2005 results about "Distributed control system" patented technology

The present invention provides a system and method for implementing logic control in programmable controllers in distributed control systems using a wired or wireless network. A software application is used to define the configuration of the network. Based on the network configuration, a compiler engine automatically assigns each statement of the control program to at least one programmable logic controller in the network. Each statement is then transmitted over a data transmission medium to the programmable logic controller assigned to the statement.

The present invention provides a field device whereby the device's additional information can be transmitted wirelessly without the need for battery replacement or external wiring. The present invention also provides a field device whereby the firmware of a wireless module in the field device can be developed at minimum cost and whereby it can be made easy to link the firmware to applications, such as an asset management system, on the host system side. The field device in accordance with the present invention is installed in a plant, factory, or the like, connected to a higher-order distributed control system through a signal line, configured to input or output 4-20 mA signals, and comprised of: an RF unit for transmitting or receiving radio signals; and a power supply block for accumulating extra electric currents when the block is neither transmitting nor receiving radio signals; wherein electric currents accumulated in the power supply block are supplied to the RF unit so as to be used as electric power for transmitting or receiving radio signals.

Some embodiments provide a distributed control system for controlling managed switching elements of a network. The distributed control system comprises a first controller for converting a first set of input logical control plane data to a first set of output logical forwarding plane data. It also includes a second controller for converting a second set of input logical control plane data to a second set of output logical forwarding plane data. The logical forwarding plane data is translated into physical forwarding behaviors that direct the forwarding of data by the managed switching elements.

A technique is disclosed for controlling a plurality of devices in a building. The technique includes detecting a first network event at a first device, updating a network state on the first device based on the first network event, determining at the first device an action based on the network state, and transmitting a second network event to a second device.

A non-linear dynamic predictive device (60) is disclosed which operates either in a configuration mode or in one of three runtime modes: prediction mode, horizon mode, or reverse horizon mode. An external device controller (50) sets the mode and determines the data source and the frequency of data. In prediction mode, the input data are such as might be received from a distributed control system (DCS) (10) as found in a manufacturing process; the device controller ensures that a contiguous stream of data from the DCS is provided to the predictive device at a synchronous discrete base sample time. In prediction mode, the device controller operates the predictive device once per base sample time and receives the output from the predictive device through path (14). In horizon mode and reverse horizon mode, the device controller operates the predictive device additionally many times during base sample time interval. In horizon mode, additional data is provided through path (52). In reverse horizon mode data is passed in a reverse direction through the device, utilizing information stored during horizon mode, and returned to the device controller through path (66). In the forward modes, the data are passed to a series of preprocessing units (20) which convert each input variable (18) from engineering units to normalized units. Each preprocessing unit feeds a delay unit (22) that time-aligns the input to take into account dead time effects such as pipeline transport delay. The output of each delay unit is passed to a dynamic filter unit (24). Each dynamic filter unit internally utilizes one or more feedback paths that are essential for representing the dynamic information in the process. The filter units themselves are configured into loosely coupled subfilters which are automatically set up during the configuration mode and allow the capability of practical operator override of the automatic configuration settings. The outputs (28) of the dynamic filter units are passed to a non-linear analyzer (26) which outputs a value in normalized units. The output of the analyzer is passed to a post-processing unit (32) that converts the output to engineering units. This output represents a prediction of the output of the modeled process. In reverse horizon mode, a value of 1 is presented at the output of the predictive device and data is passed through the device in a reverse flow to produce a set of outputs (64) at the input of the predictive device. These are returned to the device controller through path (66). The purpose of the reverse horizon mode is to provide essential information for process control and optimization. The precise operation of the predictive device is configured by a set of parameters. that are determined during the configuration mode and stored in a storage device (30). The configuration mode makes use of one or more files of training data (48) collected from the DCS during standard operation of the process, or through structured plant testing. The predictive device is trained in four phases (40, 42, 44, and 46) correspo

A tether continuous energy supply system for an unmanned aerial vehicle comprising: a ground station, a ground station energy system, a spool coupled to the ground station energy system at a rotating joint, a tether that is wound about the spool, wherein a first end of the tether is coupled to the rotating joint, a tension control motor coupled to both the spool and the ground station energy system, an unmanned aerial vehicle coupled to a second end of the tether, a UAV energy system, a fluid that moves throughout the tether continuous energy supply system, a tension control system that receives and transmits signals from a plurality of sensors contained within the tether continuous energy supply system, and a distributed controls system that receives and transmits signals from the plurality of sensors contained within the tether continuous energy supply system.

A system and method of interacting with a multi-agent distributed control system employing a plurality of controllers on which are programmed a plurality of agents in which the controllers are coupled by a network are disclosed. The method includes providing a computer program capable of operating a user interface, where the computer program is in communication with the agents via the network. The method further includes displaying agent-related information on the user interface by way of a plurality of windows, where within a first of the windows is further displayed a workflow among at least some of the agents, and within a second of the windows is further displayed at least one of a plurality of messages communicated among at least some of the agents, a work unit requested by at least one of the agents, and message content associated with at least one of the messages.

A multiple-degree-of-freedom anti-explosion mechanical arm relates to an anti-explosion mechanical arm. The anti-explosion mechanical arm comprises a six-degree-of-freedom joint component, a double-camera system, a distributed control system and an expansion system, wherein a front paw can be operated flexibly and diversely through the cooperative control of six joints; the double-camera system is used to provide front vision for rear operating staff so that the mechanical arm can be conveniently controlled to complete special tasks, the double-camera system comprises a main camera fixed on a front arm and a front-end camera fixed on a paw joint; the main camera has broad vision, the focus of the front-end camera is fine; the distributed control system is used to control the synergy movement of the six-degree-of-freedom component and various movements of the six-degree-of-freedom component, the distributed control system comprises a distributed control module, a magnetic absolute position sensing system and the like; and the expansion system is used to add different functions to meet different demands and increase the application range of the mechanical arm.

A system for monitoring, diagnosing, and/or controlling a flow process uses one or more flow meters based on an array of pressure sensors. A signal processor outputs at least one of a flow signal, a diagnostic signal, and a control signal in response to the pressure signals from the pressure sensors. The flow signal indicates the at least one parameter of the fluid, the diagnostic signal indicates a diagnostic condition of a device in the flow process, and the control signal is effective in adjusting an operating parameter of at least one device in the flow process. The system may be arranged as a distributed control system (DCS) architecture for monitoring a plurality of flow meters based on array-processing installed at various locations throughout a flow process.

A communication system performs bidirectional communication through a same communication path every communication cycle period between a master station and a slave station. From the start of the communication cycle period until an interval period shorter than the communication cycle period elapses, the master station transmits master data represented at a first ratio of first pulse width to the communication cycle period to the slave station. In a remaining period after the interval period in the communication cycle period, the slave station transmits slave data represented at a second ratio of second pulse width to the interval period to the master station.

A controller capable of being employed in a distributed control system, where the distributed control system controls operations of a plurality of devices that operate together to perform a process, and a method of communicating information between a first program portion and a second program portion of such a controller, are disclosed. The controller includes at least one processing component configured to perform a first plurality of program portions that operate in relation with one another as a first agent. The plurality of program portions includes a first program portion that controls agent-type behavior of the controller, and a second program portion that at least one of controls and monitors at least one of the devices. The controller further includes at least one memory component that stores a data table that is accessed by each of the first and second program portions to allow communication between those program portions.

The invention relates to a remote distributed control system and a distributed control method based on the Internet. The system comprises a remote operation station, a field control station and the Internet, wherein the remote operation station comprises a control strategy configuration software module, a database configuration software module, a man-machine interface configuration software module and a client end communication software module, the field control station comprises a local server, a server end communication software module, a control station and field equipment, and a client end and the server end communication software module are connected through the Internet. The method comprises the steps that: 1, control configuration is accomplished in the configuration software of the remote operation station; 2, data communication is established between the remote operation station and the field control station; 3, corresponding control logic configuration is carried out by the field control station, the field equipment is driven to operate, and real-time data is acquired and updated; and 4, real-time monitoring and debugging on control configuration are accomplished through the configuration software of the remote operation station. The control system and the control method have advantages of good control effects, high real-time performance and wide application scope.

The invention belongs to the technical field of a distributed control system and relates, specifically, to a multi-agent cluster coordination method and a multi-UAV cluster coordination system. The multi-agent cluster coordination method of the invention allows agents to exchange information with neighbors within their respective interaction ranges and to form a cluster in a self-organized manner by solving for the control input through distributed mode predictive control. The method further allows the presence of a leader agent in the system to lead the overall motion trajectory of the agent cluster. The multi-UAV cluster coordination system provided by the invention enables multiple UAVs to autonomously achieve cluster flight through data exchange thereamong, enhances the efficiency of executing the tasks that need the coverage of a large area, such as aerial photography, monitoring, search and rescue, and the like, and has high adaptivity and redundancy.

The present invention relates to a PC-based robot control system, which is a new type of a robot control machine. The present invention has aimed at a task-based control machine configuration not a centralized control configuration so that a multi-tasking function is possible through a distributed control system. An embodiment of the present invention provides a task-based robot control system, including robot system interface means that receives a control command for controlling a robot; system kernel means that controls the creation and distinction of one or more software-based virtual robot control machines of virtual robot controller means, which will be described later, in a software way and controls the synchronization between the virtual robot control machines, based on the control command received from the robot system interface means; the virtual robot controller means having one or more software-based virtual robot control machines whose creation and distinction are controlled under the control of the system kernel means, wherein a generated virtual robot control machine processes a robot control execution sentence input through the robot system interface means; and hardware means that actually drives the robot according to a control signal generated by the processing of the execution sentence by the virtual robot control machine.

A system and method for batch process control with diverse distributed control system (DCS) protocols is disclosed. A run-time extension acts as an adaptation layer that allows a single batch manager to supervise controllers utilizing diverse DCS protocols. The run-time extension receives commands transmitted from the batch supervisor in a first DCS protocol, translates the commands to a second DCS protocol utilized by a controller, and transmits the translated command to the controller to control various equipment associated with the controller. A database automation object (DBA) inputs configuration information from controllers utilizing diverse DCS protocols, extracts equipment information from the configuration information, generates protocol translation logic based on the configuration information, and translates recipe and formula information included in the configuration information into a common format.

The invention belongs to the technical field of energy management of distributed generation energy supply systems of electric power systems. The control method comprises the following steps: before running a combined system on every workday, extracting history cooling load data and power load data of a terminal user from a historical data base and obtaining the delay variation curve of the coolingload and the power load of the terminal user during the whole workday by lone-term load predicting; according to load predicting results, working out the optimal generated output plan of the combinedsystem by adopting optimization control mathematical model; during the running of the combined system, carrying out optimization control calculation again by utilizing the terminal user real-time cooling and power load need obtained from the distributed control system, and modifying the generating capacity and the refrigerating capacity of the combined system. The invention utilizes a distributedmonitoring system to monitor the actual cooling and power load need of the terminal user and can modify the load forecasting result in real time and adjusting the respective controlled variable of the combined system.

The invention relates to a quick chemical leakage predicating and warning emergency response decision-making method which combines diffusion model simulation with a neural network and a gas sensor system and is applied to quick warning and aid decision making of leakage of harmful gas in an industrial park. The method includes park risk factor identification, numerical simulation, data screening, neural network training and sensor system and neural network model integration, wherein the park risk factor identification is used for identifying various possible leakage accidents, the numerical simulation includes simulating all the possible accidents to obtain a range of influences of the harmful gas, the data screening includes extracting and reconstructing an effective part in a numerical simulation result according to actual sensor layout, the neural network training includes training specific neural network models by the aid of screened data so as to acquire model parameters aiming for the specific industrial park and surrounding conditions and using redundant data for parameter validation, and sensor system and neural network model integration includes combining the models with a sensor DCS (distributed control system).

A distributed control system (DCS) for controlling an industrial process using a plurality of distributed control nodes (DCNs) can include a plurality of Device DCNs, each Device DCN including an I/O interface coupled with a field device for single channel input or output, a plurality of Application DCNs, and one or more Ethernet switches. The plurality of Device DCNs and the plurality of Application DCNs can be adapted to host a software runtime and communicatively coupled via the one or more Ethernet switches. The DCS architecture can include of two types of DCNs; Application DCNs and Device DCNs. The software runtime can be configured to selectively provide control application level communication and function block execution services.

A greenhouse growing environment has a distributed control system for selecting, monitoring, and administering hydroponic nutrient solution mixtures that are tailored to crop varieties of the greenhouse. The crop varieties are preselected based on location characteristics of the greenhouse and analysis results of source water. The analysis results indicate a nutrient composition of the source water. A predefined nutrient formulation is then automatically combined with the source water by a nutrient dispensing subsystem, to achieve a desired nutrient solution mixture that is applied to a hydroponic bay. A computational system automatically monitors the state of a hydroponic environment and directs input modules as programmed, in order to increase plant growth, plant quality, and volume of plant yield.