A method for controlling an industrial process includes providing process data of the industrial process to an active instance of a control software as input, based on this input, updating an internal state of the active instance of the control software that is characterized by a set of internal variables of this active instance; based on this updated internal state, determining an output signal and outputting this output signal to at least one piece of equipment that is configured to alter a state, and/or a behavior, of the industrial process. The method further includes providing a prioritized subset of the internal variables that characterize the state of the active instance to at least one further instance of a control software that is configured to take over control of the industrial process in case of a failure and/or malfunction of the active instance.

A control device (1) includes a master-information processing unit (10), and a slave-information processing unit (20) including an information processing CPU (220) that performs information processing through a general-purpose OS, and a distribution control CPU (210) that measures an operating state of the information processing CPU (220) through a real-time OS. The master-information processing unit (10) acquires, from the slave-information processing unit (20), information indicating the operating state of the information processing CPU (220) in the slave-information processing unit (20), determines, based on the acquired information, whether to request the slave-information processing unit (20) to perform information processing, and transmits, when determining to request the slave-information processing unit (20) to perform the information processing, a signal requesting the information processing to the slave-information processing unit (20). The information processing CPU (220) in the slave-information processing unit (20) performs the information processing upon receiving the signal requesting the information processing.

This control system is provided with a plurality of slave devices and controllers. The controller is connected to one end of a field bus which includes the plurality of slave devices that is linearly connected, and the controller is connected to the other end of the field bus through a communication cable. The controllers are provided with a CPU and a transception part. One of the controllers generates a control frame with the CPU and transmits this from the transception part, and the other of the controllers performs a loop communication of the control frame by the transception part.

A method for use by a primary device associated with a secondary device of a redundant pair, the primary device issuing a synchronization request to its control database causing the primary device to send a tracked memory file storage of the primary device to the secondary device to update the secondary device control database and to periodically send on request of the primary device the cached changes made in the primary device to the secondary device to update the secondary device control database. The secondary device using the updated control database to identify communications connections and paths to I/O modules and peer devices assigned to the secondary device and to perform diagnostic testing of the communications connections and paths identified by the interrogation and send diagnostic messages upon detection of faults in the communication connections and paths identified.

A control device (1) includes a master-information processing unit (10), and a slave-information processing unit (20) including an information processing CPU (220) that performs information processing through a general-purpose OS, and a distribution control CPU (210) that measures an operating state of the information processing CPU (220) through a real-time OS. The master-information processing unit (10) acquires, from the slave-information processing unit (20), information indicating the operating state of the information processing CPU (220) in the slave-information processing unit (20), determines, based on the acquired information, whether to request the slave-information processing unit (20) to perform information processing, and transmits, when determining to request the slave-information processing unit (20) to perform the information processing, a signal requesting the information processing to the slave-information processing unit (20). The information processing CPU (220) in the slave-information processing unit (20) performs the information processing upon receiving the signal requesting the information processing.

Methods and systems for synchronizing controllers in an automation control system, can involve arranging redundancy elements in an automation control system comprising a group of nodes, wherein the redundancy elements can include one or more primary controllers and a group of concurrent secondary controllers, and wherein a back-up to the primary controller can exist on any node. Such methods and systems can further involve backing-up of the primary controller by the one or more secondary controllers to allow the primary controller to maintain the one or more secondary controllers as a new, alternate secondary controller for a load balancing or an equipment update

Method for operating a redundantly configured automation system which includes has a first subsystem, a second subsystem and a third subsystem, wherein a sequence program is implemented in each of the subsystems of the automation system and is executable in a runtime environment to fulfill automation tasks, and wherein a data memory is implemented in the subsystems in each of the automation systems, where the sequence program includes at least a first subprogram and a second subprogram, the data memory in each of the subsystems includes at least a first submemory and a second submemory, the first subprogram and the first submemory are synchronized with a first synchronization clock between the first and second subsystems, and the second subprogram and the second submemory are synchronized with a second synchronization clock between the first and third subsystems, and where the first and synchronization clocks differ from one another.

A method for creating a redundant automation system, a computer program and a computer-readable medium, wherein the redundant automation system includes at least one automation installation to be controlled that is installed at an installation location and two control applications that are communicatively interconnected via a synchronization path, and includes a plurality of communication hubs and communication paths connecting these to one another, where one of the control applications operates as the master and the other control application operates as a reserve, such that when the control application operating as the master fails, the control application operating as the reserve function as the master, and where the locations of the computing resources for the control applications are selected such that the control applications are connected to the at least one automation installation via two different communication paths preferably having no or a minimal number of common communication hubs.

A method for operating a redundantly configured automation system which has a first subsystem and a second subsystem, wherein one of these subsystems operates as the master and the other of these subsystems operates as the slave, where in the event that the master fails the slave takes over the function of the master, and where the first subsystem receives a data packet generated by an external data source and forwards the data packet only at a level of the physical layer and the data link layer to the second subsystem before processing of the data packet occurs in the first subsystem at a higher layer than the level of the physical layer and the data link layer.

This control system is provided with a plurality of slave devices and controllers. The controller is connected to one end of a field bus which includes the plurality of slave devices that is linearly connected, and the controller is connected to the other end of the field bus through a communication cable. The controllers are provided with a CPU and a transception part. One of the controllers generates a control frame with the CPU and transmits this from the transception part, and the other of the controllers performs a loop communication of the control frame by the transception part.