Fieldbus integration

The Fieldbus Foundation is developing technical specifications for integration of devices based on the Modbus® communications protocol into its FOUNDATION for Remote Operations Management (ROM) technology. Integration of these instruments will help enable an overall remote operations solution in a wide range of industrial automation applications.

The first development of its kind integrating remote input/output (I/O), ISA100.11a, WirelessHART®, wired HART, and FOUNDATION fieldbus H1 protocols into a single, standard data management environment, FOUNDATION for ROM extends the capabilities of FOUNDATION fieldbus to wired and wireless devices installed in some of the world's harshest and most remote locations. This open, non-proprietary solution provides a unified digital infrastructure for asset management in applications ranging from tank farms and terminals to pipelines, offshore platforms, and even original equipment manufacturer (OEM) skids.

Petrobras Cenpes Research Facility

The FOUNDATION for ROM technical specifications for the remote I/O, wired HART, WirelessHART and wireless ISA100.11a interfaces have been completed and were successfully demonstrated at a live end user demonstration at the Petrobras research and development facility (Cenpes) in Rio de Janeiro (BR), in April of this year.

The Fieldbus Foundation is now proceeding to develop specifications for Modbus integration into FOUNDATION for ROM. Modbus devices such as well head flow meters and submersible pump controllers need to be integrated as part of the overall solution in some applications.

The Modbus integration team, comprised of end user and supplier engineers, had their kickoff meeting in May hosted by Shell Global Solutions in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The team completed the use cases in August and finished their review at a meeting in September hosted by MTL in Luton (GB). The team is now proceeding with requirements and specification development.

Fieldbus Foundation Director of Technology Development David Glanzer said: "We have a great team working on the Modbus integration. They have made exceptional progress on the use case development." Technical Team Leader Todd Shadle of Phoenix Contact agreed, saying, "All of the team members are fully engaged and are eager to complete the specification."

Whether operating on a wired or wireless HSE backhaul network, the FOUNDATION for ROM solution enables automation end users to bring device data into the FOUNDATION fieldbus infrastructure, which provides a single source of data management, diagnostics, alarms and alerts, data quality control, control-in-the-field capability, and object-oriented block structure.