METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TABULAR PROCESS CONTROL
First Claim
1. An automated control system, comprising:
- an electronic device having a microcontroller, and having set-up and run-time software and a plurality of table data blocks;
at least one of an input device and an output device each coupled to said electronic device;
wherein said set-up and run-time software configures said table data blocks including an input/output point block, an HMI data block, and a rules variable block and wherein said set-up and run-time software and said table data blocks define an operating rule which specifies what is to be done in response to one of a reading of said input device and a status of said system.
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Abstract
The invention discloses methods and apparatus based on tabular concepts which greatly simplify the configuration, maintenance and run-time operations of a broad range of electronic equipment control systems, including, but not limited to: (a) industrial controls, (b) supervisory control and data acquisition, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and (c) home automation, including systems or stand-alone equipment, such as video recording devices. The tabular concepts of the invention are applied in three primary stages, namely (i) data input or configuration, including automated data population, (ii) generic operating rule application to tables of rules data variables, and (iii) English (or other) language translations of the current rule sets, for ease of verification. By each of these methods alone and through combination of all of these methods, the current invention makes the configuration and operation of automated equipment easily accessible to persons who do not have technical skills in either process control, automation, or software programming. Development of software for automatic control of equipment is also greatly simplified by these inventions.
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Citations
66 Claims
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1. An automated control system, comprising:
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an electronic device having a microcontroller, and having set-up and run-time software and a plurality of table data blocks;
at least one of an input device and an output device each coupled to said electronic device;
wherein said set-up and run-time software configures said table data blocks including an input/output point block, an HMI data block, and a rules variable block and wherein said set-up and run-time software and said table data blocks define an operating rule which specifies what is to be done in response to one of a reading of said input device and a status of said system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 20)
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9. An automated control system, comprising:
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(a) a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) a communications module coupled to said host computer and said set-up software and said run-time application;
(c) at least one of an input device, coupled to said communications module;
wherein said set-up software configures a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block and a storage data block, said table data blocks being configured by entering input point names and storage parameters and wherein said host computer and said run-time application enable monitoring and storage of data values of said input devices.
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10. An automated control system, comprising:
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(a) a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) a communications module coupled to said host computer and said set-up software and said run-time application;
(c) at least one of an output device, coupled to said communications module;
wherein said set-up software configures a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block and a rules variable block, said table data blocks being configured by entering output point names and timing rules variables and wherein said host computer and said run-time application enable time based operations to control output states of said output device(s).
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11. An automated control system, comprising:
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(a) a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) a communications module coupled to said host computer and said set-up software and said run-time application;
(c) at least one of an input device and an output device, coupled to said communications module;
wherein said set-up software configures a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block and an HMI data block, said table data blocks being configured by entering output point names and HMI data parameters and wherein said host computer and said run-time application enable run-time monitoring of input and output values of said input and output device(s).
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12. An automated control system, comprising:
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(a) a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) at least one of an input and an output device, coupled to an external input/output controller;
wherein said set-up software configures a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block and an HMI data block, said table data blocks being configured by entering input point names and HMI parameters and wherein said host computer and said run-time application are couplable to said external input/output controller, thereby enabling monitoring and control of said input and output device(s).
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13. An automated control system, comprising:
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(a) a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) a communications module coupled to said run-time application and to at least one input/output module, said communications module operative to provide connectivity between said run-time application and said input/output module;
(c) at least one of an input and an output device coupled to said input/output modules, said input and output device(s) corresponding to input/output points in said system;
wherein said set-up and run-time software configures a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block, an HMI data block, and a rules variable block, said table data blocks being configured by entering input and output point names, and data values associated with said input and output point names, to uniquely control said corresponding output devices in response to readings of said corresponding input devices. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. An automated control system, comprising:
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(e) a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(f) a communications module coupled to said run-time application and to at least one input/output module, said communications module operative to provide connectivity between said run-time application and said input/output module;
(g) at least one of an input and an output device coupled to said input/output modules, said input and output device(s) corresponding to input/output points in said system;
wherein said set-up and run-time software configures a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block, an HMI data block, and a rules variable block, said table data blocks being configured by entering input and output point names, and data values associated with said input and output point names, to uniquely control said corresponding output devices in response to readings of said corresponding input devices and wherein said run-time application is separated into a plurality of run-time software components including an input/output server coupled to said communications module and coupled to an internet communications link, and wherein said set-up software configures a plurality of tables dedicated to said table data blocks, and also configures a plurality of additional tables, each additional table selected from the group consisting of;
(a) a table of allowed input/output module types, (b) a table of input/output modules available in one instance of the system implementation, (c) an image data table, (d) a table of pre-defined text strings, (e) an alarm data table, (f) an alarm action data table, (g) a scheduling table, (h) an historical data table, (i) a reporting data table, (j) an alarm log data table, (k) an HMI backdrop table, (l) a map definition table, and (m) a map co-ordinate table. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33)
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34. A method of automated control of equipment, comprising:
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(a) providing an electronic device having a microcontroller, and having set-up and run-time software and a plurality of table data blocks;
(b) providing at least one of at least one of an input device and an output device each coupled to said electronic device;
(c) configuring said table data blocks including an input/output point block, an HMI data block, and a rules variable block, said table data blocks being programmable by defining an operating rule which specifies an action in response to one of a reading of said input device and a status of said input/output devices. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A method of automated control of equipment, comprising:
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(a) providing a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) providing a communications module coupled to said host computer and said set-up software and said run-time application;
(c) providing at least one of an input device, coupled to said communications module;
(d) configuring a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block and a storage data block, said table data blocks being configured by entering input point names and storage parameters; and
(e) enabling monitoring of data values of said input devices.
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43. A method of automated control of equipment, comprising:
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(a) providing a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) providing a communications module coupled to said host computer and said set-up software and said run-time application;
(c) providing at least one of an output device, coupled to said communications module;
(d) configuring a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block and a rules variable block, said table data blocks being configured by entering output point names and timing rules variables; and
(e) enabling time based operations to control output states of said output device(s).
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44. A method of automated control of equipment, comprising:
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(a) providing a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) providing a communications module coupled to said host computer and said set-up software and said run-time software;
(c) providing at least one of an input device and an output device, coupled to said communications module;
(d) configuring a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block and an HMI data block, said table data blocks being configured by entering input/output point names and HMI parameters;
(e) enabling monitoring of said input device(s) and said output device(s).
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45. A method of automated control of equipment, comprising:
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(a) providing having a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table and said run-time application being couplable to an external input/output controller;
(b) providing having at least one of an input and an output device, couplable to said external input/output controller;
(c) configuring a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block and an HMI data block, said table data blocks being configured by entering input/output point names and HMI parameters; and
(d) enabling monitoring and control of said input and output device(s).
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46. A method of automated control of equipment, comprising:
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(a) providing a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) providing a communications module coupled to said run-time application and to at least one input/output module, said communications module operative to provide connectivity between said run-time application and said input/output module;
(c) providing at least one of an input and an output device coupled to said input/output modules, said input and output devices corresponding to input/output points in said system; and
(d) configuring a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block, an HMI data block, and a rules variable block, said table data blocks being configured by entering input and output point names, and data values associated with said input and output point names, to uniquely control said corresponding output devices based on readings of corresponding ones of said input devices. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
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63. A method of automated control of equipment, comprising:
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(a) providing a host computer having set-up software, a minimum of one data table coupled to said set-up software and configured thereby, and a run-time application coupled to said data table;
(b) providing a communications module coupled to said run-time application and to at least one input/output module, said communications module operative to provide connectivity between said run-time application and said input/output module;
(c) providing at least one of an input and an output device coupled to said input/output modules, said input and output devices corresponding to input/output points in said system;
(d) configuring a plurality of table data blocks including an input/output point block, an HMI data block, and a rules variable block, said table data blocks being (e) configured by entering input and output point names, and data values associated with said input and output point names, to uniquely control said corresponding output devices based on readings of corresponding ones of said input devices;
(f) configuring a plurality of run-time software components including an input/output server coupled to said communications module and coupled to an internet communications link; and
(g) configuring a plurality of tables dedicated to said table data blocks, and also configuring a plurality of additional tables, each additional table selected from the group consisting of;
(i) a table of allowed input/output module types, (ii) a table of input/output modules available in one instance of the system implementation, (iii) an image data table, (iv) a table of pre-defined text strings, (v) an alarm data table, (vi) an alarm action data table, (vii) a scheduling table, (viii) an historical data table, (ix) a reporting data table, (x) an alarm log data table, (xi) an HMI backdrop table, (xii) a map definition table, and (xiii) a map co-ordinate table. - View Dependent Claims (64, 65, 66)
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Specification