Re: Controllerless distributed automation

["David Paterson (Pixi)" <david.paterson@xxxxxxx>]

Oooh - lots of replies to catch up on.  I'll try to get through them as
quickly as I can :-)

On Tue, 13 Feb 2001 23:34:26 -0000, you wrote:

>That sounds pretty ambitious! I suppose that technically it shouldn't
be t=
oo
>difficult to have individual processors/programs for each device -
though =
I
>would guess that would involve a lot of design work and it'll make each
un=
it
>fairly pricey (though relative to UK X10 modules.....)

I'm not really thinking about prices, since it's mostly an experimental
idea at the moment.  Maybe if I can get it working somebody might want
to go commercial with it.  It shouldn't cost any more than an X10 device
to manufacture in quantity.

>I would guess your
>main problem would be communication - what kind of information does
each
>device need to have about others, and what doesn't it need. When a
device
>makes an announcement - "hello, I've just been switched on"
etc etc - how
>does it know that this device is related to it? You'd practically have
to
>have custom programs for each device. It would be impressive if you can
ge=
t
>it to work, though.

This is the area I'm currently thinking a lot about - how much data
needs to be sent around, what sort, and how to filter it to only what's
relevant for a particular unit.

>Of course, if you were *really* ambitious you could probably find some
way
>of linking all the devices to operate in parallel as one large computer
wi=
th
>massive redundancy - one device is elected co-ordinator and this role
can =
be
>taken over by any other if it drops out. Hmmm.... Anyone got 5 years
spare
>to try that one? ;-).

LOL - I'm expecting this project to be ongoing for years anyway, and who
knows how it'll end up....

DP

--=20
David_Paterson =3D david.paterson@xxxxxxx =A6 david.paterson@vissci.=
com;

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