Control system for an industrial installation

Patent 6169927 Issued on January 2, 2001. Estimated Expiration Date:

November 5, 2016. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Abstract Claims Description Full Text

Patent References

Distributed control system
Patent #: 4819149
Issued on: 04/04/1989
Inventor: Sanik , et al.

Process control system with reconfigurable expert rules and control modules
Patent #: 5006992
Issued on: 04/09/1991
Inventor: Skeirik

Production control system and method
Patent #: 5050088
Issued on: 09/17/1991
Inventor: Buckler, et al.

Apparatus and method for linking software modules Patent #: 5386568
Issued on: 01/31/1995
Inventor: Wold, et al.

Inventors

Assignee

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Application

No. 737053 filed on 11/05/1996

US Classes:

700/1GENERIC CONTROL SYSTEM, APPARATUS OR PROCESS

Examiners

Primary: Kemper, M.

Attorney, Agent or Firm

Kenyon & Kenyon

Foreign Patent References

32 14328 C2 DE. 09/13/1987
0 162 670 EP. 11/13/1985
0 397 924 EP. 11/13/1990
0 413 044 A1 EP. 02/13/1991
0 434 986 A3 EP. 07/13/1991
0 524 344 A1 EP. 01/13/1993
0 531 653 A2 EP. 03/13/1993

International Class

G06F 017/00

Foreign Application Priority Data

1994-05-10 DE

Abstract

A control system for an industrial plant, where the control system includes an automation level, a management level and a control level hierarchically located below the management level and above the automation level. The control system also includes functional units situated in the control level and executing respective functions. The functional units receive input values and process these input values using the respective functions. The functional units are interlinkable as a function of technical problems to be solved. These functional units have a modular designed, each of the functional units including a configurable input area, a configurable functional area and a configurable output area. In addition, each of the functional units is connected to the management level, to the automation level and to another functional unit via data transfer media. The respective function of each of the functional units in the configurable functional area is provided as a function of the technical problems to be solved, and the configurable output area of each of the functional units is connected to the configurable input area of a further one of the functional units as a function of the technical problems to be solved.

Other References

Muhlhauser et al, "DOCASE: A Methodic Approach to Distributed Programming" Communications of the ACM v 36 n 9 p 127 (12), Sep. 1993
Nicholson, E., "Standardizing I/O for Mechatronic Systems (SIOMS) using Real Time UNIX Device Drivers," Proceedings 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 8-13, 1994, San Diego California
Klose, F., "Einheitliches Kommunikationssystem fur die Prozessautomatisierung," etz Bd. 104 (1983) Heft, pp. 1024-102