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Distributed control system architecture and method for a material transport system

  • US 6,240,335 B1
  • Filed: 12/14/1998
  • Issued: 05/29/2001
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/14/1998
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A distributed method for controlling movement of material to be transported in a material transport system, comprising:

  • defining a neighborhood including a contiguous subset of electromechanical devices composing the material transport system, the electromechanical devices including track zones configured to control the movement of the material and to report zone status information;

    providing low-level controllers to control the subset of electromechanical devices and to receive status information from the electromechanical devices, the low-level controllers including zone controllers, each of which is configured to control and receive zone status information from a respective track zone and to receive messages from zone threads in the neighborhood; and

    configuring each of the zone threads to;

    determine using the zone status information when the material is entering a respective track zone;

    determine from stored information updated by a neighboring, upstream zone thread an entry speed at which the material is entering the respective track zone;

    issue a motor control command to the respective track zone to establish the speed of the material in accordance with a speed profile message forwarded by the upstream zone thread and the entry speed;

    determine from the stored information updated by neighboring, downstream zones the speed at which the material should enter a neighboring downstream zone;

    determine from a potential entry speed and location of a destination of the material a speed profile of the material in one or more neighboring, downstream zones, send the speed profile message to the one or more neighboring, downstream zones causing the speed profile to be executed.

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