Glossary · System coordination, integration and orchestration
State coordination
German: Zustandskoordination
In industrial automation, state coordination is the alignment of the state models of several machines, units or subsystems, so that their states and state transitions are consistent across the system, for example so that all machines of a line are held or stopped together.
- System integration
In one sentence
State coordination aligns the state models of several machines or units so their states and transitions stay consistent across the system.
Example
When the line controller commands Hold, it waits until every machine reports Held before indicating that the line is held.
How it applies
- Engineering: A common state model, such as the PackML state machine, simplifies state coordination because every machine understands the same commands and reports the same states. Define how the line state is derived from machine states.
- Commissioning: Test propagation of commands and states in both directions, including a machine that refuses a command or faults during a transition.
- Operation: Operators should see the line state and each machine's state, so they can see which machine is holding up a transition.
- Documentation: Document the state model, the coordination rules (which command goes where, which states must be reached) and the line-level state display.
State coordination vs. state synchronization
State coordination aligns behavior: machines change states together according to rules. State synchronization aligns data: copies of state information are kept identical in several systems. Coordination usually needs reliable synchronization of state data underneath.