Closing the fieldbus loop
Emerson and Siemens open up Technology Platforms

It was definitely the surprise news of the summer: Emerson Process Management and Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) are looking to extend their system interfaces for global field bus standards in future. This move will see both companies exchanging technologies and assisting each other with the engineering. The first products should be available as early as mid-2007

It was still considered unthinkable a few years ago but today it is virtually par for the course. Major rivals are realizing more and more often that faster market growth can only be achieved via open interfaces and are abandoning their claims that their products alone are tantamount to the “holy grail”. This realization has evidently also caught on with the global players in process automation, Emerson Process Management and Siemens A&D. Given that the competition between the two ‘options’ Fieldbus Foundation (FF) and Profibus PA, dubbed by many in the sector as the “Fieldbus War”, has long since returned to normal, the recently announced trade-off of technology platforms is certainly logical but still something of a bombshell, coming when it did, in the eyes of many knowledgeable observers of the industry. In an interview with PROCESS, Anton S. Huber, member of the Siemens Group Executive Management, made the following statement about the background events: “The two companies have been working together for some time now in end user/OEM set-ups.

The initial aim of the collaboration was to launch open interface, compatible field instruments and drives based on the EDDL standard (Electronic Device Description Language).” “We may have managed to win a big share of the market in the process industry but we still want to delve more deeply into segments which have not been so easily accessible to us in the past”, said Huber, justifying the ostensible change in strategy, and adding with total candor: “It will also mean looking into FF field controllers in more depth. FF technology is already very widespread, especially among customers in the oil and gas industries. We have no option but to open up if we are to see the intensity of growth we want in this segment. It would take us much longer without FF technology.” In addition to the Profibus and HART standards, Siemens will therefore provide FF interfaces for its process control system, Simatic PCS 7, and its parameter assignment tool, Process Device Manager (PDM). This will allow the broad range of FF instruments and actuators supplied by Emerson and FF units made by other manufacturers to be connected to the Siemens control system.
AMS Suite for Discrete Industry too
Similar statements were made by John Berra, President of Emerson Process Management, in response to questions put by PROCESS. “The main incentive for Emerson to get into that deal is driven by the need expressed by users to increase up-time by expanding predictive maintenance across more and more of the process plant. In response, Emerson wants to expand the capabilities of its AMS Device Manager to support devices most often found in factory automation, but also important in process automation. For this, we need to support communication protocols such as Profinet and Profibus DP.”
Emerson will therefore be fitting its Delta V and Ovation control systems and the AMS Suite for device management with a connection for Profibus DP and Profinet, in addition to the Foundation Fieldbus and Hart standards already supported. This will link the Emerson systems up to the broad range of Profibus-DP/Profinet drives, motor starters and other discrete devices made by Siemens and to corresponding devices made by other manufacturers with Profibus DP and Profinet communication.
“Foundation Fieldbus is the established global field bus standard in process automation”, reasoned Berra. By its own admission, the US company may already hold a strong position in hybrid industries, especially in the Life Sciences, but is extremely interested in the connection of intelligent drives and therefore the connection to factory automation. “Profibus-DP and Profinet are the prevailing standards in production automation, especially in electrical drives”, continued Berra, “we are now using the expanded EDDL via the new field bus interfaces to link our control systems and the AMS Suite to the efficient Siemens drives. In this way we are extending the value of our asset management applications to include additional plant assets. This is just one example of how our users stand to benefit from global standards.”
Similarly, Profibus naturally also ranks first with Siemens Executive Huber who said, “Technologically speaking, Profibus is a homogeneous field for us. Any customer who commits to Profibus will benefit from its relatively low level of complexity.” “Why should a customer introduce a different technology if Profibus will enable him to continue engineering in the same way?” asked Huber, reasoning that the customer can instruct and train his staff in one technology. “What we are doing, quite systematically, is trying to take the complexity out of the ever increasing gamut of technologies.” At the same time Huber has one eye firmly on the maintenance and life cycle costs of the user firms. “After all, we’ll have to provide these technologies and service for our products for the next 15 to 20 years. And we would soon be getting the wrong sort of feedback from our customers if we court resentment with too many releases.” In this respect the homogeneity of the Profibus technology is always a good point as far as Huber is concerned.
No Fear of the Brain Drain
The idea that trading off the technology platforms will encourage infiltration of their own competitors is shrugged off by both automation engineers. “Competition is bound to increase”, said Siemens Executive Huber, “but what we like best is to play against a good team. In this respect we are fully aware that, if we exchange technologies, not only will we fast-track our way into the markets but we will also be admitting Emerson to markets in which the company still lacks any real foothold at present.” At Emerson too they appear relaxed at the thought of a potential brain drain. “Emerson is a proponent of open communication technology, exemplified by its strong participation in the various foundations and by the donation of intellectual property to those Foundations,” commented Berra. “Our cooperation with Siemens is a natural extension of this philosophy. The cooperation grew out of our joint work in support of global standards. In fact, we believe that our cooperation with Siemens will strengthen the underlying, open technologies that are being used to achieve the new functionality. Once we demonstrate new capabilities made possible via the open, enhanced EDDL technologies, it is likely other suppliers will adopt them as well. The end users will be the ultimate benefactors of expanded functionality. Our goal is to compete on the merits of our products and our company, not on the basis of a communication protocol.”
End User Set to Benefit
According to Huber, the feedback from customers has been upbeat so far. “The market responds positively when it sees two corporate automation giants, who have a considerable influence on the two technologies (Profibus PA and DP and Foundation Fieldbus), opening up their control systems and working together. Irrespective of this, technology in itself is impartial. You can solve a problem in one way or the other.”
The Profibus User Organization (PNO) also welcomed the collaboration of the two automation concerns in an initial statement, claiming that, in view of the global process automation market in which the American concern Emerson is a highly-respected key player, this development was more than good news for Profinet and Profibus in particular. The PNO response went on to point out that the integration of Profinet and Profibus in the Emerson process control systems Delta V and Ovation would further reinforce and expand the strong position of Profibus and Profinet in process automation. According to Siemens Executive Huber the further harmonization of field controller integration will be of benefit, especially in heterogeneous system environments. Foundation Fieldbus, Hart and Profibus are now established around the globe as communications standards, he added. The users choose from a wide range of process instruments which are customized to the respective control system in terms of interfaces. But the potential for greater system efficiency, he added, lies in the further integration of the technologies via the common description language EDDL and communication and software tools. “We are focusing heavily on these activities.” It remains to be seen whether the front-lines in the technology battle between EDDL and FDT/DTM for the better solution will now become more entrenched.
Independence of Control System
In their control systems Emerson and Siemens will also use the pending OPC UA standard (OLE for Process Control Unified Architecture) set by the OPC Foundation. The combination of EDDL and OPC UA is a data exchange process recommended by the field bus organizations Fieldbus Foundation, Hart Communication Foundation, and the Profibus User Organization. Siemens and Emerson believe that the advantage of this technology follows from the logical use of EDDL for data description and display in user interfaces. The firms point out that the entire data traffic between the OPC server and OPC client applications is also defined by EDDL, thus achieving independence, by and large, from operating systems and their variants. Both firms are keen to lend their active support to the development of the required OPC UA specifications and the further enhancement of EDDL. “During the process of testing the new features, we learned the power of the extensions and the end user benefits that can be achieved. Clearly, we are very pleased with the results of this phase of the EDDL cooperative project and are continuing to support the next phase of the Project,” said Berra in conversation with PROCESS. “We strongly believe that the enhancements to EDDL offer all of the benefits that customers have asked for, while preserving operating system independence and protecting the customer value of the millions of devices already installed and operating.”
The first products are expected to be out by as early as the middle of the coming year, although Huber emphasized that rollout would be quicker for pure stand-alone units. “The more complex issues include integration in the engineering systems and asset manager.” This also requires a sure instinct as to how much can be expected of the user. “It makes little sense to announce a new release to a customer, explaining that he can now connect FF devices as well, if that customer has absolutely no requirement to use an FF bus.” Nevertheless both partners want to proceed swiftly.
And what about the response of NAMUR as one of the most significant user organizations? There was no official response to the inquiry from PROCESS. NAMUR General Manager Dr. Hasso Drathen was only prepared to reveal this much: “The relevant working groups will be discussing the issue at this year’s main assembly in this years annual meeting in November.”