System and method for controlling devices through communication processors and pluralities of address-associated device controllers sharing each communication processor

A system for controlling a plurality of devices, comprising:

• a central processor;
• at least one communication processor connected to the central processor;
• a plurality of device processors connected to the communication processor, each device processor connected to one of the plurality of devices;
• instruction means connected to the central processor for receiving instructions for controlling the operation of preselected ones of the plurality of devices and formulating commands from the received instructions;
• first communication means connected to the central processor for sending commands to the communication processor;
• second communication means connected to the communication processor for receiving commands from the central processor, formulating device commands from the received commands, and forwarding the device commands to the device processors connected to the preselected devices;
• addressing means for designating one of the device processors as a primary processor and the others of said device processors as secondary processors;
• and
• a plurality of control means including one said control means connected to each device processor for receiving a device command from the communication processor, processing the command, and controlling the operation of the device connected to the primary processor based on the device command, and for controlling operation of each of the devices connected to one of the secondary processors based upon the device command and status information generated by the primary processor and received and stored by each of the secondary processors.

A system for controlling the operation of a plurality of different types of devices, comprising:

• a central processor;
• at least one communication processor connected to the central processor;
• a plurality of device processors connected to the communication processor, each device processor connected to one device of the plurality of the devices;
• instruction means connected to the central processor for receiving instructions for controlling the operation of preselected ones of the plurality of devices and formulating commands from the received instructions;
• first communication means connected to the central processor for sending commands to the communication processor;
• second communication means connected to the communication processor for receiving commands from the central processor, formulating device-independent commands from the received commands, and forwarding the device-independent commands to the device processors connected to the preselected devices;
• an addressing means for designating one of the device processors as a primary device processor and the other device processors as secondary device processors;
• and
• control means connected to each device processor for receiving a device-independent command from the connected communication processor, translating the device-independent command to a device-dependent command, controlling the operation of the device connected to the primary processor based on the device-dependent command, and controlling the operation of the devices connected to the secondary processors based on the device-dependent command and status information generated by the primary processor and received and stored by each of the secondary processors.

A method of simultaneously controlling preselected devices of a plurality of devices, comprising the steps of:

• (a) controlling each device with a separate device processor;
• (b) controlling the device processors with a communication processor;
• (c) controlling the communication processor with a central processor;
• (d) providing instructions to the central processor and formulating commands in the central processor in response to the instructions;
• (e) sending the commands from the central processor to the communication processor;
• (f) receiving the commands in the communication processor;
• (g) formulating a device command from the received commands;
• (h) sending the device command to a primary one of the device processors connected to one of the preselected devices;
• (i) monitoring the device command sent in step (h) with secondary ones of the preselected device processors connected to the other preselected devices;
• (j) storing the device command in the secondary device processors monitoring the device command in step (i) and in the primary device processor that received the device command in step (h);
• (k) sending status information from the primary device processor to the communication processor and to the secondary device processors, responsive to receiving said device command,
• (l) calculating device specific commands for the devices connected to each of the secondary device processors that stored the device command in the step (j) by using said status information stored in the secondary device processors and the device command stored in the secondary device processors;
• and
• (m) simultaneously controlling the operation of the preselected devices using the device specific commands.