"Our field trials were part of a partnership between BP and Emerson that we entered into with the intent of enabling innovative technology to be developed in record time," said David Lafferty, Senior Technology Consultant with BP's Chief Technology Office in Digital & Communications Technology. "The trials were very successful and a win-win for both companies. Emerson gained a real world environment for valuable testing and feedback on their technology; we at BP gained experience in exploiting this new technology for business value."
"We've found that this wireless technology enabled us to do things we simply could not do before, either because of cost or physical wiring obstacles," continued Lafferty. "Through the trials, we found that Emerson's wireless approach is flexible, easy to use, reliable, and makes a step change reduction in installed costs."
Emerson's wireless approach consists of self organizing Smart Wireless field networks and SmartStart® global wireless services. The in-plant Smart Wireless field networks employ innovative wireless TSMP (Time Synchronized Mesh Protocol) self-organizing wireless network technology. The initial Smart Wireless family offering includes the Rosemount 3051S Wireless transmitter for level, pressure and flow measurement, Rosemount 648 Wireless temperature transmitter, Emerson 1420 Wireless Gateway, native wireless interface AMS Suite: Intelligent Device Manager 8.1, and SmartStart global wireless services. Emerson claims that the networks integrate seamlessly with Emerson's DeltaV and Ovation digital automation systems or legacy hosts.
The self-organizing mesh network enables wireless access to both measurement and diagnostic information in HART devices, automatically routing data via optimal radio signal pathways that overcome environments with obstructions or interference. The inherent redundancy of this approach enables over 99% of field network messages to reach their destination. Overall, Emerson wireless trial customers have experienced 99.9 percent network reliability, extremely easy deployment, industrial strength security, long battery life, and as much as 90 percent less installed cost.
A Smart Wireless upgrade module for existing wired devices will ship in 2007, providing easy access to valuable diagnostics that are "stranded" in the estimated 20 million HART devices installed without digital automation architecture.
Development is also under way to add native Smart Wireless functionality to the broad range of Emerson field devices, including Fisher digital valves, Micro Motion Coriolis flowmeters, and Rosemount Analytical products.
Installation of Emerson's in-plant Smart Wireless solutions requires no site surveys or special tools. The solutions are designed to support SP100 control and monitoring application classes 1-5. Emerson's SmartPower innovations enable battery life of 5 to 15 years depending on application. The field network is scalable from 5 devices to more than 100,000.
Emerson is actively collaborating in the standards development process with the HART Wireless Specification committee, and ISA's SP100, and is bringing the company's field trial experience and use case learnings to the standards bodies. Berra and Sonnenberg announced themselves committed to guaranteeing an easy upgrade path for compliance to the industry standard when it is completed. Emerson announced that it intends to donate intellectual property around Smart Wireless to the relevant standards bodies. Berra said, "We aren't working on this alone. We have joined forces with 18 other companies to jointly work toward a standard."
