Patents by Inventor William Keith Bryant

William Keith Bryant has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240303154
    Abstract: A Functional Safety Counter Module is provided and it comprises input circuitry, test circuitry, a first microcontroller including a first hardware counter, a second hardware counter, a first storage device that stores a first firmware algorithm code to execute a counter pattern test in order to detect a short open input signal and/or a failure in counting capability of the first microcontroller and a second microcontroller including a third hardware counter, a fourth hardware counter, a second storage device that stores a second firmware algorithm code. The first and second firmware algorithm codes are configured to resynchronize and restore respectively a first counter or a second counter after the counter pattern test and are configured to detect an offset and adjust during a resynchronization process to account for the offset such that to successfully resynchronize two separate resynchronization algorithm codes are used depending on an input frequency of counter signals input to four hardware counters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2021
    Publication date: September 12, 2024
    Applicant: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Jeffrey Howe, William Keith Bryant, Steven Parfitt, Steven M. Hausman, Thomas Brian Hartley
  • Publication number: 20230280190
    Abstract: A fail-safe counter module comprises a controller including a processor and a memory and circuitry for fail-safe counting. The fail-safe counter module further comprises computer-readable safety rating support code stored in the memory which, when executed by the processor, causes the controller to provide safety rating to International Standard levels such as Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3, Category (CAT) 4, Performance Level (PL) e. The fail-safe counter module further comprises computer-readable “Safety Monitoring” functions code stored in the memory which, when executed by the processor, causes the controller to work with a user interface to select and configure the “Safety Monitoring” functions. The fail-safe counter module is a functional safety-rated device with an expected rating for SIL 3, CAT 4, PL e applications and is engineered to calculate position and/or speed utilizing an external quadrature encoder sensor that generates waveforms which permits counting of specific electrical pulses.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2020
    Publication date: September 7, 2023
    Applicant: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: William Keith Bryant
  • Patent number: 9746844
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and systems are provided for a web browser accessible data file system on a programmable logic controller (PLC). The invention includes a PLC which includes a controller module; a file system module coupled to the controller module and adapted to persistently store archive data files; a memory module that stores binary data coupled to the controller module; and a user program module that stores instructions adapted to be executed by the controller module. The instructions may include creating an archive file in a user application format in the file system module; storing binary data in the memory module; converting the binary data to the user application format of the archive file; and storing the converted binary data as an entry in the archive file in the file system module. Numerous additional aspects are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: William Keith Bryant, Lothar Trapp
  • Publication number: 20120290539
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and systems are provided for a web browser accessible data file system on a programmable logic controller (PLC). The invention includes a PLC which includes a controller module; a file system module coupled to the controller module and adapted to persistently store archive data files; a memory module that stores binary data coupled to the controller module; and a user program module that stores instructions adapted to be executed by the controller module. The instructions may include creating an archive file in a user application format in the file system module; storing binary data in the memory module; converting the binary data to the user application format of the archive file; and storing the converted binary data as an entry in the archive file in the file system module. Numerous additional aspects are disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2011
    Publication date: November 15, 2012
    Applicant: Siemens Aktiengesellschart
    Inventors: William Keith Bryant, Lothar Trapp