What is Human Machine Interface?

Human Machine Interaction (HMI), also known as user interface or user interface, is a medium and dialogue interface for transferring and exchanging information between people and computers, and is an important part of computer systems. It is a medium for interaction and information exchange between the system and users. It realizes the conversion between the internal form of information and the acceptable form of human beings. Human-machine interfaces exist in all areas that participate in human-machine information exchange.

HMI

Human Machine Interaction (HMI), also known as user interface or user interface, is a medium and dialogue interface for transferring and exchanging information between people and computers, and is an important part of computer systems. It is a medium for interaction and information exchange between the system and users. It realizes the conversion between the internal form of information and the acceptable form of human beings. Human-machine interfaces exist in all areas that participate in human-machine information exchange.

Chinese name

HMI

Foreign name

Interface

Man and machine

Hard and soft touch

Application range

Participate in human-machine information exchange

Relationship

Human-computer interaction

in principle

Order principle

HMI:

Man-machine interface refers to the area where the human and machine contact or interact with each other in information exchange and function, or the man-machine interface described in the interface.

Human-machine interface design should consider the following principles.

1.Basic user-centric design principles

During the design of the system, the designer must grasp the characteristics of the user and discover the needs of the user. During the entire development process of the system, users' opinions must be continuously sought and consulted. The design decision of the system must be combined with the user's work and application environment, and the user's requirements for the system must be understood. The best way is to involve real users in development, so that developers can correctly understand the needs and goals of users, and the system will be more successful.

2. Order principle

That is, the main interface for monitoring management and human-machine dialogue and its second-level interface are designed according to the sequence of processing events, the order of visits (such as from overall to single item, from large to small, from upper to lower, etc.) and control process flow.

3. Functional principles

That is, according to the specific application functional requirements of the object's application environment and occasions, various subsystem control types, parallel processing requirements for different management objects on the same interface, and simultaneous requirements for multiple dialog interactions, the design is divided into multiple levels of menus and hierarchical prompts. The human-computer interaction interface such as information and multiple dialog bars, which makes it easy for users to distinguish and grasp the rules and characteristics of the interactive interface, and improve its friendliness and ease of operation.

4. Principle of consistency

Including consistent color, consistent operating area, consistent text. That is, on the one hand, the interface colors, shapes, and fonts are consistent with national, international, or industry standards. On the other hand, the interface colors, shapes, and fonts are self-contained, and the colors of different devices and the same design state should be consistent. Interface details The consistency of the art design makes the operator feel comfortable when looking at the interface, so as not to distract him. For new operators, or operators dealing with problems in an emergency, consistency can also reduce their operational errors.

5.Frequency principle

That is, the order of the man-machine interface and the display position of the dialog window list are designed according to the level of the dialog interaction frequency of the management object to increase the frequency of monitoring and accessing the dialog.

6. Materiality principle

That is, in accordance with the importance and global level of the management object in the control system, the position and prominence of the primary and secondary menus and dialog windows of the man-machine interface are designed, thereby helping managers to grasp the primary and secondary of the control system and implement the control. Decision-making sequence to achieve optimal scheduling and management.

Object-oriented principles

That is, according to the identity characteristics and working nature of the operator, a human-machine interface that is suitable and friendly is designed. According to their work needs, pop-up windows should be used to display prompts, guidance, and help information to improve user interaction and efficiency.

Human-computer interaction interface, whether it is for the field controller or higher-level monitoring and management, the two are closely related. The objects they monitor and manage are the same, so many field device parameters are shared between them. And each other. The standardized design of the human-machine interface should be the future development direction, because it really reflects the basic principles of easy-to-use, simple, and practical, and fully expresses the people-oriented design concept. A variety of industrial control configuration software and programming tools provide powerful support for making beautiful human-computer interaction interfaces. The larger and more complex the system, the better it can reflect its superiority.

The human-machine interface design process can be divided into the following steps:

1. Create an external model of system functions. The design model mainly considers the data structure, overall structure, and procedural description of the software. The interface design is generally only an accessory, and only the user's situation (including age, gender, psychological situation, cultural level, Personality, ethnic background, etc.) in order to design an effective user interface; design the user model based on the end user's hypothesis of the future system (referred to as the system hypothesis), and finally make it the system image (systematic (External features), users can be satisfied with the system and can use it effectively; when building a user model, we must fully consider the information given by the system, and the system image must accurately reflect the system's grammatical and semantic information. In short, only by understanding the user and the task can a good human-machine interface be designed.

2.Identify the tasks that people and computers should complete to complete this system function

There are two approaches to task analysis. One is based on the actual situation, and analyzes the original application system in the manual or semi-manual state to map it to a set of similar tasks performed on the human-computer interface; the other is to study the system requirements Specifications that derive a set of user tasks that are coordinated with the user model and system assumptions.

Gradually refine and

Clear monitoring task requirements and select suitable HMI products;

Edit "Project File" on the PC with the screen configuration software;

Test and save the edited "Project File";

Connect the HMI hardware to the PC and download the "project file" to the HMI;

Connect HMI and industrial controller (such as PLC, instrument, etc.) to realize human-computer interaction.

Development status of China's human-machine interface market

China is the market with the largest demand for human-machine interface in the world, but it is not the market with the highest sales of human-machine interface products in the world. This shows that low-end human-machine interface users occupy a large share in China. In recent years, the rapid development of national brands, adopting low prices and other strategies, is aggressively attacking the low-end market. It has occupied the dominant position in the low-end market in China and has won the recognition of customers. International brands are also gradually developing their economic products to grab market share in the low end. Therefore, due to the steady performance in the low-end market, the overall performance of domestic man-machine interface manufacturers has shown rapid growth.

HMI is no longer just display and control

In the domestic automation industry, some industries that originally did not use human-machine interfaces have begun to use human-machine interfaces. This shows that human-machine interfaces have become an indispensable part of the customer experience. The user-machine interface of human-machine interfaces can better reflect the equipment And the state of the process, and through the effects of visual and touch, to give customers a more intuitive experience.

Future development trend of man-machine interface

Some machinery industries, such as machine tools, textile machinery, and electronic equipment, have been developed in China for decades. They are relatively mature industries. In the long run, these industries still have equipment upgrades. demand. In this process of upgrading, some small manufacturers that have been using relatively low-end products will be eliminated, but there are also many companies that reposition their needs during the equipment upgrade process to find those that can meet their development plans. Equipment vendors that help them increase their productivity.

In view of this demand, future changes in the human-machine interface will change in shape, concept, application, and other aspects, thereby bringing about changes in the core technology of the industrial computer. Generally speaking, the future development trend of human-computer interfaces is six modernizations: platform embeddedness, brand nationalization, intelligent equipment, stylish interface, communication network, and energy saving and environmental protection.

First, the human-machine interface is not responding, and no part of the touch is responding.

Solution: In this case, first check whether the wiring interface is loose, and then check whether there is a conflict between the serial port and the interrupt number. If it is caused by the conflict, adjust the resources to avoid the conflict.

Secondly, check whether cracks appear on the surface of the man-machine interface. If cracks are found, replace them in time. In addition, it is also necessary to check whether there is dirt on the surface of the man-machine interface, and if so, remove it with a soft cloth. Observe and check whether the indicator light on the control box is working normally. When it is normal, the indicator light is green and flashes.

If all the above parts are normal, you can use the replacement method to check the man-machine interface, first replace the control box, then the touch screen, and finally the host.

2. The man-machine interface is normal but the computer cannot operate. A human-machine interface, after testing, everything is normal, but the computer cannot operate after connecting to the host.

Solution: For this situation, there are two reasons. For one, the HMI driver version may be too low and the latest driver needs to be installed. Second, it may be that before the host starts to load the HMI driver, the HMI control card receives the operation signal, and only needs to power off and then restart the computer.

Third, touch is not allowed. For a surface acoustic wave human-machine interface, touching the part of the display screen with a finger cannot complete the corresponding operation normally.

Treatment method: There are two reasons for this phenomenon. The first possibility is that the reflection stripes of the sonic screen are slightly damaged. If this is the case, it will not be completely repaired. The second possibility is that after using the sonic man-machine interface for some time, the reflection stripes around the screen are covered by dust , You can wipe with a dry soft cloth, then power off, restart the computer and recalibrate.