Remote operations management – the management of automation assets and resources that are geographically dispersed – is one of the fastest growing segments of the process automation business today. Today, the ROM segment is plagued with a high degree of customization, solutions that are not easily configurable, and a break and fix mentality when it comes to asset management. Beginning in 2007, the Fieldbus Foundation began a new project that would extend the functionality and infrastructure of FOUNDATION fieldbus out to remote applications through remote I/O and wired HART. We then expanded that project to include leading industrial wireless networks such as ISA 100.11a and WirelessHART. Today, our overall FOUNDATION ROM specification is nearly complete, and ready to extend our capabilities to manage data from a limitless range of devices in some of the world’s most unforgiving applications.
FOUNDATION for ROM allows users to implement a true predictive and proactive maintenance strategy for remote assets that could not previously support one. Data from devices on multiple networks, both wired and wireless, can be brought into the FOUNDATION fieldbus infrastructure, which provides a single environment for management of diagnostic data, alarms and alerts, data quality, control in the field capability, and object oriented block structure.
FOUNDATION for ROM has the potential to address numerous applications in upstream applications, such as oil fields, offshore platform automation, oil and gas pipelines, water treatment centers and