TRAINING AND EXPERIMENT SYSTEM SUPPORTED BY AN ANIMATION BASED FULL SIMULATION METHOD TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention is related to the structure and operation of the system provides to make the industrial automation and programming educations or trainings which are performed in university, high school and other education institutions concerning of the all programmable devices, ICs (integrated circuits) and microprocessors/microcontrollers programming educations more effective, easier, faster, more efficient and more enjoyable than ever.

PRIOR ART

In today world market, for the industrial applications concerned of industry, there are some training, experiment and development sets which are designed for making the programmable devices/ICs (integrated circuits) and microprocessors/microcontrollers such as PLC, FPGA, CPLD, DSP, ARM, PowerPC, x86/x64, PSoC, Arduino, PIC/dsPIC, AVR, 8051 programming to be able to learn and teach easier and faster. It's possible to separate the available training sets in all over the world the two categories as visual (partial simulation based) and nonvisual (without any simulation) generally.

The training sets produced in the world have some disadvantages and limitations such as technical and functionality, limiting the learning and wasting the training or lesson time. For instance, because there is no simulation area in the available nonvisual programming and experiment sets, these training sets are not appropriate to visual learning (learning by seeing). So, the learning and teaching event take much more time and get harder. The trainee or student doesn't obtain any opportunity to see visually weather the written program by himself/herself exactly works or not.

In the existing visual programming, experiment and training (partial simulation based) sets, the industrial applications are depicted on a board and the simulation event (visual) is performed by the LEDs put under this board. However, because this is not enough visual, on the other words since it is partially simulated, not consist of any animation or motion (actually they are objects must be simulated as active moving such as motor, conveyor, valve, robot arm ...etc.), it is insufficient about the learning phenomenon again.

The experiment sets which are in fact a small prototype of a present automation system and the one that is trying to be overcome these matters are very expensive and contain solely samples particular to those applications since they are produced in a way of modules and sold in this way separately. The expenses are much more getting increase for both trainee/student and education institutions because of having to buy a new module for each application in this type of training sets

Since there is no a mechanism or system (The Performance- Achievement Evaluation System) in the world that evaluate and test the written codes or programs in existing experiment and training sets if they are running properly, indicating percentage of completion of the program and application

There is no a mechanism or system (The Performance-Achievement Evaluation System) in the world that evaluate and test the written codes or programs in existing experiment and training sets if they are running properly and an indicator that shows the percentage of completion of programs. That's why, either students don't know how much they succeeded or cannot measured up to what extent they understood. In addition, it is not possible to see and complete the missing, improve themselves and debug the mistakes in the case of failure.

As the achievement of students not evaluated and reported via the system or education set automatically both in experiment and education set, educator face up extra work load. That causes either the wasting of time in laboratory or the time after application. Evaluating of marks each student will get from application and the time that will be spent for marking will reason the another wasting time and extra course load to instructors.

Besides that, high cost of maintenance and repair of existing experiment sets, inadequacy on the possible number of visual experiments, not to be designed new applications or require much more labor, time and cost are other disadvantages of these sets.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This invention is the animation based simulation system which measures and reports the performance of the software. The system has the following characteristics:

• Different electronics hardware and equipment can be connected as input and/or output.

• Equipped with microprocessor/microcontroller.

• Traces in real-time all digital and analog output signals that CPU module generates according to the software written to CPU module and all digital and analog input signals coming to CPU module.

• Interprets the changes in all these signals and transmits them to a touch screen panel.

MEANING OF THE FIGURES

Figure 1. The Design of the Training and Experiment System Supported by an Animation Based Full Simulation Method

Part number equivalents indicated in the figures are given below:

1. Touch Screen Panel

2. Microprocessor/Microcontroller Board

3. CPU Module

4. Digital I/O Module

4.1. Digital Input Module

4.2. Digital Output Module

5. Analog I/O Module

5.1. Analog Input Module

5.2. Analog Output Module

6. Digital Input and Analog Input Board (With LED Indicator) 6.1. Voltage Converters

6.2. Voltage Converters

6.3. Digital Inputs

6.4. Analog Inputs

6.5. Analog to Digital Converters

6.6. Buttons/Switches

6.7. External Inputs

6.8. Potentiometers

6.9. Digital to Analog Converters

7. Digital Output and Analog Output Board (With LED Indicator)

7.1. Digital Outputs

7.2. Analog Outputs

7.3. Analog to Digital Converters

7.4. External Relay Outputs

7.5. External Outputs

7.6. Voltage Converters

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this invention, data sent by the user to CPU module (3) via touch screen panel (1) or digital and analog input board (6) are collected, interpreted through the software of CPU module (3) and new digital/analog data are generated. In the touch screen panel (1), iOS, Android, Linux, Windows based operating systems can be used. IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that is compatible to these operating systems does not require any additional computer as compared to the existing ones which require additional computer for the programming of the CPU module (3). All these data generated by the user/trainee and the CPU module (3) are traced in real-time by the microprocessor/microcontroller board (2), compared with the loaded data in the system by the microprocessor/microcontroller board (2) or the touch screen panel (1), and then the animation based simulation is generated, performance- achievement is evaluated against missing or wrong data and finally this evaluated performance-achievement is reported. CPU Module (3) is programmed by the users/trainees so that it will include the appropriate software for the applications of which simulations will be performed. The users can send data to CPU module (3) by means of using the digital and analog input board (6) and the touch screen panel (1 ). These sent data are interpreted by the CPU module (3) according to the scenario or the operating principles of the application of which simulation will be made. In the microprocessor/microcontroller board (2) the data sent by the user/trainee, interpreted and generated by the CPU module (3), compared with the data already registered in the system, differences and compatibilities are identified, reported then sent to touch screen panel (1 ). This comparison and reporting process can also be carried out by a software incorporated in the touch screen panel (1 ).

CPU module (3) works together with digital I/O module (4) and analog I/O module (5) connected to itself. These two modules increase the number of input and output that the CPU module (3) has. Thus, it is possible to connect external equipment to CPU module (3) which provides to receive data from outside and transmit the processed data to other equipment.

In order to test the industrial applications of which experiment will be made, digital input and analog input board (6) provides the data entered by the users/trainees directly or via the touch screen panel (1 ) to be transmitted to CPU module (3). The buttons/switches (6.6) and external Inputs (6.7) provide the digital signals to be generated for the digital inputs (6.3) and the analog signals to be generated for the analog inputs (6.4). External inputs (6.7) provide any kind of analog or digital signal source or equipment to be connected to the system externally. Potentiometers (6.8) and digital to analog converters (6.9) provide the analog signals to be generated for the analog inputs (6.4). Digital to analog converters (6.9) also provide the digital signals coming from microprocessor/microcontroller board (2) to be converted to the understandable analog signals by CPU module (3). Analog to digital converters (6.5) provide the analog signals coming from CPU module (3) to be converted to the understandable digital signals by microprocessor/microcontroller board (2). Voltage converters (6.2) provide the level of the digital signal coming from microprocessor/microcontroller board (2) to be converted to the understandable digital signal level by CPU module (3). The other voltage converters (6.1) provide the level of the digital signal coming from the digital input module (4.1) connected to the CPU module (3) to be converted to the understandable digital signal level by microprocessor/microcontroller board (2).

Digital output and analog output board (7) is the part provides signals sent from the CPU module (3) to be distributed. Digital outputs (7.1) provide the data coming from digital output module (4.2) connected to the CPU module (3) to transmitted to LED, relay, motor, valve, transistor, driver or any kind of digital signal receiver will be connect to the system externally by means of the external relay outputs (7.4) and the microprocessor/microcontroller board (2) by means of the voltage converter (7.6). Analog outputs (7.2) on the board provides the data coming from analogue output module (5.2) connected to the CPU module (3) to transmitted to any kind of analog signal receiver or equipment will be connect to the system externally by means of the external outputs (7.5). External outputs (7.5) are used for transmitting of the signals when a LED, motor driver, valve or an analog signal receiver wanted to connect to the system. Analog to digital converters (7.3) connected to the analog signals (7.2) provide the analog signals coming from CPU module (3) to be converted to the understandable digital signals by microprocessor/microcontroller board (2).

Microprocessor/microcontroller board (2) trace in real-time both the digital and analog output signals generated by the CPU module (3) according to the embedded software inside and the digital and analog input signals coming to CPU module (3). Then by interpreting the changes on the concerning signals, it reports to the touch screen panel (1) and helps the workings of "The Animation Based Full Simulation Method", "The Performance-Achievement Evaluation System" and "The Performance-Achievement Reporting System" performed in the touch screen panel (1). This board consists of a programmable integrated circuit (IC) or device and the peripherals such as USB/RS232 interfaces, SD/MMC cardholder. The mentioned integrated circuit (IC) or device can be an FPGA, a CPLD has the parallel processing capability or can be a microprocessor or microcontroller has the sequential processing capability such as DSP, ARM, PowerPC, x86/x64, PSoC, Arduino, PIC/dsPIC, AVR, 8051.

Touch screen panel (1) is the place where "The Animation Based Full Simulation Method", "The Performance-Achievement Evaluation System" and "The Performance-Achievement Reporting System" are performed or visualized. It gathers real time messages coming from the microprocessor/microcontroller board (2), interprets them and executes the requirements. It consists of a touchscreen, an operation system (OS) and the peripherals.

Communications between modules, boards and interfaces constituting the system can be performed by using each kind of cabled communication protocols such as PCI, PCle, Firewire, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, USB, UART, USART, RS232, RS485, RS422, I2C, SPI, OneWire, TwoWire, Profibus, ProfiNet, ModBus, ModBus RTU, ModBus TCP/IP, CANBus (CanOpen, DeviceNet), BACNet, IEEE-488 (GPIB), LonWorks ... etc. or each kind of wireless communication protocols such as WiFi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, GPS, GPRS, 3G... etc.