Abstract: An industrial control system uses a number of autonomous control units, each associated with one piece of equipment in an industrial process. The autonomous control units negotiate by bidding among themselves to determine a common set of input and output values for the interconnected machines with which they are associated. Each autonomous control unit determines whether input values are acceptable by using a model of its associated equipment. The model provides anticipated output values based on given input values and is effectively operated in reverse for external counterbids proposing output values and needing to know input values, or internal counterbids seeking to optimize counterbid input values against output based goals. The reverse modeling iteratively applies inputs to the model until the desired output is attained. The inputs may be constrained by predefined intermediate constraints and may be changed in a binary search pattern. In multi-input models, one input may be specified for iteration.

Abstract: A rolling mill system uses a number of autonomous control units, each associated with one piece of equipment of the rolling mill system. The autonomious control units include data indicating not only their constraints of operation, but also reflecting the constraints of operation of machines to which they are attached and with which they share common operating parameters. An autonomous control unit associated with a machine having operating parameters in common with another machine of the rolling mill system adopts the intersection of the ranges of the machine constraints of the two machines. Machine constraints are preserved to the extent possible as ranges, so as to permit flexibility in selecting and seeking goals by the individual autonomous control units.

Abstract: Run time modification of interrupt service routines in an embedded operating system installs a soft vectored interrupt service routine into the operating system kernel at the time of the kernel generation. The soft vectored interrupt service routine refers interrupt service calls to installable interrupt service routines that may be loaded subsequently on a real-time basis. In this way, flexible interrupt service routine response may be obtained for a wide variety of hardware combinations, unanticipated at the time of the generation of the operating system kernel.

Abstract: An interface between a network communication card and an industrial controller allows rapid asynchronous buffering using two buffers and two associated registers for each data direction. A reading of the buffers is proceeded by an attempt to copy from the write designation register to the read designation register checking the equality of the register values and then reading from the buffer designated by their common value. Conclusion of the reading sets the write destination register to zero. Writing of the buffers is proceeded by a checking of the read designation register for zero value and then writing to other than the last buffer indicated by the write designation register. If the read designation register is non-zero, then the writing occurs to the opposite buffer of that in the read designation register. The write designation register is then updated to indicate the buffer written to.

Abstract: An industrial control system employs a primary and secondary controller each having a processor and at least one I/O data table. Updating of the secondary processor's I/O data table is performed prior to the same data being transmitted to the controlled process. This eliminates possible retrogressive control at the time of switch-over of control from the primary industrial controller to the secondary industrial controller. Additional I/O data tables may be provided in each of the primary and secondary industrial controllers. In the case of the secondary industrial controller, this duplicate I/O data table temporarily holds data until the transmission is complete preventing the partial update of the working I/O data table of the secondary industrial controller. The duplicate I/O data table in the primary industrial controller allows simultaneous outputting of the I/O data transmitted to the controlled process without corruption while the user program of the primary industrial controller resumes execution.

Abstract: An industrial control system incorporating a plurality of human/machine interfaces provides for the identification of an operator using the human/machine interface so as to forward output from an ongoing application tool program to the operator as the operator moves about the factory without interruption of the tool program. Location of the human/machine interface may be used to alter the tool program to refer to data relevant to the particular part of the process near the HMI providing for intuitive and efficient use of software type tools by roving operators.

Abstract: A human/machine interface for designing, monitoring and troubleshooting complex industrial control systems uses the paradigm of the factory floor to organize machines, control program portions and data as virtual spatially linked objects that may be moved in three dimensions to be joined with other spatially linked objects. The user may move within the virtual factory floor among the spatially linked objects followed by spatially indifferent objects which provide tools for monitoring and interacting with the spatially linked objects. Proximity of visual objects determines data sharing between objects.

Abstract: Multiple bits of information may be conveyed by passive target material incorporating filaments of magnetizable material having different magnetization functions and, in particular, different coercivities. Detection of the presence or absence of the individual filaments may be done remotely by measuring induced flux B as a function of an externally imposed magnetic field waveform and subjecting the measured induced flux signal to differentiation or Fourier transform techniques.

Abstract: An industrial control system uses a number of autonomous control units, each associated with one piece of equipment in an industrial process. The autonomous control units include data indicating not only their constraints of operation but also reflecting the constraints of operation of machines to which they are attached and with which they share common operating parameters. An autonomous controller associated with a machine having operating parameters in common with another machine adopts the intersection of the ranges of the machine constraint of the two machines. Machine constraints are preserved to the extent possible as ranges so as to permit flexibility in selecting and seeking goals by the individual autonomous control units.

Abstract: A table of sequential call statements is used to organize various program portions of the operating system of an industrial controller. This organizing structure allows troubleshooting of individual program portions of the operating system as are intimately related to the controlled process and the control hardware on an individual basis without the need to generate dummy programs or “stubs” to replace the unexecuted program portions. Those program portions not being executed have their call instructions replaced by NOP instructions. The call table may be edited to provide for different operating modes of the industrial controller without the need for mode test flags otherwise dispersed within the program code of the operating system.

Abstract: High aspect ratio filaments of magnetic material are randomly dispersed in a non-magnetic matrix such as paper or plastic for part of a critical component of a manufactured product to permit remote sensing of the manufactured product by the application of an external oscillating magnetic field and the detection of the resulting induced magnetization. The material may be incorporated into a wide variety of products that must be remotely sensed.

Abstract: A mobile human machine interface for a monitoring operation of a spatially distributed control system in a factory or the like provides a location signal to a central processor holding the control program and relevant I/O data. Based on that location signal, the mobile HMI receives data relevant to the machines near its location. As the user moves through the factory, its location signal changes and the data and program which it executes changes accordingly. The user may identify him or herself to the mobile HMI providing for a second degree of discrimination in the type of data provided to the mobile HMI.

Abstract: Low voltage logic circuitry is used to permit an entire subsystem of an industrial controller to be placed within a hazardous environment to receive a high speed serial link and undertake the control of multiple control points without expensive and awkward long cable runs and electrically isolating circuits for each cable run. Energy and bandwidth limiting on the high speed link allows power levels commensurate with high data rates yet intrinsic safety of the media allowing it to freely pass in and out of the hazardous area. A mixture of intrinsically safe and non-intrinsically safe equipment on the same logical rack is allowed through a bus isolator providing isolated data communication in backplane fashion between modules while wholly isolating power transmission along the backplane.

Abstract: An operating system particularly designed for application programs to be used on embedded computers in appliances and the like is constructed in a modular basis. The application program is scanned for calls to the operating system and the particular modules of the operating system required for the application program are collected into an operating system kernel which may be linked and loaded with the application system into the embedded application.

Abstract: Graphically intense utility programs for an industrial control system, requiring the same operating system as is used to run the control program, are run on remote computers having insufficient memory or processing power to support the operating system, by using a shell program executing on a control-computer to run the utilities. The shell program uses the control-computer's operating system except for calls to the remote computer's display or its manual input devices which are routed to a virtual machine updated periodically by communication with the remote machine.

Abstract: A video timing generator provides control and timing signals for a variety of different camera types by employing a circular buffer scanned rapidly before the occurrence of each potential control and timing signal. The circular buffer holds operation codes for generating the control and timing signal linked to target event signal times. An operation code having a target event signal time matching with the next event time is decoded and queued to be executed at that event time.

Abstract: An industrial controller for injection molding machines models the injection molding machine by observing ram state in response to control variables to alert the user when a control profile may be physically unrealizable and to inhibit a learning process to avoid extreme actuation of the controlled components such as may be detrimental to later control accuracy. Simultaneous velocity and pressure control of the ram, with separate profiles, may be obtained by open-loop control of either pressure or velocity and continuous closed-loop control of the other control variable.

Abstract: A rolling mill system associates an autonomous control unit with each piece of equipment in the rolling mill system. The autonomous control unit has a model of the particular piece of equipment, for example, of the rolling mill, a reheat furnace or a cooling bath, and data indicating constraints on the operation of the equipment. A metal shape to be produced is described as a set of machine independent steps, and the performance of these steps is bid upon by the autonomous control units according to the constraint models and internal goals. Bids having conflicting requirements may generate counterbids until a complete plan for the production of the product is generated.

Abstract: An industrial control system associates an autonomous control unit with each piece of equipment in an industrial process, the autonomous control units having a model of the equipment's operation and data indicating constraints on the equipment's operation. A product to be produced is abstracted as a set of machine independent steps and performance of these steps bid upon by the autonomous control units according constraints models and internal goals. Bids having conflicting requirements may generate counterbids until a completed plan for the production of the product is generated.

Abstract: An improvement in an industrial controller having a processor with a memory holding an I/O table used for storing inputs and outputs transmitted between the industrial controller and a controlled process, via multiple I/O devices, uses templates associated with each I/O device to define the partitioning of the I/O table for the data. The templates define data types and ordering of data required for the particular I/O device permitting the space in the I/O table to be efficiently and intuitively allocated. The templates also relate physical addresses in the I/O table to program variables used by the control program.