Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or... – Plural laterally spaced locations fed to or received from a...
Reexamination Certificate
2005-10-04
2005-10-04
Matecki, Kathy (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...
Plural laterally spaced locations fed to or received from a...
C198S370020, C198S890100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06951274
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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Copy of commonly-assigned, pending U.S. Appl. No. 09/968,742, filed Sep. 28, 2001 entitled: Positive Displacement Shoe and Slat Sorter Apparatus and Method.
Copy of commonly-assigned, pending U.S. Appl. No. 09/840,639, filed Apr. 23, 2001 entitled: Sortation System Diverter Switch.
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Black Andrew R.
Ko Clyde Miin-Arng
Zeitler David W.
Matecki Kathy
Rapistan Systems Advertising Corp.
Sharma Rashmi
Van Dyke Gardner, Linn & Burkhart, LLP
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