Allen-bradley Company, LLC

Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated

Reliance Electric Industrial Company

Rockwell Technologies, Inc.

Ernst H Dummermuth

Odo J Struger

Richard D Harris

Michael J Knieser

Robert J Kretschmann

Patrick C Herbert

Steven Martin Galecki

Raymond A Grudowski

Jeffrey R Annis

Mark A Lucak

Daniel J Galdun

Otomar S Schmidt

Valdis Grants

Theodore J Markley

Timothy Bielawski

William W Searcy

Timothy E McAdams

Chia P Day

William A Donze

Theodore L Bernhard

Greggory Cieslak

Thomas M Hoch

Gregory L Merrell

David J Morris

Daniel L Stewart

Bruce S Jaffe

Donald R Ecker, Jr

Michael F Korba

A microelectromechanical system (MEMS) analog isolator may be created in which an actuator such as an electrostatic motor drives a beam against an opposing force set, for example, by another electrostatic motor. Motion of the beam may be sensed by a sensor also attached to the beam. The beam itself is electrically isolated between the locations of the actuator and the sensor. The structure may be incorporated into integrated circuits to provide on-chip isolation.

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) analog electrical isolator

Microelectricalmechanical systems (MEMS) manufactured on a microscopic scale using integrated circuit techniques may be used to measure a variety of parameters using electrical signals generated by the movement of small beams. Inertial noise may be canceled by the duplication of the beam structure for sensing of the acceleration to be subtracted from a similar beam structure used to measure the parameter of interest.

Microelectricalmechanical system (MEMS) electrical isolator with reduced sensitivity to inertial noise

An isolated-ADC and a method for providing isolated analog-to-digital conversion are disclosed. The isolated-ADC includes a microelectromechanical system (MEMS), a comparator, and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The MEMS includes a beam element supported from a substrate for movement with respect to an axis, first and second actuators and a sensor. The first and second actuators are capable of exerting respective forces upon the beam element causing the beam element to move in response to analog input and feedback signals, respectively. The sensor detects changes in position of the beam element and produces a position signal indicative thereof. The comparator generates a digital signal based upon a comparison of the position signal with a reference value. Based on the digital signal, the DAC generates the feedback signal, and the isolated-ADC produces a digital output signal.

MEMS-based electrically isolated analog-to-digital converter

A microelectricalmechanical system (MEMS) digital isolator may be created in which an actuator such as an electrostatic motor drives a beam against a predefined force set, for example, by another electrostatic motor. When the threshold of the opposing force is overcome, motion of the beam may be sensed by a sensor also attached to the beam. The beam itself is electrically isolated between the locations of the actuator and the sensor. The structure may be incorporated into integrated circuits to provide on-chip isolation.

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) digital electrical isolator

A capacitance comparison circuit determines the relative value of two capacitors, such as may be sensor elements, by monitoring voltage changes caused by charge redistribution between the capacitors when they are series connected and then connected alternately in a first and second polarity across a voltage. The direction of change of voltage at the junction of the capacitors with respect to the switching of polarity of their connection precisely reveals which capacitor is larger. Disconnecting the voltage monitor during the switching reduces switching induced errors.

Highly sensitive capacitance comparison circuit

A reflex I/O card for an industrial controller receives enabling inputs from the executed control program and triggering inputs from an industrial process to provide outputs at a fixed delay in time or portion of a machine cycle after the inputs through dedicated hardware thus avoiding transmission delays and processing delays associated with the communication of information to a central processor and the execution of the control program.

Industrial controller input/output card providing reflex response

A multi-tasking operating system for real-time control of industrial processes integrates ladder type programs and state-type programs by viewing each as a series of instructions with an implicit pointer list pointing to the next instruction. A fixed number of instructions of each program task are executed after which the effective pointer to the next instruction is stored toward the next time that task is invoked. Multiple tasks that need to be coordinated can be linked with subtasks that can be guaranteed complete execution by allocating sufficient instructions to those subtasks.

Multi-tasking operation system for industrial controller

A simple modification to a proportional integral controller allows for non-linear control strategies while maintaining the simplicity of set up and tuning of the loop through modifying the proportional and/or integral gains K.sub.p, K.sub.j by a linear or parabolic function of the feedback error signal. Provision is made for symmetrical or asymmetrical gain modification functions.

Non-linear proportional/integral feedback controller

A method and apparatus for incorporating fuzzy logic into a feedback controller is provided. An error signal and the derivative of feedback or error is provided to the fuzzy logic to develop a proportional and differential signal, the differential signal is subsequently integrated and added to the proportional signal to create a control output of the controller. The fuzzy rules of the fuzzy logic decrease the integral term under situations that might lead to 'wind-up'.

Fuzzy logic servo controller

A method of fine tuning the 'gain' of a fuzzy logic controller, the controller having input and output membership functions where the input membership functions receive one or more inputs and are grouped in sets according to each input, where the gain is tuned by uniformly scaling the domains of one or more of the sets of the input membership functions.

Gain control for fuzzy logic controller

A method for a distributed processing system which includes the steps of developing a control program for controlling outputs at a plurality of I/O nodes, distributing executable portions of the program to the I/O nodes through a network, broadcasting input status data from the I/O nodes on the network and controlling the outputs at the I/O nodes in response to the input status data broadcast on the network and the executable portions of the program residing at the I/O nodes.

Distributing a real-time control program to a plurality of input/output

Fuzzy logic programming is provided for machine and process controllers. New input and output instructions are devised for ladder diagram programming, as well as methods of downloading fuzzy logic instructions from a programming terminal to a programmable controller processor and methods for executing such instructions in the programmable controller processor.

Fuzzy logic ladder diagram program for a machine or process controller

A circuit can be configured to process signals from either a resolver or an encoder to derive an indication of the sensed angular position. (1) When the circuit is configured for an encoder, the output from the encoder is periodically sampled. The phase relationship of the encoder input signals controls a counter. The output of the counter is periodically sampled to provide the position indication. (2) In the resolver configuration, the counter is rest at regular intervals. An apparatus detects zero crossings from the resolver signal and in response thereto samples the counter output to provide a measurement of the time interval between the counter reset and the zero crossing. The magnitude of the time interval corresponds to the phase angle of the resolver signal and hence to the angular position.

Encoder and resolver signal processing circuit

A programmable controller for closed-loop positioning control has a main processor unit, and an I/O interface rack in which a master I/O positioning module and three satellite I/O modules are mounted and connected to servomechanisms to control motion along three axes of a controlled machine. Move data is transmitted from the main processor unit to the master I/O positioning module in data blocks, with the number of transmissions varying, depending upon a mode of axis coupling that is used in controlling the particular machine. The master I/O positioning module converts move data from a user program format to a binary format and transfers it to the satellite I/O modules, each of which performs closed-loop positioning control of a respective axis of motion. The processor on each satellite I/O module also determines a position prior to the end of each move to apply a user-programmed deceleration when needed to blend moves having different velocities.

Programmable controller with intelligent positioning I/O modules

A programmable controller is formed by connecting separate functional modules to a common backplane bus. A bus arbitration scheme and a message handling technique are disclosed to tightly couple the functional modules together to form an efficient programmable controller. A number of improvements to the CPU module and I/O scanner module are disclosed to further improve the performance of the resulting system.

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Chesterland, OH, United States of America

Ernst H Dummermuth