JPH0962479A - Supervisory control equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the supervisory control equipment which has a man- machine interface that is improved in both operability and visibility. SOLUTION: A cursor position recognition part 92 recognizes the position of a mouse cursor which is indicated through a keyboard 7 or with a mouse 8. An area discrimination part 93 discriminates on which icon the mouse cursor is according to the recognized cursor position. In response to that, an equipment state decision part 94 decides whether or the facility equipment corresonding to the icon indicated by the mouse cursor can currently operate judging from the state of respective facility equipments held in a preprocessing part 5. A cursor display part 95 displays the mouse cursor as a white arrow when the facility equipment corresponding to the icon can currently operate or as a black arrow when not.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a supervisory control device for monitoring and controlling various types of equipment at a specific location, and more particularly to a supervisory control device for selecting and designating equipment to be controlled from the displayed items.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Modernized facilities, such as plants and buildings, such as electric power facilities, have many equipments. In order to operate these facilities smoothly, it is necessary to operate each equipment in cooperation with each other, and it is possible to collectively monitor the operation status of each equipment at a specific place and control the equipment. Supervisory control devices are widely used.

In many of these monitoring and control devices, the man-machine interface section for notifying the user of the state of each equipment and receiving an instruction from the user to each equipment often includes a monitor and a mouse.

The above-mentioned monitor control device displays on the screen of the monitor an icon, which is a graphic representing each equipment, at a predetermined position together with the connection relationship between the icons and the like. The state change of each device is displayed as a change in the color and shape of the corresponding icon, so that the user can glance at what kind of state each facility device is in.

Further, the monitor control device displays a mouse cursor which moves according to the operation of an input device such as a mouse on the screen. The user selects the icon by clicking the mouse after moving the mouse cursor over the icon indicating the facility device to be operated. As a result, the monitoring control device recognizes that the equipment device corresponding to this icon has been selected, and controls the device.

However, whether or not each facility device can be operated changes depending on the state at that time. Therefore, in the conventional monitoring control device, the following two methods are performed as a method of notifying the user whether or not each facility device is currently operable.

In the first method, whether or not the equipment corresponding to each icon is operable is not displayed until the icon is selected, and each corresponding device can be operated after the icon is selected. This is a method of informing whether or not. FIG.
As shown in, the monitoring control device displays the icon 124a indicating the currently operable facility device and the icon 124b indicating the currently inoperable facility device in the same color and the same shape. Therefore, the user cannot distinguish the icon 124a and the icon 124b from the display screen.

[0008] When the user selects the equipment corresponding to the icon 124a by placing the mouse cursor 125 on the icon 124a and clicking, the monitor control device displays to inquire about the operation of the equipment. As a result, it is found that the equipment corresponding to the icon 124a is currently operable.

When the user selects the equipment corresponding to the icon 124b, the monitor control device does not display the inquiry. As a result, it is found that the equipment corresponding to the icon 124b is currently inoperable. When the operation is impossible, it may be displayed that the operation is not possible.

On the other hand, the second method is a method of changing the shape or color of the icon corresponding to the facility device that is currently operable and the icon corresponding to the facility device that is not currently operable. As shown in FIG. 5, the icon 124c indicating the facility device that is currently inoperable is displayed in a different shape from the icon 124a indicating the facility device that is currently operable. Therefore, the user is
24a and the icon 124c can be distinguished by their shapes. Mouse cursor 125 icon 124
When the user selects the icon 124a by clicking the mouse or the like after moving it to "a", the monitoring control device controls the corresponding equipment.

[0011]

However, there is a problem that it is difficult to improve the visibility and operability by the two types of informing methods performed in the above-mentioned conventional monitor and control device.

First, in the first method shown in FIG.
The user cannot read from the screen display whether or not the equipment that he or she wants to select is currently operable.
Therefore, for example, in order to confirm whether or not the facility device corresponding to the icon 124a can be operated, it is necessary to actually select the icon 124a.

As a result, the number of operations required to select the device to be operated increases. Therefore, there is a problem that the operation becomes complicated and the operability is deteriorated. Also,
The increase in the number of operations increases the number of occurrences of erroneous operations.

Further, if a display for inquiring about the operation of the equipment corresponding to the icon 124a is made after the icon 124a is selected, the user judges that the device is currently operable, and the inquiry display is performed. If not, it is determined that the device is not currently operable.
However, if the inquiry display of the operation for the device is not displayed, the cause may be an operation error such as the position of the mouse cursor being misaligned. Therefore, if an operation mistake is suspected, the icon 12
It is necessary to select 4a to confirm that there is no operation error, and the number of operations increases. Further, in order to eliminate the above operation mistake, the user needs to select the icon 124a while confirming that the mouse cursor 125 is definitely on the icon 124a.

When the monitor and control device displays that the selected device cannot be operated, the above-mentioned erroneous operation is not suspected, but since the operation for deleting this display is necessary, the number of times of operation is also reduced. Increase more.

For these reasons, it is difficult to improve the operability of the supervisory control device when informing whether or not each device is operable by the first method.

On the other hand, in the second display method shown in FIG. 5, the display state such as color and shape is changed by the icon 124a indicating the operable equipment and the icon 124c indicating the inoperable equipment. There is a need. Therefore, the number of necessary icon display states increases. However, since the number of colors and pixels that can be displayed on the screen of the monitor is limited, the number of colors and pixels that can be used to display each icon is limited. Therefore, when many display states are expressed, it is difficult to distinguish between different display states, and it may be difficult to recognize the state of each facility device from the screen display.

Further, the monitoring control device always displays both information indicating whether each device is operable and the state of each device. However, when control is not performed, such as during monitoring, information as to whether or not each device is operable is unnecessary. Therefore, when not controlling,
Unnecessary information as to whether or not each device is operable increases the total amount of displayed information and reduces the proportion of necessary information. As a result, during monitoring, it is difficult for the user to read the status of each equipment from the screen display.

For these reasons, it is difficult to improve the visibility of the monitoring control device when informing whether or not each device is operable by the second method.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to improve both the operability and the visibility of the man-machine interface of the monitoring control device.

[0021]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a display area corresponding to equipment is set on a display screen and the state of equipment is handled. Device status display means for displaying in the display area, cursor display means for displaying a cursor for selecting the display area, and area identifying means for identifying in which display area the cursor display means displays the cursor. The monitoring control device having the above is characterized by including the following means.

That is, it is provided with a device state determination means for determining whether or not the equipment of interest, which is the equipment corresponding to the display area for displaying the cursor, is currently operable based on the identification of the area identification means.

Further, the cursor display means displays the cursor in the first display state and the equipment state determination means when the equipment state determination means determines that the equipment of interest is currently operable. When it is determined that the device of interest is not currently operable, the cursor is displayed in the second display state different from the first display state.

According to the above configuration, the device status display means is
The state of each equipment is displayed in a predetermined display area, for example, as an icon whose color and shape change according to the change of state. The area identification means identifies on which display area the cursor display means displays the cursor. The device state determination means determines whether or not the device of interest corresponding to the display area identified by the area identification means is currently operable.

The cursor display means changes the display status such as the color and shape of the cursor based on the judgment of the device status judgment means. When the device state determination unit determines that the target device is currently operable, the cursor display unit displays the cursor in the first display state such as a white arrow. Further, when the device of interest is not currently operable, the device state determination means recognizes this, and the cursor display means displays the cursor in the second display state such as a black arrow.

The user monitors the state of the equipment displayed as icons and the like, and in response to this,
Control the equipment that can be operated now. When selecting the equipment, the display position of the cursor is changed by an input device such as a mouse, and the cursor is brought onto the display showing the equipment to be selected, and then the equipment is selected.

Therefore, it is possible to display whether or not the target device can be operated before selecting the target device. Therefore,
It is not necessary to select the display area showing the equipment in order to confirm whether the equipment is currently operable, unlike the conventional case. As a result, the number of operations when selecting equipment to be controlled is reduced, so that the operability of the monitoring control device is improved.

The information on whether or not the equipment can be operated is displayed only for the device of interest. Further, the information is displayed as a change in the display state of the cursor, which is different from the state of each facility device displayed in the display area. Therefore, it is not necessary to increase the amount of information displayed in the display area. In addition, the change in the display state of the cursor can be easily distinguished from the state of each equipment displayed in the display area. As a result, the visibility is improved as compared with the conventional case of always displaying whether or not each equipment can be operated.

In addition, when the cursor enters the display area corresponding to the currently operable equipment, the display state of the cursor changes, so it is easy to determine whether or not the cursor is in the display area, and the operability is further improved. Is improved.

[0030]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
The following is a description with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the supervisory control device according to the present embodiment communicates with a slave station 2 that controls each equipment 1 ... And a slave station 2 ... Through a transmission line 3 such as a token ring. It is equipped with a master station 4 for performing. The slave station 2 acquires the state of each equipment device 1 ..., Measurements input from each equipment device 1 ..., Sends to the master station 4, and transmits each device 1 based on the instruction from the master station 4. You can control ...

The master station 4 has a pre-processing section 5 for communicating with the slave stations 2, a monitor 6 for displaying a status, and a keyboard 7.
And an input device such as a mouse 8 and a man-machine interface control unit 9 including a workstation. The pre-processing unit 5 holds the state of each device 1 ... Received from the slave station 2, notifies the man-machine interface control unit 9 of the state, and sends the control contents instructed by the man-machine interface control unit 9 to the slave station 2. Send.
The man-machine interface controller 9 displays the state of each equipment 1 ... Obtained from the preprocessor 5 on the monitor 6 and preprocesses the control contents to the equipment 1 designated by the keyboard 7 and the mouse 8. It is sent to the unit 5.

As a result, the user can monitor the status of each equipment 1 ... At the master station 3 and control each equipment 1 ... In accordance with the situation.

In the supervisory control device according to this embodiment, the keyboard 7 and the mouse 8 are used as input devices.
Is used, but is not limited to this. For example, the same effect as this embodiment can be obtained by using another pointing device such as a trackball or a touch panel.

As shown in FIG. 2, a menu area 21, a log area 22 and a pattern area 23 are provided on the screen of the monitor 6. By the user selecting each menu provided in the menu area 21,
A table of contents, date and time, etc. can be displayed. The log area 22 displays the name of the equipment 1 that has been operated so far, the time of operation, and the like. By referring to the log area 22, it is possible to check the operation so far.

The pattern area 23 is used for the equipment 1
This is for monitoring the state of ... And for instructing each equipment 1 to perform control. In this pattern area 23,
The icon 24 showing the equipment 1 ... and the icon 24
A mouse cursor 25 that is a cursor for designating is displayed. FIG. 2 shows a display example in the case where the monitoring control device is applied to the monitoring control of electric power. In the pattern area 23, icons 24 ... Which indicate a power source and a circuit breaker are displayed. The user can monitor the state of each device 1 by the displayed icon 24, and by designating the icon 24, it is possible to control ON / OFF of the circuit breaker corresponding to the icon 24.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the man-machine interface control section 9 has an icon display section (device state display means) 91 for monitoring the state of each equipment 1.
It has. The icon display unit 91 periodically reads out the status of each facility device 1 from the preprocessing unit 5. After that, the icon display unit 91 displays each icon 24 at a predetermined position in the pattern area 23 in a display state according to the state of each facility device 1.

In addition, the man-machine interface control unit 9 selects a facility device 1 to control, and a cursor position recognition unit 92 that recognizes the cursor position of the mouse cursor 25 based on an instruction from the keyboard 7 or the mouse 8. An area identification unit (area identification means) 93 for identifying which icon 24 the mouse cursor 25 shows based on the cursor position and the equipment 1 corresponding to the icon 24 shown by the mouse cursor 25 are currently operated. A device state determination unit (device state determination unit) 94 that determines whether or not possible, and a cursor display unit (cursor display unit) 95 that displays the cursor 25 in a display state based on the determination of the device state determination unit 94. Is equipped with.

The cursor position recognizing section 92 uses the keyboard 7
The cursor position for displaying the next mouse cursor 25 is acquired from the input of the mouse 8 and the current cursor position.
The area identification unit 93 determines which icon 24 the acquired cursor position belongs to, and identifies which icon 24 the mouse cursor 25 is on.

Further, the equipment state judging section 94 receives a mode number for periodically judging from the preprocessing section 5 whether or not the equipment 1 is operable. The mode numbers are the equipment 1 that can be operated and the equipment 1 that cannot be operated.
It shows a combination with. The pre-processing unit 5 acquires the mode number corresponding to the current state from the state of the equipment 1 ... Received from the slave station 2, and sends it to the device state determination unit 94. The device state determination unit 94 can determine whether or not each facility device 1 is currently operated from the received mode number.
As a result, the device state determination unit 94 causes the mouse cursor 2
It is determined whether or not the device 1 corresponding to the icon 24 indicated by 5 can be operated.

The cursor display section 95 is a device state determination section 9
Based on the determination of 4, the display state of the mouse cursor 25 displayed in the pattern area 23 is determined. As shown in FIG. 3, when the equipment state determination unit 94 determines that the corresponding equipment 1 can be operated, the cursor display unit 95 displays the first
As the mouse cursor 25 in the display state of, for example, a white arrow mouse cursor 25a is displayed. When it is determined that the equipment 1 is not currently operable, the cursor display unit 95 displays the mouse cursor 25 in the second display state as, for example, a mouse cursor 25b with a black arrow.
Is displayed. In addition, in FIG. 3, a black arrow is indicated by a diagonal line.

The icon display section 91, the cursor position recognition section 92, the area identification section 93, and the device state determination section 9 are described.
4 and the cursor display unit 95 are functional modules realized by the workstation of the man-machine interface control unit 9 executing a predetermined program.

In the above configuration, from the icon 24b corresponding to the facility device 1b which is currently inoperable as shown in FIG.
Icon 24a corresponding to the currently operable facility device 1a
The following is a description of the operation of each part of the monitor control device when the mouse cursor 25 is moved, focusing on the display example of FIG.

That is, the slave station 2 periodically sends the state of each equipment 1 ... To the master station 4 via the transmission path 3. The pre-processing unit 5 provided in the master station 4 receives and holds the status of each equipment 1 ... Sent from the slave station 2.

The icon display section 91 provided in the man-machine interface control section 9 periodically reads out the state of each equipment 1 held in the pre-processing section 5, and based on this, the pattern area shown in FIG. Each icon 2 on 23
4 is displayed. The display state of each icon 24 displayed in the pattern area 23, such as color and shape, changes depending on the state of the corresponding equipment 1. Thereby, the user can monitor the state of the equipment 1 ... By recognizing the display state of the displayed icons 24.

When the mouse cursor 25b is located on the icon 24b, the cursor position recognition unit 92 causes the keyboard 7
The cursor position is recognized from the input of the mouse or the mouse 8.
Based on the acquired cursor position, the area identification unit 93 determines that the mouse cursor 25b is on the icon 24b.

Further, the equipment state judging section 94 is constituted by the preprocessing section 5
From this, a mode number indicating whether or not each facility device 1 is currently operable is periodically read. Currently, equipment 1
Since “a” is operable and the equipment 1b is not operable, the device state determination unit 94 receives the mode number indicating this state from the preprocessing unit 5 and holds it as the current mode number. Accordingly, the device state determination unit 94 determines from the current mode number that the facility device 1b corresponding to the icon 24b is inoperable.

As a result, the cursor display section 95 displays the mouse cursor 25b as a black arrow. The user
The display state of the mouse cursor 25b displayed on the icon 24b makes it possible to identify that the equipment 1b is inoperable.

Then, the keyboard 7 and the mouse 8 are operated to move the mouse cursor 25 onto the icon 24a.

When the mouse cursor 25 is in the area between the icon 24b and the icon 24a, the area identification section 93
Judges that the mouse cursor 25 is not on any icon 24. In this case, the device state determination unit 94 determines that the facility device 1 corresponding to the icon 24 is not operable. Therefore, the cursor display unit 95 displays the mouse cursor 25 as a black arrow.

When the mouse cursor 25 reaches the icon 24a by operating the keyboard 7 and the mouse 8, the area identification section 93 causes the reached mouse cursor 25a.
Is on the icon 24a, and the device state determination unit 9
No. 4 determines from the current mode number that the equipment 1a corresponding to the icon 24a is currently operable. Therefore, the cursor display unit 95 displays the mouse cursor 25a as a white arrow. As a result, the user can determine that the corresponding equipment 1a is currently operable before selecting the icon 24a.

The mouse cursor 25 is changed to the icon 24.
Since the display state of the mouse cursor 25 changes almost at the same time when the mouse cursor 25 comes over a, the user can surely recognize that the mouse cursor 25 is on the icon 24a.

When the icon 24a is selected by clicking the mouse 8 or the like, the man-machine interface control unit 9 inquires about the operation content for the selected equipment 1a. When the operation content is instructed by the keyboard 7 or the like, the man-machine interface control section 9 sends the control information based on the instruction content to the preprocessing section 5. The slave station 2 controls the facility device 1a based on the control information transmitted from the preprocessing unit 5 via the transmission path 3.

When the state of the equipment 1 changes and the combination of the equipment 1 that can be operated and the equipment 1 that cannot be operated changes, the equipment state determination unit 94 periodically. , The mode number indicating this combination is given to the preprocessing unit 5.
Receive from The device status determination unit 94 determines whether or not the icon 24 is operable based on the newly obtained mode number, so that the cursor display unit 95 displays the mouse cursor 25 in a display state according to the change. . As a result, the user can change the state of the equipment 1 ...
It is possible to know whether or not the equipment 1 corresponding to the icon 24 indicated by the mouse cursor 25 is currently usable.

As described above, the monitoring control apparatus according to this embodiment includes the icon display section 91, the area identification section 93, the device state determination section 94, and the cursor display section 95, and the icon display section 91 is used for each facility. The state of the device 1 is displayed as a change in the display state of the icon 24, and the mouse cursor 2
The display state of the mouse cursor 25 is changed depending on whether or not the equipment 1 corresponding to the icon 24 shown by 5 is currently operable.

That is, the area identification unit 93 identifies the icon 24 indicated by the mouse cursor 25, and the device state determination unit 94 determines whether the facility device 1 corresponding to the icon 24 is currently operable. . Cursor display area 95
If the equipment 1 is currently operable,
The mouse cursor 25 is displayed in the display state of, and when it is not currently operable, the mouse cursor 2 is displayed in the second display state.
5 is displayed.

Therefore, before selecting the icon 24, it is possible to display whether or not the equipment 1 corresponding to the icon 24 is currently operable. Therefore, unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to select the icon 24 in order to confirm whether or not the equipment 1 is currently operable. As a result, the number of operations when selecting the equipment 1 is reduced, so that the operability of the monitoring control device is improved.

Information on whether or not the equipment 1 can be operated is displayed as a change in the display state of the mouse cursor 25 on the icon 24. Therefore, the required display state of the icon 24 can be reduced as compared with the case where the above information is displayed as a change in the display state of the icon 24. There is a problem in that it is difficult to distinguish between different icons 24 when trying to increase the display state of the icons 24, but the above information can be displayed without causing this problem. Also, the selected icon 24
Since it is not displayed whether or not each facility device 1 corresponding to the icons 24 other than is operable, the amount of information on the entire screen is not increased. Therefore, the icon 2
Each equipment 1 displayed as a change in the display state of 4
The visibility of the state of is improved.

Further, the change in the display state of the mouse cursor 25 can be easily distinguished from the change in the display state of the icon 24. In addition, the state of the equipment 1 is represented by the icon 24, and the information as to whether the equipment 1 is operable is represented by the mouse cursor 25. As a result, both the state of the device 1 and the above information can be easily distinguished and recognized, and the visibility of the monitoring control device is further improved.

In addition, when the cursor enters the display area corresponding to the currently operable equipment, the display state of the cursor changes, so it is easy to determine whether or not the cursor is in the display area, and the operability is further improved. Is improved.

The device state determination unit 9 according to the present embodiment.
4 periodically determines whether or not the equipment device 1 of interest is currently usable by the mode number received from the preprocessing unit 5, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, whether or not the device 1 is currently operable may be determined by inquiring the preprocessing unit 5 each time about the state of the equipment 1 corresponding to the icon 24 identified by the area identification unit 93. . As long as it is possible to determine whether or not the device 1 of interest is currently operable, the same effect as this embodiment can be obtained.

Further, the cursor display section 9 according to the present embodiment.
In 5, as a combination of the first display state and the second display state, like a combination of a white arrow and a black arrow,
I chose a combination with the same shape but different colors,
It is not limited to this. For example, a combination having the same color but different shapes, such as a combination of a white arrow and a white cross, or a combination having different colors and shapes may be selected. Further, in the cursor display unit 95 according to the present embodiment, the number of the first display states and the number of the second display states are each set to one, but the number is not limited to this, and a plurality may be set. . As long as the user can distinguish the first display state and the second display state from each other, the same effect as this embodiment can be obtained. The first display state and the second display state are
It suffices to be able to distinguish in the area for selecting the equipment 1 like the pattern area 23 shown in FIG. 2, and the display state of the mouse cursor 25 in areas other than the pattern area 23 such as the menu area 21 does not matter.

Further, in the supervisory control apparatus according to this embodiment, the status of each equipment 1 is displayed as the icon 24, but the status is not limited to this. Each equipment 1
The state of may be displayed at a predetermined position as a character and a number, for example. The present invention can be applied as long as an area for displaying the state of each device 1 is provided and the facility device 1 corresponding to the area is selected by selecting the area with the cursor.

[0064]

The supervisory control device according to the invention of claim 1
As described above, based on the identification of the area identification means, the equipment state determination means for determining whether or not the equipment of interest, which is the equipment corresponding to the display area for displaying the cursor, is currently operable, and the cursor display means is provided. When the device state determination unit determines that the target device is currently operable, the cursor is displayed in the first display state, and the device state determination unit is not currently operable of the target device. If it is determined that the cursor is displayed in the second display state different from the first display state.

According to the above configuration, the information as to whether or not the equipment can be operated is displayed only for the device of interest as a change in the display state of the cursor. Therefore, the visibility can be improved as compared with the conventional case of always displaying whether or not each equipment can be operated.

Further, since it is possible to display whether or not the target device can be operated before selecting the target device, it is possible to reduce the number of operations when selecting the facility device to be controlled, as compared with the prior art. In addition, when the cursor enters the display area corresponding to the currently operable facility device, the display state of the cursor changes, so that the user can reliably recognize whether or not the cursor is in the display area.

As a result, it is possible to improve both the operability and the visibility of the supervisory control device and reduce the erroneous operation and erroneous judgment by the user.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention, and is a block diagram illustrating a main configuration of a monitoring control device.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example in the monitoring control device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example when the cursor is moved over an icon indicating a facility device that can be currently operated and an icon indicating a facility device that is not currently operable in the monitoring control device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a conventional example and is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example when a cursor is moved over an icon indicating a currently operable facility device and an icon indicating a currently inoperable facility device. .

FIG. 5 shows another conventional example, and is an explanatory view showing a display example when the cursor moves over an icon indicating a currently operable facility device and an icon indicating a currently inoperable facility device. Is.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Equipment 25 Mouse cursor (cursor) 91 Icon display section (device status display means) 92 Cursor position recognition section 93 Area identification section (area identification means) 94 Equipment status determination section (device status determination means) 95 Cursor display section (cursor) Display means)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display area corresponding to equipment is set on a display screen, and equipment status display means for displaying the status of the equipment in the corresponding display area, and a cursor for selecting the display area are displayed. In a monitor control device having cursor display means and area identification means for identifying on which display area the cursor display means displays a cursor, in a display area for displaying a cursor based on the identification of the area identification means. The corresponding equipment is equipped with a device state determination means for determining whether or not the equipment of interest is currently operable, and the cursor display means determines that the equipment state determination means is currently operable of the equipment of interest. If you do, first
In addition to displaying the cursor in the display state, the device state determination means displays the cursor in the second display state different from the first display state when it is determined that the target device is not currently operable. A monitoring control device characterized by.