Patent ID: 6889099

Claim:
A distributed control system, comprising: system components comprising at least a first system component and a second system component, the system components having respective memories to store component-specific data that include spatial coordinates of respective positions of the system components; a configuration unit having an input device for at least one of inputting and generating a layout plan that includes at least information on the respective positions of the system components within the distributed control system; and a communications channel, to which the system components and the configuration unit are connected to mutually exchange data; wherein the system components are configured to transmit the respective positions of the system components as the component-specific data to the configuration unit; and wherein the configuration unit is configured to assign and transmit unique physical addresses on the communications channel to the system components whose respective positions were previously received by the configuration unit as the component-specific data such that the first system component receives an assigned unique physical address in response to a respective position transmitted from the first system component.