Following years of fieldbus wars, the key protocol groups—Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communication Foundation, Profibus User Organization and Modbus Organization—have been working together to help ease the integration of field devices with various industrial communication networks. In 2008, these fieldbus organizations (with the exception of Modbus, which joined in 2011) formed the Wireless Cooperation Team (WCT) to develop a common wireless interface supporting the sponsoring organizations’ protocols.
In what is being called “one of the first positive results of this unprecedented collaboration,” the WCT announces that specifications for transducer blocks for HART and WirelessHART devices have been added to the latest Foundation Fieldbus technical specifications. According to the HART Communication Foundation, this addition enables full integration of HART and WirelessHART device information, including device diagnostics, into a Foundation for ROM (remote operations management) system.
This development means that industry suppliers can create Foundation Fieldbus transducer blocks that enable HART and WirelessHART device measurement and diagnostic information to be integrated into the Foundation Fieldbus infrastructure.
With such devices, "users can now incorporate HART, WirelessHART and Foundation Fieldbus information into one standard environment for data and device management,” says Ron Helson, HART Communication Foundation executive director.
