Method and computer system to consistently control a set of actuators

Abstract

A method for transmitting control commands in a computer system, which includes components at least in the form of nodes, actuators and communication systems, wherein the control commands are communicated over the communication systems from the nodes to the actuators, and wherein one or more of the components may fail to operate according their specification. For consistently accepting control commands at the actuators, the nodes and their control commands are assigned priorities, wherein a node and its control commands have the same priority, wherein at least two priorities are used, wherein a high priority node produces high priority control commands and a low priority node produces low priority control commands, and wherein a high priority node is configured to communicate its control commands over at least two communication systems to the actuators and a low priority node is configured to communicate its low priority control commands over at least one communication system to the actuators. An actuator accepts the high priority control commands from the high priority node as long as it receives said high priority control commands on any one of the communication systems, and in this first case, it discards the low priority control commands, and stops to accept said high priority control commands in case said actuator does not receive said high priority control commands from any of the communication systems for a configurable duration, and in the second case, the actuator starts to accept low priority control commands.