RECONFIGURABLE INTERFACE-BASED ELECTRICAL ARCHITECTURE
First Claim
1. An automatically reconfigurable electrical network for a system, said network comprising:
- a plurality of sensors and actuators, where the sensors measure parameters of the system and the actuators perform an action in the system;
two or more electronic control units (ECUs) for processing data from the sensors and issuing commands to the actuators;
two or more interface devices for connecting the sensors and actuators to the ECUs, said interface devices being software-reconfigurable to modify connectivity; and
a communications bus for carrying messages between the interface devices and the ECUs.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electrical network architecture including a reconfigurable interface layer, along with a corresponding reconfiguration methodology. The interface layer is comprised of reconfigurable interface devices which allow a plurality of sensors and actuators to communicate with a plurality of control units. Each sensor or actuator is connected to multiple interface devices, which in turn are connected to a bus. The control units are also connected to the bus. In the event of an interface device failure, other interface devices can be reconfigured to maintain communication between sensors, actuators and control units. In the event of a control unit failure, the interface devices can be reconfigured to route sensor and actuator message traffic to a different control unit which can handle the functions of the failed control unit. The overall number of control units can also be reduced, as each control unit has flexible access to many sensors and actuators.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. An automatically reconfigurable electrical network for a system, said network comprising:
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a plurality of sensors and actuators, where the sensors measure parameters of the system and the actuators perform an action in the system; two or more electronic control units (ECUs) for processing data from the sensors and issuing commands to the actuators; two or more interface devices for connecting the sensors and actuators to the ECUs, said interface devices being software-reconfigurable to modify connectivity; and a communications bus for carrying messages between the interface devices and the ECUs. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A reconfigurable electrical network, said network comprising:
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one or more microcontrollers for processing data from sensors and issuing commands to actuators; and two or more interface devices for connecting the sensors and the actuators to the microcontrollers, said interface devices being software-reconfigurable to modify connectivity. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for reconfiguring an electrical network, said network including first and second interface devices which handle communications between a sensor/actuator layer of the network and an electronic control unit (ECU) layer of the network, said method comprising:
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monitoring operation of the network to detect an interface device failure or an ECU failure; reconfiguring the first or second interface device to route sensor/actuator message traffic to a first ECU upon detection of a failure of a second ECU; and reconfiguring the first interface device to handle message traffic previously handled by the second interface device upon detection of a failure of the second interface device. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification