Patent ID: 6654910
Filing Date: 2003-11-25
Classification: G05B,G06F

Abstract:
Electronic control system for controlling the function of a processing system, especially in an automotive vehicle, said electronic control system comprising a plurality of main logical control elements, each of which is especially adapted to perform special tasks, and each of said control elements being able to communicate to each other control element, characterized in that each of said logical control elements comprises additional control means for continuously monitoring the system and performing tests and diagnostics to detect system faults and severity of system faults, whereby said additional control means are interconnected by busses, thus allowing each of said control means to communicate with all other control means,wherein if the severity of a fault exceeds a predefined value, said additional control means identify failing element(s) by determining bit values representing the status of each individual control element, degrade functionality of said processing system in pre-assigned levels depending on the bit values determined, and re-initialize and re-vitalize said processing system in the degraded state.