1 May 2007

Helson: Wireless HART fits into ISA-SP100 standards effort

Editor's note: With close to 25 million devices in use today, HART is definitely the leading communications protocol in the industry today. Just before HART Communication Foundation Executive Director Ron Helson unveiled at Hannover Fair in Hannover, Germany, they were releasing the wireless HART draft specifications for review and approval, he sat down with InTech Editor Gregory Hale to talk about issues affecting the industry.

InTech: HART is the most widely used networking protocol; do users get the most out of it at this point?

Helson: No. They are leaving a lot on the table. Users today are starting to understand there is a lot of capability in the technology they are not using. They are trying to sort out how they can best tap into that potential and use it and take advantage of it.

InTech: How has the engineer's job changed in the past five years?

Helson: You have more responsibility and are more responsible for bigger areas of the plant, with more projects. It's hard to do everything they need to do. At the same time, they have all these technology things going on because the rate of new technologies continues to increase.

InTech: If engineers are not using HART technology capabilities to the max, don't you think maximizing the technology would help them?

Helson: Yes, absolutely, that would help them. That is one of the things where if you have too much on your plate and you are scrambling to keep your plant running, your ability to absorb new technologies is severely limited. I think for the most part that is where the industry is today.

InTech: How do you see the engineer's job changing in the next five years?

Helson: They will continue to have that pressure. The secret for them being able to absorb anything and take advantage of these technologies is it has to be very easy for them to do. It has to be a natural transition. Suppliers are going to have to come up with better ways to help them and educate them to the point where they can even help them justify a project. I expect you are going to continue to see technology evolve and they are going to have to be able to deal with that, while still being under more pressure from their management to justify doing anything from a project perspective. I don't see it changing too much from the environment they have now. The key to success in this business is to keep it simple. 

InTech: What do you see are the biggest issues facing manufacturers today?

Helson: Global competition. There is no doubt about that. We are not competing in small geographic locations anymore. You have to compete on a global basis if you want to stay relevant. That means you have to rely on technologies to help you be able to do things better and be more cost efficient. That is what happens in a flat world.

InTech: Where does wireless HART fit into the ISA-SP100 standards effort?

Helson: It fits in very well. If you look at wireless HART, our object is really focused on process automation. There are a lot of parallels; there is a lot of synergy. They have a meeting coming up in Austin, Tex., (this month) and we will meet with them to make sure they understand what we are doing. If ISA-SP100 wanted to adopt wireless HART as the standard to for process measurement control, we would be willing to listen to that.

InTech: What are the differences between what you have and what they are doing?

Helson: There are a lot of similarities and overlap. I'd say there are more similarities than differences. I think we are talking about the same radio technology. We are talking about self-organizing mesh networking. We are talking about focusing on process measurement applications. It's very similar.

InTech: What are the differences?

Helson: One difference is right now we are just releasing our specs while ISA is just starting to write specs. That is the biggest difference at this stage. ISA-SP100 has a much broader scope. They have a much broader set of applications to address. We focus specifically on the field devices and wireless networking of the field devices. Obviously, they have a much higher level backbone or back haul networks to establish as a standard and how wireless is applied over all. Wireless HART could be a piece of what they need to deliver to ISA-SP100.