Patent ID: 9563181
Date: 2017-02-07
CPC Classifications: G05B,Y02P

Claim:
1. A method of operating a manufacturing automation system having at least a first central unit and a second central unit connected to one another for communication and a plurality of manufacturing automation devices connected to the second central unit for communication, the method comprising: providing a communication data record identifying a plurality of communication channels providing communication between the second central unit and a respective manufacturing automation device, and automatically transmitting, using said communication data record, channel data identifying said plurality of communication channels between the second central unit and said respective manufacturing automation device that can be accessed using said identified plurality of communication channels to the first central unit using said communication data record, providing a communication module for the first central unit, said communication module having inputs corresponding to said respective plurality of the communication channels identified in the communication data record that was automatically transmitted to the first central unit by the second central unit, transmitting data from the first central unit to said manufacturing automation device connected for communication to the second central unit by transmitting said data from the first central unit to said communication module using an input to said communication module corresponding to a respective communication channel of said manufacturing automation device, and transmitting said data using the communication channel provided by the communication module to the respective manufacturing automation device using the communication channel data from the communication data record.