A method of reducing power consumption by components of an automated plant during a production stoppage. Control apparatus transmits stoppage time data to the plant components via a data network to initiate the stoppage. Each automated plant component automatically changes to a respective given target state at a respective given stoppage time if the stoppage time data received by that plant component includes that stoppage time for that target state and if at least one other plant component is in a respective operating state expected for this target state. The invention sets a coordinated combination of consumption-minimized plant-component states. The control apparatus transmits respective component-specific stoppage times to the plant components in the stoppage time data, said stoppage time being different from at least one stoppage time transmitted to another plant component. As a result, the component states can be matched to one another.

Accessing an energy management policy for a plurality of devices is described, wherein the devices are coupled with a first structure. The energy usage of the devices is monitored. An energy usage rule and energy usage is then compared. The energy management policy and energy usage is also compared. Based on the comparing, an instruction is generated to modify an energy usage profile of said device to correlate with the energy usage rule associated with the devices and the energy management policy, thereby enabling efficient energy management.

The present disclosure discloses a management method and system for wireless networking of units inside a robot. The system includes a control unit and a plurality of tributary units, wherein each tributary unit has a wireless transceiver module, and the units are in wireless communication with each other. With the management method and system for wireless networking of units inside a robot according to the present disclosure, by virtue of the short-range and low-power consumption wireless communication technology, networking is implemented for the units inside the robot to take the place of the communication manner using limited cables, electrical faults caused by wearing and bending of the cables for a long time are removed, safety and reliability of the robot are improved.

Provided is a production control system of a factory including: a plurality of machines; an air conditioner; a power computation unit for monitoring power consumption of an entire factory; a temperature information generation unit for generating information on temperature inside the factory; wherein running status and processing condition of the machines and running status of the air conditioner are controlled to produce the products dictated by the production plan by a delivery deadline; and a machine learning unit that learns a relationship of operational status including the running status and the processing condition of the machines and the running status of the air conditioner to environmental status including production completion time according to the operational status, the temperature inside the factory, and the power consumption of the factory, and outputs operational status that brings the environmental status to a desired condition in accordance with the production plan.

A control device of a machining tool with power consumption reduction function includes an execution unit configured to execute control of devices using parameter extracted from a parameter set storage unit, based on a selected priority mode and operation condition of the machining tool. At least one parameter set stored in the parameter storage unit is set with a parameter corresponding to the heating device having a value for making the heating device in an on state and a parameter corresponding to the cooling device having a value for making the cooling device in an on state.

An NC lathe includes an energization signal switching unit for switching an energization signal set for each electric device between an energization required state and an energization non-required state, a prohibition signal switching unit for switching an energization prohibition signal set for each electric device between a prohibited state and a permitted state, a signal determination unit that determines whether or not each electric device is in a power saving state in which the energization signal for the electric device is in the energization required state and the energization prohibition signal is in the prohibited state, and a saving calculation unit that determines a cumulative duration of the power saving state, computes a device-specific power saving for each electric device on the basis of the cumulative duration, and calculates a power saving by adding together the device-specific power savings.

The present invention provides a power-supply management device which can efficiently connect and disconnect power supply to an electric-powered section, and a machine tool including the power-supply management device. The power-supply management device (101) detects a synchronization command of a control program, and compares an operation time of the electric-powered section between synchronizations in each control system which is a synchronization target by the synchronization command on the basis of the detected synchronization command. Then, the power-supply management device (101) disconnects the power supply to the electric-powered section belonging to the control system except the control system having the maximum operation time of the electric-powered section between the synchronizations, and restarts the power supply at the end of the synchronization in each control system.

An optoelectronic sensor (10) for safe detection of objects (32, 34) of a minimum size in a monitoring area (12), the sensor (10) having an image sensor (16a-b) for acquiring image data of the monitoring area (12) and an evaluation unit (24) configured to detect, in the image data, both finely detected objects (34, 36) with a fine detection capability and coarsely detected objects (32) with a coarse detection capability, the coarse detection capability being coarser than the fine detection capability, and to ignore finely detected objects (36) which are not in a vicinity (38) of a coarsely detected object (32).

The present invention provides a power-supply management device which can efficiently connect and disconnect power supply to an electric-powered section, and a machine tool including the power-supply management device. The power-supply management device (101) detects a synchronization command of a control program, and compares an operation time of the electric-powered section between synchronizations in each control system which is a synchronization target by the synchronization command on the basis of the detected synchronization command. Then, the power-supply management device (101) disconnects the power supply to the electric-powered section belonging to the control system except the control system having the maximum operation time of the electric-powered section between the synchronizations, and restarts the power supply at the end of the synchronization in each control system.

Various arrangements of controlling a temperature of an enclosure are presented. A setpoint temperature may be received by a thermostat from a user via an energy management device. The setpoint temperature may indicate a desired temperature of the enclosure. The thermostat may be operated in accordance with the setpoint temperature. Energy consumption associated with the thermostat may be monitored. The monitored energy consumption may be compared to an energy usage profile. Based on such a comparison, at least one adjustment to the operation of the thermostat may be determined that will reduce energy consumption associated with the thermostat as compared to the energy consumption associated with operating the thermostat in accordance with the setpoint temperature.