ISA 100 Wireless Committee Assesses Standards Work in Factory, Discrete Automation
February 2, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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ISA 100, the wireless systems for automation standards committee, formed an interest group for wireless networks in factory and discrete automation.
A teleconference was conducted with participants representing automation equipment vendors and users interested in understanding where wireless networks may be applied in different environments.
During the ISA 100 meeting, support formed to address the need for standards for wireless networks in environments in addition to the processing environments on which the first ISA 100 standard focuses.
The new interest group will focus on factory automation, discrete parts manufacturing, high-speed machines and other nonprocess applications. It will explore opportunities and requirements that are different from those under consideration in ISA 100 working groups.
The interest group will survey the market to define a scope of interest in the community, identify interested parties and analyze current contributions from other organizations.
The group will then consider if an ISA-led standards effort is warranted, based on use cases and efforts under way with other organizations. If so, the group will develop the scope, purpose, deliverables and schedule for a proposed new working group, which will then define and develop the standard for ISA and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approval.
In the coming weeks, the group is contacting the automation industry to determine the interest level for developing a standard for a wireless factory/discrete automation system to serve hybrid and discrete industries such as consumer goods, electronics, automotive and aerospace.
In contrast to environments driving the ISA 100.11a (release 1) and other emerging interest groups, this group will consider assembly, batch, blending, packing, robotics, shop floor data collection and other applications. These are likely to drive different demands for mobility, scalability, point density and lower latency, according to ISA.
Source: ISA.