can be directly read by the underlying controller 21 or by the host controller 11. The inventor proposes to add all the description contents of the peripheral hardware into the XML file to form the device description file of the present invention, where the parameters include the aforementioned network communication port, the name, the type, the range, the unit of the signal, the location where the signal is located in the bus communication, the logical interlocking information between the signals, and so on. The device description file contains logic signal description information and physical signal description information, and the physical signal description information can be actual physical signal transmission channel information such as a PLC module number or a port number on the PLC. The device description file also includes a mapping relationship or a scaling relationship between the physical signals and the logical signals, and also includes other information such as signal interlocking logic.
The device description file may be stored in the lower controller 21 or the upper computer controller 11, and when there are a plurality of upper computers or a plurality of lower controllers, any one node in a network connected through one or more data lines may store the device description file.
The bottom controller 21 also stores a device description file identification program 2, and the bottom controller 21 does not directly run a fixed bottom controller control program in operation, but the device description file identification program firstly reads the device description file information in a markup language format (XML), and then automatically adaptively modifies the bottom controller control program according to the information provided in the device description file, so that the bottom controller control program has the capability of being dynamically modified along with the device description file. Wherein the bottom layer controller control program can automatically change the program according to the device description file when writing in consideration of various changes of the content of the device description file. After the control system of the invention is adopted, when hardware parameters are modified or added, a researcher and a developer can directly modify the equipment description file stored in the bottom layer controller 21 through a special device, then the equipment description file identification program 2 in the bottom layer controller 21 reads the modified equipment description file again when industrial equipment is restarted, and the control program of the bottom layer controller is dynamically generated according to the modified content of the equipment description file. By such a method, the bottom layer controller 21 is not a fixed program any more at the time of operation, but can adaptively modify the whole control program according to peripheral hardware modification data input by a developer, and the bottom layer controller does not need to be manually reprogrammed, compiled and stored when hardware changes occur each time. The device for modifying the device description file can be a card reader, a memory card storing a new device description file is inserted into the bottom layer controller to update the device description file, or an external microcomputer is used to transmit the new device description file to the bottom layer controller or the upper computer controller through an input port arranged on the bottom layer controller or the upper computer controller. The upper computer can adopt the same method as the bottom layer controller, automatically identify the content change of the equipment description file through the equipment description file identification program 1 arranged in the upper computer, and automatically generate a corresponding upper computer control program according to the content change.
Because the upper computer controller 11 and the bottom layer controller 21 both automatically modify the programs through the same equipment description file, the new programs respectively formed after the automatic modification of the upper computer controller 11 and the bottom layer controller can still ensure smooth and accurate data transmission of the upper computer controller and the bottom layer controller, and data conflict and contradiction can not occur.
The device description file of the invention can be stored in the upper computer controller only, and when the peripheral hardware is modified, the device description file identification programs 1 and 2 in the upper computer controller and the bottom layer controller read the device description file at the same time, and the control programs of the upper computer controller and the bottom layer controller can be modified automatically and adaptively, so that the aim of the invention can be also realized. The industrial equipment can be provided with only one upper computer and one bottom controller, more bottom controllers and even a plurality of upper computer controllers, and as long as the plurality of controllers in the industrial equipment are mutually communicated with each other to form a control network, any node (any controller) in the control network stores the markup language file provided by the invention, and the markup language file can be read by other nodes in the network through network connection, so that all nodes in the whole industrial equipment can automatically and synchronously update the control program. The underlying controller in the present invention may be a PLC, as long as cost and space allow, a PC may also be used as the underlying controller.
As shown in fig. 3, in another embodiment of the present invention, an upper computer controller is connected to two bottom controllers 22 and 23 through data lines 30 and 32, respectively, and each bottom controller 22 and 23 includes a plurality of signal input ports 22a and 23a and a plurality of signal output ports 22b and 23b, respectively. The device description file recognition program in the underlying controller 23 may be omitted, and the updating of all control programs in the upper computer 11 and the underlying controllers 22, 23 is managed at the same time by the device description file recognition program provided in the upper computer controller 11. After restarting the industrial equipment, the equipment description file identification program in the upper computer controller 11 reads the equipment description file stored in any node in the whole controller network, and after the equipment description file is found to be modified, the upper computer control program in the upper computer controller 11 is automatically modified and stored, and meanwhile, the upper computer can also modify the bottom layer controller programs 1 and 2 in the bottom layer controllers 22 and 23 connected downstream and transmit the modified programs to the bottom layer controllers 22 and 23 for storage. Thus, the purpose of the invention can be achieved by only having the equipment description file identification program in the upper computer controller 11, namely, dynamically updating a plurality of control programs in the upper computer and the bottom layer controller according to the change information of the peripheral hardware.
The recognizable language described in the present invention includes, but is not limited to, markup language files (xml), as long as files that can be recognized by the device description file recognition program in the underlying controller and the upper computer are applicable to the present invention. The markup language file at least contains logic signal description information, physical signal description information, and at least one of the mapping relation and conversion relation of the logic signal description information and the physical signal description information and the description information of the signal interlocking logic. The device description file identification program in the invention can automatically modify the control program in the upper computer/bottom layer controller according to the at least logic signal description information, physical signal description information and the mapping relation thereof contained in the markup language file. The memory address of each variable in the program can be dynamically allocated according to the information, and finally the dynamic automatic update of the control program is realized. In the prior art, because the input and output ports of the bottom layer controllers are all fixed, only logic signal description information is provided, no physical signal description information is provided, variables cannot be related to the variation of actual physical signals, and the control programs in the two controllers are also necessarily fixed, cannot be automatically modified and must be manually modified again.
The device description files stored on any node of the industrial device system network are respectively stored in the version control system as a single version, and a manager can track and maintain the running performance of the current industrial device by managing the version control system and reading the device description file information read by the bottom layer controller 21 and the upper computer controller 11. In the prior art, because the machine such as EXCEL cannot read the file which can only be read manually and can not be tracked effectively, and the method adopts the markup language file as the device description file, each controller can read automatically, so that tracking management is convenient.
The adaptive industrial equipment in the present application is a plasma processor including, but not limited to, a capacitively coupled plasma (CAPACITIVELY COUPLED PLASMA, CCP) processor, an inductively coupled plasma (Inductively Coupled Plasma, ICP) processor, and the like. The plasma processor comprises a wafer pedestal for fixing a wafer to be processed, an air inlet component for inputting processing gas, and a radio frequency power supply for delivering radio frequency power into a reaction chamber of the plasma processor to form plasma. Plasma etchers are used to process semiconductor wafers, with increasingly high processing accuracy and uniformity requirements for wafers (CD less than 7 nm) as the process evolves. In order to better control the plasma processing effect, a large number of signal sensors are included in the plasma processor, for example, measuring the temperature of the electrostatic chuck includes nearly 30 or even hundreds of temperature measuring devices, and many other parts include respective temperature measuring devices. In addition, the radio frequency current, air pressure, air cylinders, etc. in series monitoring and control devices result in a wide variety of signals and various signal formats connected to the underlying controller. The evolution speed of the semiconductor equipment industry is very fast, new equipment adapting to new generation technology needs to be developed every year, even the same equipment needs to execute different technology, and therefore peripheral hardware also has a little difference, and the above reasons cause that in the plasma processor, the number of peripheral hardware connected to the bottom layer controller is large and continuously in variation, if the method of the prior art is adopted, the upper computer controller and the bottom layer controller need to be modified and compiled from new manual work every time the peripheral hardware is modified, and the process time and cost cannot meet the development requirement of the plasma processor at all. After the dynamic adjustable control program provided by the application is applied, the time and labor cost are greatly reduced, and the plasma processor with diversified peripheral hardware has economy.
While the present invention has been described in detail through the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment, it should be understood that the foregoing description is not to be considered as limiting the invention. Many modifications and substitutions of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.