Patents Examined by Chad Rapp
  • Patent number: 7809454
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing production of a composite part. A three dimensional digital part definition is received for the composite part. A plurality of layers for the composite part is generated using the digital part definition with respect to a set of performance variables for an automated material placement system. A time needed to form the plurality of layers for the composite part to form a result and a cost ratio of production rate are identified. Production of the composite part is managed using the result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2010
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Charles Yuanxin Hu, David Edward Cooper
  • Patent number: 7805207
    Abstract: An adaptive parallel proportional-integral-derivative controller produces a fixed controller output including a fixed proportional-integral-derivative and a fixed feedforward controller command, and an adaptive controller output including an adaptive parallel PID and an adaptive feedforward command all from a reference command. The fixed controller output and the adaptive controller output are added to produce a control command for a controlled system, which provides a measure of an output and a rate of change of the output as feedback for the controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2010
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventor: Khalid El Rifai
  • Patent number: 7801639
    Abstract: In a method for operating controlled machines, a motion of at least one movable machine element of the machine is controlled using a motion profile specific to that motion, and this motion profile of the motion of the machine element is subdivided into a plurality of profile segments. Each of the profile segments is assigned at least one motion condition which influences this profile segment, and each motion condition includes at least one tripping event and at least one action event associated with this tripping event and tripped by the tripping event, and the action event influences the applicable profile segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Bartosz Korajda, Sebastian Krauskopf
  • Patent number: 7797060
    Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates management within an industrial environment. A controller can execute with a real-time operating system such that the controller can include two or more controller engine instances executing as processes on the controller. A partition component can organize one or more controller engine instances based upon priority data corresponding to controller engine instance priority in relation with the industrial environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard J. Grgic, Subbian Govindaraj, Kenwood H. Hall, Robert J. Kretschmann, Charles M. Rischar, Raymond J. Staron, David A. Vasko
  • Patent number: 7787966
    Abstract: A control device for operating a machine has a control unit with at least one actuating unit to which actuators and sensors are connected for operating the machine. The control unit has a bus line for transmitting control commands from an operating part to the actuating device. A plug connection between the operating part and the control unit is provided. A monitoring unit monitors an operating signal of the operating part. The monitoring unit triggers a safety function when the operating signal that is a heartbeat of the operating part is absent. Operating states of the operating part are monitored by the monitoring unit. An output signal of the monitoring unit is evaluated in that, when the operating part is switched on, the heartbeat is processed and, when the operating part is switched off, the absence of the heartbeat is ignored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Rotzler GmbH + Co. KG
    Inventors: Jürgen Rotzler, Thomas Grundmann, Peter Heidecker
  • Patent number: 7787980
    Abstract: The tension of a web in a multi-web system is regulated. At least two webs initially run through a first processing step independently of each other and are subsequently combined with each other to form one resultant web strand. The web tensions of these two initially independent webs are adjusted to each other through a first regulation process. Each of these webs has its web tension regulated on the separate web path by a dedicated second regulation process which is different from the first regulation process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Koenig & Bauer Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Harald Karl Gretsch, Reinhard Georg Groβ
  • Patent number: 7778713
    Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates optimizing a controller within an industrial automation environment. A controller can be associated with an industrial automation environment. Two or more controller engine instances can execute on the controller to enable dynamic control related to at least one of a device or a portion of a process within the industrial automation environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard J. Grgic
  • Patent number: 7778714
    Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates programming in an industrial environment. An online controller can execute with a real-time operating system such that the online controller can include two or more controller engine instances executing as processes on the online controller, wherein at least one controller engine instance can employ a portion of code to utilize a device within the industrial environment. An edit component can dynamically implement a portion of disparate code with at least one controller engine instance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard J. Grgic, Subbian Govindaraj, Kenwood Henry Hall, Robert J. Kretschmann, Charles Martin Rischar, Raymond John Staron, David A. Vasko
  • Patent number: 7765035
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for using 802.11 based wireless protocols in various energy management applications wherein a host controller uses various types of communication networks to distribute information to an on-premise processor that in turn uses 802.11 based wireless protocols to communicate with various types of end devices, such as utility meters. Various forms of communication are defined between the end device, the on-premise processor, and the energy management host for accomplishing power load control, including determining when to activate or deactivate a load, requesting permission to activate a load, reading usage data, activating or deactivating a meter, and determining rate schedules. A flexible scheme allows control to be shifted to be resident in various entities. The architecture is applicable not only for power load control, but other control type and metering devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: SmartSynch, Inc.
    Inventor: Mark Rodgers
  • Patent number: 7756609
    Abstract: A method for the operation of a wind park with a plurality of wind energy plants, which each one have one control unit at a time, which can control and/or adjust the wind energy plant in response to a received desired value for an electric variable, the method having the following steps: a higher order control calculates and/or receives a currently permitted maximum value for the electric variable which the wind park is allowed to provide, the higher order control determines a desired value for the electric variable for each wind energy plant and forwards the same to the wind energy plants, characterized in that the higher order control determines the desired value for each one of the wind energy plants depending on the currently maximum and/or minimum available values of all the wind energy plants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: Nordex Energy GmbH
    Inventors: Mark Jurkat, Ulrich Harms
  • Patent number: 7747358
    Abstract: A method of accommodating an element in a building equipment component. The presence of the element may be detected, and whether the element is required may be determined. The building equipment component may be operated if the element is present and required, or if the element not required. If the element is absent but required, the building equipment component may be stopped. In some instances, the building equipment component may include a required first sensor, and the element may be an optional second sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2010
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Henry E. Troost, Brent Chian, Timothy J. Nordberg, Scott J. Bracken
  • Patent number: 7738976
    Abstract: The present invention is a monitoring method of monitoring a change of a processing state of an object to be processed when a predetermined process is conducted to the object to be processed by using a processing unit. The method includes: a step of respectively setting constant response variables for two states before and after a processing state changes, the response variables being different from each other; and a step of conducting a multiple regression analysis about the response variables in order to produce a model expression, predictor variables of the multiple regression analysis being a plurality of detected data from a plurality of detectors provided in the processing unit. Then, the method includes: a step of actually obtaining a plurality of detected data from the plurality of detectors when the predetermined process is conducted to the object to be processed; and a step of estimating or monitoring a processing state by applying the obtained plurality of detected data to the model expression.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2010
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventor: Susumu Saito
  • Patent number: 7720567
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a conveyor, a programmable motion device, and a controller. The conveyor preferably includes actuatable rollers, and the programmable motion device is preferably a robotic arm. The controller operates the conveyor, a stopping rail, and a positioning rail to move and position a box in a cutting position relative to the robotic arm. The controller determines three dimension of the box and translates a programmed cut pattern to those determined dimensions. Based on the determined dimensions, the controller then operates the robotic arm to perform the programmed cut pattern in the box with the cutting element. The cutting element preferably has square blade so that each of the four blades can be used to cut a side of the box without having to rotate the cutting element during operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignees: Cornerstone Automation Systems, Inc., Robotica, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael J Doke, Jay Dugat
  • Patent number: 7711440
    Abstract: Systems and methods that enable query based formulation requests to an embedded historian and data acquired thereby, via employing a browser engine. Accordingly, users can browse data collected by the plurality of embedded historians based on numerous selection criteria such as for example, type of data collected, location/time of data collection, and the like. Query specific request can be inputted to the browser engine, and data that match such request can subsequently be presented to the user. Thus, history data can be viewed based on user preferences, and in a meaningful manner to such user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: John T. Campbell, Robert J. McGreevy, Robert J. Herbst, John J. Baier
  • Patent number: 7706899
    Abstract: An adaptive cascade proportional-integral-derivative controller produces a fixed controller output including a fixed proportional-integral-derivative and a fixed feedforward controller command, and an adaptive controller output including an adaptive cascade PID and an adaptive feedforward command all from a reference command. The fixed controller output and the adaptive controller output are added to produce a control command for a controlled system, which provides a measure of an output and a rate of change of the output as feedback for the controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventor: Khalid El Rifai
  • Patent number: 7702422
    Abstract: A method, computer program product, and a data processing system for controlling a first climate control device is provided. An operational mode is obtained for each of a plurality of climate control devices. The operational mode of each of the plurality of climate control devices is compared with a desired operational mode of the first climate control device. A determination of whether any of the operational modes of the plurality of climate control devices differs from the desired operational mode. The first climate control device is placed in the desired operational mode dependent on the comparison of the operational modes of the plurality of climate control devices with the desired operational mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Robert F. Grenville Robinson
  • Patent number: 7693586
    Abstract: A process model specified using, for example, UML activity diagrams can be translated into an event-based model that can be executed on top of a coordination middleware. For example, a process model may be encoded as a collection of coordinating objects that interact with each other through a coordination middleware including a shared memory space. This approach is suitable for undertaking post-deployment adaptation of process-oriented composite applications. In particular, new control dependencies can be encoded by dropping new (or enabling existing) coordinating objects into the space and/or disabling existing ones.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignee: SAP AG
    Inventors: Marlon G. Dumas, Julien J. P. Vayssiere, Tore Fjellheim
  • Patent number: 7689323
    Abstract: A method and system is provided for optimizing the performance of a power generation and distribution system that monitors the performance of a power system, detects disturbances and calculates statistical information, uses historical performance data and economic factors to analyze and control the production of power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2010
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Ashmin Mansingh, Mike York
  • Patent number: 7684903
    Abstract: A method for controlling a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in a wait mode, including: obtaining information regarding a waiting time required for a product to arrive at the apparatus on a production line, the product being subjected to a predetermined process by the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus; obtaining information regarding a time required to control energy saving between lowering electric power and other energy used by the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in the wait mode to a level at which the processing is not ready and raising the electric power and the other energy to a processable level at which the product processing is ready; and judging whether or not to execute the energy saving control of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus based on results of comparison of the required time with the waiting time and of estimation on an effect of energy saving obtained by executing the energy saving control during the waiting time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsu Tomine
  • Patent number: 7684876
    Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates enabling efficient load allocation within an industrial automation environment. A controller with a processing capability can be associated with an industrial automation environment. A balance component can distribute a portion of a load to the controller based upon an evaluation of at least one of the load or the processing capability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard J. Grgic