A surgical instrument for use by an operator in a surgical procedure includes an elongate shaft, an end effector extending from the elongate shaft, and a control system. The end effector is articulatable relative to the elongate shaft between a home state position and an articulated position. The control system includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor to store program instructions. The processor can alert the operator when the end effector reaches the home state position from the articulated position.

A surgical instrument for use by an operator in a surgical procedure includes an elongate shaft, an end effector extending from the elongate shaft, and a control system. The end effector is articulatable relative to the elongate shaft between a home state position and an articulated position. The control system includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor to store program instructions. The processor can alert the operator when the end effector reaches the home state position from the articulated position.

A control apparatus of an automation system, the control apparatus includers a database adapted to store time series data in a historian data source and adapted to store events derived from the time series data based on event detection rules in an event data source, wherein a semantic data or event query received by the control apparatus is mapped to a corresponding data source of the database to retrieve the queried data or event which are contextualized using an ontological context model of the automation system stored in the database and output by said-control apparatus in a semantic format is provided.

A method of compressing signal data in an intelligent programmable logic controller includes the controller creating a process image area in a volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the controller. The intelligent programmable logic controller updates the process image area with contents comprising signal data associated with a production unit and applies a compression algorithm to the contents to generate compressed signal data. The compressed signal data is stored on a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the controller. The controller annotates the signal data with automation system context information to generate contextualized data. Next, the controller performs a statistical comparison of the signal data and the compressed signal data to generate statistical comparison results. Then, one or more compression parameters used by the compression algorithm may be automatically adjusted based on at least one of the statistical comparison and the contextualized data.

A method of compressing signal data in an intelligent programmable logic controller includes the controller creating a process image area in a volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the controller. The intelligent programmable logic controller updates the process image area with contents comprising signal data associated with a production unit and applies a compression algorithm to the contents to generate compressed signal data. The compressed signal data is stored on a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the controller. The controller annotates the signal data with automation system context information to generate contextualized data. Next, the controller performs a statistical comparison of the signal data and the compressed signal data to generate statistical comparison results. Then, one or more compression parameters used by the compression algorithm may be automatically adjusted based on at least one of the statistical comparison and the contextualized data.

According to one embodiment, a distributed control system comprises a communication network and a plurality of control devices configured to control devices to be controlled, respectively. The control devices each include a simulator to which a program organization unit is allocated in advance, configured to simulate the allocated program organization unit, and a shared memory that stores a simulation result of the program organization unit simulated by the simulator to be shared with another control device. At least one of the control devices includes a simulation table database that can store therein an execution time of each of the program organization units allocated in advance to the control devices, and a simulation commander that stores, in the simulation table database, the execution time of each of the program organization units corresponding to the simulation result.

A method of establishing current limits for each of a plurality of device couplers mounted on a trunk of an electrical circuit at distributed physical positions, in which each of said device couplers is capable of servicing one or more spurs connected thereto, and in which said trunk has a total trunk current and a known resistive component, comprising the steps of: a) establishing physical characteristics of the electrical circuit including i) an order in which said device couplers are mounted on said trunk along its length; ii) a load current each device coupler requires to service the one or more spurs connected thereto; and, iii) a voltage drop of each of said sections of trunk caused by the resistive component thereof, which is proportional to a physical length thereof and the combined load currents of each device coupler serviced by that section of trunk; b) calculating a current limit for each device coupler, which current limit is greater than said load current, according to a predetermined tolerance rationale; c) calculating an intermediate trunk current available to each device coupler by deducting from said total trunk current the current limits of each device coupler preceding that device coupler in said order, as well as a consequential reduction in current caused by said voltage drop of each of said sections of trunk preceding that device coupler; and, d) adjusting said current limits so none exceeds the intermediate trunk current available to the corresponding device coupler.

A method of establishing current limits for each of a plurality of device couplers mounted on a trunk of an electrical circuit at distributed physical positions, in which each of said device couplers is capable of servicing one or more spurs connected thereto, and in which said trunk has a total trunk current and a known resistive component, comprising the steps of: a) establishing physical characteristics of the electrical circuit including i) an order in which said device couplers are mounted on said trunk along its length; ii) a load current each device coupler requires to service the one or more spurs connected thereto; and, iii) a voltage drop of each of said sections of trunk caused by the resistive component thereof, which is proportional to a physical length thereof and the combined load currents of each device coupler serviced by that section of trunk; b) calculating a current limit for each device coupler, which current limit is greater than said load current, according to a predetermined tolerance rationale; c) calculating an intermediate trunk current available to each device coupler by deducting from said total trunk current the current limits of each device coupler preceding that device coupler in said order, as well as a consequential reduction in current caused by said voltage drop of each of said sections of trunk preceding that device coupler; and, d) adjusting said current limits so none exceeds the intermediate trunk current available to the corresponding device coupler.

A method for updating lower module information in a battery module structure in which an upper controller controls and manages a lower module configured of a plurality of battery modules and lower battery managers connected to each of the battery modules by communicating with each of the lower battery managers. The method includes when the lower module is additionally connected, recognizing, by the upper controller, the addition of the lower module by exchanging a message with the added lower module. The added lower module is registered by assigning a new unique ID to the added lower module by exchanging the message with the added lower module by the upper controller.

A method for updating lower module information in a battery module structure in which an upper controller controls and manages a lower module configured of a plurality of battery modules and lower battery managers connected to each of the battery modules by communicating with each of the lower battery managers. The method includes when the lower module is additionally connected, recognizing, by the upper controller, the addition of the lower module by exchanging a message with the added lower module. The added lower module is registered by assigning a new unique ID to the added lower module by exchanging the message with the added lower module by the upper controller.