EDT, EDDL unite for device integration

Competing technologies are getting together to come up with one solution for device integration, said Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) and the Field Device Tool (FDT) Technology Group officials today at Hannover Fair in Hannover, Germany.
After a “secret” meeting at last year’s Hannover Fair, leaders from FDT and EDDL’s Cooperation Team (ECT) decided enough was enough.
“FDT will join ECT as an official member,” said ECT Chairman Hans-Georg Kumpfmueller. “We have already done some technical work to create a new FDI integration.
The goal of this effort is to develop a common Future Device Integration (FDI) architecture. The team will base the architecture on a client server architecture; an independent platform and operating system; independent host system; compatible with existing EDDL- and DTM-based device descriptions; applicable to any field device communication technologies; applicable for hierarchical and heterogeneous network topologies, and an open specification and become an international standard
“All of the suppliers are involved with this,” said Flavio Tolfo, managing director of the FDT Group. “The good news is interoperability. Now you don’t have to worry about buying a pressure transmitter from one supplier and wondering if it will work with another transmitter. All of that is now solved.”
Kumpfmueller expects to get a draft specification and prototypes out by 2008.
The two groups will base their effort on OPC UA technology.
The goal behind the FDT Group is to provide an open and non proprietary interface for the integration of field devices with engineering, automation and asset management systems.
EDDL is text-based description of the variables contained in the device such as flow, pressure, drive speed, ambient temperature, among others. The description defines each variable and describes the way to access it.