Modular system and architecture for device control

• US 6,505,087 B1
• Filed: 06/02/2000
• Issued: 01/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Maya Design Group
• Original Assignee: Maya Design Group
• Inventors: Guyot, Noah, Ballay, Joseph, Lucas, Peter, Senn, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, RAMESH B
• Application Number:
  US09/585,450
• Time in Patent Office: 949 Days
• Field of Search: 700/3, 700/9, 700/17, 700/19, 700/23, 700/83-88, 700/90, 700/78, 700/79, 700/219, 700/220, 345/156, 345/169, 345/166, 361/735, 361/796, 361/797, 361/803, 294/63, 294/69, 298/54, 298/76
• US Class Current: 700/83
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25322 Stackthrough modules, modules are stacked, no need for backplane
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1465 Modular PLC assemblies with separable functional units
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1478 including a segmented bus
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49169 Assembling electrical component directly to terminal or elongated conductor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49208 by assembling plural parts
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49893 Peripheral joining of opposed mirror image parts to form a hollow body
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49904 Assembling a subassembly, then assembling with a second subassembly

Abstract

An architecture and electric system for controlling various devices is disclosed. The system uses modular, interchangeable components that can perform one or several tasks, such as interacting with a human user, controlling an external device, communicating and managing communications between several modules, storing and retrieving information, and acting as a master module. The modules are stackable and can interface with any other module.

Claims

1. A modular system for controlling electronic devices in which flow of data among the electronic devices is determined via a drag-and-drop graphical user interface having graphical representations of the devices as well as scripted software devices that are interconnected via drag-and-drop links, such graphical representations of the links being used to describe the data flow among the electronic devices.

2. The modular system as described in claim 1 in which the dataflow is executed via a process on an external computer, wherein the process includes execution of a configuration of devices, simulation of devices, and management of dataflow.

3. The modular system as described in claim 1 in which the dataflow is downloaded into a control module for execution independently of any external computer, wherein the execution includes execution of a configuration of devices, simulation of devices, and management of dataflow.