procedures for the simulation of an industrial process and use for testing the functionality of an automatic system

摘要

An industrial process (2) is simulated, this process varying the value of each physical quantity Pi which is characteristic of its status, with a speed of variation Vi, on the basis of the status of control signals (3) sent out by an automatic control device (1), and which reports its status to the said automatic unit by means of status signals (4) sent by sensors as a function of the value of the physical quantity which they monitor. For each physical quantity Pi, the interval of time DELTA ti is determined during which the value of the physical quantity may vary without any one of the sensors monitoring this quantity Pi changing state. Then the value of each physical quantity Pi is updated, by incrementing it by the value of the product of the speed of variation Vi with the time interval DELTA t, which is the smallest of the previously determined time intervals. Finally, after having updated the sensors monitoring each physical quantity Pi, there is a time delay, the parameters of which can be set, before recommencing the procedure. The simulation procedure is used to test the logical and time-based operation of an automatic unit, such as an industrial programmable automatic unit. IMAGE