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                   Invitation to the Special Session on



                    FIELDBUS TECHNOLOGY MOVES PROBLEMS 

                       FROM HARDWARE TO SOFTWARE



                   The 9th IEEE International Conference on

         Emerging Technologies and Factory  Automation; ETFA’2003

                   September 16-19, 2003, Lisbon, Portugal



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TOPICS OF THE SPECIAL SESSION





A modern automation system is a fully integrated system where Intelligent 

Field Devices, control units, and HMI terminals are connected in a unique 

digital network. The backbone of such systems is the fieldbus that 

guarantees effective communication between micro-processor based devices. 

A full revision of the usual design criteria for automation systems based 
on conventional Input/Output is necessary. 
Performances and benefits of an integrated system depend on the communication 
services supported by the fieldbus. 

Till now only a small fraction of the theoretical possibilities an 

integrated system may offer has been exploited, mostly in the area of 

cost saving in cabling. The first integrated systems for industrial processes
have highlighted unexpected troubles from the software side when advanced 
functionalities are implemented. Fieldbus standardisation process seems to 
be limited to the lower layers of the protocol, with large undefined areas 
toward the application layer and above.



For this special session papers are required to present services the 

different standard fieldbus offer in terms of:

-	device interoperability;

-	standard profiles and proprietary data; 

-	distributed control  functions;

-	advanced device diagnostics;

-	configuration and simulation tools.



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Conference web site:  http://www.uninova.pt/etfa2003



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ABOUT THE CONFERENCE



The ETFA conference series is the largest IEEE event dedicated to 

Industrial and Factory  Automation, with the focus on the newly 

emerging areas of technology, and actual and potential applications.



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MAJOR ETFA TOPICS:



- Information Technology in Industrial and Factory Automation

- Industrial and Factory Communication Systems

- Real-Time and (Networked) Embedded Systems

- Intelligent Sensors and Sensor Networks

- Automated Manufacturing Systems and Development Methodology

- Automation Systems and Control

- Computational Intelligence in Industrial and Factory Automation

- Intelligent Robots & Systems

- Information Technology in Enterprise Integration



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AUTHOR'S SCHEDULE:



Authors should contact the Special Session Organizer



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SESSION ORGANIZERS



Paolo Pinceti

University of Genoa, Italy 

pinceti@die.unige.it







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