Optimizing process control using field devices

The establishment of digital technologies for process control in this decade has opened the gates for new possibilities that were not possible before and one of the most important is a new approach on where the control strategy should take its place. Besides the standard I/O functionality, the Field Devices of today have the capability of performing control strategies through its function blocks and they can also communicate to each other, without depending on separated central control units. This paper discusses the impact of this new approach for process control, making a comparison between the characteristics of host and field control. It goes also on some major concerns such as optimization, reliability, flexibility, maintenance, scalability, system load and hardware cost.