Automating automation: Why do smart devices have to be configured manually?

摘要

While smart instrumentation and field devices have highly sophisticated capabilities, configuration is still a mostly manual process. Users want to know why they still have to perform this action (and many others) the hard way. Over recent years, Control Engineering has discussed developments in smart field devices from time to time. Mostly the discussion has concentrated on capabil ities being added to the transmitters, but there have also been considerations of how difficult it can be for that extra information to get to the control system because older device-level networks can't handle it.