WO2006021052A1

WO2006021052A1 - Control system for a material handling facility

Info

Publication number: WO2006021052A1
Application number: PCT/AU2005/001293
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kim Law; Peter Rourke
Original assignee: Hatch Associates Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2004-08-27
Filing date: 2005-08-26
Publication date: 2006-03-02
Also published as: BRPI0515052A; ZA200701459B

Abstract

A material handling system and method for a material handling facility is disclosed. Illustrated as an example, is a simplified material handling facility with three sources (a car dumper (11), a processing plant (13), and a reclaimer (15)) and three destinations (a shiploader (17), a stacker (19), and a tripper (21)) and associated transporters in the form of conveyors (A, B, C, E, F), and (G). Conveyors (A, B), and (C) lead to a conveyor (D), which discharges to conveyors (E, F), and (G). The number of route combinations in the material handling system is (49). The control system and method of the invention controls the material handling facility using a database which is managed using a configuration module. Once each of the equipment configurations are defined (e.g. what are the upstream equipment and downstream equipment, the equipment control attributes, etc), the configuration module has a route-generator that automatically establishes all possible base routes between each of the sources and destinations. These base routes are then be overlaid to form all desired route combinations. The equipment in the material handling facility is then controlled in accordance with requirements, based on the determined routes, and availability and capacity of the equipment.

Description

"Control System for a Material Handling Facility"

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to materials handling and dispatch systems including bulk material handling facilities, and in particular a control system for controlling the flow of materials in materials handling facilities.

Background Art

Bulk material handling facilities of the type that the invention has application in are facilities such as coal terminals, a bulk ore distribution and shipping facilities, and bulk grain receival, storage, and shipping facilities. The facilities in which the invention has application are characterised by being made up of a collection of material handling equipment, which can be identified as having at least one entry point for the materials and at least one departure point for the materials, and more than one possible route along which material may be conveyed. The equipment may move the materials in space, that is over a distance (eg on a conveyor), or in time, as in storage and later redistribution (eg a hopper).

Previously, manual decisions were made as to the required routing of materials around a materials handling facility (which may cover many hectares), followed by a shutdown and manual reprogramming of the equipment to meet the new materials handling plan. This may take more than a few weeks or months of shutdowns and programming to reconfigure the entire facility. Such delays in reconfiguration restrict the flexibility of the materials handling facility, and prevent complicated processes such as mixing or blending to be performed by the existing materials handling equipment during transport.

In the case of equipment breakdown in downstream equipment, in hitherto known arrangements, it is usually necessary to stop all upstream equipment until repairs are effected and the equipment recommissioned. It is an object of the present invention to provide a control system for a material handling facility having at least one source, at least one destination, and at least one transport route connecting said at least one source and said at least one destination, and more than one possible route along which material may be conveyed.

Throughout the specification, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

Disclosure of the Invention

In accordance with the invention there is provided a control system for a material handling facility having at least one source, at least one destination, a plurality of transporters connecting said at least one source and said at least one destination, and more than one possible route along which material may be conveyed, said system including interface means interfacing with control means for controlling each said transporter, said control system including a database to store specifications for each said transporter, and also store equipment configuration and inter-connection data for said material handling facility, said control system including a configuration module adapted to determine possible transport routes from said equipment configuration and inter-connection data wherein said database stores equipment configuration and inter-connection data on a single source to single destination basis, and wherein said configuration module utilises an overlay methodology of the individual single source to single destination routes to determine multiple source and/or multiple destination configurations and/or source, destination, transport route variations, before said control system implements determined configurations or variations via said interface means. The configuration module and database may form part of a computer or a PLC (programmable logic controller) or any other device or combination of devices capable of performing computational tasks and storing data. Similarly the control means may be any device capable of controlling a transporter device. The interface means may be any device capable of interfacing between the control means and the control system.

Preferably each said source and each said destination have an associated said transporter connecting with at least one further transporter. The transporters associated with specific sources may comprise without limitation, material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, discharge gates, augers, or other dispensers, or any type of material transport where material flow or flow rate can be controlled. The transporters associated with specific destinations may comprise, without limitation, material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, ship loaders, or stackers. The function of such associated transporters is to convey material between sources and destinations and the further transporters. The term "transporter" includes within its scope, positioning equipment to change a flowpath, such as gates and shuttles.

Preferably said control system is arranged to implement live configuration changes. In this manner a new transport route can be implemented while the old transport route continues to operate. This arrangement obviates the need to shut down transport operations for lengthy periods in order to implement configuration changes.

Preferably said control system is arranged to perform real-time simulation of said material handling facility operations. In this manner, a variety of configuration changes may be simulated before implementation of the selected configuration.

The invention provides a control system for material handling facilities where route definition is simplified to a single source to single destination configuration, and data pertaining to each possible configuration is stored for retrieval and use by the system. To achieve material handling from multiple sources and/or multiple destinations, the single source to single destination route definition data for each - A - of the desired configurations is overlaid. This obviates the need for separate storage of route definition data for all possible route combinations, which in a complex material handling facility could be many more times the number of single source-single destination routes. As a consequence, control and simulation of a material handling facility operation is vastly simplified.

Preferably said configuration module groups overlaid routes so the control system can operate them as an entity.

Preferably said control system includes means to monitor at least some of said transporters, sources, or destinations to determine any event of equipment failure and raise an alarm or exert over-riding control over said material handling facility.

Preferably the interface means incorporates processor means which implements configurations determined by said configuration module. The processor means may conveniently comprise one or more programmable logic controllers. The processor means may include any equivalent device capable of being programmed in order to control the control means associated with the transporters.

Preferably the processor means within said interface means is associated with memory means for storing configuration and operational data required to control operation of each said source, each said destination, and each said transporter, at least for configurations determined by said configuration module.

Preferably the configuration module and the interface means utilise separate processor means. In this manner, facility operations are not dependent on the configuration module always being on-line.

Preferably said control system includes an operator interface having further processor means, independent from processor means of said configuration module and said interface means. Also in accordance with the invention there is provided a method of controlling a material handling facility having at least one source, at least one destination, a plurality of transporters connecting said at least one source and said at least one destination, and more than one possible route along which material may be conveyed, said method including providing a database to store specifications for each said transporter, and also store equipment configuration and inter¬ connection data for said material handling facility, said method including determining possible transport routes from said equipment configuration and inter-connection data wherein said method includes utilising said database to store equipment configuration and inter-connection data as a plurality of single source to single destination routes, and wherein said method utilises an overlay methodology of the individual single source to single destination routes to determine multiple source and/or multiple destination configurations and/or source, destination, transport route variations, before determined configurations or variations are implemented.

Preferably each said source and each said destination have an associated said transporter connecting with at least one further transporter, said transporters associated with specific sources comprising without limitation, material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, discharge gates, augers, or other dispensers, or any type of material transport where material flow or flow rate can be controlled, said transporters associated with specific destinations comprising without limitation, material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, ship loaders, or stackers, and said further transporters including material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, and positioning equipment to change a flowpath, such as gates and shuttles.

Preferably said method includes implementation of live configuration changes.

Preferably said method includes performing of real-time simulation of said material handling facility operations to allow simulation of a variety of configuration changes before implementation of the selected configuration. Preferably said method includes grouping of overlaid routes so the control system can operate them as an entity.

Preferably said method includes monitoring at least some of said transporters, sources, or destinations to determine any event of equipment failure and raise an alarm or exert over-riding control over said material handling facility.

Preferably said database is interfaced with a configuration module in which configurations are determined, and connected with interface means interfacing with control means for controlling each said transporter, wherein said interface means includes processor means and associated memory means for storing data pertaining to a configuration incorporating any transporter associated therewith.

Brief Description of the Drawings

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described in the following description made with reference to the drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a diagram showing a simplified example of a material handling facility having three sources and three destinations;

Figure 2 is a schematic of the control system of the embodiment shown interfaced with material handling equipment;

Figure 3a is a diagram showing inter-relationship between components of the control system of the embodiment;

Figure 3b is a diagram illustrating the key functions within part of the control system, and its relationship with the programmable logic controller components of the embodiment.

Figure 4, comprising figures 4a, 4b, and 4c, is a chart illustrating key control system object model abstraction; Figure 5 is a logic chart illustrating command resolution and equipment item control;

Figures 6 and 7 are a logic chart illustrating a typical overlay route command resolution for operating transporter equipment;

Figures 8 and 9 are a logic chart illustrating a typical overlay route command resolution for operating positioning transporter equipment; and Figures 10, 11 and 12 are a logic chart illustrating positioning equipment position setpoint resolution for operating positioning transporter equipment.

Best Mode(s) for Carrying Out the Invention

The system configuration for a complicated material handling facility is capable of handling a large number of routes and hundreds of items of equipment including car dumpers, conveyors, shuttles, gates, splitters, trippers, processing plant, shiploaders, reclaimers, stackers, feeders and sample stations. To control such a facility it is necessary to define and store system configurations. The control system of the invention achieves this with a system configuration database which is managed using a configuration module. Once each of the equipment configurations are defined (e.g. what are the upstream equipment and downstream equipment, the equipment control attributes, etc), the configuration module has a route-generator that automatically establishes all possible base routes between each of the sources and destinations. These base routes are then be overlaid to form all desired route combinations.

The equipment control attributes specify the operational parameters of equipment included in the material handling facility. This includes, without limitation: downstream equipment - which equipment can it feed to downstream, upstream equipment - which equipment can feed burden onto it, feed point from upstream equipment (distance in metres), for example where there are multiple feed points along a conveyor, whether the equipment is capable of variable speed operation, whether the equipment is capable reverse operation, full speed (m/s), drive power (kW), and stopping distance (m) - distance it takes to stop after receiving a stop command. In order to control the equipment, the control system must communicate via interface means using control means in the form of equipment controlling Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). The control means may typically be from different vendors such as GE Fanuc 90/70, GE Series Six and Allen Bradley ControlLogix. The communication in a retro-fitting application could typically be over 5 different communication networks such as Allen Bradley Ethernet, GE Fanuc 90/70 Ethernet over FDDI, Allen Bradley ControlNet and GE Fanuc Genius.

To better understand the invention, the following explanation will be given in relation to a simplified material handling facility, shown in figure 1. Traditionally, a route has been defined as an entity consisting of a combination of source(s) to a combination of destination(s) with each route combination counted as a separate entity. The material handling system shown in figure 1 comprises a material handling facility with three sources (a car dumper 11 , a processing plant 13, and a reclaimer 15) and three destinations (a shiploader 17, a stacker 19, and a tripper 21) and associated transporters in the form of conveyors A, B, C, E, F, and G. Conveyors A, B, and C lead to a conveyor D, which discharges to conveyors E, F, and G. The number of route combinations in the material handling system shown in figure 1 , based upon traditional route definition totals 49. Traditionally each route combination had a hard coded sequencing control algorithm. Consequently any plant upgrade that changed the number of routes in a plant controlled by a traditional control system, would require weeks to months of control system modifications.

Using the traditional definition discussed above, the number of routes is a combinatorial analysis problem. The possible routes formed with m sources that can be linked to n destinations is:

The possible combination of sources = ^mC-ι+ ^mC₂+...+ ^mC_m

The possible combination of destinations = ⁿCi+ ⁿC₂+... + ⁿC_n

Total Route Combinations = (^mCi+ ^mC₂+... + "¹Cm)C¹C₁H- ⁰C₂+...+ "C_n) The system of the invention has a route definition where all the routes are defined as Single-Source-Single-Destination routes. The total number of routes for m sources and n destination using the single source-single destination route definition is "¹C₁ "C₁

The reduction using single source-single destination definition compared to a traditional definition is:

("¹C₁+ ^mC?+... + "¹CmM "C₁+ ⁿC?+...+ "C_n)

Table 1 (below) compares the number of routes in the control system route definition of the invention against those defined using traditional route definition.

Note that Table 1 assumes theoretical scenarios where all the sources and destinations are connected. This may not be the case in practice, hence the number of routes in a real system may be smaller. Using the single source to single destination route definition, the number of routes in a complicated material handling facility can be reduced from over 400,000 to less than 250 single source to single destination routes.

Table 1: Comparison of Single Source - Single Destination (SSSD) Route Definition versus Traditional (Trad.) Definition

Referring to figure 1 , the single source to single destination routes are A-D-E, A- D-F, A-D-G, B-D-E, B-D-F, B-D-G, C-D-E, C-D-F, and C-D-G. Multi-source to multi-destination routes are achieved by overlaying single source to single destination routes. Overlaid routes are grouped by the control system so that they can be operated as an entity, for example, synchronised starting, stopping and defined auto-divert (for a diverge route overlaid combination) and blending characteristics (for converge route overlaid combination). To achieve (A+B)-D-E, routes A-D-E and B-D-E are overlaid by the control system. A complicated route such as (A+B)-D-(E+F+G) which traditionally would have required individual configuration by a control system can therefore be defined as the overlay of three of these base routes, ie A-D-E, B-D-F, and either of A-D-G or B-D-G.

The control system overlaid route operation concepts allow route equipment to be seamlessly shared by multiple routes; so that material flow-path can be changed by overlaying new routes and old routes which are no longer needed are removed whilst common equipment is kept running. This allowance for 'hot- swapping¹ of routes reduces valuable production downtime. It does not impose any structural limits to the maximum number of split/combined/blending routes other than the maximum number of concurrent routes that can operate within the system.

Most route sequencing control systems use conservative interlocking concepts where upstream equipment is not permitted to run unless downstream equipment is running, irrespective of whether there is burden on the equipment. The control system of the invention tracks the burden on each item of the route equipment. This enables the use of a material interlock strategy where upstream equipment can continue to run despite stoppages to downstream equipment. Upstream equipment is stopped only if there is burden within the gross stopping distance of the feed-point of the stopped equipment. This strategy minimises the downtime of routes and improves productivity by allowing the burden to be preloaded closer to the destination even when equipment in the route has faulted.

The control system of the invention also uses the burden tracking information on each individual route equipment to allow faster startup of routes, as it automatically starts-up all equipment that are free of burden simultaneously.

The control system of the invention has a centralised system database that can be modified using a configuration module. This allows control behaviour to be defined and modified globally and downloaded to interface means in the form of a master Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). Configurable control functionality is achieved by having a structure with two distinct components:

• P re-configured selection of control rules and algorithms in the master PLC.

• Configurable attributes such as route recipes (configurations), strategies, schemas and equipment attributes; are set up using the configuration module and downloaded to the Master PLC. These attributes are the modifiers that provide the control parameters and enable/disable the selection of pre-configured control rules and algorithms. This approach eliminates the need to change the operation of the control algorithms.

Using this arrangement, the control system allows new equipment and its associated routes to be speedily integrated into the system in a matter of minutes.

The control system incorporates within its programming, a full audit trail of changes to all configurable data (e.g. route, schema, equipment attributes). This facilitates the management of system data and data integrity. Further security is provided by providing all of the configured data downloaded from the configuration module with a checksum. The master PLC has an integrity verification algorithm that detects and reports any data corruption and can be configured to take the necessary shutdown procedure to ensure safe operation of the material handling facility.

The control system also monitors any product incompatibility along any route. Upon detection of any product mismatch, the operator is alerted and a pre- configured action is executed such as disabling source from feeding.

The control system is designed to minimise any unnecessary tripping under fault conditions. For example, a route group can be configured to have an automatic divert capability. If equipment faults in one of the segments downstream, the system can automatically divert upstream burden to another healthy branch to maintain production. On recovery of the faulted branch, the system can automatically return the diverted equipment back to the pre-configured position. The control system monitors the dynamic loading of each transport equipment and automatically protects the equipment from any overloading by reducing the speed of upstream transport equipment so as to reduce the effective discharge rate.

The control system includes a unique algorithmic alarm and event messaging system, allowing messages to be constructed dynamically. This facilitates a more comprehensive and diagnostic information system for faster fault¬ finding and fault recovery. Furthermore, it reduces the complexity of alarm management by facilitating the filtering and classification of alarms.

The control system logs all critical event, process and alarms. This allows reconstruction of scenarios and facilitates determination of root causes of problems.

The following description assumes the reader is proficient in control systems and software and programming architecture, has an understanding of programmable logic controllers (PLCs), operator interfaces and database programming, and has some familiarity with material handling automation.

Referring to figure 2 the embodiment of the invention is shown in block schematic. The control system comprises a configuration module 31, an operator interface system 33, and interface means in the form of PLC equipment 35. The PLC equipment 35 comprises a master PLC 37 which is an Allen Bradley ControlLogix PLC with three CPUs. The first CPU (HPTMC) is arranged to process user commands and performing route sequencing functions. The second CPU (HPTMP) is arranged to provide for burden tracking and management burden loading along the route. The third CPU (HPTMM) is provided to handle the critical interlocking between equipment to prevent spillage between equipment. The master PLC 37 interfaces with generic PLCs 39 for controlling plant equipment. Also included in the interface means 35 are additional PLCs 41 for interfacing with and controlling legacy PLC equipment 43.

The configuration module 31 provides a centralised engineering interface for defining, maintaining and downloading route and equipment attributes to the master PLC 37 and the operator interface system 33. The configuration module 31 is designed to be a purely configuration tool with no real-time control responsibility, ensuring robustness and high availability.

The operator interface system 33 provides a user interface for operating the control system, providing route status and control function such as start, stop, and preload route commands, logging of the critical data in master PLC 37 so that in the event of a major fault that requires replacement of the master PLC 37, the data can be downloaded to the replacement master PLC so as to minimise the time required for system recovery. The operator interface system 33 has been designed to have no real time control responsibility, so that the system tolerates temporary loss of the operator interface system 33. This contributes to higher availability and robustness.

Referring to figures 3 to 12, software architecture will now be described.

In order to achieve the flexibility of a configurable route control system, the control system software has an architecture which can be subdivided into a pre- configured selection of control rules and generic control algorithms which are stored as software routines in the main Master PLC 37 in the configuration module 31. The behaviour of these rules can only be changed by modifying the software.

These configurable attributes are created by using the configuration module 31 and then downloaded to the master PLC 37 and the operator interface system 33 as shown in figure 3. The configuration module 31 is only required for maintaining the configuration, it is not needed during the route operations.

Figure 3b shows the key software architecture of the operator interface component 33 of the control system and its data flow to the programmable controller component 37. This architecture makes this operator interface component modular and portable so that it can be easily re-deployed on other operator interface system platforms. As stated above the master PLC 37 has three CPUs identified as HPTMC, HPTMP, and HPTMM. The first CPU (HPTMC) in addition to processing user commands from the operator interface system 33 and performing route sequencing functions, also issues alarms to the operator interface system 33, handles the configuration download interface and data validation from the configuration module 31, and interfaces to other external systems such as power load management systems, product gap management systems, and dust management systems.

Figure 4 (comprising figures 4a, 4b, and 4c) shows the key control system object model abstraction. The following rules apply:

• A Route can only be owned by one Control Room at any one time.

• A Route may contain up to 28 Equipment Items and a route is formed based on the linkages between each of the equipment items.

• A Route may have a number of associated Overlaid Routes, however, a Route is only allowed to associate to one Route Group.

• A Route Group may include a number of Routes (Note that although the control system allows 28 routes to be grouped, due to the limit on maximum number of converging and diverging point behaviour specifications, the permissible number of routes in a route group has been limited to 6 - note this is a configurable parameter in the configuration module).

• A Route Group may have a maximum 6 Configured Diverge and 6 Configured Converge working behaviours.

• Equipment can have a number of Overlaid Routes as its owner (up to 28 Routes).

Each equipment item can be "owned" by multiple routes. As shown in figure 5, each determined route gives rise to a command to operate a relevant item of equipment. The PLC equipment 37 of the control system uses the downloaded configuration from the configuration module 31 and resolves multiple commands from the various routes to generate a single equipment command. This single equipment command is then sent out to physical equipment, provided the control system does not detect a need to trip this equipment. A decision in relation to tripping of the equipment is made based on sensing an overload condition or downstream equipment failure or failure in the equipment itself, in order to prevent occurrence of any spillage. The control system uses the downloaded route configuration to define the tripping requirement.

Control system alarms are multiplexed and transmitted to the operator interface system 33 (identified as HPTJDlS in figure 3a and 3b) via an event/alarm message tag which is an integer variable. Each master PLC processor will send its own alarm messages to the operator interface system 33. Each master PLC processor has its own series of First-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer event/alarm message queues (one per route). In order to ensure that the operator interface system 33 IO server has sufficient time to read the message, each message is shifted out to a HPT_OIS tag via a timer.

This alarm messaging system provides benefits where it facilitates production of customised operator information to provide the required level of alarm/message detail, and removes the need to hard-code route information into Citect alarm system.

The operator interface system 33 event server monitors for new messages and once triggered, the HPT_OIS routine will decide which unused generic alarm (disk based PLC tag) to use - including what type of generic alarm (eg. alarm, warning or log). The routine will store extra information, such as Time Stamp, and Description on a corresponding 'Extra Information' disk based PLC tags for later reference. The routine will then switch the generic alarm tag on so that an alarm will occur. The routine will also store a control system message on a disk based PLC for later display.

Once the alarm occurs, the description field for the alarm can be obtained from the alarm description routine which can be activated by performing a Point Detail (Control-P) with cursor on the alarm item. The alarm description routine will use the corresponding 'Extra Information' disk based PLC to determine the description for the alarm. This generic alarm with specific description will appear on the alarm banner or alarm page display. The alarms generated via this messaging method will be removed if the message has not been reported within the pre-configured time delay.

The control system incorporates a unified product code (UPC) which may be assigned to materials being transported. The UPC is specified by a 16 bit integer consisting of two components. The 12 least significant bits of the integer specifies the origin of the product (e.g. in an ore shipping facility, the mine from which the ore was sourced), and the 3 most significant bits of the integer specifies the refined product classification (e.g. in an ore shipping facility, fines, lumps and high grade)

The unified product code definition has been designed to facilitate determination of product compatibility. Compatibility of Product A and Product B can be determined by simply performing a logical AND operation between the Compatibility Matrix of Product A and the UPC of Product B. If these are products are compatible the result of the ANDed operation should equal UPC of Product B.

As indicated in Figure 3, each object has its own configuration (e.g. configurable attributes) which are configured by configuration module 31 and then transfered to the operator interface system 33 and PLC equipment 37 for control and operation respectively. For example, a route object configuration includes route recipes (configurations) which specify the sequential order of starting and stopping the equipment within the route both during a startup, shutdown or fault situation.

As indicated in Figure 4 and 5, in order to enable the overlaid routes operation, each route has its own commands for each of the equipment. These logical route commands for each equipment are then resolved to provide the physical command to the equipment. Figure 6 and 7 shows typical command resolution for operating transporter equipment. Figures 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 shows typical command resolution for operating positioning transporter equipment (equipment which can change the direction of flowpath of material). All of this is implemented in the interface means provided by the master PLC 37 in the configuration module 31. The embodiment of the invention provides a highly flexible and configurable route selection and sequencing system for controlling large bulk material handling facilities. The system has a generic control algorithm that can be configured to suit any material handling facility. The system can also be easily reconfigured to cater to plant expansion or modifications without incurring significant costs in testing and re-commissioning, thus achieving cost savings throughout a facility's lifecycle.

Using the single source-single destination route definition concept, the system of the invention lessens the complexity of the facilities control system. For example in a system having over 500 items of interconnected route equipment controlled by more than 60 dedicated equipment PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), the route definition concept embodied in the invention reduces the number of routes from over 400,000 to less than 250 base routes. The system architecture also takes advantage of the current generation of industrial controllers with multiple-processors to ensure good performance and robustness.

The system of the invention offers the following productivity improvements:

• A material-interlocking strategy that improves production availability by allowing simultaneous startup of transport equipment without burden and, under route-faulted conditions, and allows upstream transport equipment to continue to run unless spillages would occur. • A unique overlaid route equipment control concept that minimises downtime during flowpath changes, allowing hot swapping of routes without stopping common equipment.

• Fault management strategies that minimises downtime, for example, automatically diverts on fault - redirects burden away from a faulted downstream branch to a pre-configured alternative route.

• A burden management strategy that prevents overload of route equipment by automatically reducing the speed of transport equipment to prevent the discharge overloading its downstream equipment, and clamps source feed rate to the dynamic route capacity. • A user-interface, alarm, advisory and process log system that minimises fault recovery time by providing diagnostic information with an audit trail.

The system of the invention has the advantage of being able to simulate the entire facility off-line, with the performance and restrictions of the real equipment simulated. The system further uses a novel system to define the possible configurations and combinations of equipment in the facility, which can then be compared to provide the optimal solution of configuration for the desired production outcomes. The chosen configuration can then be downloaded to program the various PLC controllers on the site to reconfigure the system. In a complex facility, this reduces the time taken to reconfigure the material handling to a few hours. This time saving facilitates ease of plant optimisation and reduces the maintenance of cost associated to plant upgrades which involves additional/removal of equipment or flowpaths.

Various modifications are contemplated to the control system of the embodiment, that would provide improvements or enhancement to the functionality and usefulness of the system. These include adding an inventory tracking system to allow tracking of accumulated batch material delivered from a source or to a destination for higher level manufacturing execution system or business information system. It is also contemplated to add a production feed control system to coordinate the feed rate setpoint from the various converging sources to control the production rate and prevent overloading the routes.

In addition it is contemplated that product gap management could be added to allow automatic management of generation/termination of product gaps along the route to facilitate movement or cleaning of equipment (such as mobile machines, trippers, offline position devices) without the need of shutdown the route(s).

It is also contemplated that additional functionality which includes product tracking to facilitate both quantity tracking and inventory tracking could be added. Furthermore, production scheduling and production control functionality could be added to further automate and enhance the system to provide complete control systems to incorporate enterprise resource planning integration.

Additional processors may be added to master PLC 37 or the additional PLCs 41 to manage any additional functionality and achieve faster system response time. Furthermore, the master PLC 37 software could be re-deployed on other PLC platforms that support IEC1131-3 language to suit the intended user's preference on the type control system platform. In addition, the operator interface component

33 could also be re-deployed on any other operator interface that support ActiveX technology to suit the intended user's preference on the operator interface platform.

Other modifications considered include allowing pre-definition of route groups and their associated configuration and downloading this information into the interface means. In the embodiment as described, route group characteristics are only defined after the route has been activated.

It is also possible to have multiple control systems according to the invention working together, with interconnect routes belonging to a separate control system according to the invention.

It should be appreciated that changes may be made to various features in the above described embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiment described herein.

Claims

The Claims Defining the Invention are as Follows

1. A control system for a material handling facility having at least one source, at least one destination, a plurality of transporters connecting said at least one source and said at least one destination, and more than one possible route along which material may be conveyed, said system including interface means interfacing with control means for controlling each said transporter, said control system including a database to store specifications for each said transporter, and also store equipment configuration and inter¬ connection data for said material handling facility, said control system including a configuration module adapted to determine possible transport routes from said equipment configuration and inter-connection data wherein said database stores equipment configuration and inter¬ connection data on a single source to single destination basis, and wherein said configuration module utilises an overlay methodology of the individual single source to single destination routes to determine multiple source and/or multiple destination configurations and/or source, destination, transport route variations, before said control system implements determined configurations or variations via said interface means.

2. A control system for a material handling facility as claimed in claim 1 wherein each said source and each said destination have an associated said transporter connecting with at least one further transporter, said transporters associated with specific sources comprising without limitation, material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, discharge gates, augers, or other dispensers, or any type of material transport where material flow or flow rate can be controlled, said transporters associated with specific destinations comprising without limitation, material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, ship loaders, or stackers, and said further transporters including material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, and positioning equipment to change a flowpath, such as gates and shuttles.

3. A control system for a material handling facility as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein said control system is arranged to implement live configuration changes.

4. A control system for a material handling facility as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said control system is arranged to perform real¬ time simulation of said material handling facility operations to allow simulation of a variety of configuration changes before implementation of the selected configuration.

5. A control system for a material handling facility as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said configuration module groups overlaid routes so the control system can operate them as an entity.

6. A control system for a material handling facility as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said control system includes means to monitor at least some of said transporters, sources, or destinations to determine any event of equipment failure and raise an alarm or exert over-riding control over said material handling facility.

7. A control system for a material handling facility as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the interface means incorporates processor means which implements configurations determined by said configuration module.

8. A control system for a material handling facility as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the processor means within said interface means is associated with memory means for storing configuration and operational data required to control operation of each said source, said destination, and said transporter, at least for configurations determined by said configuration module.

9. A control system for a material handling facility as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the configuration module and the interface means utilise separate processor means.

10. A control system for a material handling facility as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said control system includes an operator interface having further processor means, independent from processor means of said configuration module and said interface means.

11. A method of controlling a material handling facility having at least one source, at least one destination, a plurality of transporters connecting said at least one source and said at least one destination, and more than one possible route along which material may be conveyed, said method including providing a database to store specifications for each said transporter, and also store equipment configuration and inter¬ connection data for said material handling facility, said method including determining possible transport routes from said equipment configuration and inter-connection data wherein said method includes utilising said database to store equipment configuration and inter-connection data as a plurality of single source to single destination routes, and wherein said method utilises an overlay methodology of the individual single source to single destination routes to determine multiple source and/or multiple destination configurations and/or source, destination, transport route variations, before determined configurations or variations are implemented.

12. A method of controlling a material handling facility as claimed in claim 11 wherein each said source and each said destination have an associated said transporter connecting with at least one further transporter, said transporters associated with specific sources comprising without limitation, material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, discharge gates, augers, or other dispensers, or any type of material transport where material flow or flow rate can be controlled, said transporters associated with specific destinations comprising without limitation, material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, ship loaders, or stackers, and said further transporters including material conveyors such as belt-type conveyors, and positioning equipment to change a flowpath, such as gates and shuttles.

13. A method of controlling a material handling facility as claimed in claim 11 or 12 wherein said method includes implementation of live configuration changes.

14. A method of controlling a material handling facility as claimed in any one of claims 11 to 13 wherein said method includes performing of real-time simulation of said material handling facility operations to allow simulation of a variety of configuration changes before implementation of the selected configuration.

15. A method of controlling a material handling facility as claimed in any one of claims 11 to 14 wherein said method includes grouping of overlaid routes so the control system can operate them as an entity.

16. A method of controlling a material handling facility as claimed in any one of claims 11 to 15 wherein said method includes monitoring at least some of said transporters, sources, or destinations to determine any event of equipment failure and raise an alarm or exert over-riding control over said material handling facility.

17. A method as claimed in any one of claims 11 to 16 wherein said database is interfaced with a configuration module in which configurations are determined, and connected with interface means interfacing with control means for controlling each said transporter, wherein said interface means includes processor means and associated memory means for storing data pertaining to a configuration incorporating any transporter associated therewith.

18. A control system for a material handling facility substantially as herein described with reference to the drawings.

19. A method of controlling a material handling facility substantially as herein described with reference to the drawings.