Patent ID: 8280529

Claim:
A sequence control apparatus for outputting a sequence of control signals to operate a control target, comprising: a sequence storing section that stores thereon sequence data in association with each state received from outside, the sequence data including a plurality of control signals to be sequentially supplied to the control target and a plurality of pieces of time interval information designating time intervals during which the plurality of control signals are respectively kept supplied to the control target; a sequence data selecting section that, on reception of a state from the outside, selects sequence data associated with the state; a sequence reading section that sequentially reads the plurality of control signals and the plurality of pieces of time interval information included in the selected sequence data and sequentially supplies the plurality of control signals to the control target; and a time control section that refers to the plurality of pieces of time interval information sequentially read from the sequence storing section by the sequence reading section to control the time intervals during which the plurality of control signals are kept supplied to the control target, wherein the time control section controls the sequence reading section to read a control signal and supply the control signal to the control target, when a time interval designated by an immediately previous piece of time interval information has elapsed after the sequence reading section reads an immediately previous control signal and supplies the immediately previous control signal to the control target, the sequence storing section stores, in association with each state received from the outside, the sequence data including a predetermined number of control signals and a predetermined number of pieces of time interval information, after sequentially reading the predetermined number of control signals and the predetermined number of pieces of time interval information included in the sequence data selected by the sequence data selecting section and sequentially supplying the predetermined number of control signals to the control target, the sequence reading section keeps a last control signal supplied to the control target after having completed processing the sequence data, and when a plurality of control signals to be supplied to the control target in response a given state change from immediately previous control signals thereof at times the number of which is smaller than the predetermined number, the sequence storing section stores, in association with the given state, the sequence data in which at least one of the control signals is the same as an immediately previous control signal.