SENSOR, ACTUATOR, AND LOOP VALIDATION

Economic pressures are dispersing machine intelligence away from centr alized computers toward distributed Fieldbus devices. Simultaneously, the control concept is being extended to include other operational fac tors such as quality assurance, process data management, just-in-time maintenance, and plant safety and availability, As credible sensing an d actuation are essential prerequisites for advanced control, validati on of the sensor and actuator interface is necessary. As such subsyste ms are linked to a range of different overall plant systems, we must c onsider generic validation and its reporting to the ''next level up.'' This article discusses validation features which are best embedded in local devices.