Automation Portals

Wireless Connectivity Portal

Articles

		Wireless Sensor Networks, Energy Harvesting and Standardization - 05/10/12 Automation.com, May 2012 By Dr Harry Zervos, IDTechEx EnOcean Equipment Profiles (EEPs) lays the foundation for fully interoperable, open wireless technology comparable to standards such as Bluetooth and WiFi.

		Sensing Without Wires - 05/20/12 Control Design, May 2012 By Hank Hogan Reports from the field about wireless indicate that cost remains an issue, as do power consumption and data rates. System integration and spectrum conflicts also can be challenging. But there's a great benefit to using wireless sensors.

		Wireless makes inroads across the process automation sector - 05/20/12 Industrial Ethernet Book, May 2012 By David Walker, Emerson Wireless technology is commonplace and WirelessHART, using the IEEE 802.15.4 radio operating at 2.4GHz, is providing tangible benefits in the process industries. The network range has been extended and redundant communication routes provide the crucial 99.9% reliability.

		Wireless communications protocols and the smart meter - 05/20/12 Industrial Ethernet Book, May 2012 By Nick Wellington, Navetas Article looks at the coming smart meter rollout across the UK, and the various wireless communications network challenges - such as security and real time operation - that will have to be overcome for its success.

		Application-specific wireless mesh: acting smart to order - 05/20/12 Industrial Ethernet Book, May 2012 By Albert Heuberger, Fraunhofer A sensor network is made up of spatially distributed sensor nodes, which interact with one another independently and, depending on the application, with the existing infrastructure by radio. This serves the purpose of acquiring, processing, forwarding and providing digitalised information from the physical environment.


		Industrial wireless or wired networks? - 05/20/12 Control Engineering, May 2012 By Mark Lochhaas, Advantech Have obstacles, mobile applications, or a large region? Wireless may be the best choice.

		Tips and Tricks: 6 overlooked places to use industrial wireless - 05/20/12 Control Engineering, May 2012 By Mike Fahrion, B&B Electronics How Wi-Fi industrial wireless communications can save time, trouble, and money: Flexible work cells, mobile connections, and network enabling legacy devices are three of the overlooked areas.

		Wireless technologies for industrial automation - 05/20/12 Control Engineering, May 2012 By Brent E. McAdams, FreeWave Technologies Wireless networks for industrial automation enhance the ability to gather time-critical information, digest it, and react, key to continuously adapting to change with increasing reliability and profitability. No wireless technology resolves all challenges.

		Device-Level Wireless Solutions Gain Traction in Process Manufacturing - 05/13/12 Automation World, May 2012 By Chantal Polsonetti, ARC Increased availability of products and solutions that support industrial wireless standards is spurring widespread interest in the process industries due to the tangible business benefits that can be achieved using wireless instrumentation.

		Doors Open Wide for Industrial Wireless Switch and Sensor Networks - 04/26/12 Sensors, April 2012 By Todd Hanson, Honeywell Wireless sensor and switch networks are increasingly making inroads into the industrial sensor industry as more manufacturers and end-users explore wireless. The various technologies have matured and there is a growing market acceptance for their use in factories, warehouses, and other types of industrial facilities.

		Remote Access Goes Mainstream - 04/21/12 Control, April 2012 By Dan Hebert Remote access is one of the fastest-growing and most quickly accepted new technologies to ever hit the process control industry. It seems that everybody in the process industry is using remote access in one way or another, for a variety of purposes ranging from equipment diagnosis to optimizing control systems.

		Addressing Control Applications Using Wireless Devices - 04/21/12 Control, April 2012 By Terry Blevins, et al, Emerson This article examines the difference in a wired vs. a wireless installation and what changes in the PID are needed to address control applications using wireless devices.

		Wireless Sensors Are Making Automation More Intelligent - 03/21/12 Design News, March 2012 By Al Presher With interest in wireless sensors for factory applications also continuing to gain momentum, the landscape and fundamental technology may be forced to change more dramatically to provide the highest levels of performance in the future.

		Wireless BAS: Factors Facility Managers Should Consider - 03/14/12 Building Operating Management, March 2012 By Josh Thompson The Pros and Cons(iderations) of Wireless.

		Wireless Building Automation: EnOcean and Zigbee - 03/14/12 Building Operating Management, March 2012 By Josh Thompson When considering the construction costs of a hard-wired solution, the argument in favor of wireless integration is compelling. That said, all things come at a cost; before making any decision it is always best to be well informed.

		Deploying a High-Performance Wireless Monitoring and Control Network - 03/14/12 Automated Buildings, March 2012 By Harry Ostaffe, Powercast Corporation A reliable wireless system should be able to transmit data through various types of building materials, tolerate interference from other devices, and recover from disruption to the network.

		Wireless Sensor Networks - 03/14/12 Automated Buildings, March 2012 By David Laurence, Adaptive Wireless Solutions Guidelines for the use of wireless sensor networks in building applications.

		Picking the Low-Hanging Wireless Fruit - 03/14/12 Automated Buildings, March 2012 By Ben H Dorsey III, KMC Controls If we can eliminate the wiring from space sensor to space controller, we save both material and labor costs as well as valuable project time.

		Energy Harvesting - A New Frontier - 03/14/12 Automated Buildings, March 2012 By Paul Balazovjech, Spartan Peripheral Devices Using “energy harvesting,” wireless thermo sensor technology, a sensor can collect and save even the tiniest amounts of energy from the environment to provide enough power to send a radio signal or be amplified and stored to be used to move a control valve actuator.

		Wireless Topologies - 03/12/12 Industrial Networking, February 2012 By Ian Verhappen The trend is to 4G networks for cellular communications and IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) networks in the coffee shop, and though the speeds of 4G keep improving, IEEE 802 networks keep growing.

		WiFi technology for industrial environments - 03/10/12 Control Engineering, March 2012 By Peter Fröhlich, Hirschmann Automation In setting up wireless infrastructures in industrial environments, challenges include environment, signal integrity, and protocol selection.

		Mobile Industrial Worker - 03/10/12 Control Engineering, March 2012 By Peter Granger, Cisco Technologies have enabled industrial workers to get mobile, and there’s no going back.

		Industrial mobility: Information where needed - 03/10/12 Control Engineering, March 2012 By Mark T. Hoske Industrial-strength mobility is happening with the manufacturing and IT workforce today. Embrace it, guide it, make it secure, or it may dictate how your business will change.

		Wireless building energy management systems - 02/17/12 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, February 2012 By Ivan McKeever, WEMSinternational. The future for those looking to protect their business’ bottom line looks like an uphill struggle, but retro-fitting a wireless building energy management system (WEMS) is the ideal solution.

		Is Lick-'n-Stick Wireless the Future? - 02/17/12 Control, February 2012 By John Rezabek Enter the "lick-n-stick" sensor. These are sensors that are cheap and easy to deploy, requiring minimal effort and labor. Wireless begins to be more compelling for measurements for which we'd rarely buy a permanent instrument.

		Farewell to Standardization: Wireless and FDI - 02/17/12 Control, February 2012 By Dieter Schaudel, University of Freiburg With FDI and Ethernet looming, will there be one standard for wireless and one standard for field device integration?

		Wireless communication in track-guided transport systems - 02/15/12 What’s New in Process Technology, February 2012 By Phoenix Contact All systems that employ a radiating cable-based communication system profit from the advantages of the guided wireless field along the cable. In track-guided systems this also results in lower maintenance overhead due to the elimination of contact lines and mechanical contacts.

		Wireless communications in safety systems - 02/15/12 Control Engineering Europe, February 2012 The motivating factors for installing wireless sensors are easy to see – simplicity of installation and operational flexibility. The main challenges for safe wireless communication are to guarantee a short response time and to immediately detect loss of contact with sensors.

		Embedded Application Frameworks: Simplifying the development of M2M devices - 02/04/12 Embedded Computing Design, January 2012 By Pierre Teyssier, Sierra Wireless With advances in wireless technologies, defining a strategy for building wireless M2M-enabled devices is not the dauntingly complex task it was once thought to be.

		Remote maintenance through networked security appliances - 01/29/12 Industrial Ethernet Book, February 2012 By Ingo Hilgenkamp, Phoenix Contact To save time and money, operating companies therefore frequently link their applications to the service network of the manufacturer via the web. But you may need a security appliance to protect yourself.

		Overcoming real and imagined barriers to wireless adoption - 01/29/12 Industrial Ethernet Book, February 2012 By Adrienne Lutovsky Is wireless better or worse than a wired network? The answer is no: it's different. A plethora of wireless technologies exists to suit a variety of users. Is it for every application? No.

		Changing with the Times: Industrial Automation 2.0 - 01/27/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Matthew Littlefield, LNS Research There are a whole slew of new technologies and system architectures being adopted in the automation industry at a very rapid pace. Companies today face the very real possibility that if they don’t effectively understand, adopt, and leverage these new technologies to their advantage; they will be left in an increasingly uncompetitive position.

		Remote and condition monitoring in chemical plants - 01/19/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Gianni Minetti, Paradox Engineering Chemical plants struggle with growing complexity and are often instrumented for process control. Wireless sensors might not always be a viable option, while wireless transmission seems to be the best choice. So how to conjugate these two elements?

		Major Automation & Control Trends in 2012 - 01/16/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Here are my thoughts on major automation and control trends in 2012. These opinions are based on a wide range of inputs from users, suppliers and industry consultants, and from attending numerous industry forums, conferences and trade shows every year.

		Industrial Computers, Part 1 PID on Your Smartphone? Maybe - 01/11/12 Control, January 2012 By Walt Boyes Everywhere you look, the embedded controller is with us. It lives in your washing machine, in PLCs, PACs and in the controllers that are part of your DCS. Everyone's iPhone will soon have an 'app' for PID control or ladder logic.

		Power of the Cloud - 01/11/12 Control Engineering, December 2011 By Jeanine Katzel Cloud computing is everywhere, including manufacturing! This latest computing craze may seem like just another buzzword, but “the cloud” and its advanced computing technologies are here to stay.

		Highlights from PI NA General Assembly Meeting 2011 - 01/09/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The 17th Annual PI North America General Assembly Meeting was held October 4-6, 2011 in Phoenix, AZ and included vendors and users who provided updates on PROFIBUS and PROFINET technologies. Topics included PROFINET survey, GE IP, Chrysler-Fiat, Wireless and PROFIenergy.

		There’s an iPhone or Android control app for that - 12/28/11 Machine Design, December 2011 By Leland E. Teschler Control systems can communicate with mobile devices either through a mobile-enabled Web site or through an app designed to communicate directly with the controls.

		IP platforms enable cloud-connected device development - 12/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, December 2011 By Tony King-Smith As more devices become connected to the cloud of Internet access, engineers are looking to capitalize on this connectivity without having to develop the technologies themselves. Using a set of common APIs and IP platforms helps.

		Data in Moderation - 12/28/11 Control Design, December 2011 By Jeremy Pollard Over the past 10 years or so, data has been retrieved from control devices, using Ethernet or bus systems, and now we have more data than we know what to do with. Data is like good wine. Have just enough and you'll be a happy camper. Have too much and you'll get a hangover.

		Workstations: Going Mobile - 12/28/11 Assembly, November 2011 By Christine Wheeler Workstations tend to stay in the same place. But wireless technology has created a new class of devices that easily move about the plant floor. Mobile powered workstations (MPWs) improve efficiency, eliminate waste and boost productivity.

		Power of the Cloud - 12/28/11 Control Engineering, December 2011 By Jeanine Katzel “The cloud” and its advanced computing technologies are here to stay, holding a stockpile of benefits, few downsides, and the promise to give industry untold opportunities to do more and better business more profitably.

		Wireless Ethernet communications - 12/27/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, December 2011 By Tim Craven, H3iSquared Wireless can be used for relatively short distances up to approximately 3 km, in which case 802.11 (WiFi), will be recommended. To set up wireless over slightly longer distances than WiFi, up to around 12 km, 802.16/e (WiMAX) is the common choice.

		One way wireless - 12/27/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, December 2011 By Andrew Ashton Various commentators have likened the battle of the three industrial wireless standards to that between VHS and Betamax in the dim and distant past. So should you wait to adopt wireless or should you make an informed decision now and live with that?

		Measuring Wi-Fi attack threats - 12/18/11 Industrial Ethernet Book, November 2011 By Wenye Wang Researchers from NC State University say that they can determine how a Wi-Fi network would be disrupted by various attack vectors. The information gained enables more secure security systems to be designed, so it is likely to be a valuable tool for developing new security technologies.

		Sensor networks: wireless mesh or wireless backbone? - 12/18/11 Industrial Ethernet Book, November 2011 By Soroush Amidi, Honeywell Automation plant operators should consider their needs before choosing an industrial wireless system. Some applications are well suited to a field device meshing network, while others are better served by an infrastructure meshing network.

		Bluetooth Low Energy: the best media for sensors and actuators? - 12/18/11 Industrial Ethernet Book, November 2011 By Rolf Nilsson, connectBlue The advent of Bluetooth Low Energy - which leverages low energy Bluetooth v4.0, Classic Bluetooth and high speed Bluetooth 3.0 + HS - opens up the possibility of integrating Bluetooth sensors into industrial plant and equipment.

		Packaging has a language that speaks of Industrial Ethernet - 12/18/11 Industrial Ethernet Book, November 2011 By James Hunt Advances in computer, mobile and wireless technology have transformed the business and IT worlds, and are doing the same for industrial automation. This now includes the packaging industry.

		Behind wireless technology and industrial automation systems - 12/18/11 Process & Control Engineering, December 2011 By Ray Rogowski Due in part to security concerns, the adoption of wireless networks has been gradual. The threat of cyber attacks, coupled with open enterprise wireless architectures, have had the biggest impact on electronic security fears.

		Cutting the Cord: Wireless Controls Bring Flexibility - 12/17/11 Building Operating Management, December 2011 By Casey Laughman, BOM By taking advantage of what wireless can do, facility managers can not only save money, but greatly expand what they can ask their building to do.

		Wireless Energy Management Systems - 12/17/11 Automated Buildings, December 2011 By Billal Vindhani, Greenologic By installing a wireless mesh control network over a wide area, many buildings can reduce consumption of their heating and lighting, as well as create more efficiencies from circuits and appliances which consume energy.

		Is the cloud right for manufacturing? - 12/07/11 InTech, December 2011 By Maryanne Steidinger There is much discussion these days on whether cloud-based technology is “right” for manufacturing. Given the security concerns, what applications should manufacturers look for to help them get started? And, more importantly, why should they even care about the cloud?

		In Redundancy We Trust - 11/18/11 Control Design. November 2011 By Jeremy Pollard Be very careful with any cloud implementation, private or public. Make sure you know what you are getting and get proof of the redundancy.

		Remote Access Makes New Connections - 11/18/11 Control Design. November 2011 By Dan Hebert With new 4G technology and cellphone apps, cellular connections now rival the speed of hardwired connections. This new equivalence is encouraging industrial machine and robot builder OEMs to use cellphones for remote access, both via browser and apps.

		Expansion Advantages of Wireless Controls - 11/16/11 Automated Buildings, November 2011 By Casey Laughman Wireless networks provide facility managers with a number of options to both save money and expand into areas they might not otherwise have been able to reach. After all, running a wire requires additional materials and a hole in the wall.

		Cutting the Cord: Wireless Controls Bring Flexibility - 11/16/11 Automated Buildings, November 2011 By Casey Laughman By taking advantage of what wireless can do, facility managers can not only save money, but greatly expand what they can ask their building to do.

		Must Industry Choose Between Security or Efficiency? - 11/14/11 Automation.com, November 2011 By Eric Byres, Byres Security Inc. On one hand, industry is becoming increasingly concerned about just how vulnerable control systems have become to outside attacks. At the same time, new tools and applications that improve efficiency, but increase that exposure, are appearing daily. So must we sacrifice these gains in efficiency if we want to be secure?

		IEEE 802.15.4: The Number Sensor Solution - 11/14/11 Sensors, November 2011 By Joseph Citrano III and Ramakrishna Budampati, Honeywell When it comes to industrial wireless, many developers prefer IEEE 802.15.4—especially when they’re looking for a reliable, low-cost, and low-power-consumption wireless technology option.

		EDDL Enables Wireless Device Integration - 11/14/11 Automation World, November 2011 By Renee Robbins Bassett Using EDDL to prepare a control system for installation of a new device, users need only to copy the EDDL file is into the system.

		Emerson Executive Perspectives - 11/07/11 Automation.com, November 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Discussion of the industry issues and trends with Steve Sonnenberg, Emerson Process Management's Executive Vice President, and Peter Zornio, Chief Strategic Officer. Topics include Emerson's energy initiative, the economy, PLC/DCS debate, disposable automation, and more.

		Has Open Architecture Delivered? - 10/28/11 Automation.com, October 2011 By Bill Lydon Since the 1980s, the automation industry has been adopting standards for networked industrial communications, software, and applications. Have users gained all the benefits originally envisioned?

		Manufacturing and the "Internet of Things" - 10/21/11 Automation World, October 2011 By David Greenfield The concept of networking every device imaginable to achieve higher levels of automated interaction is driving changes in industrial networking. But is this idea as viable for manufacturing as it is promised to be for the consumer sector?

		Wireless Sensor Network Standards: On the Road to Convergence - 10/21/11 Automation World, October 2011 By Renee Robbins Bassett Two similar wireless standards—WirelessHart and ISA 100.11a—are competing for dominance as the enabler of smart instrumentation and all its promised benefits. Some users, however, are seeking convergence rather than competition.

		How cellular technology will transform remote monitoring systems - 10/17/11 What’s New in Process Technology, October 2011 By Daniel Liu, Moxa With the advent of cellular communications, remote monitoring systems are changing. Remote monitoring systems can do more and cost less than before thanks to IP-based cellular technology.

		Wireless water management solutions - 10/17/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, October 2011 By Charles Chen, Moxa Most water distribution infrastructures, which include pipelines and pumps, are located in isolated areas where wired communication devices are not available; consequently they must rely on radio communications.

		Testing the cloud - 10/17/11 Instrumentation, October 2011 By Dan Joe Barry, Napatech Cloud computing has become a reality, with more and more enterprises realising the benefits of remote hosting of IT services. This however, requires extensive test and management capabilities.

		Cut the Leash to Achieve Operational and Production Excellence - 10/16/11 Automation.com, October 2011 By Kevin Davenport, Cisco Systems This article shows how organizations are cutting the wire and deploying collaboration, security, cloud and sensor wireless and mobility technologies to achieve operational and production excellence throughout their entire corporate value chain.

		Smart wireless network monitors critical equipment - 10/15/11 International Power Engineer, October 2011 Self-organising wireless technology is enabling continuous monitoring of critical equipment contributing to improved reliability of power stations.

		Energy harvesting - 10/06/11 InTech, October 2011 By Roy Freeland, Perpetuum Energy harvesting has many different forms that have been fully demonstrated to be ideal solutions for indefinite long term powering of wireless sensors without maintenance.

		Wireless at Power Plants - 09/26/11 Power Engineering, September 2011 By Lindsey Morris, Power Engineering A wireless network installation at a power plant entails more than just the hand-held or Internet connection typical to the mainstream. Modern wireless networks are constructed with a series of wireless access points, or radio nodes, installed at strategic areas of interest within the plant.

		Hazardous area mobile computing – driving efficiency and quality - 09/24/11 HazardEx, September 2011 The UK is leading the way in the adoption of hazardous area mobile computing solutions, which include ATEX certified personal digital assistants and laptops used in conjunction with specialist software and often wireless infrastructure.

		Siemens Contributes to Toy Story Attraction's Magic - 09/19/11 Automation.com, September 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Toy Story Midway Mania! is one of the most technologically sophisticated attractions yet developed by Walt Disney Imagineering. It marks the company's first use of industrial Ethernet for a ride's control system which takes advantage of Siemens products.

		How cellular technology will transform remote monitoring systems - 09/11/11 What’s New in Process Technology, September 2011 By Daniel Liu, Moxa The advent of advanced cellular communications technology has freed system integrators from bandwidth limitations and unleashed new potential in remote monitoring systems.

		Availability in the cloud - 09/08/11 Control Engineering Europe, August 2011 By Mike Lees, Hardware PT In order to decide whether manufacturing is right to put its trust in the cloud, one has to consider the implications of any potential downtime – from a production and safety perspective.

		Executive Interview - Norm Gilsdorf of Honeywell Process Solutions - 08/28/11 Automation.com, August 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Norm Gilsdorf of Honeywell Process Solutions sits down with our editor, Bill Lydon, to discuss their organizational changes, asset management, PLC competition, wireless, skill crisis, energy and sustainability.

		All Quiet on the Wireless Front - 08/18/11 Control, August 2011 By Walt Boyes Survey says: When asked which wireless networks they use now, over 50% said they used 802.11x networks, 34% said they used one or more proprietary wireless networks, and WirelessHART continues to grow at 23%. ISA100 is only 4.4%.

		How To Overcome Barriers To Wireless Adoption - 08/13/11 Manufacturing.net, August 2011 By Adrienne Lutovsky Questions regarding security, reliability, and capacity of wireless continue to prevent conservative end users from reaping its benefits. Can these be overcome?

		All About the Cloud - 08/13/11 Control Engineering Asia, July 2011 By Thierry Decroix, et al Industrial equipment executives need to evaluate what cloud computing can do for their business and asking the right questions is the right place to start. Registration required to read story.

		A Touch Of Wireless - 08/13/11 Industrial Automation Asia, August 2011 By Ian Armstrong Near Field Communication (NFC), a subset of RFID, will usher in a wholly new set of interactivity for mobility devices.

		Changing Role of Wireless - 07/29/11 Automation.com, July 2011 By Ray Rogowski, Honeywell Wireless has matured to a point where it’s operating around the world in many different industries. And, while its capabilities continue to be uncovered, it’s apparent that wireless assets are influencing users with improvements beyond just cost savings over wired systems.

		Automation & Control Getting iPhone App Enabled - 07/23/11 Design News, July 2011 By Alexander Wolfe Programmable logic controllers are beginning to connect beyond the confines of the factory floor, via iPhone Apps that display status data or even control PLCs directly via over-the-air commands.

		Switching to Wireless - 06/27/11 Control Engineering Asia, May 2011 By Jonas Berge Now you can detect level without incurring the cost and complexity of laying cables. Registration required to read article.

		Integrating a network of wireless sensors with standard control systems - 06/12/11 What’s New in Process Technology, June 2011 Interfacing to standard control systems such as PLC, SCADA stations, HMI panels is straightforward. All that is needed is for the wireless network coordinator and gateway to use a standard communications protocol.

		Think Again: More data, better decisions - 06/12/11 Control Engineering, June 2011 By Mark T. Hoske Wireless data acquisition doesn’t automatically mean you’ll turn data into information to make better decisions, but automated, real-time data gathering beats manual data entry. Wireless can save up to 90% of wired network installation costs.

		Wide World of Wireless - 06/12/11 Flow Control, May 2011 By Matt Migliore The existence of two wireless standards initiatives for industry (i.e., ISA100 and WirelessHART) has been a source of contention for some end-users, device manufacturers, and those involved with the respective standards themselves.

		Real-Time Visibility, Operational Agility and Flexibility driving growth of Industrial Networks - 06/03/11 Automation.com, June 2011 By J. Timothy Shea, VDC Research Group VDC Research partnered with Automation.com to conduct an extensive initiative into the market for wireline and wireless industrial networking infrastructure product markets. Recent research found that the demand outlook for wireline and wireless industrial networking infrastructure products will be quite healthy through 2015.

		Standards Back Up Wireless Sensors - 05/27/11 Control Design, May 2011 By Dan Hebert Some technologies are technically viable and commercially deployed for decades before acceptance by industrial machine and robot OEMs. The roadblock often is lack of standards, and such has been the case for wireless in general and wireless sensors in particular.

		Game changer - 05/27/11 What’s New in Process Technology, May 2011 By Charlie Mohrmann, Invensys Operations Management From the shop floor to the top floor, automation has caused a revolution. Despite this, mobile field workers are often still running around with clipboards. By empowering these workers with tools that enable them to learn new skills, make suggestions and directly tie their activities to their KPIs, job satisfaction and effectiveness can be increased.

		Straight to the Heart - 05/18/11 Control Engineering Asia, April 2011 By Bob Gill The wireless war is not over yet, according to Yokogawa, which believes ISA 100.11a is not only a technologically superior standard to WirelessHart but also caters more widely to the requirements of end users. Registration required to read story.

		How to Make Sure Wireless Works - 05/18/11 Industrial Networking, May 2011 By Ian Verhappen The Wireless Compliance Institute (WCI) held a wireless plugfest to test device interoperability along with emerging standards. The ISA-100 Plugfest had four hosts: one system each from Yokogawa and Nivis, and two Honeywell systems.

		Wireless Technology May Let Robots Go Free - 05/14/11 Assembly, April 2011 By Austin Weber Traditionally, robots rely on lots of cabling and connectors. However, continuous cable flexing and tight radius joints eventually lead to failures that require routine maintenance, which can be time consuming and expensive. That’s why the auto industry is developing wireless sensors that are quick, reliable, secure and able to resist interference from existing systems.

		A World Without Wire? - 05/14/11 Assembly, April 2011 By Austin Weber The ultimate alternative to traditional wiring harnesses is wireless technology. In the near future, energy harvesting and inductive power transfer technology may replace electrical wires, power cords and batteries in a wide variety of applications.

		Field Wireless Automation Solutions Based On The ISA100-11a Standard - 05/14/11 Process Industry Informer, March 2011 By Henk van der Bent, Yokogawa Europe Communication between field devices and control systems started with 4-20 mA and has evolved via hybrid communication systems such as HART and Brain, to digital communication technologies such as FOUNDATION Fieldbus and PROFIBUS, and finally to wireless communication based on the ISA100.11a standard.

		Is wireless ready for process control? - 05/14/11 Control Engineering Europe, April 2011 By Suzanne Gill Wireless is now an accepted technology for process monitoring applications. However, is it ready to take on the challenge of process control too?

		What We Learned from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident - 03/26/11 Sustainable Plant, March 2011 By Béla Lipták Here’s what happened at Three Miie Island, and what should have been done to prevent it. The author dissects the sequence of events, and shows how properly designed process control systems and better operator training could have prevented the accident.

		Technology Update: Why WirelessHART? - 03/24/11 Control Engineering, March 2011 By Ira Sharp, Phoenix Contact With other industrial wireless communications options available, process industry engineers may ask, ‘What is WirelessHART, and what is it good for?’

		Ethernet Infrastructure - Is IPv6 another Y2K? - 03/15/11 Automation.com, March 2011 ODVA is taking IPv6 seriously because it could have major implications for existing EtherNet/IP installations and product developers. This is not unique to EtherNet/IP, the change has an impact on all Ethernet devices and infrastructure including business, industrial, home, and mobile communications.

		Wireless Networking in the Process Industry - 02/28/11 Valve Magazine, February 2011 By Peter Cleaveland Wireless networking is gaining steadily in popularity in the process industries, driven to a large extent by its ease of use, low installation cost and flexibility.

		Industrial Wireless Update – where no wires have gone before - 02/23/11 Automation.com, February 2011 While the intense debates continue over industrial wireless standards many automation professionals are applying industrial wireless solutions to achieve greater efficiency and profits for their companies.

		Applying Wireless To EtherNet/IP Pipeline Automation - 02/11/11 Pipeline & Gas Journal, February 2011 The use of Ethernet for industrial networking is growing rapidly in process control and SCADA systems such as oil and gas pipeline applications. Engineers are recognizing the significant advantages that Ethernet-enabled devices provide such as ease of connectivity, high performance and cost savings.

		Eliminating batteries for wireless adoption - 02/07/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, February 2011 By Harry Forbes, ARC Many end users will continue to resist adopting wireless sensing for process measurements or condition monitoring as long as these sensors require battery power and eventual battery replacement. Energy harvesting is a potential game changer in both industrial and building automation applications.

		Using wireless sensors in industrial applications - 02/07/11 Process & Control Engineering, January 2011 By Motti Gill The last few years, wired industrial sensors have become smarter and smaller. At the same time another key development has taken place: A growing interest and utilisation of wireless sensor in industrial applications.

		Wireless mobile alarm implementation - 02/07/11 InTech, February 2011 By David Milne Excellence in integrated mobile alarm management requires attention to control, asset management, productivity, and regulatory issues.

		Rockwell Automation's pursuit of process control - 01/31/11 Automation.com, February 2011 I recently interviewed the two key executives leading Rockwell Automation’s process industry initiative, Som Chakraborti and Steve Pulsifer. We discussed their focus on the process markets, PlantPAx, the sales channel, Ethernet/IP, wireless, and how they compare to traditional DCS systems.

		Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR) - Part 4 - Wireless in Manufacturing - 01/25/11 Automation.com, January 2011 This is the fourth article in a series about the annual Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR). Automation professionals from leading life sciences companies discussed the use of wireless technologies in manufacturing, citing specific successful examples.

		Major Automation & Control Trends 2011 - 01/25/11 Automation.com, January 2011 I am taking a risk at the beginning of the year to provide my thoughts on automation and control industry trends. I invite readers to contact me and share any other trends or expand on the trends listed. Trends include industrial Ethernet proliferation, leveraging information, remote monitoring, virtualization, mobile device usage, energy conservation and wireless implementations.

		Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR) - 5 Part Article Series - 01/25/11 Automation.com, January 2011 This 5 part article series is based on the recent Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR). Automation professionals from leading life sciences companies gathered together to discuss MES, visualization, software development, system life-cycle planning, executive governance, electronic testing, wireless and more.

		Key Considerations for Grid Communications Technology - 01/22/11 Powergrid International, January 2011 By Paul Senior, Airspan Networks In addition to the technology and operational determinations in designing a grid network, the selection of the spectrum that will provide the network’s wireless backbone is critical. This decision impacts the structure, capacity and scalability of the planned network and will have long-term consequences for the effectiveness, as well as capital and operating costs, of the network.

		Technologies that will win in building automation - 01/16/11 Automated Buildings, January 2011 By David Lamarche, CAN2GO There hasn’t been this much innovation in building automation in a while. Here are a few technological breakthroughs, including Lighting and HVAC in one controller, wireless, and the convergence of IP and building automation network.

		Is Wireless technology ready for the commercial arena? - 01/16/11 Automated Buildings, January 2011 By Billal Vindhani, Greenologic The benefits of this technology are simply too great to pass up; on one hand the economic conditions have changed over the last 2 years; resulting in budget constraints and unaffordable maintenance expenses; on the other hand legislative changes demand building owners and facilities managers achieve greater efficiencies from their facilities.

		The real world of wireless: Clearing the FUD - 01/16/11 Process & Control Engineering, January 2011 By Scott Wilson, Emerson FUD appears heavily in the press around industrial wireless sensor networks (WSN). Industrial WSNs are no longer new to industry and are a robust and enabling technology that has gained the trust of users globally.

		Continuous Improvement in PROFINET - 01/05/11 Automation.com, January 2011 By Bill Lydon Carl Henning, Deputy Director of PI North America, and I recently discussed the automation industry, PI North America organization, and PROFINET technology developments. Here's an update on the organization, PROFIenergy, PROFINET for process control, and wireless.

		Wireless Temperature Sensing Solution for Switchgear - 12/20/10 Utility Products, November 2010 Conventional methods of monitoring switchgear temperature are expensive and not entirely effective. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology can provide a passive (no battery or energy harvesting), wirelessly-interrogated temperature measurement solution that is ideally suited for switchgear.

		Wireless Horizons - 12/18/10 Control Engineering Asia, November 2010 By Madanmohan Rao Key features for industrial wireless solutions will continue to be ultra low power consumption, robustness against physical and electrical interference, self-configuration, openness to WAN and complementary wireless technologies, configuration in tree, star and mesh network topologies, design for multiple network co-existence, and developer APIs with product development toolkits.

		An Undeniable Impact - 12/18/10 Industrial Networking, December 2010 By Dan Hebert Ten years ago, we suffered through the multi-headed fieldbus monster, when eight different technologies were established as standards. Today, that effort seems like a rehearsal for what we're going through with multiple wireless technologies, many Ethernet protocols, several instrument buses and different device buses.

		Industrial wireless LAN promises secure, fast logistics control - 12/12/10 Control Engineering Europe, December 2010 From conveyor systems and logistics, through production lines requiring flexible conversion, right up to rotating machine units, wireless communication offers significant savings potential thanks to lower installation costs, reduced susceptibility to wear and tear, and minimum maintenance.

		Murphy’s 7 laws of industrial wireless communications - 12/12/10 Control Engineering, November 2010 By Mike Fahrion, B&B Electronics Applying wireless technologies for industrial communications doesn’t have to be tough, as long as you remember these Murphy’s 7 laws of industrial wireless communications. Do you know the number-one cause of wireless woes?

		How to choose wireless technology for industrial applications - 12/12/10 Control Engineering, November 2010 By Ira Sharp, Phoenix Contact Wireless provides highly reliable data communications in harsh and interference-heavy environments. Compared with traditional cable-based circuits, wireless technology offers advantages, including increased flexibility, easy installation, and cost savings.

		Wireless standards in action - 12/12/10 InTech, December 2010 By Soroush Amidi This article provides a snapshot of one of the current standards, ISA-100.11a, and boils down the key elements that make it unique in addressing user needs.

		Emerson Exchange 2010 - Conquering Complexity - 11/23/10 Automation.com, November 2010 The 2010 Emerson Global Users Exchange in San Antonio, Texas was a successful event, hosting more than 2300 attendees, representing 47 different countries. Bill Lydon reviews a few of the event highlights including keynote addresses, Human Centered Design, Asset management enhancements, DeltaV product roadmap, and control over wireless.

		Embedding flexible analog interface IP into digital SoCs - 11/21/10 Embedded Computing Design, November 2010 By Manuel Mota, Synopsys More and more analog and mixed-signal capability is being integrated into Systems-on-Chip, including baseband RF functions. Careful attention to detail is needed to maintain circuit performance and deliver functionality while keeping power consumption low.

		We Get It - Wireless Works - 11/21/10 Control, November 2010 By John Rezabek Can anyone remember an instrument technology that was marketed with such persistence and zeal? WirelessHART products have been available since at least 2007, and today one can obtain compatible products from ABB, Endress+Hauser, Siemens, Pepperl+Fuchs, Emerson and others.

		Wireless Horizons - 11/15/10 Control Engineering Asia, October 2010 By Madanmohan Rao Wireless is continuing to grow in the industrial space as some of the newer technologies are more capable and secure. Choice does not always have to be accompanied by complexity in this case, especially when future-proofing is concerned.

		Emerson Executive Point of View - 11/09/10 Automation.com, November 2010 Bill Lydon talks with Steve Sonnenberg and Peter Zornio about a number of topics including business challenges, what their customers should be planning for, wireless, cloud computing, and what technologies will have the greatest impact on automation.

		Holding industrial wireless vendors to account - 11/07/10 What’s New in Process Technology, October 2010 By Brett Biondi, Elpro Technologies While wireless technology has moved well beyond simple point-to-point connectivity, the fundamental tenets of the technology remain the same. However, one shouldn’t be put off, and we don’t all need to be certified RF engineers to start making informed choices.

		Improve SCADA operations using wireless instrumentation - 11/07/10 Process & Control Engineering, November 2010 By Hany Fouda Australia's extensive mining operations, water projects, water and waste water treatment plants and pipelines all lend themselves to using wireless to connect remote monitoring systems with centralised SCADA systems and control rooms. But not everyone is convinced.

		Energy Information Management - 10/21/10 Automated Buildings, October 2010 By Tim Kensok, AirAdvice Web-based solutions provide the obvious advantage of remote access from a plethora of locations and tools. Depending on the case, desktop computers, laptops and smart phones can be used by end-users to manage the desired applications.

		Integrating EnOcean and BACnet - 10/21/10 Automated Buildings, October 2010 By The S4 Group This article explores the role of ASHRAE’s BACnet standard in today’s BAS marketplace and how EnOcean technology can be brought into this industry wide environment.

		Too Many Choices For Wireless Building Systems? - 10/21/10 Automated Buildings, October 2010 By Jim Sinopoli, Smart Buildings Sometimes we’re given too many choices which can lead to confusion and paralysis. That may be the case with wireless network platforms for building systems, where we have wireless technologies such as ZigBee, EnOcean, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, RFID, Insteon, Bluetooth, etc.

		Improving SCADA operations using wireless instrumentation - 10/20/10 What’s New in Process Technology, October 2010 By Hany Fouda, Control Microsystems This article looks into the particular ways in which operators can tightly integrate wireless instrumentation networks with SCADA and realise the full benefits of such an integrated solution.

		TETRA network coverage in hazardous areas - 10/19/10 HazardEx, September 2010 As far as European and Asian countries are concerned, TETRA, a digital trunked mobile radio standard, is the leading technology to assure the communication of government agencies, emergency services, rail transportation staff, transport services and the military.

		Plant safety engineers take aim at a wireless future - 10/19/10 HazardEx, September 2010 By Dr.Patrick Hogan, Honeywell Analytics We are on the cusp of a new era in plant operations characterized by sensors obtaining and transmitting information on temperature, pressure, transportation, tank levels, vibration, corrosion, gas concentration levels — over a wireless grid.

		Natural gas quality monitoring over the Internet - No programmers required - 09/21/10 Automation.com, September 2010 By Bill Lydon The PlantGard natural gas remote monitoring device allows easy access to real-time 24/7 gas quality updates remotely through a mobile device. The unit consists of a laser device and a NI CompactRIO controller that monitors particle distribution, flow rate, and process conditions in the pipeline.

		Designing a Wireless Sensor System for Storage Monitoring - 09/16/10 Sensors, September 2010 By N. Venkatesh and Rohan Joginpalli, Redpine Signals The considerations involved when integrating wireless connectivity based on IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) into a sensor system that monitors a storage unit.

		PoE-The Missing Link - 09/10/10 Industrial Networking, August 2010 By Ian Verhappen The increased interest in wireless networks and need for associated distributed wireless access points seems to be the logical application that will drive the adoption of industrial PoE.

		Convergence-or Not. That's the Question - 09/10/10 Control, September 2010 By Walt Boyes We have a serious problem with the adoption of wireless field devices in the process industries. Now that the Chinese WIA standard has been approved by IEC, we are very close to having four standards. The drive of the ISA100.11a team to produce a new version of ISA100.11a-2010 could actually produce a fifth standard.

		Everyone, Do Your Own Math - 09/10/10 Control, September 2010 By John Rezabek The incremental costs to add spurs to fieldbus segments make WirelessHART at best a break-even option in many circumstances.

		Wireless Internet plant security - 08/30/10 Energy Tech, August 2010 By Komandur Sunder Raj Several advances in technology have led to increased use of the Internet for wireless applications in power plants. Increased use of wireless Internet applications for power plants has resulted in a need to protect both physical and digital critical assets that are vulnerable to cyber threats and attacks.

		Bringing It All Together—Leveraging Hybrid Wireless Systems - 08/30/10 Sensors, August 2010 By Jim Gardner, FreeWave Technologies Hybrid wireless systems—incorporating multiple types of wireless technologies—offer significant benefits for collecting data from large, geographically dispersed networks, such as those in the oil and gas industry.

		Time for Innovation declared at NIWeek 2010 Automation.com, August 2010 By Bill Lydon NIWeek 2010 attracted a record 3000 engineers, scientists and researchers from all over the world. Dr. James Truchard highlighted how NI's products help users become more like Edison by enabling them to innovate more quickly. Jeff Kodosky elaborated on their innovative research on distributed real-time systems and the tight integration of hardware configuration along with timing.

		Value from Vibration - 08/23/10 Control Engineering Asia, August 2010 By Jonas Berge Developments in wireless instruments and device management software are helping to deliver a more cost-effective solution for vibration monitoring of machinery health.

		Beyond Wireless: The Other New Features of HART 7.0 - 08/13/10 Control Engineering Europe, July 2010 By Michael Babb With wireless technology its most prominent advance, a great deal of interest has been generated in the user community for the latest version of HART. There are, however, other new features that give increased functionality for wired application process automation.

		Wireless? - 08/13/10 Control, August 2010 By Walt Boyes Wireless field devices are shipping, but adoption questions remain.

		Wired or Wireless - Just DO It - 08/13/10 Control, August 2010 By John Rezabek If you have smart instrumentation in your facility, the time is at hand to get some value from it. You may be quite amazed by what you find, from valves that haven't gone to their requested positions in years to transmitters that are freezing or overheated.

		Industry Perspectives from Honeywell User Group 2010 - 07/20/10 Automation.com, July 2010 By Bill Lydon Review the industry perspectives, technology and solutions from HUG Americas 2010. Highlights include an overview of five megatrends identified by Norm Gilsdorf, Honeywell's commitment to legacy products, training and service, and introduction of a new RTU, safety remote IO, in-controller batch manager, and turbo machine controller. Plus, see an example of control system virtualization.

		Using a Small Solar Cell and a Supercapacitor in a Wireless Sensor - 07/18/10 Manufacturers’ Monthly, June 2010 By Emily Mobbs Energy management has become a top priority for business managers and systems integrators responsible for controlling a manufacturing plant’s bottom line.

		Sensors Get Smart, Get Networked - 07/18/10 Control Design, July 2010 By Jim Montague Sensors that used to be networked via dedicated wiring to discrete I/O points and proprietary fieldbuses are freeing themselves from these often costly hardware and communication constraints.

		How will the web influence the next generation of HMIs? Automation.com, July 2010 By Nathan Pocock, et al, OPC Foundation Thanks to OPC UA’s built in web services, corporations can now share critical data securely over mobile devices and to multiple operators via the web. This article illustrates how web services can be used to access the "cloud."

		Driving Technology and Innovation Together Automation.com, July 2010 By Bill Lydon Review the technology and innovations presented by Siemens at their recent 2010 Automation Summit, held in Charlotte, NC. Highlights include Siemens’ focus on energy, advancements in their process control offering, their industrial communications strategy and new distributed panel devices.

		Smart Grid: Energising The World - 07/11/10 Industrial Automation Asia, July 2010 By David Mayne, Digi International The Smart Grid will continue to evolve and will demand solutions that include wired connectivity, public wireless and private wireless networks.

		PACs & I/O Go Wireless - 07/11/10 Industrial Automation Asia, July 2010 By Jean Femia, Opto 22 Automation engineers are beginning to seriously consider wireless solutions for all or part of their applications. But with all these good reasons to use wireless, several concerns remain. Among them are security, network performance and reliability, availability and cost of I/O components

		Going the short distance - 07/10/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, July 2010 By Darvin Kaelberer, Banner Engineering Wireless technology, which is frequently used in factories and other industrial settings where I/Os must be sent from a remote area to an operator located several kilometres away, can also make sense if data only has to travel a few metres.

		Location-Based Technology Turns Cell Phones into Management Tools - 06/25/10 Electric Light & Power, June 2010 By Mike Wojcik, Verizon Wireless Every power company has to address the aftermath of a storm, and, for some, it is repeated several times a year as tornadoes and hurricanes hit with seasonal vengeance. For many utility companies, wireless service has become an important part of operations, resulting in faster response time, better use of field employees.

		Looking to the Sky for SmartGrid Intelligence - 06/25/10 Electric Light & Power, June 2010 By Bernie Nelson, Hughes Network Systems Satellite networking technology delivers the combination of high performance, availability and security that can aid smart grid efforts for the utility industry. Substation connectivity, distribution automation and AMI are key areas in which a satellite solution can provide the most cost-effective communications solution.

		Wireless Sensor Use Is Expanding in Industrial Applications - 06/23/10 Sensors, June 2010 By Rajender Thusu, Frost & Sullivan While the technological evolution of sensors is reflected in sensors getting smarter, smaller, lighter, and cheaper, another key development taking place in the sensors industry is the growth of wireless sensor use in industrial applications.

		Wireless: Handhelds Hold Sway - 06/16/10 Chemical Processing, June 2010 By Seán Ottewell Staff in the field increasingly rely on wireless handheld devices.

		The power of integration exemplified at ABB A&PW 2010 By Bill Lydon, Automation.com The "Connect, Learn, Succeed" theme of this event was about users forming stronger working relationships with ABB. The event brought the opportunity to connect across disciplines and apply products and knowledge - focusing on the power of integration, particularly between automation and power systems. The event attracted more than 4,000 people and offered more than 400 educational and hands-on sessions and a 100,000 sf. exhibit area.

		Wireless Sensors In Real-Time - 05/25/10 IMPO, May 2010 By Aaron LaJoie, Electrochem Solutions Latency is an inherent trait of all wireless. Unlike a conventional analog signal, there are delays associated with the analog-to-digital conversion process, as well as radio frequency transmissions.

		What is a Web Enabled Building Management System? - 05/25/10 Automated Buildings, May 2010 By Nirosha Munasinghe, Open General The philosophy of designing a fully web enabled system is not only to take advantage of the current web technologies available in the market but also to be future ready with concepts such as cloud computing.

		Accelerating Wireless Controls in the Retrofit Market - 05/25/10 Automated Buildings, May 2010 By Louis Viglione, Viconics Inc Many new wireless control upgrades have failed to provide the required total installed cost reductions in order for the retrofit project to be economically viable. Additionally many wireless controls introduced additional complexity and reliability issues.

		The Instrumentation Cloud Brings Web-Centric Operation to Sensors - 05/25/10 Sensors, May 2010 By Marius Ghercioiu, Cores Electronic Combining RFID, analog signal conditioning, and sensors enables you to shift data analysis, monitoring, and control into the cloud.

		Wireless Sensor Networks - 05/12/10 Automation.com, May 2010 By Dr Peter Harrop, IDTechEx Wireless Sensor Networks are machine to machine M2M mesh networks operating like the internet in that they are self organising and self healing.

		Wireless Security and Standards Are Still Hurdles to Potential Users - 05/12/10 Industrial Networking, May 2010 By Ian Verhappen, Industrial Automation Networks It is unlikely that large-scale adoption of industrial wireless will take place until the middle of this decade. If the challenges of security and standards are not addressed, this date likely will move farther into the future.

		Let's Do One for the End Users! - 05/11/10 Control, May 2010 By Walt Boyes We got us a wireless standards war—just like we had with fieldbus, and just like the FDT/EDDL conflict. The end user community has gotten so fed up with the wireless standard war that it spoke out vigorously at the ARC Forum/ISA100 meeting in February on behalf of a single wireless standard.

		Wireless Control in the Field - 05/11/10 Control, May 2010 By John Rezabek Users will have to exert their influence with suppliers to get control in the field implemented in WirelessHART.

		Industrial Ethernet all the rage - 05/02/10 InTech, April 2010 By John Rinaldi This article highlights the differences between industrial and commercial Ethernet by comparing communication needs, process concerns, environmental challenges, and hardware.

		Installation of Wireless Systems, Integration With Existing Controls Can Be Cost Effective - 04/16/10 Building Operating Management, April 2010 Because wireless, batteryless devices do not require new cabling, the peel-and-stick devices usually require little more than integration with existing controls.

		Self-Powered Wireless Sensors Eliminate the Need for Batteries - 04/16/10 Building Operating Management, April 2010 By EnOcean The flexibility of wireless products has been limited by the need to provide power. Batteries eventually need to be replaced. Instead of batteries or wired power, EnOcean devices use a variety of methods to generate or store electricity: inductive switches, solar cells and thermo-energy harvesters.

		Cutting Costs and Carbon With Wireless Controls - 04/16/10 Automated Buildings, April 2010 By Alan Braybrook, Sontay Tthe latest wireless sensor and control technology has proven to drastically reduce whole life costs, most notably through a much lower total install cost at the outset.

		Wireless Workers Unchained - 04/14/10 Control, April 2010 By Dan Hebert The phone rings in the middle of the night. It's the third shift operator, telling you that there's been a process upset. Do you get out of bed, dress and drive 25 miles to the plant? No, instead you use your Blackberry and check what's happening, make a few changes to process setpoints and watch the system recover

		Machine Information in Your Hand - 04/14/10 Control Design, April 2010 By Dan Hebert As customers use handheld wireless human-machine interface (HMI) units more frequently, it's important that machine builders understand how best to make machines fit overall wireless infrastructures. Increasingly, compatibility with existing and planned wireless machine monitoring systems will be a required feature.

		A new approach to wireless sensors: The Instrumentation Cloud - 04/08/10 Control Engineering Europe, April 2010 By Marius Ghercioiu, Cores Electronic In a new concept known as the Instrumentation Cloud, the only physical connection is between the sensor or actuator and the A/D or D/A front end located on a ‘sensor tag,’ which sends or receives data and commands to or from a commercially available wireless access point (AP) or router.

		Web-based Wired and Wireless Controller For Better ROI - 03/26/10 Automated Buildings, March 2010 By David Lamarche, SCL Elements BAS still require the use of several wired devices, which means that wired and wireless technologies need to be integrated together within a single system to enable centralized control.

		Online Diagnostics: Easy Access - 03/19/10 Industrial Automation Asia, March 2010 By Jim Ralston, ProSoft Technology There are many ways to use wireless RF diagnostic data when made available in an OPC server. The best use is dependent on the process type, how wireless is being used in the system and user needs.

		Best friend? - 03/10/10 Plant Services. February 2010 Substantial growth in remote services is expected to continue into the foreseeable future as conditions force companies to view outsourcing as a value-added business model, and as security advancements and the passage of time make the prospect a little less foreboding.

		Making Money with Mobile Workforce Management - 03/10/10 Pipeline & Gas Journal, February 2010 By Charles Mohrmann Mobility solutions accelerate and sustain new work process improvements and provide a framework for field workforces to execute best practices, and most major U.S. refineries are either planning to implement or have already implemented them.

		Products of Interest from AHR 2010 There were a number of new and interesting building automation products demonstrated at AHR Expo 2010. This is a review of the products that caught my interest. My areas of product interest included energy conservation, alternative energy, and sustainability. Not surprisingly, hundreds of exhibitors were featuring energy-efficient solutions.

		Building an FPGA-based solution for industrial wireless sensor networks - 02/26/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, February 2010 By Stefano Zammattio, Altera Corporation With the introduction of wireless field-side standards WirelessHART and SP100.11a, designers must make trade-offs between the cost of a solution and the requirement for it to communicate over multiple Industrial Ethernet standards. Solutions can be delivered using FPGAs, embedded processors, Intellectual Property (IP), and software protocol stacks.

		Getting FM and IT to Cooperate - 02/25/10 Building Operating Management, February 2010 By Lacey Muszynski It's essential for facility managers and IT to work together in implementing and managing wireless building networks. Many facilities will already have WiFi networks or distributed antenna systems in place, and the IT department will be concerned about building networks interfering with those signals.

		Wireless Control in the Factory: In Search of a Standard - 02/22/10 Automation World, February 2010 By Wes Iversen Determinism is still an issue for high-speed wireless control, but some factory users are moving ahead.

		Will Wireless Device Prices Come Down? The Vendors Respond - 02/22/10 Automation World, February 2010 By Wes Iversen People have stated that the prices on these wireless products are too high to support a large market. One user even said that the price of a wired solution is less expensive. Two vendors respond.

		Wireless Control in the Process Industries: Blasphemy or Common Sense? - 02/22/10 Automation World, February 2010 By Wes Iversen It may be controversial, but wireless technology is already being used in process control applications. How far and how fast will this trend go? Will we ever see an "all-wireless" plant?

		Applying wireless to EtherNet/IP automation systems - Part 2 - 02/19/10 What’s New in Process Technology, February 2010 By Gary Enstad, Prosoft Technology Part 1 of this article looked at the available wireless technologies that could be used with EtherNet/IP automation networks. This part looks at what needs to be considered for running EtherNet/IP over a wireless network.

		State of Industrial Wireless There a number of standards and technology in existence and proposed for use in industrial wireless. The options can be confusing. The confusion will continue until there is more clarity, but this should not stop engineers from applying wireless now. Automation.com editor, Bill Lydon, reviews the wireless standards and the current state of industrial wireless.

		Industrial Wireless - not ready for prime time? By Bill Lydon, Automation.com Industrial wireless was a big topic at the ARC conference in Orlando and, based on Thursday’s, “Industrial Wireless Standards Session,” the panel members have no plans to widely adopt industrial wireless without a single industry standard that meets their needs.

		Open industrial wireless application networks - 02/16/10 InTech, February 2010 By Stephen Lambright and Sarah Prinster Integrated support for ISA100 and WirelessHART networks means moving forward without fear of being trapped in a single-vendor solution or a dead-end standard.

		The Need for Wireless Monitoring – An Overview By Israel Radomsky, Eltav Wireless Monitoring Ltd. Israel Wireless valve monitoring technology offers reliable, autonomous, and improved process control enhancing safety, ameliorating product quality, increasing yield, and reducing costs. Here’s what’s involved, and what the standards committees are doing.

		Metacom automates electrical distribution in South Africa By Jako Winter, Metacom An automated electrical distribution automation network in Rawsonville, South Africa, proved its worth when a line fault briefly affected power supply to farms and packing houses in the area. Power was restored to 75% of these customers in 90 seconds.

		Applying wireless to EtherNet/IP automation systems - Part 1 - 01/09/10 What's New in Process Technology, January 2010 By ProSoft Technology Applying wireless technologies is not a simple matter, as industrial ethernet systems vary greatly in terms of bandwidth requirements, response times and data transmission characteristics. This two-part article will explore the application of IEEE 802.11a/b/g and proprietary frequency hopping wireless technologies to EtherNet/IP-based networks for industrial automation systems.

		The Potential and Challenges of Wireless Sensor Nodes for Diverse Application Fields - 12/18/09 Sensors, December 2009 By Julien Penders, et al Autonomous wireless sensor networks—WSNs powered by energy harvesting—have tremendous potential. By examining their possible use in healthcare, condition monitoring, and smart packaging we assess this enabling technology and discuss the challenges to further adoption.

		Cellular networks do more than voice - 12/15/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2009 By Michael Day, ADC Wireless monitoring and tracking systems will become common throughout industry. Industrial embedded systems designers should consider how these cellular technologies can improve the functionality, cost, manageability, and longevity of the equipment they design and begin planning for their use.

		Wireless Sensors Offer Single- and Multi-Channel Options - 12/15/09 Control Design, December 2009 By Dan Hebert Wireless sensors depend on power and node needs: big bucks can be saved in the right applications.

		All on one network - 12/15/09 Intech, December 2009 By Rory Lacy and Brent McAdams Wireless telemetry advances mean wider networks, more questions, advancement opportunities. This story refers to systems and equipment used in oil and gas production fields, but the ideas and implementations can see application in other field automation projects across industries.

		Rockwell Automation Fair 2009 - Smart, Safe & Sustainable Manufacturing By Bill Lydon As usual, Rockwell Automation Fair was an impressive event with over 8,000 attendees. Rockwell's continued focus on process control punctuates their very direct message that the Logix architecture can meet all control and automation requirements from discrete to process control.

		Siemens Industry's New Automation Organization By Bill Lydon Interview with Raj Batra President, Industry Automation Division Batra was formerly vice president, Automation & Motion, for Siemens Energy & Automation. The Industry Automation division, based in Alpharetta, Ga., encompasses automation products including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and controls for discrete and process automation.

		Wireless With A HART Is Catching On - 11/24/09 IMPO, November 2009 By Bob Karschnia, Emerson Process Managment It’s been two years since the WirelessHART standard was approved by some 200 member companies of the HART Communications Foundation. Successful Smart Wireless applications are now operating in more than 1,000 customer sites around the world, and as the range of available wireless products grows, end-users are finding more and more ways to apply them.

		Wireless or Fieldbus? - 11/21/09 Control, November 2009 By John Rezabek Is wireless easier to integrate with legacy systems than fieldbus? since wireless emerged as viable option, users have been pleased to find that wireless connects easily with their old system.

		Mobile Networking: Getting Your Priorities Right - 11/17/09 Industrial Automation Asia, November 2009 By Kelly Ungs, Intermec The success of mobile computing is based on the ability to accurately capture and share data electronically and to enforce a method of data collection that consistently meets the business needs of the organization

		Of Costs & Cable Cutting - 11/17/09 Industrial Automation Asia, November 2009 By Peter Zornio, Emerson Process Management Combining wireless with wired automation systems can save you money without sacrificing control capability or reliability.

		Unlock Your Plant’s Potential: WirelessHart Is The Key - 11/17/09 Process Industry Informer, November 2009 By Phil Burns, Endress+Hauser Of the 30 million or so installed HART devices across the globe, only 15% are configured to deliver additional device and process information. In the majority of cases, only the process variable is transmitted. WirelessHART technology enables the end user to access this additional data, unlocking the previously untapped potential of ‘smart’ devices.

		Wireless: A real mesh - 11/11/09 InTech, November 2009 By Cyrus W. Taft, et al Researchers from EPRI, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Southern Company Services, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Taft Engineering set out to demonstrate the effectiveness of wireless sensors in a power plant. This article describes test results.

		Using 'semi-wireless’ instrumentation - 11/11/09 Control Engineering, November 2009 By Peter Welander Many devices are not suited to battery powering, so is removing just the data cable enough? What are your options for semi-wireless devices?

		Changes at ISA - A Current Volunteer Leader's Perspective - 11/06/09 by Don Frey, ISA Volunteer Leader Faced with unprecedented declines in demand for training, advertising, and exhibit space, the ISA has had to make drastic cuts in its budget for 2010. Some significant areas where cuts have been made are in the areas of professional staff, frequency of publication of InTech magazine, ISA E-News production and distribution, and future ISA EXPO offerings.

		Wireless Technology Offers Cost-$aving Convenience - 10/22/09 Maintenance Technology, October 2009 By Dave Holloway, Cooper Crouse-Hinds Recent advancements in wireless technologies can address many of the difficult challenges inherent in traditional plant maintenance. One area that has seen real benefits from improved wireless technology is the monitoring of critical components throughout an industrial plant.

		Where Is Process Automation Headed? - 10/22/09 Chemical Processing, October 2009 By Norm Gilsdorf, Honeywell Process Solutions Six key technology trends will greatly influence how plants cope with the challenges of today and how they’ll operate by the end of the next decade: sensors, wireless, knowledge applications, convergence of IT and process control, and more.

		RF Energy Harvesting Enables Wireless Sensor Networks - 10/22/09 Sensors, October 2009 By Harry Ostaffe, Powercast Corp. A brief introduction to RF energy harvesting: what it is, what it does, and how it enables wireless sensor networking applications.

		2009 Emerson Global Users Exchange - Engaging Minds. Amazing Results. Steve Sonnenberg, Executive Vice President of Emerson Process Management, opened the conference by emphasizing the biggest challenge of attendees will be to "translate this knowledge (gained) into amazing results when you bring these ideas back home."

		Current trends in cyber attacks on mobile and embedded systems - 10/19/09 Embedded Computing Design, September 2009 By Kurt Stammberger, Mocana With the advent of the "Internet of things," we are encountering a new wave of hacking that threatens mobile devices as well as wired computers and networks.

		ISA100.11a: Half Baked to a Schedule - 10/19/09 Control, October 2009 By Walt Boyes It isn’t enough to write a standard that excludes WirelessHART. There must be a standard, any standard, whether it works or not. If that’s what we do, shame on us.

		Wireless temperature sensing by acoustic wave sensors - 09/22/09 Process Industry Informer, September 2009 By Kerem Durdag, SenGenuity Wireless acoustic wave temperature sensors have unique features that allow customers to address specification needs and requirements that otherwise may not have been possible due to design constraints and sensor suppliers are well poised to provide solutions for these multiple applications.

		Wireless: Access All Areas - 09/20/09 Control Engineering Asia, September 2009 By Madanmohan Rao The right wireless solution in an industrial setting can reduce if not eliminate “blind spots” in a plant, areas of operation which have been previously either technically or economically unreachable with wires. It can also improve efficiency and security in areas already wired up. Eventually, wireless industrial solutions will play a major role in the overall performance and safety of a facility.

		Enterprise Mobility – Let’s Get to Work - 09/16/09 Managing Automation, September 2009 by Stephanie Neil Wireless technology is readily available, smart devices are ubiquitous, and manufacturers are adopting corporate strategies that mandate mobility. There’s just one piece of the puzzle still missing: off-the-shelf applications.

		The world’s going wireless, but what about our industry? - 09/13/09 Process & Control Engineering, September 2009 By Greg Ferrar, Endress+Hauser Despite the extensive marketing hype from some suppliers promoting the implementation of WirelessHart devices everywhere, the global standard for WSN is only just being finalised. Because of this, the technology is yet to be accepted for true plant control – this is still some time away.

		Wireless-N a promising technology to connect controllers and I/Os - 08/27/09 Plant Engineering, August 2009 The technical breakthrough in Wi-Fi, the soon-to-be-ratified IEEE 802.11n (Wireless-N) standard, will make it possible to address a broad range of applications in manufacturing and production.

		Wireless BAS Networks Benefit from Mature Standards and Security Improvements - 08/24/09 Building Operation Management, August 2009 By Josh Thompson The benefits of a building automation system are well-documented: energy efficiency, cost management, accessibility and flexibility. But if cabling is required, even the latest IP-based BAS can be difficult to deploy and integrate in an existing building

		An industrial wireless world - 08/16/09 Process & Control Engineering, August 2009 By Sarah Falson The take-up of industrial wireless networks has been slow, but the technology’s ease-of-use and versatility will win out in the end.

		Industrial Networks Adopt Wireless - 08/16/09 Industrial Networking, August 2009 Wireless communications in industrial facilities have moved decisively to become a practical solution. Practicality for industry means saving money without taking undue chances, and wireless has advanced to the point where it delivers concrete benefits with manageable risk.

		High Wireless - 08/16/09 Control, August 2009 By Jim Montague Most folks now believe wireless can work in their process applications. here’s how veteran users do wireless, and how you can do it too

		Simplifying Fieldbus Device Calibration - 08/16/09 Control, August 2009 By John Rezabek Creative end users have been exploring the use of 802.11 wireless to display their DCS interface on a wireless laptop or notebook PC.

		Technology & Engineers Celebrated at NIWeek 2009 Dr. James Truchard opened the conference by describing National Instruments' technical directions and thanking attendees for taking on new challenges by innovating and solving problems. NIWeek 2009 attendance was up over last year and that alone is a significant statement compared with other conferences this year. It was billed as the Worldwide Graphical System Design conference providing three days of over 200 interactive technical sessions, exhibitions, and hands-on workshops on the technologies for control, design, measurement, automation, manufacturing, and test.

		Mesh wireless sensor networks: Choosing the appropriate technology - 07/21/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2009 By Leor Hardy and Marius Gafen, Virtual Extension While most network approaches use routing as the basic architecture, new flooding-based technology offers distinct advantages, especially when it comes to larger networks

		Return on Imagination - Honeywell User Group (HUG) 2009 Honeywell Process Solutions continues to grow in a number of dimensions including: additional products, wireless, energy, PLCs, independent system integrator initiatives, and Integrated Master Automation Contractor (IMAC) focus. This year’s attendance was lower than previous years, but David Wade, Honeywell Users Group Americas Chairman, officially opened the HUG 2009 conference commenting that there were more than 50% new attendees.

		Empower the people - 07/19/09 Plant Services, July 2009 By Paul Studebaker Where it’s appropriate, wireless data transmission empowers condition monitoring by reducing costs. This increases paybacks and allows facilities to apply more effective condition monitoring to more equipment

		Balancing CMMS User Configurability with Centralised Control - 07/19/09 Maintenance World, June 2009 By David Berger For most companies, gone are the days when users were forced to conform to a rigid framework dictated by the CMMS vendor and strictly controlled by the Information Systems department. Users today enjoy freedom to customise the content, look and feel of their CMMS environment on a variety of devices, from handhelds to desktops.

		Manufacturing Mobility: The Key To Productivity - 07/15/09 Manufacturing.net., June 2009 Surveyed manufacturing IT decision-makers cite an increase in mobile solutions’ importance and found mobility applications save a daily average of 42 minutes per employee.

		Wireless Sensor Connections - 07/15/09 Machine Design, July 2009 Replace slip rings with a wireless inductive system that transfers power and data signals from the primary system side across an air gap to a movable secondary side to eliminate wires between fixed and moving pieces.

		Secure Embedded Wireless—Part II - 07/14/09 Industrial Networking, July 2009 By Ned Lecky, Lecky Integration The previous column explained how to go wireless, but the trick is ensuring security and creating adequate redundancy.

		Model-based design for wireless sensor networks - 07/10/09 What’s New in Process Technology, July 2009 By: Stefano Olivieri, et al. While model-based design is becoming quite standard for several domains that have similar constraints as wireless sensor networks, there is a lack of tools for this purpose in the WSN world.

		What a mesh! The ins and outs of mesh networking — Part 2 - 07/10/09 What’s New in Process Technology, July 2009 By Joel K Young, Digi International The four network topologies examined include Point-to-multipoint, ZigBee, Wireless HART and Digi Mesh. Each of the wireless mesh architectures examined has benefits as they optimise on different functional characteristics.

		What a mesh! The ins and outs of mesh networking — Part 1 - 07/10/09 What’s New in Process Technology, June 2009 By Joel K Young, Digi International Over the past few years, mesh networks have become more popular, following the trend to create more wireless things. As with other technology trends, as mesh networking has developed, so has a plethora of different mesh networking technologies and architectures.

		Going the short distance - 07/10/09 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, July 2009 By Darvin Kaelberer, Banner Engineering Wireless traditionally has been thought of as a way to send signals 1 to 5 kilometres. But it also provides advantages in short-distance applications.

		Overcoming IP Address Issues with GPRS Remote Monitoring and Alarm Systems - 07/09/09 Process & Control Today, July 2009 By Moxa GPRS allows data acquisition systems to overcome the difficulty of cabling for wide area remote sites. GPRS applications are becoming more and more prevalent due to the ease with which they can be implemented, but the dynamic IP address issues associated with GPRS networking continue to frustrate system integrators

		A World of Interconnected Sensors The Sensors Expo was well attended this year - a pleasant surprise for exhibitors and hopefully provides some indication of an improving economy. The scope of the Sensor Expo and Conference has been expanding from sensors and sensor-integrated systems to include wireless communications and energy harvesting to support smart sensors.

		Web Based CMMS Systems - 06/24/09 Automated Buildings, June 2009 By David Knight, Web Work by Tero Thanks to advances in Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) technology, maintenance professionals are able access their work database from anywhere, using their BlackBerry, cell phone, laptop or other mobile device.

		Remote performance monitoring - 06/20/09 Energy Tech, June 2009 This is the second of three articles. Web-based and wireless technologies, advanced software applications and tools, automation, smart sensors and instruments with diagnostic capabilities, are all making it possible for power plant owners to do more with less.

		Plant of the Future: Whither Wireless? - 06/20/09 Chemical Processing, June 2009 By Jeff Becker, Honeywell Process Solutions Predictions made only a few years ago about the “wireless plant of the future” already are outdated. The rapid evolution and adoption of wireless technology by the process industries mean it’s very realistic to expect such plants to emerge within the next five years.

		Conflicting Signals - 06/20/09 Managing Automation, June 2009 By Chris Chiappinelli Wireless sensors could deliver widespread value to manufacturers, if only vendors could agree on how they should be deployed within a networked context.

		Ultra-low-power wireless sensor networks - 06/20/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, May 2009 Energy harvesting devices enable autonomous, battery-free sensor networks by tapping into the power available in the environment

		Slow Progress in Discrete Industries for Wireless Sensors Control Design, May 2009 By Phil Burgert The current value proposition for wireless sensors in discrete manufacturing is rooted in new opportunities to collect manufacturing data where it previously was not possible.

		Product Briefs from Hannover Messe By Bill Lydon Over 6,000 companies showed products at Hannover Messe and there are important trends that are worth noting. Here are highlights of some products that caught my interest - some due to functional sophistication and others because of their elegant simplicity.

		Is Wireless Process Control Ready for Prime Time? Control, May 2009 By Greg McMillan Is wireless control ready for prime time in industrial processes? Is wireless reliable, secure and fast enough for process control? Will battery life be long enough? What is the motivation other than to be part of a neat new technology?

		Secure Embedded Wireless—Part II Industrial Networking, Spring 2009 By Ned Lecky, Lecky Integration To experiment with Zigbee, start with the $500 Jennic Home Monitoring evaluation kit that contains five AA-powered evaluation boards, seven Zigbee radio modules and a set of C-based development tools with enough sample code and documentation to get you started on becoming a Zigbee expert.

		Wireless technology: a game-changing technology Power Engineering International, May 2009 By Mike Ferris, Emerson Process Management Wireless technology opens up many new measurement points that were previously impossible, or economically feasible. Applying this technology across the whole plant brings enormous gains, but as one may expect, some companies hesitate to try wireless without proof of performance and positive results.

		Versatile protocols South Africa Instrumentation and Control, May 2009 By Jaco Hoogenboezem, SCADAGroup Distributed network protocol (DNP3) is a protocol that was developed to allow for flexible, secure communications between devices. It works with GPRS wireless communication as delays due to network overloading will not result in any data loss, and the data is buffered in the source device until being accepted by the destination device.

		Containing Wireless Cyber Security Threats Automation World, April 2009 By Wes Iversen Electric utility operators already have their hands full in achieving compliance with mandatory federal Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards aimed at cyber security in the electric power industry. But when the use of wireless technologies is thrown into the mix, the problem gets even more complicated.

		Handheld OI Grabs Machine Control Control Design, April 2009 By Philip Burgert While diagnostics and troubleshooting continue to be a major task for handheld human-machine interface devices, the operator interfaces also are finding wider applications ranging from robotic machine assembly controls in semiconductor and automotive manufacturing to integration of teaching pendants and logistics in distribution centers.

		Next-Generation Wireless Asset Management Sensors, April 2009 By Scott D. Constien, Enfora Next-generation wireless asset management systems are incorporating lower power electronics, cellular technologies, and GPS to enable more robust, flexible, scalable systems that reduce operating expenses and improve business productivity.

		Energy Harvesters Come of Age Control, April 2009 By Dan Hebert Wireless sensors are much more practical when energy harvesters are used to eliminate the need for power wiring. Energy harvesters convert vibration, heat or light into electrical energy, which is used to power a rechargeable battery or a capacitor.

		No Wild West wireless InTech, April 2009 By Ellen Fussell Policastro Automotive manufacturers want wireless standard that meets their special requirements, not those of a process world. The specific requirements for discrete parts manufacturing screams for standards writers to take another look at the ISA100.11a standard, which so far is process heavy.

		Get your feet wet InTech, April 2009 By Scott W. Sommer, Jacobs Engineering Industrial users can get started with wireless implementation by following a few guidelines: Determine plant viability for wireless; determine scope, and do a site survey; do not forget about security measures.

		The Transparency of Wireless Control Engineering, April 2009 By Peter Welander Wireless networking and device manufacturers have gone to great lengths to create products that are secure, easy to work with, and operationally indistinguishable from wired equivalents.

		Wireless instrumentation on a very small budget? Control Engineering Europe, April 2009 One inventor uses obsolete cell phones as low cost wireless instrumentation transmitters. Cheap, yes, but is it for you? In these days when extra cash is scarce, one inventor says he has found a way to use electronic 'trash' as industrial hardware.

		Solid-state micro-energy cells uniquely enable energy harvesting Industrial Embedded Systems, March 2009 By Tim Bradow, Infinite Power Solutions Energy harvesting is great, but it's better if there is somewhere to store the energy. Advanced energy storage technology is creating new design opportunities for small sensors, transmitters, and MCUs, but batteries aren’t good enough.

		Tomorrow has not been canceled! Report from ABB Automation & Power World 2009 Mark Taft, Group Vice President, Process Automation, Global control System Business opened with, "...it is important for us to remember that tomorrow has not been canceled." Mark's point was the conference was designed to provide a great deal of useful and actionable information that will help attendees survive and thrive in the current economy, and be prepared to take advantage of the future. Mark further noted that having a combined event encompassing automation and power is timely.

		What About The Other Mobile Workers? IMPO, February 2009 By Stephen Woram, Form Automation Solutions The advance of wireless, mobile technology has enabled solutions that deliver the decision support tools that front-line workers need and eliminate paper-based manual systems for data collection and reporting.

		WirelessHART: the right standard at the right time What’s New in Process Technology, March 2009 The WirelessHART standard provides a robust wireless protocol for the full range of process measurement, control and asset management applications. Based on the proven and familiar HART protocol, it enables users to quickly and easily gain the benefits of wireless technology while maintaining compatibility with millions of existing devices, also existing tools, asset-management systems and historians.

		Mixing multiple wireless technologies - Part 2 What’s New in Process Technology, February 2009 By Joel K. Young Part 1 of this article explored cellular, Wi-Fi/802.11 and WiMAX/802.16 technologies. This second part examines ZigBee/802.15.4 and provides some guidelines for planning a successful commercial or industrial deployment.

		Wireless Automation Solutions Design News, March 2009 By Al Presher Wireless continues to be one of the fastest growing segments in the automation market for two reasons. One is that it's a lot less costly to have devices communicate on a wireless network rather than going through the process of installing conduit. The other is the available access to very difficult locations and hazardous areas in the plant.

		Wireless on the Factory Floor Control Engineering, March 2009 By Mark T. Hoske Is the plant floor ready for wireless network communications? Yes, and here’s advice from four experts, so you are not up in the air about wireless technologies.

		Is HART 7 set to bring us another killer app? Control Engineering Europe, March 2009 The stage is set for a major change in the way instruments communicate their values with control and asset management systems. With the debut of HART 7, the possibility is now open to collect signals through both wires and wireless systems, making data collection much simpler to organise and maintain. This may turn out to be the ‘killer application’ of the decade.

		Which Ethernet system is the right one? Control Engineering Europe, February 2009 Ethernet technology continues its rise to power, bringing things like greater TCP/IP transparency, boosted vertical integration, easier access to new technologies such as web and wireless systems – and being appreciably more efficient to operate than fieldbuses. But which Ethernet will come out on top?

		Making safe waves in hazardous areas HazardEX, March 2009 By John Hartley, Extronics As wireless devices become more reliable and cost effective, there is growing interest amongst the process industry as to the benefits to be found from enabling such devices to be used in hazardous areas. However, unlike most industries this is not a simple task. Installing wireless networks in hazardous areas requires careful, expert planning and execution.

		Calling the wireless race too early? By Bill Lydon, Automation.com Is Zigbee the best wireless standard? Maybe not. Editor Bill Lydon interviews Graham Martin, Chairman & CEO of the EnOcean Alliance, who thinks differently, pointing out that EnOcean radio technology is the only low-power wireless technology that can be powered by energy harvesting, removing the need for tedious, expensive and environmentally unfriendly battery maintenance.

		Winning Strategies and Best Practices for Sustainable Manufacturing By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor The initial focus of the ARC Forum in Orlando was sustainable manufacturing strategies as they relate to environmental performance and resource management. Based on the recent economic downturn, the conference was expanded to address strategies for bottom line business sustainability of process and discrete manufacturing companies.

		Wireless Proves Its Value Power Engineering, February 2009 By John Blaney, Emerson Process Management Wireless field communication technologies are finding useful applications in the power industry. The low cost, reliability, security and ease-of-use of the newest wireless systems are increasing awareness of their possibilities in power plants, bringing about some innovative applications with excellent results.

		Enhancing Plant Asset Management with Wireless Retrofits Power, February 2009 By Paul Sereiko Wireless technology is a mostly untapped resource in the power generation industry that can have a significant impact on the way business is done. It enables a greater degree of connectivity among devices for enhanced monitoring and asset utilization and has led to the development of new applications that improve productivity, uptime, and overall business performance.

		Wireless Technology Unlocks Possibilities Power, February 2009 By Jeff Becker Modern wireless systems improve productivity, monitoring activities, and safety at power plants by enabling the right people to be at the right place at the right time. Wireless technology can put hard-to-access process and asset information at your fingertips, wherever you are, to enable more accurate and timely decisions.

		Secure Embedded Wireless Can Be Practical Industrial Networking, February 2009 By Ned Lecky, Lecky Integration How to go wireless, and how to do it securely? Try IEEE 802.15.4, a set of communication standards and applications commonly called ZigBee.

		Tech Update: Wireless Networks Provide Critical Measures Food Engineering, February 2009 By Wayne Labs Some of the issues affecting wireless sensor networks and “backhaul” networks, which help relay signals collected from sensor networks to the wireless access points of control or asset monitoring systems. Cell phones, PDAs and RFID systems are already well employed in food and beverage plants for the obvious communications, email and Web-based warnings and product tracking.

		Find the best path to security in wireless sensor networks Plant Engineering, December 2008 By Steve Toteda, Dust Networks In a typical refinery, the harsh environments created by the complex piping of the production facilities pose serious challenges to wireless sensor technology. These environments are often quite hostile to RF signals as well; the use of concrete, glass and steel in typical plants exacerbates the traditional RF issues of path loss, fading and multi-path.

		Embracing Wireless Technology for Industrial Automation Sensors, January 2009 By Arun Veeramani, National Instruments The key to getting plantwide real-time data is communication between the machines on the factory floor and the enterprise. As wireless networking has become more commonplace, its performance, reliability, and security has matured to make the technology viable for industrial measurement and monitoring applications.

		ProMat 2009 Focuses on Speed, Automation, & Efficiency for Success Vendors displaying at the ProMat 2009 show focused on speed, automation, and efficiency to be successful in a tough economic environment. ProMat 2009 was physically smaller than 2007 but relatively busy considering the state of the economy. Bill Lydon reviews the show and highlights a number of new product designed for automated material handling and warehouse automation. The conference also featured over 100 educational sessions.

		Wireless technologies take safety to a new level HazardEX, December 2008 To overcome the problem of remembering to sign or swipe in and out of plant, RFID technology has been adopted whereby the tag responds to a low frequency RF field (LFR - usually around 100 KHz to 125 KHz) by sending a transmission to the reader to confirm its presence.

		Zigbee explained Control Engineering Europe, December 2008 By Kevin Buckley, Intelligent Distributed Controls The 802.15.4-based Zigbee is designed for remote control and sensors, which are many in number but require only small packets of data, and in the main, extremely low power consumption for long life. Today, Zigbee has evolved seamlessly into the automotive, power generation, materials handling, safety and general industrial sectors.

		Making Smarter Tools Sensors, December 2008 By Chris A. Suprock, Suprock Technologies Significantly improved condition monitoring of metal-cutting machinery is now possible with the help of wireless sensors. The payoffs include optimized manufacturing and reduced operating costs.

		The Wireless Hype in Process Automation Control, December 2008 By Dieter Schaudel Is wireless technoloogy all marketing hype, disseminated by compliant journalists and consultants scenting big business?

		Wireless Wisdom: What’s Your Strategy? Where’s Your Committee? Control, December 2008 By Paul Thomas A forum of wireless experts at ISA Expo 2008 turns into a cautionary consensus about the dangers of falling in love with technologies and applications that may run counter to your long-term wireless strategy and corporate goals.

		Power wireless economics 101plant InTech, December 2008 By David Runkle, ROI Consulting Lost Pines Power Park in Texas two unique facilities—an aging, conventional, natural gas fired power facility and a new combined cycle facility. A comparison developed with variables of material cost, installation costs and downtime required, etc., showed wireless had the clear advantage in all areas.

		Rockwell Automation Fair 2008 Review By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor As usual, the Rockwell Automation Fair was an impressive event with over 11,000 attendees and over 90 Encompass partners. This is a very successful show that creates enormous goodwill and is the most successful control show in North America. Training is becoming a big part of the event and allows users to justify the time and money to attend. Distributor travel packages also make it much easier for users to attend the event.

		Wireless & Networking Dominate ISA EXPO 2008, Product Highlights The emphasis on networked communications whether wired or wireless was visible at the event. We review the ISA Wireless Industrial Automation Standard (SP100) Committee meeting in Houston, which drew a standing-room-only crowd. Other product highlights include: PLC/Programming Learning Package, EtherNet/IP Controller, Single Board Industrial Controller, Remote Eyeballs for Wireless Reading Gauges, Quad Process Safety System, Universal Gas Transmitter and HMI Enhancements.

		Challenges of ultra-low-power wireless sensor networks in manufacturing environments Control Engineering Europe, November 2008 By Cees Links, GreenPeak Technologies Industrial applications can benefit from ultra-low-power wireless sensor networks. An ultra-low power application is able to live off just a coin cell battery, energy harvested from the environment through a solar cell, vibration energy harvester, or any other environmental-energy converter.

		Bulletproof Machine Design, October 2008 By Vishal Kakkad, Lantronix No question that interest in wireless technology is on the rise, even for industrial uses. Experts predict the worldwide market for wireless devices in discrete manufacturing will grow 16% annually over the next five years. But the security of these networks is a mounting concern. Here’s how to keep hackers out of your industrial wireless networks.

		What a Mesh! Part 1—The Ins and Outs Of Mesh Networking Sensors, November 2008 By Joel K. Young, Digi International The first part of this two-part article discusses the basics: what do you need to know about wireless mesh networking and what criteria you should use when assessing a mesh networking technology.

		Designing Smart Energy Devices Sensors, November 2008 By Skip Ashton, Ember Article explains what the ZigBee SE profile is, how it accelerates engineering design, and what issues engineers need to consider when designing HAN products based on the ZigBee SE profile.

		RF instruments challenge PXI versatility Test & Measurement World, November 2008 By Richard A. Quinnell One of the most dynamic applications for PXI is its use in the testing of complex, high-bandwidth RF applications. Multi-module RF instruments could limit PXI’s versatility.

		Taking the IP Route Control Engineering Asia, November 2008 By Madanmohan Rao The push to extend wireless networking is making strides, thanks to moves in the IP networking and ZigBee space. A consortium of suppliers, the IP for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance, is pushing the wireless networking drive to small devices.

		Ask the question: making a strategic wireless decision Process On-Line, November 2008 By Jeff Becker The decision to implement wireless technology in an industrial facility is a strategic choice. So how can industrial plants truly begin to make sense of this new wireless world and choose which wireless solution (if any) is the right one for them? The answer can be found by asking the right questions.

		Instrumentation Moves from the Lab to the Factory Floor Design News, November 2008 By Randy Frank Portable. Battery-powered. Wireless. While these terms usually describe the latest consumer products, they are the enablers for taking laboratory-grade instrumentation into the factory.

		The next generation: Self-powered wireless sensor networks Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2008 By Cees Links, Greenpeak Wireless sensor network technology is moving forward by using less power, precluding the need to replace batteries, and enabling the use of energy harvesting.

		Wireless Starts to Mesh Chemical Processing, November 2008 By C. Kenna Amos Wireless use in the process industries has gone from wireless instrumentation to include enterprise-wide wireless solutions such as mobile operator, asset tracking, maintenance management, video and VoIP [voice over Internet protocol] telephony.

		Asset management leverages smart wireless devices Plant Engineering, November 2008 By Laura Briggs and Joseph Citrano III, Emerson Process Management Wireless field instruments produce device and advanced diagnostics, both of which offer operational and financial benefits to the end user. However, a means is needed to manage the intelligence they impart about their own health, and that of the equipment they are monitoring.

		Wireless Sensor Networks Move Onto The Internet Automated Buildings, October 2008 By Brian Bohlig, Arch Rock Because rewiring an existing building is costly and often impractical, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are growing in popularity. The latest IETF 6LoWPAN (RFC 4944) standard allows IP communication over low-power radio.

		Stranded Data: Wireless is the Key Automation World, October 2008 By Wes Iversen New wireless devices are emerging that can gather and report back on information that was previously stuck out in the field—promising savings for manufacturers

		Energy Harvesting—The Next Evolution for Wireless Sensors Sensors, October 2008 By Troy Tanner, AdaptivEnergy LLC As the power requirements of electronics decrease and the power output of energy-harvesting devices increases, the convergence of these trends makes wireless sensors an ideal application for energy harvesting.

		Automation Insights Network By Rick Zabel, Publisher Automation Insights Network is a select group of controls and automation professionals who agree to help us cover news, emerging trends and technologies on various automation topics. Every two months, we will ask people in the Network to share their observations, knowledge and expertise with us. We take that information, distill it, and pass it on to our reporters and editors for use in future stories.

		The Business of Wireless Control Engineering Asia, September 2008 By Madanmohan Rao With increasing investment by big players and more momentum in wireless standards, the business case for wire-free industrial solutions is becoming clearer.

		Wireless Condition Monitoring Arrives (and Just in Time) Power Engineering, September 2008 By Harry Forbes, ARC Advisory Group While wireless field transmitters for process measurement have been on the market for several years now, equipment condition monitoring systems have used wireless sensing only sparingly. New technology has been recently introduced with implications are for the power generation industry.

		Wireless choices for a new generation Plant Engineering, September 2008 By Mike Bradley, Apprion As the list of wireless applications grows, so does the list of wireless devices and systems that support these applications. The choices you make today will limit your options in managing your future as new wireless technologies become available.

		System redundancy with WirelessHART Plant Engineering, September 2008 By HART Communication Foundation Wireless systems can provide redundancy to help prevent data loss. In the case of WirelessHART, redundancy is available at all levels of the network system.

		Open-source radio technology: Now available for process engineering Plant Engineering, September 2008 By Gerrit Lohmann and Robert Schosker, Pepperl+Fuchs WirelessHART provides the necessary step from proprietary solutions to an overall standard in process technology, which enables the use of radio technology without system breakdown.

		Will Wireless Replace Fieldbus? Control, September 2008 By John Rezabek Until we retire a generation of plant operators, I’m betting that hardwired instruments are going to be around.

		Wireless in Manufacturing 1: No Clear Infrastructure Winner Managing Automation, September 2008 By Lauren Gibbons Paul Despite the emergence of standards such as ISA100 for process industries, a unified wireless infrastructure for all types of manufacturing isn't happening any time soon. Manufacturers that want to take advantage of emerging wireless applications must cope with a variety of wireless infrastructure platforms, from cellular, to wireless LAN, to WiMAX. Registration required.

		Wireless in Manufacturing 2: Wireless Apps Take Wing Managing Automation, September 2008 By Stephanie Neil Now that industrial wireless networks are more reliable and secure, manufacturers are finding new applications and new ways to work. Registration required.

		Wireless in Manufacturing 3: The Human Side of Wireless Managing Automation, September 2008 By Stephanie Neil The key tool for getting information to a person, regardless of where that person is located in the plant, is wireless technology, be it RFID, sensor-based networks, or WiFi. Registration required.

		Five Questions to Ask When Designing an M2M System Sensors, September 2008 By Daniel Collins, Jasper Wireless Currently, millions of machines communicate with each other without human intervention and that number is set to grow. If you're designing an M2M system, here are five questions to ask yourself to ensure a successful outcome.

		ISA - Change the name to represent the industry By Rick Zabel, Automation.com The proposed name change of ISA (to "International Society of Automation") is up for a vote again during ISA Expo in Houston, October 14-16, 2008. Last year, the change was voted down, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument against the change. And there are many reasons for the change. If ISA is truly the global society of automation professionals, then its name should reflect its cause. It's time for a change!

		PROFIBUS hits new highs, PROFINET to follow? By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor This year's PTO General Assembly Meeting again was attended by an enthusiastic group of users, suppliers, and distributors that apply PROFIBUS and PROFINET technology. Michael Bryant, Executive Director, was master of ceremonies and forecasted PROFINET will be the leading Ethernet Technology for automation applications.

		Asset Tracking in Industrial Settings—A Review of Wireless Technologies Sensors, August 2008 By Peter Fuhr, Apprion Part 3: RSSI-, RuBee-, and UWB-Based Systems. Most wireless technologies are nowhere near the point of offering plug-and-play operation. Before you decide to use RSSI, RuBee, or UWB in a RTLS, make sure you know what you’re signing up for.

		Automating Pipeline Integrity Monitoring Sensors, August 2008 By Colin Lippincott, FreeWave Technologies Inc. Cathodic protection devices have been used for decades to monitor steel pipes for corrosion. A new family of radios is designed to automate this process, connecting directly to the corrosion monitoring system.

		A Practical Guide to Battery Technologies for Wireless Sensor Networking Sensors, August 2008 By Joel Young, Digi International Inc. Choosing the right battery can determine the success or failure of a wireless sensor networking project. Here's a quick rundown of battery technologies to help you choose wisely.

		Where are your assets? Plant Services, August 2008 By David Berger Most CMMS vendors have added fields and functionality to better collect GPS coordinates, as well as to integrate with the more popular GIS systems such as ESRI and Intergraph. This is especially valuable for CMMS users who work with a large and widespread asset base, such as utilities and pipeline companies, or where assets are constantly moving.

		Torque Telemetry Goes Digital Machine Design, August 2008 By Brian Duffy and Chris Novak, Honeywell Sensing and Control If you haven’t taken a good look lately at torque-measurement technology, it may surprise you. Digital RF technology leads the way to more accurate noncontact measurement of torque.

		Wireless Level Monitoring Control Engineering, August 2008 Better inventory measurements, higher efficiency and safety, and environmental compliance are among results from three wireless level monitoring implementations.

		Demystifying ZigBee and its Application Control Engineering, August 2008 By John Schwartz, Digi International Recently, a lot of attention has been given to 802.15.4 and ZigBee, but there is still some ambiguity as to what is different about them and what kind of networks or systems would benefit from these particular protocols.

		Controlling portable devices with FPGAs Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2008 By Gary Sugita, Actel Corporation As portable devices become increasingly feature rich, the task of managing and controlling various features within the device becomes more complex. Semiconductor vendors are giving designers a new breed of low-power FPGAs that can take on the complex task of interfacing and controlling a variety of HMI and miniature motor control functions.

		Think Things Are Small Now? Control, August 2008 By Jeffrey R. Harrow, The Harrow Group What might it mean to automation if virtually every sub-component in a machine or system could participate in a mesh network, within every device, to report its condition and allow it to tune its function based on the other sub-components around it?

		Not Playing Nice Control, August 2008 By Walt Boyes The ISA100 standard will not be an inclusive one. It will be unable to interoperate with WirelessHART and Zigbee, even though it uses the exact same radios. If you were waiting for the ISA standard to make everything right, you might as well stop. It isn’t going to happen. Not any time soon.

		The best Ethernet may be coming InTech, August 2008 By Patrick McCurdy, Ira Sharp, and Nicholas Sheble Advances in security, data transmission reliability, and environmental packaging have readied wireless Ethernet for demanding industrial applications.

		Wireless HART Signals a Change in Plants Process Industry Informer, July/Aug 2008 By Gareth Johnston and Alan Munns, ABB HART 7 gives plants a real incentive to consider wireless. Article examines the advantages and typical applications of a wireless instrument network, whether now is the right time to consider a wireless project, and how a WirelessHART instrument network works.

		Square One Industrial Networking, Summer 2008 The old “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mantra still holds. So, even though many devices will likely bust and fail soon, and despite all the hype and node growth surrounding fieldbuses, Ethernet and now wireless, it’s still no surprise to find that a significant majority of all installed control and automation systems still rely on point-to-point hardwiring.

		Wireless HART’s Price Point Industrial Networking, Summer 2008 By John Rezabek The HART Foundation recently approved a standard for wireless HART, and one of the benefits for end users is the ability to “access stranded diagnostics.” But what about the old-school method for extracting HART diagnostics, the HART mux?

		Signal Variables Shape Wireless Industrial Networking, Summer 2008 By Don Talend infrastructure hardware and transmission frequency depend largely on transmission speed, amount of data, distance and obstructions.

		State of Manufacturing & Automation in the U.S. Looks Good Could it be that high fuel prices, the weak dollar and crises in the U.S. manufacturing industry are creating opportunities? Andy Chatha of ARC Advisory Group thinks so. He says the U.S. industry has suddenly become competitive on the world market, and companies are no longer moving operations overseas. Instead, many are expanding their facilities, and he predicts a boom in automation right here in the U.S.

		Asset Tracking in Industrial Settings—A Review of Wireless Technologies Part 2 Sensors, July 2008 By: Peter Fuhr, Apprion Radio-frequency identification (RFID), GPS, and chirped frequency wireless are part of the technologies that can enable industrial real-time location systems (RTLS). Each has its own strengths, weaknesses, and unique infrastructure requirements.

		Smart-but-Simple Wireless Sensor Networking IEN, July 2008 The term smart-but-simple refers to a new generation of wireless sensor networking (WSN) products. Today, WSNs are gaining acceptance in a wide variety of industrial applications ranging from tank level to motor vibration to relief valve monitoring.

		Breaking rocks intelligently: instrumentation and control trends in quarrying South Africa Instrumentation & Control, July 2008 By Andrew Ashton Technologies like wireless, GPS, laser and radar technology are becoming par for the course in quarrying.

		Honeywell 2008 Users Group - Heroes Gather in Phoenix By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor The 33rd annual Honeywell Users Group Conference was held June 15 - 19, 2008 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, AZ with over 700 customers in attendance. According to Honeywell Vice President/General Manager, "The conferences super hero theme, Power to Perform, highlights the heroic efforts of process industry professionals to perform well despite rising costs and resource constraints."

		Tridium Niagara Summit Attendance Increases 52%! By Bill Lydon - Contributing Editor The Tridium 2008 Tridium Niagara Summit titled, "Carry the Vision Forward", was held at the Saddlebrook Resort, Wesley Chapel, Florida May 4-6, 2008 with a record number of attendees and sponsors with 667 in attendance and 50 sponsors participating in the event.

		Better Manage Your Business, Your Plant Control, June 2008 In-plant wireless technology isn’t just about communicating and integrating process information flows. It’s also about enabling a broad range of business and plant management applications - some well-defined and already at work, and some as yet to be imagined.

		Think Beyond the Wire Control, June 2008 Wireless technology is not a complete replacement for wires, at least not for a while. But it is already enabling new tools that give you the freedom to solve problems you could not address cost-effectively in the purely wired world. The possibilities are limitless.

		Boost Your Workforce Productivity Control, June 2008 When it comes to enhancing overall workforce productivity, wireless technology delivers in another important way. Upfront, wireless can slash the time and effort necessary to add a new measurement point or integrate a formerly isolated PLC or tank farm.

		Don't judge a supplier by its name By Frank Hurtte, Contributing Author. For those of us who live and breathe the rarified vapors of technology based automation, it's pretty hard to fathom how life existed without electronic automation. Yet, it has been a short 30 years since the venerable PLC became anything more than a novelty outside of the Big 3 in Detroit. Sometime in the late 1970s, microprocessors changed our lives forever. Since those early days, the power of these tiny chips forever changed the way we think about manufacturing.

		Go mobile to improve your CMMS system Plant Engineering and Maintenance, May 2008 By Kris Bagadia Mobile computing offers a proven strategy for efficiently populating data into a CMMS system. Many maintenance departments have adopted mobile technology to collect data. Rather than sending skilled technicians out in the field with a clipboard, they're given mobile devices with a full list of their work orders, detailed job plans and asset histories—readily available at their fingertips.

		Wireless transmits technology to new frontiers Plant Engineering, May 2008 By Darvin Kaelberer, Banner Engineering Recent innovations in radio transmission make wireless a rugged, reliable solution for demanding applications.

		Regional Manufacturing Expos Prove Most Valuable By Thomas R. Cutler Deciding which conferences, webinars, and expos are worthwhile for manufacturing engineers and buyers to attend often feels like a dangerous yellow brick road, never knowing quite what to expect.

		Industrial Networks - Plethora of Choices By Jim Pinto Companies have lots of choices for installing and using industrial networks. They have to choose not only what's available today, but also be aware of emerging standards. It's important to have a strategy going forward.

		Enabling seamless WiMAX fabric Test & Measurement World, May 2008 By Ron Wilson and Rick Nelson WiMAX stands poised to extend coverage in PC networking and mobile phone communications as semiconductor makers roll out WiMAX chipsets and as test-equipment vendors offer the lab instrumentation and production ATE systems necessary to test the chipsets and the products they populate.

		6 Key Mobile Adoption Drivers for the Chem Processing Industry Chem.Info, May 2008 By Joe Granda, Syclo Leading-edge organizations that have adopted mobile technology as a best practice are realizing a new level of efficiency, which is reflected in their operations and on their bottom line. Author outlines the six main benefits of mobile technology in chem. processing.

		Make the most of WirelessHART Chemical Processing, May 2008 By Gareth Johnston and Alan Munns, ABB HART 7 gives plants a real incentive to consider wireless. Authors examine the advantages and typical applications of a wireless instrument network, whether now is the right time to consider a wireless project, and how a WirelessHART instrument network works.

		M2M: Moving Towards Mainstream Industrial Automation Asia, May 2008 By Augustine Quek M2M most commonly refers to Machine-to-Machine but has sometimes been referred to as Man-to-Machine, Machine-to-Man, Machine-to-Mobile and Mobile-to-Machine. M2M also means Mobile-to-Mobile for wireless telemetry or telemetric technologies. M2M technologies continue to find new applications with ever expanding markets.

		Wireless Sensor Networks for Building Automation Industrial Embedded Systems, May 2008 By Rainer Wischinski, Spinwave Systems The new wave of wireless sensor networks will change the building automation industry by reducing costs and increasing flexibility, making the use of sensors to establish and maintain highly energy-efficient building operation affordable in an increasing number of existing and new applications. (Registration required to read text).

		Wireless Technology Migration: Mitigating Risk and Increasing Supply Chain Efficiency IEN, May 2008 By Peak Technologies Many supply chain management solutions rely on wireless technology for Automatic Identification/Data Capture (AIDC) to ensure supply chain efficiency. With the rapid evolution of wireless networks, along with compliance issues and ever-changing logistics, migration to advanced wireless systems is inevitable.

		ABB is powered up and running at high efficiency! By Bill Lydon The products and services shown at ABB Automation World in Houston, Texas along with the enthusiasm of the ABB employees and users would seem to explain why the company’s 1st quarter 2008 earnings beat investment analysts’ consensus by over 40%. The three-day trade show and conference ran from April 29 through May 1 in Houston, Texas. There was a great deal of energy and enthusiasm at the event which showcased ABB products, ABB services, partner products, and over 300 workshops/training sessions.

		Wireless: Bluetooth vs. Bluetooth Control Engineering Europe, May 2008 Most industrial applications require more than a standard Bluetooth wireless solution. Looking at traditional Bluetooth technology versus industrial Bluetooth technology can illustrate necessities for tough industrial applications.

		Wireless Technologies: All In The Mix Industrial Automation Asia By Joel Young, Digi International Can a wireless solution in the commercial and industrial world be cost effective? Considering consumer perceptions and commercial realities, the answer now is a resounding ‘yes’. More and more today, many organisations are beginning to mix multiple wireless technologies.

		Standards Used By Standards Used By Wireless Sensor Networks Wireless Sensor Networks By Louis Sirico, et al, Industry Wizards One of the biggest challenges facing companies deploying wireless sensors are t disparate standards, protocols and methods of communication and data formats. Here’s a synopsis of the wireless world.

		Wireless: Beauty and the beast Intech, April 2008 By Patrick Schweitzer The user community wants simplicity, robustness, education to understand this new world, and coexistence among all players to make the wireless world of our dreams. Yet as wireless picks up momentum in the industrial marketplace, users are still confounded by the potentials and pitfalls a wireless world can bring.

		Wireless Security On The Plant Floor Industrial Ethernet Book, April 2008 By Wally Gastreich The goal of wireless network implementations is to provide benefits identical to common wired networks and protect the network and resources from security related issues. Here’s how to secure a plant floor wireless network.

		Industrial Wireless: Unplugged Version Of The Factory Network Industrial Ethernet Book, April 2008 Industrial environments are uniquely different from those in the office and home. High temperatures, airborne particulates, multiple obstacles and long distances separating equipment and systems present a special challenge in communicating with sensors, transmitters, and other data communication devices.

		The Elephant in the Room Control, April 2008 By Walt Boyes The elephant is the fact that the industry needs direction, best practices, engineering documentation and all of the infrastructure to begin to design, specify, procure, install, start up and commission wireless devices.

		Which Way Wireless? Control, April 2008 By Dick Caro, CMC Associates Why WirelessHART and ISA100.11a, Release 1 should be merged.

		In 2008, wireless a no-brainer Intech, April 2008 By David Savells and Brent McAdams New technology enabling greater use of spread spectrum radios gives companies the ability to connect remote instrumentation in the field without the need for a costly, wired infrastructure.

		Tracking wireless Intech, April 2008 By Peter Fuhr and Nacer Hedroug Vendors are touting several technologies as optimal for industrial asset tracking, especially end users in petrochemical (on-shore/off-shore), pharmaceutical manufacturing, power systems (generation and distribution), and pulp and paper processing. Here’s how to track wireless assets in industrial settings.

		An overview of Wireless Device Adoption in the European Process Industry By Karthikeyan Balasubramaniyam, Frost & Sullivan Wireless devices are gradually entering into the European process industries. A plethora of challenges, such as proving greater reliability and security, need to be overcome if these devices are to witness higher penetration into the process industries.

		Challenges to the Wireless Future Control Engineering Asia, March 2008 By Madanmohan Rao While the wireless wave may indeed be coming, valid concerns remain over technical standards and low awareness levels amongst IT executives. CE Asia interviews Hesh Kagan of Invensys.

		Coping with Higher-Priced Energy Automation World, March 2008 By Harry Forbes, ARC The first step in coping with energy price increases is to refine the existing energy measurements within a manufacturing operation. New and less-expensive technologies for electric-power measurement using wireless mesh networks should be on the market in the near future.

		Instrinsic Safety Obsolete Yet? Control, March 2008 By John Rezabek The emergence of digitally integrated instruments, stricter environmental regulations and wireless access to diagnostics are converging to make “live maintenance in normally hazardous atmospheres” a rare occurrence. Shouldn’t end users ponder whether the value of an IS installation is still worth the added complexity, effort and expense?

		Fieldbus: Growing Globally Control Engineering, March 2008 By Peter Welander While considered mainstream technology, fieldbus adoption in process industries is still far from commonplace. The picture for users remains upbeat, but incomplete in many respects.

		Going the (Short) Distance With Wireless Machine Design, February 2008 By Darvin Kaelberer, Banner Engineering Wireless technology, which is frequently used in factories and other industrial settings where I/O must be sent from a remote area to an operator located several miles away, can also make sense if data only has to travel a few feet.

		Setting the scope for ISA100 standard Plant Engineering, February 2008 By Paul Sereiko, AirSprite Technologies ISA100.11a – the component of ISA100 that is involved with wireless transport of field transmitter measurements – is focused on process automation, but will not exclude factory automation or monitoring applications.

		Obtain the Full Capabilities of Hart Automation World, February 2008 By Ed Ladd Even though many users are beginning to understand the value of the information that resides in their Hart devices, accessing that information is the trick. 85% of the devices currently in the field are connected to legacy, analog-only I/O systems that cannot understand the encoded Hart digital information. Wireless might help.

		Going Green … with Wireless Control Engineering Asia, January 2008 Industrial companies are increasingly adopting wireless sensor network (WSN) technology for green reasons, not just operational efficiency. These include reduction of the environmental impact of their processes, and optimization of energy utilization.

		Going Wireless is More Than Just Eliminating Cables American Machinist, January 2008 There are three significant problems with gathering shop floor data: First is that it can increase labor costs; second, implementing an automated data capture system is often difficult and expensive; third, a system you implement today may not meet tomorrow’s needs.

		A Better View of the Plant Automation World, January 2008 By Rob Spiegel New HMI tools are taking data from programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and displaying it throughout the enterprise via Web browsers. Likewise, HMI systems are sending intelligible information from the enterprise down to the shop floor.

		2008 Pinto’s Pointers – Technologies & Markets by Jim Pinto Because of its fragmentation, low volumes and conservative customer base, industrial automation is relatively slow to change. In the broad automation markets, there are pockets of technology and market growth that deserve special review. Here are Jim Pinto’s pointers and prognostications regarding the top automation technology and market trends that will gain traction in the coming year.

		Tiny, wireless and self-energized Plant Services, January 2008 By Sheila Kennedy, contributing editor A new generation of sensors is poised to revolutionize predictive maintenance. New software and emerging technologies are simplifying condition monitoring and streamlining the process of predictive maintenance.

		Mixing Multiple Wireless Technologies Sensors On-Line, January 2008 By:Joel K. Young, Digi International Inc. With the variety of wireless technologies available, outfitting an industrial environment for wireless communications may involve mixing and matching technologies to find the optimal solution. Here are the issues to consider to make your mix a successful one.

		Control Technology for Future Generations By: Ron Bernstein, Executive Director, LonMark International The concept of a control networking architecture, which provides fair competitive bidding on all levels of a system and over the life of the system, is something the user market has been demanding for years. LON and other network protocols, such as BacNet, ModBus, and Zigbee, have been developed to deliver on this need

		Standards & Successes Emerge Control Engineering Asia, November 2007 By Madanmohan Rao A number of case studies of successful industrial automation design and implementation are emerging in the field of intelligent embedded wireless sensor network (WSN) solutions.

		Topologies for Wireless Instrumentation Control Engineering, November 2007 By Peter Welander To set the stage for wireless instrumentation, do you know how to get the signal from instrument to control system? Here’s a nuts-and-bolts guide to orchestrate your options for permanently mounted instrumentation.

		First Wave of Wi-Fi Certification Hits Industrial Networking, Winter 2007 More than 140 products complying with 802.11n draft 2.0 have been Wi-Fi certified since the Wi-Fi Alliance’s testing program began in June. This first wave of products enables enterprise users to select interoperable next-generation Wi-Fi gear.

		Wireless Conquers Conservatism Industrial Networking, Winter 2007 By Mike Spear While many parties can see the potential benefits of wireless, few want to be first to try out a technology that was then, and to a certain extent still is, largely unproven on the large scale. The conservatism of the chemical industry, of course, extends well beyond the lack of enthusiasm for process intensification techniques.

		It’s Not Easy Being Blue Control Design, November 2007 By Loren Shaum, contributing editor Bluetooth is a relative stranger to machine builders. In the past several years, it has become a wireless standard for short-distance consumer communications, but is it suitable for machine automation?

		Be sure about wireless Plant Services, October 2007 By Shannon Erickson Will wireless work in your application? One solution some wireless vendors offer is a detailed engineering analysis, involving coordinates, site maps, topographical maps, and so on. Another more empirical way to evaluate suitability is to take a demo system to the plant and try it out.

		Wireless Applications Coming to Light Control, October 2007 By Jim Montague Because wireless stories are scarce among the supposedly cutting-edge startups, it’s ironic that Emerson, Honeywell, Invensys and a few others are the ones coming up with specific case studies lately.

		Industrial Wireless: Solving Wiring Issues by Unplugging By B&B Electronics A wide array of data communication solutions can resolve challenges of using wireless in industrial environments. This white paper provides a summary of the options available, with some corresponding pros and cons.

		Putting wireless to work in process operations By Emerson Process Management Wireless technologies offer process operations new opportunities for improvement. With a wireless strategy and architecture that align with your business needs, you can begin gaining the benefits today while facilitating additional applications in the future.

		Improving PID Control with Unreliable Communications By Jianping Song, et al, Emerson Process Management This paper identifies the poor dynamic response of standard PID algorithms in the case of lost communications. It proposes an enhanced PID algorithm to improve dynamic response under these conditions. The authors evaluated the enhanced PID algorithm under several wireless scenarios.

		The Industrial Wireless Wars By Jim Pinto This article is the best summary anyone can find anywhere on the important subject of Industrial Wireless. Most companies in the automation industry recognize Wireless as a new "inflection point" which will generate significant growth and market share for the industry leaders. The Wireless Wars are really marketing ploys to gain market-share through the differentiation of standards that support the majors’ market strategies

		Wi-Fi…Why Now? Exploring New Wireless Technologies for Industrial Applications By Patrick McCurdy and Ira Sharp, Phoenix Contact This paper focuses on the industrial use of public standard IEEE 802.11 technology while providing a broad comparison of different spread spectrum wireless technologies currently deployed in industrial automation applications.

		Secure, low-power, IP-based connectivity with IEEE 802.15.4 wireless networks Industrial Embedded Systems, June 2007 By David Culler, PhD, Arch Rock IEEE 802.15.4 radios have gained in popularity, and various protocols are used over these radios for wireless connections. IP connectivity is desired for many of these wireless links, but it must be secure and low power. Author explores the case for 6LoWPAN in wireless sensor networks.

		Will VoIP migrate to mobile carriers? Embedded Computer Design, June 2007 By Toufic Mobarak, MobileSphere Author explores the ramifications of United States wireless carriers’ reaction to subscribers being lured into using alternative technologies that effectively bypass the carriers’ voice networks, reduce revenue, and undercut them in the marketplace.

		Combining DSPs and FPGAs in multimode wireless handset designs Embedded Computer Design, June 2007 By Louis Bélanger, Lyrtech Use of FPGAs in low-power handsets design is becoming more and more possible thanks to the benefits of shrinking silicon geometries. This article describes a modular DSP/FPGA development platform aimed at handset developers.

		The FMC Subscriber Race: Voice over Wi-Fi vs Femtocells ABI Research, June 2007 Philip Solis, ABI Research principal analyst With their ability to work with any handset, and their potential for encouraging high data use, femtocellsare very attractive when compared to VCC and UMA-based Wi-Fi services.

		Anatomy of a Red Team Attack Automation World, June 2007 A Red Team test involves an all-out attempt to covertly gain access to a company’s critical plant control systems, using both cyber and physical means. They get in, install a wireless access point, and get out. These guys haven’t failed yet, and they’ve never been caught. Here’s a close-up look at how they do it.

		Wireless Technology is Ready for Industrial Use Maintenance Technology, May 2007 By Gary Mathur, Moore Industries-International, Inc. Wireless works in a plant, but you'll want to be careful regarding which "flavor" you choose. There are many flavors of wireless, and an understanding is needed to determine the best solution for any particular application. Wireless can be licensed or unlicensed, Ethernet or serial interface, narrow band or spread spectrum, secure or open protocol,Wi-Fi…the list goes on. This article provides an introduction to this powerful technology.

		Watch Out for Bluetooth Hacking Automation World, May 2007 By Clint Bodungen, President, Critical Infrastructure Institute Is wireless Bluetooth technology used anywhere in your manufacturing plant? If so, you could be exposing your controls network to hackers, terrorists or others with malicious intent.

		Are wireless sensors ready for me? Control Design, May 2007 What are the best options for reliable, and easily connectable wireless sensors for vibration monitoring, temperature and presence sensing, and other monitoring and control applications?

		Finally playing nice Control, May 2007 By Walt Boyes, Editor Walt Boyes congratulates the members of the SP100 Industrial Wireless Standard committee for their willingness to compromise in the name of service to the end-user community.

		ISA Reports Progress on Wireless Standard Automation World, May 2007 At a recent ISA-SP100.11a working group meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany, 60 attendees unanimously approved the scope and systems architecture of Release 1 of the draft standard.

		Wireless technology conquers industry conservatism Chemical Processing, April 2007 By Mike Spear, editor at large Potential applications at chemical plants just grow and grow, says author, in his End Point column.

		Special Report: User backlash at SP100 meeting CONTROL, April 2007 By Dick Caro, CMC Associates The February ISA SP100 (Wireless Industrial Network Standards) meeting generated some strong end-user backlash—a sharp contrast to the previous meeting where cooperation seemed to be the mantra. The backlash reflects dissatisfaction with the process being used by SP100 as it moves toward the first draft of its standard.

		Users fear wireless networks for control Intech, May 2007 By Dick Caro Here is an item-by-item rebuttal of plant engineer’s vow: “Critical data will never transmit over a wireless link in my plant.” Fear and loathing on the technology trail.

		Choosing the Right Industrial Wireless Network The decision to implement wireless technology in your industrial facility is a strategic choice, enabling an infrastructure that will provide significant benefits for your company beyond avoiding the wiring costs. The right decision will help improve safety, optimize the plant and ensure compliance. Wireless is a complex enabling technology that requires deliberate consideration before broad deployment in an industrial facility. This document outlines questions to consider as you make this decision

		The Sensor Web: A Distributed, Wireless Monitoring System Sensors, April 2007 By: Kevin A. Delin, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Sensor Web is a distributed sensing system in which information is globally shared and used by all networked platforms. It's already been deployed long term in different environments and is opening up new avenues for distributed sensing and control.

		New Ways to Power Instrumentation Control Engineering, February 2007 By Peter Welander Increasing use of wireless networks and remote instrumentation calls for new approaches to supply current with no strings attached. While changes in power supply methods have occurred, a more fundamental shift has been happening in the instrumentation and wireless transmitters. With experiments continuing on wireless transmission of power, the trend toward self-contained and wireless instrumentation will continue, which will pressure equipment designers to improve efficiency and create new ways to collect and communicate data with minimal power use.

		Getting un-Wired with IEEE 802.11 Are you ready for the convenience that comes from sending your Ethernet packets over the air instead of through a wire? Wireless is not for everyone, but if your application uses mobile equipment that is controlled over a TCP/IP network, or the cost of installing wire conduits at your work site is prohibitive, then consider setting up a wireless local area network (WLAN).

		Look Ma, No Wires! By Steve Muenstermann, Honeywell, and Ellen Fussell Policastro, Intech Pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies switch to wireless for safety and compliance. ZLB Behring, a pharmaceutical company, and Roche Diagnostics, a research company, relied on wireless to solve safety issues and meet compliance regulations, as well as increase access and availability of data for improved decision-making.

		Where is wireless going? By Mike Spear, editor at large, Chemical Processing Wireless communications have served for many years for remote monitoring in industries like oil and gas production and in water and power utilities. The potential for wireless technologies to link field devices and control systems in the plant is creating a groundswell of interest in the chemical industry. So far, however, the actual impact of wireless has been limited, at least from a purely process point of view.

		How should one build a wireless network? Peter Welander, process industries editor, Control Engineering Most early adopters of today's wireless process instrumentation are starting at the ground and creating point-to-point solutions or small mesh networks to test and validate technology for themselves. Instrumentation providers are encouraging this activity, but Emerson and Invensys seem to disagree on how easy it will be.

		First ZigBee-certified products available From ControlGlobal.com The ZigBee Alliance, a global interest group of companies creating wireless solutions for use in residential, commercial and industrial applications, announced the first group of ZigBee Certified Products, marking what it calls a major milestone in the alliance’s journey toward creating an open, global, wireless sensor and control networking solution.

		802.11n Standard Makes Progress in London Meeting By: Wayne Rash, E-Week The long-anticipated 1.10 version of the IEEE 802.11n draft standard was approved unanimously in an IEEE task group meeting held in London in mid-January. According to Atheros CTO Bill McFarland, who attended the meeting, all of the 3,000-plus technical comments to the 11n draft 1.0 were resolved, and that in turn resulted in the successful agreement to draft 1.10.

		Using Wireless Device Servers in Industry Wireless serial device servers, which are a relatively new development, are starting to be used in place of the traditional wired serial device server for CNC/DNC automation applications. The concept is essentially the same as for a standard serial device server, except that data is transmitted through the air to another wireless host, or to an Access Point connected to a wired network. However, even though the wireless device server concept is straightforward, deciding whether or not to use the technology should depend on more than just novelty.

Automation.com Real-time Information for the Automation Professional May. 26, 2012

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