John Gant Massey

US Patent:

53496442, Sep 20, 1994

Filed:

Dec 1, 1993

Appl. No.:

8/159692

Inventors:

John Massey - Fairfax VA
Garland R. Granzow - Leesburg VA

Assignee:

Electronic Innovators, Inc. - Fairfax VA

International Classification:

G06F 1300

US Classification:

395200

Abstract:

A distributed artificial intelligence data acquisition and equipment control system forms a local area network (LAN) over the AC power lines of a vessel for communicating shipboard engineering casualty and damage control information. Each node in the LAN includes a power line carrier current (PLCC) transceiver, a slave processing unit for interfacing with local sensors or equipment and a master processing unit for controlling the formation, transmission and reception of offset-quadrature-phase-shift-keyed (OQPSK) LAN messages. Nodes in the LAN are strategically positioned at various locations throughout the ship and are configured to function either as a Terminal Unit or as a Data & Control Unit. Terminal Units are equipped with a touch screen display and an intelligent controller that provides a user-friendly interactive operator interface through a series of display screen prompts and includes a data base of ship casualty and damage control information stored in a local non-volatile random access memory. The data base, containing both archived and current data, is maintained and constantly updated by each terminal unit in response to information acquired both locally and from other nodes in the LAN.