Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated

Kevin J Riederer

Arun K Guru

Gerry M Nagel

Shankernarayan Ramanarayanan

Chetan Chandrasekara

Aleksey Yegorov

Sawyer J Desotelle

Jon P Vanderpas

Manas Sawant

Mark T Ortell

James C Sandell

A method and system for communication between a motor controller and an analytic module includes a Single Pair Ethernet interface with power supplied over the two data lines. The analytic module, in turn, connects to a motor or other devices proximate the motor. The analytic module receives input signals from the motor or different types of sensors or devices. A processing unit in the analytic module may perform some initial processing on the incoming data. The processing unit is configured to transmit either the raw input signals or processed data via the Single Pair Ethernet connection back to the motor controller or to other controllers in the system with the motor controller acting solely as a pass-through gateway. The analytic module unit may be configured to transmit data at different update rates. One of the update rates may be synchronized to an update period in the motor controller.

Method and apparatus for communication between analytic modules and a motor drive

An improved system and method for providing safety-rated operation of a motor and motor drive controlling operation of a load with stored potential energy includes a two-channel method of monitoring and retaining control of the load. A first safety channel is configured to control operation of a holding brake, which provides sufficient holding force to retain the stored potential energy in the load. A second safety channel is configured to independently enable and disable torque production from the motor drive controlling operation of the motor. When torque production from the motor drive is enabled, the motor drive and motor are able to provide sufficient torque to retain the stored potential energy in the load. Monitoring and subsequent control of each safety channel is provided to ensure that a single failure in either channel will not cause the unexpected release of the stored potential energy from the load.

System and method for safe retention of loads with stored potential energy

Aspects of the present invention provide systems and methods using precise timing relationships between nodes in computer networks to generate mappings depicting the physical arrangement or ordering of nodes in the computer networks. The technical effect is by tracking the timing delays between nodes as observed by an individual node, and collecting such information together for subsequent processing, nodes may receive and/or construct an entire physical network topology using an algorithm accordingly.

Automatic network discovery in precision time protocol networks

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Waukesha, WI, United States of America

Kevin J Riederer