Multi-protocol device supporting wireless plant protocols

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9753439-B2
Application number	US-201414504711-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 2, 2014
Priority date	Oct 2, 2014
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

Abstract

A plant wireless access point (PWAP) is disclosed that bridges communications between a field communicator and a plant automation network. The PWAP may facilitate provisioning of new plant devices into a plant automation wireless network using the field communicator, and may also facilitate the field communicator performing various functions regarding one or more plant devices connected to the plant automation network. The PWAP may allow a field communicator to access information from the plant automation network and/or from other sources via the plant automation network such as the Internet. In addition, the PWAP may determine a location of one or more field communicators relative to the PWAP and/or other devices connected to the plant automation network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. In a plant wireless access point (PWAP), a method for facilitating communications between a first plant device in a process plant and a field communicator, comprising:
encoding, by one or more processors, data received from the field communicator conforming to a standard wireless communications protocol to conform to a wireless industrial automation protocol to provide plant device encoded data, the wireless industrial automation protocol defining an authentication procedure for provisioning plant devices;
encoding, by one or more processors, data received from the first plant device conforming to the wireless industrial automation protocol to conform to the standard wireless communications protocol to provide field communicator encoded data; and
sending, by one or more processors, the plant device encoded data and the field communicator encoded data to the first plant device and to the field communicator, respectively, to facilitate communications between the first plant device and the field communicator;
receiving, data from the field communicator in accordance with the standard wireless communications protocol that includes provisioning instructions and authentication information for a second plant device; and
communicating, by one or more processors, with the second plant device to provision the second plant device into a wireless network including the PWAP, the first plant device, and the second plant device using the authentication procedure defined by the wireless industrial automation protocol,
wherein the standard wireless communications protocol and the wireless industrial automation protocol are different protocols.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless industrial automation protocol comprises:
a highway addressable remote transducer (HART) protocol, and
wherein the standard wireless communications protocol comprises one or more of:
a wireless personal area network (PAN) protocol; and
a wireless local area network (WLAN) protocol.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
facilitating communications, by one or more processors, between the field communicator and a plant automation network.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the act of sending the plant device encoded data and the field communicator encoded data to the first plant device and to the field communicator, respectively, comprises:
exchanging the plant device encoded data and the field communicator encoded data between the first plant device and the field communicator to perform one or more of:
calibrating the first plant device;
configuring the first plant device;
performing diagnostics on the first plant device;
updating software corresponding to the first plant device; and
updating firmware corresponding to the first plant device.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first plant device is part of a control loop controlled by the plant automation network to perform a process control operation, and
wherein the act of facilitating communications between the field communicator and the plant automation network comprises:
facilitating access by the field communicator to one or more control loop parameters as part of a loop checkout function.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by one or more processors, a location of the field communicator in relation to the PWAP.

7. A plant wireless access point (PWAP) associated with a process plant, comprising:
a first network interface configured to receive first and second data from a field communicator conforming to a standard wireless communications protocol;
a second network interface configured to receive data from a first and a second plant device conforming to a wireless industrial automation protocol that defines an authentication procedure for provisioning plant devices; and
a processor configured to:
encode the first and second data received from the field communicator to conform to the wireless industrial automation protocol to provide first and second plant device encoded data, respectively;
encode the data received from the first plant device to conform to the standard wireless communications protocol to provide field communicator encoded data, and
wherein:

the first network interface is further configured to send the field communicator encoded data to the field communicator,
the second network interface is further configured to send the first plant device encoded data to the first plant device,
the second data received from the field communicator in accordance with the standard wireless communications protocol includes provisioning instructions and authentication information for the second plant device,
the processor is further configured to communicate with the second plant device to provision the second plant device into a wireless network including the PWAP, the first plant device, and the second plant device using the authentication procedure defined by the wireless industrial automation protocol, and
the standard wireless communications protocol and the standard wireless communications protocol are different protocols.

8. The PWAP of claim 7 , wherein the wireless industrial automation protocol comprises:
a highway addressable remote transducer (HART) protocol, and
wherein the standard wireless communications protocol comprises one or more of:
a wireless personal area network (PAN) protocol; and
a wireless local area network (WLAN) protocol.

9. The PWAP of claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to control the first and second network interfaces to facilitate communications between the field communicator and a plant automation network.

10. The PWAP of claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to control the first and second network interfaces to facilitate the field communicator performing one or more of:
calibrating the first plant device;
configuring the first plant device;
performing diagnostics on the first plant device;
updating software corresponding to the first plant device; and
updating firmware corresponding to the first plant device.

11. The PWAP of claim 9 , wherein the first plant device is part of a control loop controlled by the plant automation network to perform a process control operation, and
wherein the processor is further configured to control the first and second network interfaces to enable the field communicator to access one or more control loop parameters as part of a loop checkout function.

12. The PWAP of claim 7 , further comprising:
wherein the processor is further configured to determine a location of the field communicator in relation to the PWAP.

13. A non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium storing machine readable instructions in a plant wireless access point (PWAP) associated with a process plant for facilitating communications between a first plant device in a process plant and a field communicator, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
receive first and second data from the field communicator conforming to a standard wireless communications protocol, the second data including provisioning instructions and authentication information for a second plant device;
receive data from the first and second plant device conforming to a wireless industrial automation protocol that defines an authentication procedure for provisioning plant devices;
encode the first and second data received from the field communicator to conform to the wireless industrial automation protocol to provide first and second plant device encoded data, respectively;
encode the data received from the first plant device to conform to the standard

Assignees

• Fisher Rosemount Systems Inc

Inventors

• Armstrong Stephen
• Schleiss Duncan

Classifications

• G05B11/012 Primary

  details of the transmission means · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W24/04

  Arrangements for maintaining operational condition · CPC title

• H04W4/023 Primary

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title

• H04W88/10

  adapted for operation in multiple networks, e.g. multi-mode access points · CPC title