Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides industrial automation systems and/or methods that evaluate a proximity to potential hazards. A plurality of sensors can provide redundant detected data. Additionally, a proximity evaluation component can evaluate the detected data, determine a location of at least one of a person and an object, and identify a distance from the location to one or more hazardous zones in a monitored region.

Abstract: An automated manufacturing system, intermediate control device for implementation in such a system, and method of performing a manufacturing operation are disclosed. In at least some embodiments, the automated manufacturing system includes a first sensor that provides a first output signal, a first controllable device, and a first process controller capable of issuing a first command to the first controllable device. The system further includes a first intermediate control device coupled between the first sensor and the first process controller. The first intermediate control device receives the first output signal and determines, based at least in part upon the first output signal, whether to send an additional signal to the first process controller indicative of a failure condition.

Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides industrial automation systems and/or methods that can aggregate data. A plurality of sensors can provide redundant detected data. Additionally, a weighting component can respectively weight the detected data based upon a confidence of accurate measurement corresponding to each of the plurality of sensors. Further, a combination component can assemble the redundant detected data based at least in part upon the weights to generate harmonized data.