Patent ID: 8847535

Claim:
A method to determine an operating status of an electrical system having a system controller configured to send commands to several actuator controllers subordinate to the system controller, each of the several actuator controllers controlling an actuator of a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of: generating a system key by the system controller for the several actuator controllers; transmitting the system key from the system controller to a respective one of the several actuator controllers; evaluating the system key by the respective one of the several actuator controllers to determine whether the system controller is operating properly or improperly; initiating a first safe mode operation upon determining by the respective one of the actuator controllers that the system controller is operating improperly, the first safe mode operation causing the respective one of the several actuator controllers to ignore all subsequent commands received from the system controller while allowing the system controller continues to send new commands to the respective one of the several actuator controller controllers; generating an actuator key by the actuator controller; transmitting the actuator key from the actuator controller to the system controller upon determining that the system controller is operating properly; comparing the actuator key by the system controller with an expected actuator key value; determining by the system controller that the actuator controller is operating improperly upon determining that the actuator key is an unexpected actuator key value; and initiating a second safe mode operation upon determining that the actuator controller is operating improperly, the second safe mode operation causing the system controller to remove power from the actuator controller.