Patent ID: 9395713
Filing Date: 2016-07-19
CPC Classification: G05B

Claim Text:
1. A method for protecting processing equipment of at least one actuating element by determining whether control parameters for the processing equipment comply with valid control parameters, the method comprising: modeling a plurality of performance factors of at least one actuating element based on a plurality of sets of the valid control parameters, respectively; storing, in a database, the modeled performance factors and the plurality of sets of valid control parameters; intercepting control parameters output from a controller and intended to control the processing equipment of the at least one actuating element before the control parameters are received by the intended processing equipment; determining whether the intercepted control parameters match any of the valid control parameters stored in the database and, upon a match, accessing a corresponding modeled performance factor for the matched valid control parameters; accessing, from the database, a predetermined range of values for a permissible performance factor of the at least one actuating element; comparing the accessed modeled performance factor with the range of values for the permissible performance factor; if the intercepted control parameters do not match any of the valid control parameters stored in the database, selecting a mathematical model to calculate a predictive performance factor of the least one actuating element based on the intercepted control parameters and comparing the predictive performance factor with the range of values for the permissible performance factor; preventing the intercepted control parameters from being input to the processing equipment of the at least one actuating element when either the modeled performance factor or the calculated predictive performance factor is outside the range of values for the permissible performance factor; and allowing the intercepted control parameters to be inputted into the processing equipment to control the at least one actuating element when either the modeled performance factor or the calculated predictive performance factor is within the range of values for the permissible performance factor.