Field device integration

Today, the large number of different device types and suppliers within a control system project makes the engineering and configuration task difficult and time-consuming. Different tools must be mastered and data must be exchanged between these tools. A solution can be achieved by standardising suitable interfaces to achieve data sharing and framework integration. For the computable description of device parameters, the so called electronic device description (EDD) language (EDDL) is specified. The EDD is used for the configuration and the operational behaviour of a device. Furthermore, the field device tool (FDT) concept defines the interfaces between device-specific software components (or device type manager (DTM)) provided by the device supplier and the engineering tool of the control system manufacturer. A DTM can easily be developed using existing EDD files as shown in this article. Therefore, an EDD and FDT are not contradictory technologies, instead they complement each other.