TIERED CONTROL ARCHITECTURE FOR MATERIAL HANDLING

Title:

TIERED CONTROL ARCHITECTURE FOR MATERIAL HANDLING

Document Type and Number:

WIPO Patent Application WO2002099549

Kind Code:

A3

Abstract:

A control architecture for material handling includes multiple tiers of controllers, such as three. The lowest-level controllers interact directly with sensors and actuators used in the material handling system, such as photo-eyes and motors used with conveyors. The lowest-level controllers receive higher level commands from one or more mid-level controllers. The mid-level controllers, in turn, receive still higher level commands and information from at least one upper level controller. Each mid and low level controller is designed to include sufficient intelligence to deal with many of the signals and messages it receives without having to forward those signals or messages to the next higher level controller and await instructions from that higher level controller. The system thus distributes intelligence amongst the controllers. The system is well-adapted for application to conveyor control systems.

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Inventors:

ZEITLER DAVID W
BLACK ANDREW R
MIIN-ARNG KO CLYDE

Application Number:

PCT/EP2002/006229

Publication Date:

October 30, 2003

Filing Date:

June 06, 2002

Export Citation:

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Assignee:

SIEMENS AG (DE)

International Classes:

B65G47/52; G05B19/418; (IPC1-7): G05B19/418; B65G47/84

Domestic Patent References:

WO2000031597A2	2000-06-02
WO2001036307A2	2001-05-25

Foreign References:

US5967289A	1999-10-19
US6041909A	2000-03-28
US5971132A	1999-10-26
US6157866A	2000-12-05

Other References: