Command and Control Technologies Corporation announced today availability of release 2.0 of its T-Zero automated sequencer software. In the past, the only way to create automated sequencers was through custom software or hardware. With T-Zero groupware, operators can automate complex processes, coordinate the interaction of their team, and plan or simulate operations without programming. T-Zero provides an integrated software environment for designing, simulating, and executing mission procedures. Ideally suited to control room operations, T-Zero allows an operations crew to design an operations concept, plan various missions, and execute the missions through visualization of the process itself in the familiar Gantt chart format.
Timelines represent activities and related control points as they occur in real-time.
Support for hyperlinks and monitor and control software allows the sequencer to communicate with external systems, sensors, and information sources. Release 2.0 adds several major new features to the product, including the use of Extensible Markup Language, or XML, for sequence creation, a new sequence management state machine, a completely new graphical user interface, and internet integration. The most challenging aspect of creating this software was handling rollback and recycle situations. For instance, the state machine approach that allowed the Delta Clipper to be managed by a three-person flight crew provided adequate high level control, but was limited in the amount of relevant information presented to the operator at any particular time. The state machine engine concept is preserved in T-Zero, but the new graphic display technique is based on a process control approach that presents far more information in a graphically condensed format.