It's been more than a decade since advocates of Foundation Fieldbus, HART and PROFIBUS accepted the proposition that, since various protocols would have to coexist, they would cooperate to make them work better together. The latest development in that effort is formation of the FieldComm Group, January 1 of this year.
According to FieldComm Group's mission statement, the new organization was established to "Develop, manage and promote global standards for integrating digital devices into automation system architectures while protecting existing investments in the HART and Foundation Fieldbus communication technologies."
Ted Masters, president and CEO, FieldComm Group, says, "Although ‘Group' replaces ‘Foundation' in the new organization, the HART and Foundation Fieldbus core technologies and branding remain and will be enhanced. All existing registration marks and identifications will also be retained.
"Going forward, we are also now the home of Field Device Integration (FDI) technology and lead its adoption as the integration standard for process automation."
To learn more about FieldComm Group, read “Many protocols, one organization” from Control.