Patent ID: 7506090
Filing Date: 2009-03-17
Classification: G05B,Y02P

Abstract:
1. A system, comprising: at least one memory operable to store (i) a resource object associated with a resource and (ii) a plurality of requester objects associated with at least a portion of one or more processes, the one or more processes associated with production of one or more products using the resource; and at least one processor operable to arbitrate between multiple arbitration requests from multiple ones of the requester objects, each arbitration request indicating that one of the requester objects is attempting to acquire the resource object so that the associated resource is used to produce one of the products, the at least one processor operable to use one or more user-defined strategies to arbitrate between the multiple arbitration requests; wherein at least one of the requester objects is operable to repeatedly submit arbitration requests to the resource object until the resource object is acquired; wherein the repeated arbitration requests by one of the requester objects do not cause multiple acquisitions of the resource object by the requester object and do not require multiple releases of the resource object by the requester object; and wherein the at least one processor is further operable to generate a graphical user interface showing contents of (i) a queue identifying requester objects that have requested and not yet acquired the resource object and (ii) a pointer identifying the requester object that has acquired and not released the resource object, wherein the contents of the queue and the pointer are modifiable by a user.