Electronic Device Description Research Articles

Dynamic mapping of EDDL device descriptions to OPC UA

OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) is already a well-known concept used widely in the automation industry. In the area of factory automation, OPC UA models the underlying field devices such as sensors and actuators in an OPC UA server to allow connecting OPC UA clients to access device-specific information via a standardized information model. One of the requirements of the OPC UA server to represent field device data using its information model is to have advanced knowledge about the properties of the field devices in the form of device descriptions. The international standard IEC 61804 specifies EDDL (Electronic Device Description Language) as a generic language for describing the properties of field devices. In this paper, the authors describe a possibility to dynamically map and integrate field device descriptions based on EDDL into OPCUA.

Extension of Electronic Device Description Language for analysing change impacts in modular automation in manufacturing plants

The engineering process of a manufacturing plant involves different disciplines, for example mechanical, electrical and software engineering. Each discipline contains information from different manufacturing expertise. Changes in one of these disciplines can influence other disciplines. In order to define the dependencies between these disciplines and to analyse their change impacts, manufacturing plants should be hierarchically and disciplinarily modularised and described using a uniform description language. In this paper, a device description language – Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) – was chosen and extended semantically and syntactically aimed at analysing change impacts in modular automation. The extended EDDL is not only a device description language; it also provides a concept for analysing change impacts through describing the relations between discipline-specific components and interdisciplinary modules as well as the dependencies between information from different disciplines. Predicting theses change impacts enables the engineers to foresee unanticipated changes and maximises the probability for the project's success.

Plug and play device integration for industrial automation with instant machine visualization using RFID technology

Development of graphical user interfaces for flexible automation systems is a tedious and pricy process. Changes in a plant assembly need to be applied separately to any referring graphical user interface. Device integration technologies, such as Electronic Device Description Language and Field Device Tool/Device Type Manager, allow integrating field devices and create an initial graphical user interface but undergo several restrictions such as platform-dependency and the need to manually adapt configuration and integration processes of field devices. We therefore present a novel approach of platform-independent device integration and automated generation of graphical user interfaces. Furthermore, we employ Radio Frequency Identification technology to overcome communication restrictions of field devices in order to transmit a device specific ID, facilitating automated device integration.

Integração de uma descrição de dispositivos aberta e não-proprietária em sistemas fieldbus reais e simulados

Os sistemas de automação industrial contam com a definição de arquiteturas abertas padronizadas, a maioria delas utilizando tecnologias proprietárias. Em sistemas fieldbus, a tecnologia normatizada que provê a descrição das características dos dispositivos para o software configurador (IHM - Interface Homem Máquina) é de natureza proprietária e de alto custo, chamada de EDD (Electronic Device Description). Alternativamente, a Open-EDD (Open Electronic Device Description) é uma tecnologia aberta e não-proprietária baseada em padrões de software. Este trabalho descreve a utilização e validação da Open-EDD em duas diferentes aplicações: num sistema fieldbus real e num ambiente fieldbus simulado. Os resultados validam a técnica e indicam que esta pode ser aplicada a demais sistemas de automação.

Developing and implementing an open and non-proprietary device description for FOUNDATION fieldbus based on software standards

Support for interoperability and interchangeability of software components which are part of a fieldbus automation system relies on the definition of open architectures, most of them involving proprietary technologies. Concurrently, standard, open and non-proprietary technologies, such as XML, SOAP, Web Services and the like, have greatly evolved and been diffused in the computing area. This article presents a FOUNDATION fieldbus™ device description technology named Open-EDD, based on XML and other related technologies (XLST, DOM using Xerces implementation, OO, XML Schema), proposing an open and non-proprietary alternative to the EDD (Electronic Device Description). This initial proposal includes defining Open-EDDML as the programming language of the technology in the FOUNDATION fieldbus™ protocol, implementing a compiler and a parser, and finally, integrating and testing the new technology using field devices and a commercial fieldbus configurator. This study attests that this new technology is feasible and can be applied to other configurators or HMI applications used in fieldbus automation systems.

필드기기 통합구성을 위한 XML 적용에 관한 연구

Device Description that is described as C-based DDL(Device Description Language) should be provided for the control system to use the progressive function of field device in the distributed control system. DD expresses field device function itself and parameter. DD is used to set a necessary function far a control strategy in the central control system. DD technology which was adopted as international standard IEC 61804-Part 2 is being used in PROFIBUS, Foundation Fieldbus and HART. However, the DD is dependent to the fieldbus and it doesn't have a suitable form in the industrial Ethernet. This paper presents the possibility of a change from EDD(Electronic Device Description) and GSD(General Slave Data) used for integrating field devices to XDD(XML for Device Description) and verifies it's effectiveness. Also, this paper presents research assignment on the XML application in the distributional system from now on by examining the possibility of Ethernet`s development in the industrial area.

Digital fieldbus installations use EDDL technology for simplicity with advanced, full functionality

EDDL (electronic device description language) is a text -based language for describing the digital communication characteristics of intelligent field instrumentation and equipment parameters - device status, diagnostic data, and configuration details in an operating system (OS) and human machine interface (HMI) neutral environment. The EDDL technology enables a host system manufacturer to create single engineering environment without the need for custom software drivers for each device type.