Controlled manufacturing process

Claim 1

In the method of controlling a physical system by adjusting a selected condition thereof in response to other conditions thereof, the conditions of the physical system being respectively represented by corresponding condition signals; wherein a plurality of servo loops are controlled to control the physical system; the control of each servo loop comprising detecting the value of an individual system condition to be controlled, comparing the detected value of the system conditIon with a standard, responsive to said comparison generating a control signal and responsive to the control signal controlling the system condition by controlling an actuator acting upon the physical system; the improvement whereby selected servo loops are adjusted comprising: a. establishing for each of the controlled system conditions a plurality of likelihood factors and generating a representative signal for each likelihood factor, each representing that a detected value of the selected system condition is a result of one of a plurality of causes when the detected value of each of the controlled system conditions deviates from its standard; b. detecting the value of the selected system condition and responsive thereto generating a signal representing a probability factor for each of the plurality of causes; c. comparing the detected value of each of the controlled system conditions corresponding to the selected system condition which is detected with its standard and responsive thereto generating a signal representing its established likelihood factor of each of the plurality of causes; d. iteratively combining each of the signals representing each probability factor with each signal representing the likelihood factor corresponding to it for each detected value of each controlled system condition and thereby generating a signal representing the iterative product of said combining; e. selecting the signal representing the iterative product of said combining which is most disproportionate from the signal initially generated in (b); f. comparing the most disproportionate signal so selected with a signal representing a predetermined damping standard and generating a control signal responsive thereto; g. adjusting, in response to said control signal, the servo loop of said plurality of servo loops having the most disproportionate likelihood factor signal for the selected most disproportionate signal wherein the remaining servo loops of said plurality of servo loops are permitted to remain unadjusted responsive thereto, whereby the control of the physical system is stabilized by the elimination of extraneous control actions.