Gateway Between High-performance Fieldbus and Serial Communication

In this paper, we present a design of a gateway system to adapt the family of industrial computer network protocols used for real-time distributed control (Fieldbus) and the traditional serial communication. This gateway is designed to receive the data frame of Fieldbus and send the transferred data via serial communication. The proposed gateway can combine the properties of the high performance Fieldbus with the serial communication for industrial distributed control systems. Many control systems use RS-485, since RS-485 serial communication is simple to use and very popular in low cost control systems. Conversely, the Fieldbus, with high speed, great reliability, simple low cost line structure, is one of the most popular automation networks in industry. Therefore, combining the Fieldbus and RS-485 produces a low cost solution for modern communication and the traditional distributed controller. The implementation of the proposed gateway on a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) based platform, and RS-485 motor driver to control an X-Y table will verify the correctness of the proposed gateway.