Towards a unified approach for intelligent actuators and sensors

The technological progress achieved in the development of field devices, actuators and sensors, have given rise to a new generation of equipment, intelligent actuators and sensors (IAS). However, a great disparity concerning the vendors´ offers limit the breakthrough of this equipment. Concepts and projects in relation with IAS have illustrated the necessity of having standards for design and the development. We present part of the reflections of the CRAN/AMI working group which aims the definition of a unified reference model for intelligent equipment