Glenville T. Sawyer  -    South Australia (48 Y.O - using Win-98, "EPE
Pic-Tutor" programmer etc etc).
Theatre, Concert Lighting, Special Effects, Props. & more !
Embedded Control systems for Theatrical & other  Applications
http://gsawyer.mtx.net/

 If you remember this a couple of weeks ago ..
> Hi there, before starting a very bad OT thread, if you want to reply to me
>directly - this may be preferable as far as the list is concerned.
> Subject :  Fav' method of Process control.......

 I did not "survey" the results to a database, but for the benefit of those
readers
that ARE interested..

 Roughly 85% stated that they preferred to have "local" intelligence - that
is a PIC or
other micro-controller taking care of "Sub-Functions" and only communicating
flow
 or problem / modify information to-from a central CPU.

 The reasons included..   To ensure that  "problem" resolution was treated
as a local event
unless it was likely to have an effect upon the rest of the production
stream, if the "fault"
can be cleared locally, then no need to use up Main CPU - and serial comms
time to
remotely analyse it, sufficient to let the Main know that event "X" happened
at "Y"..

 UNLESS the "fault" was such that the "line" would need to be slowed or
(Arghhh) Stopped !

 The other "thought camp" was that the "central" should have total control
over all of the
required functions / actions on the production "line", the reasons for this
were to allow for
"predictive" processing - in other words a "look-ahead" functionality, that
given the right
software adaptation, could be used to prepared alternative strategies for
future problem
resolution. (not specifically an "AI" program), but flagging or alerts
useful for the maintenance
or programming staff to make changes to the overall running software.

 These results tie in with the responses I gained by talking to other
engineers involved
in similar production areas / issues.

Thanks for your (collective) input, and for verifying what I personally
regard as
"best method" in these types of situation.

P.S  we finished off the clients machine end of last week (using their
rules - well
after all THEY are paying the bills - Dual CPU'd P-450's - Air-Conned
enclosures
115K serial data comms over RS485 and written in Linux).

 Regards,
                     Glenville.