The smart sensor's ability to communicate results to other devices significantly enhances its usefulness on the manufacturing floor. This paper expands the definition for a smart sensor to include networking capabilities. It presents an outline of different communication protocols and physical media used to transfer information between smart sensors and control systems. Special emphasis is placed on Ethernet TCP/IP, but also Profibus, DeviceNet and Modbus are discussed. In addition, the paper discusses issues to consider when transmitting smart sensor information at the device level, machine/cell level or enterprise level in the factory. An outlook on the future of smart sensor networking is presented at the end.
| Number of Pages : | 9 |
| Published : | 11/01/1999 |
