Abstract: A device on a network having multiple units of programmable industrial equipment includes a control handle connected to a controller for a unit of the programmable equipment and a shared operating unit selectively connected to the control handle for controlling the unit of programmable industrial equipment through the controller. Further, the shared operating unit is adapted to connect to the network for communicating with each unit of programmable equipment on the network.

Abstract: An apparatus for power failure identification in a programmable household appliance includes an electronic program control apparatus having a first device disposed upstream of the mains switch on the power supply system side and a second device disposed downstream from the mains switch on the appliance side for identifying an electrical variable of the external power supply system or of the supply system in the household appliance. The program control apparatus compares the signals produced by each of the devices from the electrical variables to decide whether the failure or the change in the electrical variable of the household appliance is due to a failure of the external power supply system, or due to the household appliance being switched off deliberately.

Abstract: In a control system with a controlled apparatus and a control apparatus, the controlled apparatus includes an operation panel having display levels, and the control apparatus is adapted to receive the operation panel from the controlled apparatus, display the operation panel on a display device, and control the displayed operation panel using a control signal from an operating device. The control apparatus is adapted to inform the controlled apparatus of an operation to the operation panel, and to change a display mode of the operation panel, if a display level of the operation panel is changed.

Abstract: The present invention includes a system and method for fine tuning the process of controlling the weight of a flow of material, such as a rod of material in a production facility. A control actuator in communication with a PID controller and PID control loop is used to change the unit volume of the flow so as to maintain a target unit weight. A measurement device captures unit weight measurements of the flow at intervals over the length of the flow. A change is introduced to a control actuator while the PID controller and PID control loop are disabled, and appropriate weight measurements of the flow are continually captured along with the control actuator's “feed back” position; a process that may be repeated several times. Once sufficient weight measurement data has been captured, the data is loaded into an optimization program that outputs optimized controlled parameters that may be used by the PID controller and control loop to better control the weight of the flow of material.

Abstract: An electronic control apparatus is designed to perform an engine control program in an object-oriented programming manner. A first type message, which does not contain a count value generated as a result of execution of a method of an object, is stored in a message storage unit. At the time that execution of the method is completed, the stored first type message is read out and a method of the object corresponding to the destination of the message is executed. A timer message, which contains a count value generated as a result of execution of the method of the object, is stored in another storage unit. The count value (timer counter) of the timer message in the other storage unit is reduced one by one as a result of the process being performed every predetermined time. When the count value of the timer message reaches 0 in the message storage unit the message is re-stored as a first type message.

Abstract: System for minimizing the cost of an optical network. A method is provided for designing an optical network to have minimized costs. The optical network has a plurality of nodes connected by interconnecting optical fibers. The method comprises inputting channel parameters associated with the optical network, inputting cost parameters associated with the optical network, calculating band parameters associated with the optical network, restricting at least one parameter associated with the optical network to having only integer values, and using an integer linear program to solve a minimization objective function that allows the cost of the optical network to be minimized, wherein the minimization objective function includes selected channel, cost and band parameters.

Abstract: An adaptive predictive expert control system for controlling single-input single-output, or multi-variable time-variant processes with known or unknown parameters and with or without time delay, is disclosed. The adaptive predictive expert control system of the present invention adds an expert block into the operation of previously known adaptive predictive control systems. This expert block based on rules and in the evolution of the process variables, determines and/or modifies the operation of the driver block, control block and adaptive feedback mechanism of the previous art, in order to improve the performance, robustness and stability of the overall control system.

Abstract: An intelligent business rules module and method for processing an action to be performed on a design. The action includes adding a feature, changing a value of an attribute of a feature, removing a feature, and moving a feature from an old work location in the design to a new work location in the design. The intelligent business rules module includes instructions for determining a type of the action, determining the feature type of the feature that is the subject of the action, and determining whether a business rule exists for performing the action type on the feature type. If a business rule exists, the business rules module determines whether performing the action on the feature will satisfy the business rule. If performing the action will satisfy the business rule, the intelligent business rules module approves the action to be performed on the design.

Abstract: An electronic control device for integration into mechanical systems is described and provided with an operating program hierarchically broken down into a plurality of program levels. Some of the program levels are non-reprogrammable and some are reprogrammable. In this manner the flexibility of the electronic control device is greatly enhanced.

Abstract: Fuzzy keyboards, to determine a most-likely-to-be-intended keystroke or keystrokes, are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method adds each of one or more keys to each of a current list of key sequence hypotheses, to create a new list of key sequence hypotheses. The method determines a likelihood probability for each hypothesis in the new list, and removes any hypothesis failing to satisfy any of one or more thresholds. The most likely key sequence of the new list may then be displayed. Some embodiments of the invention relate specifically to soft keyboards, while other embodiments relate specifically to real, physical and hard keyboards.

Abstract: An automation level selection unit automatically selects one automation level corresponding to a given trigger based on a situation, the prediction of performance, the detection of a user reaction, or the record of a user operation in the past. A level-based process control unit controls a predetermined process corresponding to the automation level selected by the automation level selection unit.

Abstract: When neuron operations are computed in parallel using a large number of arithmetic units, arithmetic units for neuron operations and arithmetic units for error signal operations need not be provided separately, and a neural network arithmetic apparatus that consumes the bus band less is provided for updating of synapse connection weights. Operation results of arithmetic units and setting information of a master node are exchanged between them through a local bus. During neuron operations, partial sums of neuron output values from the arithmetic units are accumulated by the master node to generate and output a neuron output value, and an arithmetic unit to which neuron operations of the specific neuron are assigned receives and stores the neuron output value outputted from the master node.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for monitoring vehicular traffic flow in a road network 1 in an area served by a mobile telecommunications device network 7 having a call management system 10 provided with a mobile telecommunications device positioning system 11 providing positional data for active mobile telecommunications devices 12. The method comprises capturing geographical positioning data for individual active devices carried aboard vehicles 12 and converting these into probability vectors representing the likelihood of the vehicle having arrived at any of the possible road components 16 of the road network 7 compatible with the geographical positional data. As the vehicle 12 travels along, this process is repeated and new probability vectors constructed based on the probability of any of the available routes between the new probability vector road component position and the immediately preceding probability vector road component position.

Abstract: A method for sorting respective incident log data from a plurality of machines undergoing diagnostics is provided. The method allows for receiving incident log data comprising one or more incidents from the plurality of machines and for receiving operational parameter data from the plurality of machines. The method further allows for executing a set of incident-authentication rules indicative of whether a received incident actually corresponds to a faulty condition or not. An assigning step allows for assigning a predetermined incident severity rating to the respective incidents, and a processing step allows for processing the respective incidents based on their respective incident severity rating.

Abstract: A distributed control system employs a number of autonomous cooperative units that intercommunicate with bids and counter bids to allocate the production of a product among them. Bidding closure is obtained in an environment where each autonomous cooperative unit can propagate multi-threaded bidding chains, by attaching a response time value to each propagated bid indicating when a response must be received. Sub-bids from that propagated bid forward a reduced version of this response time value that accounts for the sub-bid processing time. Thus, all bidding is concluded within the response time value. Participants in a successful bidding chain are notified so that in the future they may direct bids toward bidding partners that have historically proven successful as part of a successful bidding chain.

Abstract: A process control system receiving input signals from a controlled apparatus and using the input signals in determining at least one output signal modifying the characteristics of at least one respective control device in the controlled apparatus where the source code for the general control of the apparatus and the source code for the safety shutdown system of the apparatus are compiled to control code in a unified compilation.

Abstract: Performance measurement and analysis of local exchange carrier interconnections. Performance measurements can be used to establish that an incumbent local exchange carrier (“ILEC”) is providing interconnections to one or more competitive local exchange carriers (“CLEC's”) that are at least equal in quality to the interconnections provided to itself. Performance measurements are defined to measure the timeliness, accuracy and availability of the interconnections provided to the CLEC's. A performance measurement is based upon performance data that us collected from one of the ILEC's processes (preordering, ordering, provisioning, collocation, billing, maintenance and repair, emergency 911, operator service/directory assistance and trunk blockage). A performance report is defined to specify the types of performance measurements and dimensions that are included, as well as the reporting period.

Abstract: The present invention is a computer system and associated method configured to in support of solving NP-complete problems such as minimal Hamiltonian cycle type problems. According to the invention, a primary network represented by the matrix of its edges is recorded in the memory space, and an equivalent representation of the primary network is formed as a set of subnetworks. Nodes of a present path are reordered according to a set of reordering rules and edge weights of edges of the set of subnetworks are changed according to a set of edge weight changing rules.

Abstract: The present invention discloses system and method for analyzing continuous parameter data from a malfunctioning locomotive or other large land-based, self-powered transport equipment. The method allows for receiving new continuous parameter data comprising a plurality of anomaly definitions from the malfunctioning equipment. The method further allows for selecting a plurality of distinct anomaly definitions from the new continuous parameter data. Respective generating steps allow for generating at least one distinct anomaly definition cluster from the plurality of distinct anomaly definitions and for generating a plurality of weighted repair and distinct anomaly definition cluster combinations. An identifying step allows for identifying at least one repair for the at least one distinct anomaly definition cluster using the plurality of weighted repair and distinct anomaly definition cluster combinations.

Abstract: Disclosed is an embroidery data creating device for creating an embroidery data to be used by a sewing machine. In the embroidery data creating device, an image data, which consists of a plurality of pixel data, corresponding to a line-drawn image is converted into a thin line image, and then closed paths are determined with use of 8-connection method. After embroidery attribution is applied to a path and/or a region defined by each closed path, the paths and/or the regions are converted into the embroidery data.