Patent ID: 8295949

Claim:
A control system comprising: a master device that includes: a first transmission section that transmits, to a plurality of slave devices connected thereto through a network, a control command for the slave devices to control a device to be controlled and a flag that have two or more values; and a second transmission section that transmits, to the plurality of slave devices, a control start command for the slave devices to simultaneously start performing control based on the control command transmitted by the first transmission section, and a slave device that includes: a reception section that receives the control command and flag transmitted from the master device; a control command storage section that stores the control command received by the reception section in a storage section in the case where the flag received by the reception section has a specified value; and a first control start section that receives the control start command transmitted from the master device and starts performing control of the device to be controlled based on the control command stored in the storage section using the control start command as a trigger; and a monitoring section that monitors the operation status of the device to be controlled, wherein the first control start section starts the control of the device to be controlled based on a monitoring result of the monitor section.