ISA creates working group for wireless factory automation standard

Work on ISA’s wireless family of standards reached another milestone, bringing the factory automation community one step closer to having an industry-wide standard for wireless interconnection of automated machines. The 68 eligible members of the ISA 100 Working Group overwhelmingly voted to create ISA 100 Factory Automation Working Group 16 to “develop and maintain requirements an...

By Control Engineering Staff January 1, 2009

Work on ISA’s wireless family of standards reached another milestone, bringing the factory automation community one step closer to having an industry-wide standard for wireless interconnection of automated machines.

The 68 eligible members of the ISA 100 Working Group overwhelmingly voted to create ISA 100 Factory Automation Working Group 16 to “develop and maintain requirements and recommended practices through the creation of informative documents that demonstrate leadership of ISA100 professionals in the application of industrial wireless technology in Factory Automation applications.”

The result of the working group’s efforts will be a standard designated ISA 100.16. The anticipated timeline is:

  • February 2009– draft release for working group approval;

  • April 2009– vote to release to committee;

  • July 2009– final release to public.

The working group is charged with providing the following deliverables: documents covering “requirements for wireless in factory automation, and recommended practices for the deployment of wireless systems for factory automation.”

In addition, the working group is to provide document-development and subject-matter expertise to support collaborating with other international groups (such as IEC, PNO, and ODVA) to ensure one family of interoperating international standards for factory automation is developed. They are also expected to collaborate with IEC to create a group to develop an international family of such standards, and actively participate with the IEC to ensure the interests of ISA are adequately considered in these activities.

Finally, they are to deliver a lexicon defining terms, such as “factory automation,” “discrete,” and “hybrid” appropriate for discussing wireless factory automation networking issues. This follows on the successful efforts of the ISA 100.11a Working Group, which is completing a similar standard for process automation. That standard is now undergoing final review, and is expected to be completed in January 2009.

www.isa.org/isa100