Patent ID: 7620478

Claim:
A control system for controlling the movements of a plurality of mechanical units, the control system comprising: a program unit comprising a plurality of mechanical unit programs, each mechanical unit program comprising program instructions including movement instructions for at least one of said mechanical units, a plurality of path planners operatively connected to the program unit and to the mechanical units, each path planner adapted to receive movement instructions from at least one of said mechanical unit programs and based on the movement instructions determine how the mechanical unit should move in order to be able to execute the movement instructions, wherein at least one of said path planners is adapted to receive movement instructions from at least two of said mechanical unit programs and based on the movement instructions determine how the mechanical units should move in order to synchronize movements of the mechanical units, and a switch unit operatively connected to the program unit and the path planners, the switch unit being adapted to switch a mechanical unit program from one path planner to another path planner, such that the movements of the mechanical units are synchronized when the mechanical unit programs are connected to a same path planner and the movements of the mechanical units are independent when the mechanical unit programs are connected to different path planners.