JP2002214001A - Signal analysis processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable online signal analysis processing to easily combine with a process in other application to easily apply to online or inline control and guidance to an operator. SOLUTION: The signal analysis processing device comprises a means executing signal analysis processing by combination of three kinds of function modules of an input module, a processing module, and an output module, and a means determining execution order of each module of the combination of the function modules. In the signal analysis processing device which executes the signal analysis processing in accordance with the execution order separately instructed, a control means for executing the signal analysis processing that controls a start or a stop of the signal analysis processing by presence or absence of data of processing object is provided, thereby stops the execution cycle for the modules and avoids occupation of a CPU when the date is absent.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a signal analysis processing apparatus, and more particularly to a method for processing digital data obtained from time series signals, image signals or control signals detected by various measuring instruments provided in a manufacturing process. The present invention relates to a signal analysis processing device suitable for use in a signal analysis processing software tool that analyzes the meaning of these data and feeds back the information as control of a manufacturing process or management of manufacturing conditions.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, signals (meaning time-series signals, image signals, etc.) obtained from various measuring instruments provided in a manufacturing process are used to evaluate product quality, control the manufacturing process, and manage manufacturing conditions. It is used as an index for such purposes. These evaluation means can be used from a simple threshold comparison between the signal obtained from the process and the standard signal to a signal processing by various signal processing and a comparison of various feature values calculated from the signal. Such as a wide range. When a complicated evaluation that requires comparison of feature amounts is required, a computer or a special analysis device is required.

It is important to realize an appropriate evaluation means for a target manufacturing process when using it as an index for evaluating product quality, controlling the manufacturing process, managing manufacturing conditions, and the like. To this end, it is essential to develop optimal analysis processing (processing such as signal processing by various signal processing and comparison with various feature amounts calculated from the signals).

As means for developing these analysis processes, software tools for developing analysis processes without programming using a graphical user interface (GUI) are widely used. For example, "AVS" by Advanced VisualSystem Inc.
And “VISUALDESI” of INTELLIGENT INSTRUMENTATION, INC
GNER ”etc. These tools modularize various signal analysis processes in functional units and display these functional modules with symbol marks on the GUI. The user can use the mouse to display the symbol marks on the CRT By operating with a pointing device such as a pointer and combining them arbitrarily, a target process can be constructed.

[0005] Usually, the types of the functional modules are divided into three types. An input module having a function of inputting data to be processed, a processing module having a function of performing various signal processing on input data, and an output module having a function of outputting a processed result.

[0006] These tools have the feature that the analysis procedure is easy to understand visually. Therefore, the analysis procedure can be changed relatively easily, and trial and error of various analyzes can be efficiently executed. Further, by connecting the module for displaying the processing result during the analysis, it is possible to easily display the processing result in the middle of the analysis process, and it is possible to efficiently execute the trial and error.

[0007] The execution order of these modules is determined by the connection state of the modules. The input module is executed first, and the processing of the output module is executed last. Therefore, when the connection of the modules is completed, the execution order is determined. In addition, the order is the same as the analysis procedure.

FIG. 3 shows an example. Module 1, 2, 3
Has a function of inputting data from a file or from an external device or generating data. Modules 4, 5,
6 and 7 have some data processing functions. The modules 8 and 9 have a function of outputting data to a file or an external device or outputting to a CRT. The arrows between the modules indicate the direction in which data flows. For example,
In module 6, data is passed from module 3,
After performing some data processing unique to the module 6 on the data, the processed data is passed to the module 7. In the case of such a connection, several module execution orders are possible.

It is sufficient that the execution of the module that simply passes data to the execution target module is performed first. Several module execution orders are possible for the same module connection, but the results obtained are the same. For example, (1) modules 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9, (2) Modules 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 4,
5, 8, 9, (3) Modules 3, 6, 7, 1, 2,
Although the execution order of the modules is different in three of 4, 5, 8, and 9, the obtained results are the same.

At the time of execution of analysis, one of a plurality of module execution orders is selected, and the tool repeatedly executes a module execution cycle until there is no data in input modules 1, 2, and 3 or until execution is instructed to stop. I do. For example, if (1) is selected by the tool,
One cycle ends at 2, 3,... 9, and the second execution cycle 1, 2, 3, 4,. Thereafter, the execution cycle is repeated until there is no more data, or until the user instructs the tool to stop execution.

In the offline analysis, modules 1, 2,
There is no need to particularly consider the timing of data input from 3 or the output of data to the modules 8 and 9 and the repetition of the execution cycle. As a result, if the desired result is obtained in the modules 8 and 9, this analysis procedure is appropriate.

On the other hand, in the online analysis, in the case of a manufacturing process that operates 24 hours a day, the input time and the input time interval of the data to be analyzed are irregular, so It is necessary to repeat the execution cycle without stopping, and these processes always occupy the CPU of the computer. However, since it is common to use a signal analysis result for controlling a manufacturing process by operating a plurality of processes on one computer and to use it for operator guidance, the CPU of the computer is executed by the signal analysis process. When occupied, there is a problem that the CPU load is too high to execute other processes at the same time. Therefore, when using the processing algorithm in the off-line analysis, a complicated work of programming is separately required to avoid this problem.

[0013]

As described above, by using the above-described signal analysis processing tool, the CPU is occupied even when the optimal evaluation means is obtained by the offline analysis, when applied to the online analysis. Therefore, there is a problem that it cannot coexist with other application processes.
Finally, in order to use the above analysis processing as control information of the manufacturing process or to display it as guidance information to an operator, a complicated work of creating an online or in-line program is performed. There is a need. Also, preparing a computer for each application causes a problem of making the entire system expensive. In addition, when the data collection timing of the target manufacturing process is changed or a more appropriate evaluation means is obtained, it is necessary to perform a complicated operation of modifying an online or inline program.

[0014] The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a result of finding an optimal analysis method and an optimal processing content in signal / image analysis is online or
It is an object of the present invention to provide a signal analysis processing device that can be easily applied to in-line.

[0015]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a signal analysis processing apparatus for executing a signal analysis process using a combination of three types of functional modules: an input module, a processing module, and an output module. ,
In a signal analysis processing device that includes an execution order determination unit that determines an execution order of each module of the combination of the functional modules, and performs a signal analysis process in accordance with an execution order specified separately, the presence or absence of data to be processed in the functional module Signal analysis processing execution control means for notifying the start or stop of the execution of the signal analysis processing. In another embodiment of the present invention, the signal analysis process execution control means includes a target data list creation unit that records the number of data items to be processed for each module, and an analysis process that notifies start or stop of the analysis process execution from the data list. It is characterized by comprising an execution control notifying section.

According to the invention configured as described above, it is possible to easily apply the results of signal analysis and analysis processing performed off-line to online or in-line control and to apply guidance to an operator. In addition, the optimum signal processing result and analysis processing can be used in the manufacturing process without performing complicated work.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a signal analysis processing software tool implementing a signal analysis processing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of processing execution control when the present invention is used.

As shown in FIG. 1, the signal analysis processing software tool according to the present embodiment includes a GUI unit, an execution order determination unit, a module execution unit, a module storage unit, and a signal analysis processing execution control unit. The lines connecting the components in the figure indicate the flow of data and control.

The GUI unit has a human interface function that allows the user of the tool to input / edit a signal analysis processing procedure and data input / output timing, start / stop signal analysis processing, and the like. .

The execution order determination unit determines the execution order of various modules stored in the module storage unit based on the signal analysis processing procedure input by the GUI unit. Then, the module list is notified to the module execution unit.

The module execution unit reads out the corresponding modules from the module storage unit in the order determined by the execution order determination unit, starts / ends execution of the module, manages data to be processed, and executes signal analysis processing for the presence / absence of data. The notification to the control unit, the execution start notification from the signal analysis process execution control unit, or the reception of the execution stop notification is performed. Also, during execution suspension, the input module notifies the signal analysis processing execution control unit that data to be processed has occurred by a data input notification from another process.

The signal analysis processing execution control unit controls the execution of the analysis processing based on the presence or absence of data to be analyzed. That is, when there is no more data to be analyzed, execution of the analysis process is stopped, and when the data is generated, the module execution unit is notified to start execution of the analysis process. As shown in FIG. 2, the signal analysis processing execution control unit of the signal analysis processing device of the present embodiment includes a processing target data list creation unit and a processing execution control notification unit. The lines connecting the parts in the figure indicate the flow of data and the flow of control.

The processing object data list creator receives the execution module list from the execution order determiner only once after the module execution order is determined. This list is updated each time the execution order is changed. After receiving the list,
The presence or absence of data to be processed in each module is received from the module execution unit. This is received for each execution of each module. A process target data list is created by combining these notifications and the list, and is passed to the process execution control notifying unit each time all modules have been executed. After confirming whether there is data to be processed in the list received from the data list creating unit, the processing execution control notifying unit notifies the module executing unit of the termination of the module execution cycle if there is no data to be processed.

As described above, when there is no data to be processed, the execution of the module is stopped, and another process can occupy the CPU. With the above-described mechanism, the data input / output timing control of the signal analysis processing device of the present embodiment is performed not only as one process but also separately from the input / output module execution unit which is an existing process. It is also possible to carry out as a separate process.

[0025]

As described above, the present invention facilitates coexistence with other processing processes without signal analysis processing occupying the CPU. This makes it easy to apply signal analysis processing online or inline and apply guidance to operators, and to use optimal signal processing results and analysis processing in the manufacturing process without performing complicated work. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a signal analysis processing software tool according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a signal analysis processing execution control unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of module connection.

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2F076 BA12 BE05 BE09 3C100 AA25 AA56 5H215 BB07 CC06 CX05 EE04 GG02 GG13

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A means for executing a signal analysis process by a combination of three types of functional modules of an input module, a processing module and an output module, and an execution order determining means for determining an execution order of each module of the combination of the functional modules. A signal analysis processing device for performing a signal analysis process in accordance with a separately instructed execution order, wherein a signal analysis process execution control means for controlling the start or stop of the signal analysis process depending on the presence or absence of data to be processed in the functional module A signal analyzer comprising: 2. The signal analysis processing execution control unit includes a target data list recording unit that records the number of data to be processed for each module, and an analysis processing execution control unit that controls start or stop of analysis processing execution from the data list. The signal analysis processing device according to claim 1, comprising: