Patent ID: 8560094

Claim:
A safety controller for controlling an automated installation which has a plurality of sensors and a plurality of actuators, said safety controller comprising: a control unit to which a plurality of control input signals from the sensors are supplied, said control unit being designed to produce a plurality of control output signals on the basis of the control input signals and in accordance with a user program running in an automatic mode in said control unit, wherein the plurality of control output signals are configured to actuate the plurality of actuators, a diagnosis evaluation unit to which a number of diagnosis input signals are supplied, wherein the diagnosis evaluation unit is designed to take the diagnosis input signals as a basis for ascertaining which particular operating state from plurality of predefined possible operating states is present at a defined instant of time, and an interface for a display unit designed to display diagnosis reports from the diagnosis evaluation unit, wherein the diagnosis evaluation unit produces an operating state data record representing said particular operating state from the plurality of predefined possible operating states, wherein said operating state data record comprises a diagnosis report for display on the display unit and comprises a Boolean status indicator which signals whether or not said particular operating state is actually present, wherein the Boolean status indicator can be retrieved and read as a Boolean variable in the user program, and wherein the control unit is designed to actuate at least one of the plurality of actuators as a function of said Boolean status indicator.