EP0562992B1 - Access control system for protected areas - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to systems for controlling access to premises protected by remote control closing devices.

The closing members consist for example of one or more armored doors, the opening and closing of which are conditioned by the activation of electromagnetically controlled locks. In other cases, it may be a door actuated by an electric motor.

Access control systems generally provide means of identifying the person requesting access to the premises. These identification means use for example a magnetic card reader which can be accompanied by a keyboard intended to receive a confidential code. The function of the system is then to detect and analyze the information supplied by the identification means and, after analysis, to authorize or not to authorize access. If so, the system then causes the actuation of electromechanical means acting on the locking or opening mechanism of the door. In advanced systems, provision is also made for monitoring the proper functioning of the operation as well as the command to re-lock the mechanism after opening.

Such a surveillance system is generally organized around a control unit connected to the identification means (card reader, keyboard). Unity contains the identification reference data used to analyze the access request. The control unit is also connected to various sensors such as door open or closed status sensors or presence detectors.

Furthermore, the monitoring system can be connected to audible or optical indicators to signal, for example, the authorization of access to the user.

For security reasons, the control unit is generally placed inside the protected room in order to avoid any risk of manipulation at the level of the communication links between the room and the outside. The control unit can however be linked to an external remote monitoring center allowing centralized management of several protected sites.

The actuation of the electromechanical means for locking / unlocking or opening / closing the door, such as motors or electromagnetic relays, obviously require power circuits to supply them. It is also necessary to provide sensors to control the state or the position of these electromechanical actuation means first in order to limit their duration of activation but also to verify their correct operation and possibly to detect anomalies due to causes. such as attempted break-ins.

To this end, a conventional solution consists in providing an interface circuit electrically connected to the electrical actuation means and comprising the power circuits and the actuation control circuits. This interface circuit is connected to the control unit so as to receive the actuation orders and to transmit the detection signals of possible anomalies. This solution has the advantage of simplifying the task of the control unit because simple and limited information is exchanged with the interface circuit. For example, it suffices to provide the "open" or "close" orders issued by the control unit and the "fault signaled" signal issued by the interface.

This solution however has the disadvantage that the control unit has only a reduced visibility of the actuating means, which may be insufficient to establish the diagnosis for certain types of anomalies. Another important drawback lies in the fact that the interface circuit is specific to the type of closure system chosen. Thus, in the case for example of a lock, it will be necessary to provide for each lock model an adapted interface circuit. This has the consequence that any change of lock implies a change of the interface circuit. On the other hand, maintenance is more expensive because it is necessary to keep in reserve replacement interface circuits for each type of lock.

To overcome the above drawbacks, systems with a single interface circuit have been developed. For example, US Pat. No. 4,634,846 describes a control unit comprising power circuits in connection with actuation means of the control system and an interface circuit connected to the associated sensors. The control unit further comprises a processing unit provided with storage means containing a monitoring program.

However, such systems require significant modification of the monitoring program each time the actuation means are changed. This modification limits the flexibility of use of the system.

This is why there is proposed according to the invention a system easily adaptable to a plurality of types of actuation means.

Thus, the subject of the invention is a system for controlling access to premises protected by remotely controllable closing members, said system comprising a control unit connected on the one hand to means for detecting actuation requests. of said closing members and on the other hand, to electromechanical actuation means of said closing members as well as to state sensors of said actuating means, said control unit comprising power circuits directly connected to said means of actuation and an interface circuit directly connected to the associated sensors, said control unit further comprising a processing unit provided with first storage means containing a monitoring program, said system being characterized in that said program consists of a main program and at least one program module specific to the actuation means and associated sensors used.

Besides the flexibility of the system, this solution has the advantage of reducing the overall cost of installation thanks to the standardization of all the electronics of the system.

According to a first possibility, provision could be made for the specific program to be implemented in the control unit at the time of installation depending on the type of equipment chosen for the site in question. This solution however has a number of drawbacks linked to the lack of standardization of the unit. It would also require on-site testing, which would increase the cost of the installation.

In order to solve the preceding problem and according to an additional characteristic of the invention, the access control system is further characterized in that said first storage means contain a plurality of specific program modules for different types of means actuation and associated sensors, in that they comprise second storage means intended to receive the connection address of one of said specific modules and in that any actuation request results as a function of said connection address the connection of the monitoring program to the corresponding specific module.

This modular organization of the monitoring program facilitates installation on the site because it does not imply the establishment or modifications of the program but only the change of a characteristic address, for example of the type of electric lock used.

Advantageously, the storage means consist of non-volatile memories in order to make the system insensitive to power cuts.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, the system includes a user console connected to the control unit and allowing the user to interact with the unit in order to allow him to carry out the installation operations himself. or modification in the event, for example, of a change in the type of lock.

• la figure 1 représente une configuration typique d'un système de contrôle d'accès à un local;
• la figure 2 représente un autre exemple de configuration comportant plusieurs organes de fermeture;
• la figure 3 est une représentation schématique d'une unité de contrôle d'accès;
• la figure 4 représente un mode de réalisation des circuits de puissance commandés par l'unité de contrôle, et
• la figure 5 représente un mode de réalisation d'une unité de traitement de l'unité de contrôle.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear in the following description with reference to the figures:

• FIG. 1 represents a typical configuration of a system for controlling access to a room;
• FIG. 2 represents another example of configuration comprising several organs of closing;
• Figure 3 is a schematic representation of an access control unit;
• FIG. 4 represents an embodiment of the power circuits controlled by the control unit, and
• FIG. 5 represents an embodiment of a processing unit of the control unit.

FIG. 1 represents a typical configuration of a site provided with an access control system according to the invention. The left part of the figure shows the elements visible from the outside of the room which are here a double leaf door 1 and a card reader 2.

The right part of the figure shows the visible elements from the inside. There is the door 1 provided with a lock 6 and a keeper 7, each leaf of the door being associated with a position detector 4, 5. A push button 3 allows the user to trigger the opening of the door from the inside. The whole is controlled by the control unit 8.

FIG. 2 shows another possible configuration of premises which can be monitored by the system according to the invention. According to this example, the room comprises a first room accessible from the outside via door 1 and a second room communicating with the first through the second door 11. The control unit 8, placed in the second room, is connected to a user console 9. Access to the room is controlled by the card reader 2 associated with the keyboard 10 allowing a secret code conditioning the authorization of access to the room to be dialed. Each door 1, 11 is provided with a electromagnetic lock controlled by unit 8.

FIG. 3 represents the control unit located in its environment in a remote monitoring context. The control unit 8 comprises a central processing unit 13 which is connected by a serial link 15 to the card reader 2 and by another serial link 16 to the user console 9 placed near the unit. The unit 13 communicates via a modem 17 with a remote monitoring console 12. The processing unit 13 is finally connected to a lock interface circuit 14 itself connected to the electromechanical actuation means of the lock of the door 1 as well as to the associated sensors. The unit 13 can also be connected to various sensors such as door opening detectors or presence detector and to various means of light or acoustic signaling. An emergency power supply 18 is also provided to keep the unit in operation in the event of a failure of the electrical supply network.

The processing unit 13 is a unit programmed to manage the authorizations to open the doors as a function for example of time slots and the level of privilege associated with the card presented to the reader 2. The unit 13 can also manage the list of prohibited cards (lost cards) and perform context backups on non-volatile memory. The unit 13 finally controls the actuation of the door locks via the interface 14.
The interface 14 is essentially composed of power circuits to supply the electromagnetic actuation means of the locks and of coupling elements, such as photocouplers, to transmit to the unit 13 signals from sensors associated with the electromagnetic actuation means.

FIG. 4 represents an exemplary embodiment of the power circuits 14A of the interface 14.

According to this example, the interface can receive from the processing unit 13, the actuation control signals CFER, COUV, COM, the meanings of which will generally depend on the type of lock used and the wiring established between the interface and the means. electromechanical opening / closing.

The interface includes the output terminals FER, MOT, OUV, + M, - M, whose electrical state depends on the actuation control signals, as well as the supply terminals + and -.

By way of illustration, FIG. 4 shows a possibility of connections applicable in the configuration of FIG. 2 where the door 1 is provided with a lock whose bolt is actuated by a DC motor 30 associated with a sensor 31 of moving the bolt. The door 11 can be provided with another type of lock actuated for example by an electromagnetic relay 32 associated with a detector 33 of strike movement.

The motor 30 is supplied by the power transistors 35, 36 via a current reversing relay 34. The transistors 35, 36 are controlled by the signal COUV supplied by the unit 13 which also supplies the signal COM controlling relay 34.

The circuit 14A also receives from the unit 13 the signal CFER controlling the supply of the relay 32 via the power transistor 37. Advantageously, the connection between the signals COW and CFER and the power transistors is carried out by the through photocouplers providing electrical isolation and preamplifiers.

The operation of the circuit of the figure can be easily deduced from the diagram. The supply of the motor 30 is controlled by the signal COUV, while the polarity, therefore the direction of rotation, depends on the signal COM. Likewise, the supply of relay 32 depends directly on the CFER signal.

As a variant, the motor supply circuit 30 could supply two independent relays replacing the motor as well as additional relays connected downstream from the current reversing relay 34 by the MOT and OUV terminals. On the other hand, although the power circuit shown is capable of supplying most of the electric locks available on the market, provision may be made for additional transistor amplification modules making it possible to supply more complex systems.

Advantageously, the transistors of the amplification modules will be dimensioned so as to tolerate currents and voltages which can vary over ranges covering the needs of most of the relays and motors usually used to actuate locks and doors.

The above description shows the close dependence from the meaning of the control and detection signals to the choice of locks and wiring. It is therefore necessary that the control unit be programmed so as to take it into account for the development of diagnostics and control signals.

FIG. 5 represents an embodiment of the processing unit 13. This unit is organized around a bus B on which are connected a microprocessor 20, a programmable memory 21, an electrically modifiable programmable memory 22, a random access memory 23 , as well as various interface circuits 14B, 24 to 29.

The interface 29 carries out the communication between the bus B and a modem ensuring the connection by the telephone network with the remote monitoring console. The interface 24 is of the UART type and carries out the communication between the bus B and a serial link connected to the user console. The interface 25 is also of the UART type allowing the bus B to communicate by another serial link with the card reader, the keyboard and the push button placed near the door. The interface 26 is composed of a set of flip-flops or addressable buffer memories connected to an actuation circuit 27 used to control signaling means or an alarm.

The interface 14B also consists of a set of addressable buffer memories which are connected to the various sensors of the system by means of photocouplers. Similarly, the interface 28 includes addressable buffer memories supplying the control signals of the power circuit 14A described above.

The UART interfaces 24, 25 use conventional integrated circuits offered by various manufacturers. It is therefore unnecessary to indicate in detail the constitution and implementation.

Likewise, the production of the various interfaces 14B, 26 to 29 is within the reach of those skilled in the art and therefore does not require additional explanations.

The memory 21 is a non-volatile memory containing all of the monitoring, communication and system initialization programs. The monitoring program consists of a main program and a plurality of modules specific to different types of locks that can be managed by the system. The memory 22 is a non-volatile memory capable of being electrically modified and intended to receive in particular the address of a specific module corresponding to a chosen type of lock. The memory 23 is a random access memory used to temporarily store data intervening during the execution of the programs.

The circuit of Figure 5 operates as follows. When the system initializes, at the time of installation, the user console requests an initialization program comprising a user interface program allowing the presentation of an installation menu that can be displayed on the user console. This installation menu shows a list of the different types of locks that can be managed by the unit. When the user selects one of the items from the list, the installation program loads into memory 22 a connection address of a specific module corresponding to the selection.

Once the installation is complete, the system is operational to manage access control. When a request for actuation of the lock is detected by the monitoring program, the latter consults the address contained in memory 22 to connect to the specific module corresponding to the type of lock selected during installation.

The other functions of the system relating to remote monitoring, detection of access requests and activation of alarms and signals can be of the conventional type and therefore do not require detailed explanations.

The specific program modules will normally be loaded into the program memory 21 during the manufacture of the control unit. These modules will obviously be designed according to the specifications of the corresponding types of lock. If necessary, an installation guide can be provided indicating for each type of lock the connections to be made so as to ensure in all cases the compatibility between the modules and the associated types of locks.

The system according to the invention finally makes it possible to update the control unit as a function of the appearance of new models of lock simply by changing the program memory either by replacement on site, or by standard exchange of the unit.

The above description shows that the implementation of the invention involves a reduced number of additional elements compared to a system classic. This results in a minimal increase in the manufacturing cost of the system which is largely offset by the savings made on the specific interface circuit of the lock used.

Claims (10)

1. System for controlling access to premises protected by remotely controllable closing units (1, 6, 7), the said system consisting of a control unit (8) linked to means for detecting (2, 3, 10) requests to operate the said closing units (1, 6, 7) on the one hand and to status sensors (31, 33) of the said operating means (30, 32) on the other, the said control unit (8) having power circuits (14A) directly linked to the said operating means (30, 32) and an interface circuit (14B) directly linked to the relevant sensors (31, 33), the said control unit also having a processing unit (13) provided with first memory means (21) containing a monitoring programme, the said system being characterised in that the said programme comprises a main programme and at least one specific programme module of the operating means (30, 32) and the assigned sensors (31, 33) used.
2. Access control system as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the first memory means (21) contain a plurality of specific programme modules for different types of operating means (30, 32) and assigned sensors (31, 33) and have second memory means (22) designed to receive the branch address of one of the said specific modules and, as a function of the said branch address, a given operating request causes the monitoring programme to connect to the corresponding specific module.
3. Access control system as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that the said first memory means (21) consist of a first non-volatile programmable memory and the said second memory means (22) consist of a second non-volatile programmable memory that can be electrically modified.
4. Access control system as claimed in claim 3, characterised in that the said control unit (13) is linked to an operator's console (9) and the said first memory means (21) have a user interface programme allowing the said operator to modify the said branch address by means of the said operator's console (9).
5. Access control system as claimed in claim 4, characterised in that the said interface programme controls a sub-programme that presents an installation menu which is displayed on the said operator's console (9), the said installation menu displaying a list identifying the different types of operating means (30, 32) which can be managed by the said control unit and execution of the said interface programme takes account of the selection made by the operator of one of the headings in the list to register the said branch address as a function of the said selection.
6. Access control system as claimed in one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the said means for detecting the operating request incorporate identification means (2, 10) located outside the said premises.
7. Access control system as claimed in claim 6, characterised in that the said control unit (8) is linked to operating circuits (27) for signalling means located in the vicinity of the said identification means (2, 10).
8. Access control system as claimed in one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the said control unit (8) is linked by means of a modem (17) to a remote monitoring console (12).
9. Access control system as claimed in one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the said closing units consist of at least one door (1, 11) provided with an electro-magnetically controlled lock (6, 7).
10. Access control system as claimed in claim 9, characterised in that the said power circuits (14A) are of a size that is electrically compatible with a plurality of models of electro-magnetically controlled locks.

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