Emerson Enables Wireless PID Control, Donates Algorithm to Industry

Leslie Gordon is Senior Technical Writer on Control, Control Design and Industrial Networking magazines.The proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control algorithm has long been a mainstay of process control. But its underlying mathematics didn't make a smooth transition to the world of wireless and the often infrequent measurement update rates used to conserve battery power. Emerson Process Management's PIDPlus algorithm was developed to overcome these limitations, and the underlying intellectual property has been donated to the HART Communication Foundation, soon to be combined with the Fieldbus Foundation into a single organization called the FieldComm Group.

"We are strong believers in standards organizations that provide open platforms for interoperability." Emerson's Peter Zornio (left) together with the FieldComm Group's Ted Masters on Emerson's recent donation of the PIDPlus wireless controller to the nonprofit organization.

"Emerson Process Management has continued to test PIDPlus at the University of Texas at Austin and it has proven to be a reliable and robust technology," said Peter Zornio, chief strategic officer, Emerson Process Management. "WirelessHART has undergone rapid adoption across a variety of industries and, as such, now provides greater confidence and performance when using wireless for more critical applications. We are strong believers in standards organizations that provide open platforms for interoperability. This belief is what inspired us to make the donation."

"We are pleased to offer PIDPlus technology to our membership as another step to advance the capability of WirelessHART toward reliable real-time control," said Ted Masters, president and CEO of the FieldComm Group.  "Contributions such as this from our member companies continue to push the HART communication protocol as cutting edge technology for the benefit of the entire process automation industry."

Process and control engineers interested in learning more are encouraged to explore the book Wireless Control Foundation by Terrence Blevins, Deji Chen, Mark Nixon and Willy Wojsznis, which discusses wireless communication concepts and terminology needed to apply wireless control in the process industries. You can purchase the book at the ISA bookstore near the Cyber Cafe on Level 2 of the Convention Center. The book is also available from the International Society of Automation's website at www.isa.org. For more information, please see www.wirelesscontrolfoundation.com.