Facilities control method

A control system having a controller, for controlling the operation of a plurality of facilities in real time, and memory, coupled to said controller, for storing information in accordance with which said controller controls the operation of said facilities, wherein

• said memory comprises
• a rule memory portion which stores information representative of a plurality of rules, each rule containing a conditional portion which describes at least one condition to be examined and a conclusive portion which describes an action to be taken upon said condition being satisfied, and
• a status memory portion which stores information representative of the current status of each of said facilities, information representative of respective tasks to be performed by said facilities and information representative of the new current status of each of said facilities resulting from the satisfaction of the conditional part of a rule and wherein
• said controller comprises
• detecting means for detecting the current status of each of said facilities and generating information representative thereof,
• input means, coupled with said detecting means, for coupling facility status representative information generated by said detecting means to the status memory portion of said memory to be stored thereby,
• rule applying means for comparing current status information stored in said status memory with information representative of the conditional portions of the rules stored in said rule memory portion and, in response to the satisfaction of the conditional part of a rule, causing information representative of the conclusive portion of that rule to be stored as the new current status of a facility in the status memory portion of said memory, and for generating information representative of control instructions for controlling the operation of said facilities, said control instruction information being formed by a combination of rules conditional portions of which have been satisfied by the current status of said facilities, and
• output means, coupled to said rule applying means, for generating command signals for controlling the operation of said facilities in accordance with the control instruction information generated by said rule applying means, and coupling said command signals to respective ones of said facilities.