Ron Helson, President and CEO, HART Communication Foundation
Ted Masters, President and CEO, HART Communication Foundation
UPDATED
I guess this is the year of change in the industry. Ron Helson, who has led the growth and development of HART for the 20 years of its existence, is stepping back from day-to-day management. The HART Communication Foundation, the standards organization for the HART Communication Protocol, has announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Ted Masters as President and CEO. The announcement notes “Mr. Helson will work closely with Mr. Masters to ensure an orderly transition of Foundation initiatives and no interruption in day-to-day operations.”
Masters comes to the Foundation with a wealth of business experience and origins in process control and instrumentation. He has worked in leadership roles with both instrumentation and systems companies and served as president with the former Elcon Instruments, a leader in signal conditioning I/O and HART products. In addition, Mr. Masters has executive-level experience in predictive analytics and smart devices and brings to bear a solid understanding from the users’ perspective.
“Ron Helson has served the Foundation well for 20+ years. His dedication and vision are responsible for the success of the Foundation and HART technology. We wish Ron well in his retirement,” says Mark Schumacher, Chairman of the HART Communication Foundation Board. “I am very pleased and excited about the appointment of Ted Masters to succeed Ron in this very important role, both for the Foundation and for the industry. Ted’s leadership capability, technology expertise and commitment to excellence will ensure the ongoing success of the HART technology for the benefit of the member companies and the end users.”
“It has been my privilege to work with the talented people in our member companies and on the Board of Directors and the Foundation staff in serving the HART Communication Foundation over the past 20 years,” says Helson. “Together we have accomplished a great deal in advancing the HART technology and the benefits it provides to process automation industry users. I have had the benefit of knowing Ted Masters for many years and believe that he is the right executive with the right experience to lead the Foundation forward to greater achievements in the years ahead.”
“I am excited to be a part of forging the future strategy of the Foundation at this exciting time in the industry,” says Masters. “I look forward to delivering additional value to the member companies and building upon the cutting-edge leadership of process automation technology.”
I just saw this opportunity to hear two industry leaders whom I respect very much. You can hear Dave Emerson of Yokogawa and Dennis Brandl of BR&L consulting on this this MESA Webcast that explains how to use two new integration standards to greatly simplify and speed up business-to-production floor integration, and integration among production floor systems. This work was sponsored by the Open O&M Initiative organization, of which MESA is a member. These new standards are being developed by the ISA95 committee.
The first standard is the Information Service Bus Model (ISBM) which defines a standard method for interfacing with different Enterprise Service Buses, such as TIBCO, WebMethods, NetWeaver, and the like in order to send and receive messages between applications. The ISBM reduces the number of interfaces that vendors and end users need to support in their integration projects.
The second standard is the Common Interoperability Registry (CIR) which defines a standard method for reconciling the different names of objects and enumerations between systems. This standard helps solve issues such as multiple names for the same piece of equipment, or different names for the same status and quality values. The CIR provides a standard interface to a common global name space repository, an important but often forgotten part of any integration project.
I discuss Rockwell Automation’s new Safety Automation Builder software with OEM Technical Consultant Jonathan Johnson. We learn that the tool is part of trend of providing easy-to-use tools for engineers to help them improve design, get projects done faster and provide end-of-project documentation. Check the Rockwell SAB Website for more information.
Looking back on February, Gary recaps his decision to step down as Editor of Automation World, looking forward to some new creations. He also recaps news from the ARC Forum, tools, and HART’s 20th anniversary.
Opto 22 has positioned itself at the nexus of industrial automation and IT for as long as I can remember them. This really goes back to 1998 when I first became an editor–and had to explain away my Allen-Bradley heritage.
I can remember vaguely the trade show when I was an end user and saw the Opto booth with the guys with black arm bands announcing the end of the PLC. I used Opto single-point I/O to interface the AB vision system I sold and installed to the Modicon PLCs that the customer used. But then I saw all the developments leveraging common core IT technologies.
They are still at it. The “groov” is billed as “a new way to build, deploy, and view simple, effective, and scalable operator interfaces to monitor and control systems and equipment using computers and mobile devices.” It is browser-based and said to be secure as well as easy to use. Using only a Web browser, groov securely lets industrial automation end-users, system integrators, machine OEMs, building managers, technicians, or any authorized person quickly build and deploy browser-based interfaces for automation, monitoring, and control applications. These operator interfaces can then be viewed on almost any computer or mobile device regardless of its manufacturer or operating system, including PCs, tablets, smartphones, and even smart high-definition televisions. groov is intended to augment traditional human-machine interfaces (HMIs) by making important information available at any time and in any location.
Overcoming the biggest challenge in developing for multiple screen sizes, groov automatically and gracefully scales all screens, page objects, and gadgets, allowing groov HMIs to be viewed and manipulated from virtually any device of any screen size.
groov works with web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Opera running on operating systems including iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. groov benefits from the capabilities of these browsers by using the latest web standards like HTML5, CSS3, and SVG. And while many competing technologies depend on additional software or browser plug-ins like Flash, Silverlight, or Java to work, groov requires no additional software or plug-ins, simplifying deployment.
Networking and Interface Development
The heart of the groov system is a secure industrial appliance called the groov Box, which runs groov software. All network communication between a web browser and the groov Box uses an encrypted secure sockets layer (SSL) over an HTTPS connection. The groov Box does not respond to any other communication methods on any other ports.
groov connects to Opto 22 SNAP PAC automation systems and OptoEMU energy monitoring products over a separate and segmented wired or wireless Ethernet network, adding a secure barrier for control systems. Support for the OPC-UA protocol is planned in 2013 and will allow groov to communicate with systems from other manufacturers that offer an OPC-UA server.
The simple and flexible development environment, groov Build, dramatically reduces the time needed to build interfaces when compared to traditional HMI screen building tools. groov Build includes a library of scalable, touchscreen-ready gadgets: gauges, buttons, range indicators, text entry, sliders, and trends. Images and real-time video from network IP cameras—also fully scalable—can also be added. Designed to support HMI best practices, groov Build includes the tools necessary to build high-performance, intelligible information and control screens like those defined by the High Performance HMI Handbook (Hollifield et al.) and the ASM (Abnormal Situation Management) Consortium Guidelines, Effective Operator Display Design.
groov Components
The groov system includes the groov Box, groov Build, groov View, and the optional apps groov View for iOS and groov View for Android.
groov Box is a small-footprint network appliance designed for industrial environments; it interfaces with control systems and runs the groov software. The groov Box includes three separate, independent network interfaces: two 1-Gbps Ethernet interfaces and one 802.11b/g/n wireless interface.
groov Build is the software used to create an interface in a browser.
groov View is the software used to run an interface in a browser.
groov View for iOS and groov View for Android are optional free apps that display the operator interface full screen and without browser menus. These apps make an interface look like a native app for the device, and are ideal for mobile devices used in kiosk applications.
Pricing and Availability
Opto 22’s groov will be available in April 2013 at a suggested list price of $1995 USD.
Ron Helson, President and CEO, HART Communication Foundation
Ted Masters, President and CEO, HART Communication Foundation
