In order to simplify the starting-up of a transport device in the form of a long-stator linear motor, a thermal design and/or an electrical design and/or a mechanical design of the transport device is checked using a time course of the electrical control variable of the drive coils for producing a product flow, and, before starting-up, a transport device configuration having a thermal and/or electrical and/or mechanical configuration is changed if the product flow cannot be implemented due to the thermal design and/or electrical design and/or mechanical design.

The system behavior is evaluated by checking the position and the orientation of a target processed by a processing device in accordance with a control instruction. A simulator estimates a behavior of a system including a processing device that processes a target. The simulator includes a measurement unit that performs image measurement of an input image including at least a part of a target as a subject of the image, an execution unit that executes a control operation for generating a control instruction directed to the processing device based on a measurement result obtained by the measurement unit, and a reproduction unit that reproduces, in the system, a behavior of a target detected in the input image together with information about a type and an orientation of the target based on time-series data for the control instruction output from the execution unit and the measurement result from the measurement unit.

A workpiece simulation part estimates the amount of movement of the workpiece from drive information and estimates the current position of the workpiece by adding the amount of movement to the previous position of the workpiece, the drive information being generated for, among at least one actuator, an actuator that is assumed to constrain the workpiece under the constraint conditions. A sensor simulation part uses the current position of the workpiece to generate sensor simulation information. An input/output switching part transmits the drive information to the workpiece simulation part and transmits the sensor simulation information as alternate information of the sensor information to the control-program execution part.

A technology for reproducing a communication mode of a field network on a computer is desired. An information processing device includes first and second actuator emulators, first and second controller emulators, and a storage device that stores first and second data. The first controller emulator calculates first command value for the first actuator emulator using the first data as an input at each first control period and updates the second data with data that is a collection target. The second controller emulator calculates second command value for the second actuator emulator using the second data as an input at each second control period and updates the first data with the data that is the collection target.

A method is disclosed comprising controlling a packaging machine having independently movable objects along a track, moving object volumes of a leading object and a trailing object along a section of a coordinate system, determine a set of minimum separation distances between the object coordinates of the leading and trailing objects over an interval, associating object coordinates of the trailing object and the corresponding minimum separation distances in a first function, and for a selected object coordinate communicated to a selected movable object, determine the corresponding minimum separation distance from the first function, comparing the minimum separation distance from the first function with a resulting separation between said selected object coordinate and an object coordinate of a movable object closest downstream of the selected movable object.

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for representing components of an industrial system with a visualization tool, in accordance with a physical layout of the industrial system. Other embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for simulating the representations of the components of the industrial system with a simulation engine. In particular, in such embodiments, the utilization of these representations is optimized through an operator interface, and graphical indicia of the utilization are displayed. In addition, the graphical indicia may further comprise a representation of the normalized utilization for each representation. In yet other embodiments, the present invention provides techniques for auto-calibrating the representations of the components of the industrial system based on information received during operation of the industrial system.

A workpiece simulation part estimates the amount of movement of the workpiece from drive information and estimates the current position of the workpiece by adding the amount of movement to the previous position of the workpiece, the drive information being generated for, among at least one actuator, an actuator that is assumed to constrain the workpiece under the constraint conditions. A sensor simulation part uses the current position of the workpiece to generate sensor simulation information. An input/output switching part transmits the drive information to the workpiece simulation part and transmits the sensor simulation information as alternate information of the sensor information to the control-program execution part.

A device and method for testing foodstuffs for the presence of microorganisms including an infeed unit for a package containing a foodstuff, a sample analysis device configured to take a sample of the foodstuff and test for the presence of microorganisms, a discharge unit for discharging the package, and a display for displaying the results of testing by the sample analysis device.

Integrated software systems and methods that can control the design, emulation, testing and production activities of a conveyor based system. In embodiments, the control system implements an object-oriented like environment into a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) system and uses its software to define and control the operation of the PLC dynamically from a computer. In other embodiments, a hot backup method allows the conveyor system to continue to function on failure of one or more PLCs.

A high fidelity distributed plant simulation technique includes a plurality of separate simulation modules that may be stored and executed separately in different computing devices. The simulation modules communicate directly with one another to perform accurate simulation of a plant, without requiring a centralized coordinator to coordinate the operation of the simulation system. In particular, numerous simulation modules are created, with each simulation module including a model of an associated plant element and being stored in different drops of a computer network to perform distributed simulation of a plant or a portion of a plant. At least some of the simulation modules, when executing, perform mass flow balances taking into account process variables associated with adjacent simulation modules to thereby assure pressure, temperature and flow balancing.