Assessment of WirelessHART networks in closed-loop control system

Wireless communication is currently the trend in industrial environments, reducing costs and allowing the creation of applications that were impossible with legacy technologies. In this respect, the WirelessHART specification is emerging as a standard solution. Despite the direct benefits, a WirelessHART network exhibits a series of technical (reliability, energy consumption, tolerance to failures, constant delays) and cultural challenges. Accordingly the demand for tools to assess and guarantee reliability in closed-loop control systems becomes imminent. With the aim of demystifying the use of wireless technology in closed-loop control systems in the industry, this paper presents an assessment of the behavior of a WirelessHART network in a water level control processes in a system of coupled tanks. The results indicate that some challenges need to be overcome to adopt wireless technologies in control applications, as the case of transmission rates requirements less than one second.